Spring Signals

After this long, cold, and snowy winter I headed over to the Asticou Azalea Garden, Northeast Harbor, Maine in search of signs of spring. I grabbed my 1970's (old school) macro lens and rejoiced under the overcast skies (soft light). I enjoy using my macro lens as an exercise in abstract photography - line, shape, form. Gratefully, I found a couple of images that I liked: one color and one black and white. To learn how to create images like this, consider attending one of my nature photography workshops in Acadia National Park.

EXIF data (leaves): Nikon D800, 55mm-macro, f/5.6, 1/30 sec, ISO 100, 5/9/15, 9:07 AM
EXIF data (bud): Nikon D800, 55mm-macro, f/5.6, 1/30 sec, ISO 100, 5/9/15, 8:39 AM

Leaves, Asticou Azalea Garden, Northeast Harbor, Maine

Pink Bud, Asticou Azalea Garden, Northeast Harbor, Maine

Cadillac Snowmelt

In spite of the plethora of rock and water photographs, I still enjoy creating my own vision of the spring streams and waterfalls of Acadia National Park. The Cadillac Mountain snowmelt fills this stream for only a few weeks each year. During the summer months the stream bed is dry, except for the occasional heavy downpours when it runs for a couple of days. It looked great in color with the beautiful pink granite, but the black and white image is even stronger with a square crop to accentuate the diagonal composition. To learn how to create images like this, consider attending one of my nature photography workshops in Acadia National Park.

EXIF data: Nikon D800, 55mm, f/8 (& be there;-), 1/4 sec, ISO 50, 4/26/15, 5:21 PM

Spring Stream, Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, Maine

Inspirational Glass

As soon as I entered Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit, the notion of camera panning grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go. I approach camera panning by varying the exposure time and camera movement. Each subject has a different exposure time and camera movement. In my vigorous camera shaking, I never considered taking a static image - so I've added images from the Chihuly website for your reference (below). I'm sure you can figure out which images match up. To learn how to create images like these, consider attending one of my nature photography workshops in Acadia National Park.

Glass Waves (top): Nikon D800, 24mm, f/9, 1 sec, ISO 800, 3/30/15, 6:30 PM
Glass Petals (bottom): Nikon D800, 42mm, f/9, 1/4 sec, ISO 800, 3/30/15, 6:43 PM

Glass Waves, Ghihuly Garden and Glass, Seattle, WA

Glass Waves, Ghihuly Garden and Glass, Seattle, WA

Glass Petals, Ghihuly Garden and Glass, Seattle, WA

Glass Petals, Ghihuly Garden and Glass, Seattle, WA

Photos from the Chihuly website of the same subjects, for your reference.

Chihuly Glass Forest, Seattle, WA

Chihuly Glass Forest, Seattle, WA

Chihuly Persian Ceiling, Seattle, WA

Chihuly Persian Ceiling, Seattle, WA

Snowy Sand Beach

Went for a walk on Sand Beach in Acadia National Park yesterday. Getting down the stairs covered with 3 feet of icy snow pack was a challenge; but easy walking on the beach. My friend, George Soules, often comments when seeing my landscape images - you know Joe McNally says, "He hasn't seen a landscape photograph that can't be improved by adding a person."  I am here to say, this snowy landscape image has been improved by adding a puppy (the people help too). And this puppy was moving; he's only standing on two legs in this shot. To learn how to create images like the one below, consider attending one of my nature photography workshops in Acadia National Park.

EXIF data: Fujifilm X100S, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/900 sec, ISO 400, 3/14/15, 12:12 PM

Snowy Sand Beach, Acadia National Park, Maine

Below are my post processing steps for this image:

The original JPG image.

In Nik Color Efex Pro 4, I used the Tonal Contrast filter. I wanted the foggy look for the distant, background mountains, so I only used about 25% of the filter on the Beehive and other mountains.

In Photoshop, I used the Spot Healing Brush (with content aware) to remove some of the really big out of focus snowflakes in the sky.

Nik Sharpener Pro and then in Lightroom:
 • Increased Whites +4
 • Post-Crop Vignette -9
Then the bottom-right corner looked a bit dark - to help that I:
 • Added Graduated Filter to the bottom-right corner, with:
    • Increased Exposure: +0.52
    • Decreased Shadows: -26

Appreciating Photographs

I had the opportunity to visit the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine last weekend. Our group was allowed a rare treat to view and study some photographs in the museum's archived collection. They pulled out boxes filled with prints by: Margaret Bourke-White, Paul Caponigro, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and Minor White. This was a special moment to study the master prints up close (without glass or frames)  and to immerse myself in their beauty. If given the chance to view master prints, run don't walk - seeing the print in a book or on a screen (website) never does justice to the actual print and all its tonality. Additionally, I spent some time visiting the various exhibits. This shot of a stairwell from the first floor to the ground floor was taken with my little Fujifilm camera. To learn how to create images like the one below, consider attending one of my nature photography workshops in Acadia National Park.

EXIF data: Fujifilm X100S, 23mm, f/8 (&B there ;-), 1/450 sec, ISO 400, 2/28/15, 11:08 AM

Colby College Museum Of Art, Waterville, Maine