I took a few days off end enjoyed some parts of Michigan recently. One of the things I like to do is travel roads less traveled by others. This image was made somewhere in central michigan of an old abandoned red barn.
Category: HDR
Debra On A Truck
A week or so ago Debra, my shooting partner and friend called and said let’s go shoot. It was a warm day (and I don’t move fast on warm days) and I said slowly OK. I knew I needed to go out and do some shooting. It’s great therapy especially when you need to clear the mind. It was also one of those evenings where it looked like a storm could blow in any minute. So, we headed off and we had no place in particular in mind to go. Then I remembered a place my son and I stumbled upon a few years ago and using my iPad with satellite view I located the gravel pit and we headed there. The gates were open so we went in and we spent nearly two hours there shooting Debra went her way and I went mine. At one point when I was coming back from the dredging area Debra was standing on this old dump truck. So, I said pose and as Debra always does she struck a few unusual poses. I love this one as it just works on so many levels. I shot it with my iPhone, even though I had my big boy camera with me. I wanted to use the ProHDR app to capture the details in the sky and not lose detail in Debra. Damn, it worked great. I then took the image into my iPad and played even more adding border, grain, more dramatic light effects etc.. Man, this si so much fun. So, here it is. I think it is one cool, bad ass shot!
Messed Up Train
Time to change from B&W images to some wow color. Today’s image was made on some abandoned trains not to far from where I live. I have been shooting these for several years now. They are parked on a siding off the road and pretty well hidden and they deteriorate further on every trip I make there. Actually pretty creepy. You are missing the smell that goes along with these images. To shoot this properly I had to shoot three exposures and HDR them together. Then I took them into iPad and used Snapseeed and PhotoForge to make the final image. Kind of surreal, which it is.
Made It To Ireland
Made it to Ireland. Today I picked up Steve on of the PODAS instructors and Drew our Phase One support person and we headed to the LAke Hotel where we will be based until Wednesday. IT’s been an adventurous day as I had to rent a van (one of five) we will be using. Crazy thing is the steering wheel is on the wrong side and they make you drive on the wrong side of the road. Pretty crazy and add to that it is a stick shift and you have to shift with your left hand. They call this civilized. I have another few words for it. Should make for an interesting week. This is a simple iPhone shot done of the lake in front of this wonderful hotel. we bring the big guns (Cameras) out tomorrow. This is a very photo rich area and I am sure we will be capturing some wonderful photography. I’ll try to post daily but it may get busy. Days are long and light is good. More to come.
Rusty Wheel Thingy
By the time you read this I’ll be in Ireland. I pre-scheduled this post and it is a follow up to yesterdays image. More from the same mechanic’s yard. This is a rusty wheel thingy.
A Place
While at my sons wedding a few weeks ago I went exploring and found this corner mechanics shop with a variety of old and rusty things. The place was a photographers dream thus for the next day or so you will see images from there. This was one that was just randomly nailed to the wall of the building. Why a license plate and a horseshoe? Don’t know but it caught my eye. There were old tricks, gears, junk, and even a truck that was sold old it had to be from the thirties. It had a big Redwood tree still on it’s bed and there was tree growing out of it. Look for more soon.
Neon Abstract
Another image from the Neon Bone Yard In Las Vegas. shot and did HDR post processing on all the images made here. Why? Because I made it my assignment. Sometimes when I go out shooting I give myself a challenge or assignment. This one was shoot 5 exposures of everything and put them together after. The results are interesting and lend to the abstractness of this wonderful place. Part of the secret in shooting at the Neon Bone Yard is shooting tight and shooting just elements. fun place – fun pictures.
Old Trucks
Seems on my last few trips I have been finding a lot of old trucks wherever I go. I love old stuff, rust and decay. Can’t get enough of it. During my sons wedding weekend we went out exploring and came upon a place with a lot of old rusty trucks and things. So, naturally I had to take some photos. Because of the light – heavy overcast, light drizzle I did HDR 2 under, over and normal exposures on my Canon 5dII. This image is the first of a few taken at just this one stop. Look for more in the coming days.
Also, in a week I will be in Ireland leading a PODAS workshop with 15 photographers. I’ll be posting from there so stay tuned. You can also follow the trip at the PODAS BLOG.
Arrived
I made it to the Hood Valley area between Washington and Oregon and the Skamania Lodge where my sons wedding will take place on Sunday. It’s raining and dynamic. Kind of what you expect for this area. Many of the family have arrived with more arriving tomorrow. Within the first five minutes of being here the clouds broke open and produced a rainbow. Luckily i had my iPhone so I grabbed a shot. I knew the only way if would work was should in HDR so I set up the shot and let the iPhone do it’s thing. Now I use an app called AutoHDR and it takes a few seconds to analyze the scene. And just before it started to shoot the sequence of images these two kids jumped in the shot. I was like what!! but you know what they made the shot and added the foreground. So, sometimes things just go your way.
Chicago – City Of Strong Buildings
I love Chicago! It’s a fun city to visit, easy to get around and offer many attractions, but more than that I love photographing there. Great architecture no matter where you look. I am leading a Phase One PODAS workshop in July on architecture photography in Chicago. It will great to share with the attendees the interesting possibilities on shooting in this great city. It will be an intense three day workshop and will cover interior and exterior photography, a boat cruise and image manipulation and processing. We have only one seat left for this workshop. In any case todays image is one I love taken from a bridge showing the old rivet ironwork and the new stainless steel buildings.