Lake Itasca State Park #2

 

Made a second trip out to Lake Itasca State Park in Minnesota over the weekend.  It was cool and rainy, but we still got out to hike and take photos.

It is amazing how different the park is now as compared to just a month ago.  The park is incredibly green and many more flowers are visible.  My favorite this trip was the Yellow Lady Slipper orchids.  They were out in numbers!  Even though I grew up in northern Minnesota, this was the first time I’ve seen the yellow variety.  I couldn’t find the Pink and White Showy Lady Slipper (MN State Flower) that I remember from growing up – might have been just a tad too early yet.

ISO 400, 1/80, f/7.0, 40mm – Nikon D300

The colors on this orchid are amazing!  So very glad I had a chance to make the trip and photograph this.  I will probably post a few of the other flower photos in a follow up message.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

PJ

Lake Itasca State Park #2

 

Made a second trip out to Lake Itasca State Park in Minnesota over the weekend.  It was cool and rainy, but we still got out to hike and take photos.

It is amazing how different the park is now as compared to just a month ago.  The park is incredibly green and many more flowers are visible.  My favorite this trip was the Yellow Lady Slipper orchids.  They were out in numbers!  Even though I grew up in northern Minnesota, this was the first time I’ve seen the yellow variety.  I couldn’t find the Pink and White Showy Lady Slipper (MN State Flower) that I remember from growing up – might have been just a tad too early yet.

ISO 400, 1/80, f/7.0, 40mm – Nikon D300

The colors on this orchid are amazing!  So very glad I had a chance to make the trip and photograph this.  I will probably post a few of the other flower photos in a follow up message.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

PJ

Storm Clouds (HDR)

Last October, I wrote a post talking about HDR or High Dynamic Range photography (you can find it here: HDR Post)  At the time, I was using a tutorial for Photoshop CS4, but I was still working in Photoshop CS3.  I was pretty happy with the results and I’ve intended to do more.

Last evening, while driving across the state of Minnesota and nearing home – I noticed some tall thunderheads to the south that were reflecting the setting sun.  Figured that would be a good subject to try another HDR image. 

As you probably know, capturing the image that time of day is a race against time as the light quickly fades.  I found a decent foreground – not exactly what I wanted, but workable and I got down to work.

This particular tutorial works with two images – one exposed for the foreground shadows and one exposed for the highlights… although I shot several at various exposures to have on hand.

As in the previous post – here are the two starting images:

 

Both images shot at ISO 200, f/14, 28mm.  First at 10/16 sec., Second at 1/15 sec.

The final result of the merged images with a little additional tweaking and cropping in Photoshop:

 

I’m not entirely sure I am done with this photo – but I thought I’d share.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Patrick

Storm Clouds (HDR)

Last October, I wrote a post talking about HDR or High Dynamic Range photography (you can find it here: HDR Post)  At the time, I was using a tutorial for Photoshop CS4, but I was still working in Photoshop CS3.  I was pretty happy with the results and I’ve intended to do more.

Last evening, while driving across the state of Minnesota and nearing home – I noticed some tall thunderheads to the south that were reflecting the setting sun.  Figured that would be a good subject to try another HDR image. 

As you probably know, capturing the image that time of day is a race against time as the light quickly fades.  I found a decent foreground – not exactly what I wanted, but workable and I got down to work.

This particular tutorial works with two images – one exposed for the foreground shadows and one exposed for the highlights… although I shot several at various exposures to have on hand.

As in the previous post – here are the two starting images:

 

Both images shot at ISO 200, f/14, 28mm.  First at 10/16 sec., Second at 1/15 sec.

The final result of the merged images with a little additional tweaking and cropping in Photoshop:

 

I’m not entirely sure I am done with this photo – but I thought I’d share.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Patrick

Cross Processing

Not sure if it is really valid anymore – cross processing in the darkroom was where you would deliberately process film in a chemical solution that was intended for a different type of film – resulting in some unique results.

Fortunately, these same kind of results can be obtained in Photoshop. Of course, as I’ve mentioned in some of my recent posts, I’ve been using PhotoTools 2.0 from onOne Software to play around with some photos. Really streamlines the work that I’d have to do in Photoshop to create something similar.

Tonight I was playing around with some cross processing styles and came up with this photo:

ISO 200, 1/200, f/4.5, 55mm – Nikon D300

Here is the image prior to cross processing:

This model is Shealyn – someone local to me that I hope I can work with all summer to try out some new techniques and just to stay sharp with extra shooting. She did a fantastic job on this shoot. I’m looking forward to working with her again.

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend!

PJ

Feather Photo

 

Last weekend, I had a chance to hook up with a couple of wonderful friends from my high school days.  We decided a long weekend at Lake Itasca State Park in Minnesota was the perfect location.

In addition to a fantastic time to catch up – we had a number of photo excursions.  While driving the “wildlife loop” we spotted a feather that we thought might make for some good photos.

I tried a number of backgrounds, but I just wasn’t satisfied.  Finally, I thought I really wanted it on a background of the overcast sky.  I thought it might be fun to share my solution.  First, one of the end results:

ISO 800, 1/200, f/5.6, 75mm – Nikon D300

If you use your imagination, you’ll be able to make out the tree line behind the feather in the right hand side of the photo.

Here was my solution on how to shoot this…  equipment required:  old twisty tie from a package of rice cakes and a used beer bottle! 

The background here at this angle is one of our cars (I preferred the forest! haha)

As always – I’d love to hear your thoughts!

PJ

Feather Photo

 

Last weekend, I had a chance to hook up with a couple of wonderful friends from my high school days.  We decided a long weekend at Lake Itasca State Park in Minnesota was the perfect location.

In addition to a fantastic time to catch up – we had a number of photo excursions.  While driving the “wildlife loop” we spotted a feather that we thought might make for some good photos.

I tried a number of backgrounds, but I just wasn’t satisfied.  Finally, I thought I really wanted it on a background of the overcast sky.  I thought it might be fun to share my solution.  First, one of the end results:

ISO 800, 1/200, f/5.6, 75mm – Nikon D300

If you use your imagination, you’ll be able to make out the tree line behind the feather in the right hand side of the photo.

Here was my solution on how to shoot this…  equipment required:  old twisty tie from a package of rice cakes and a used beer bottle! 

The background here at this angle is one of our cars (I preferred the forest! haha)

As always – I’d love to hear your thoughts!

PJ