I just finished our Cape May workshop with a group of 30 students! This is a bit large for us (exceeding our 5-10 person limit), but the school through which we taught just piled them on! It worked out well, however, and everyone got great stuff! In fact, our class took 2 of the four winning images at the end of the school! 

Cape May is one of my favorite photo locations, and even though I photograph there several times a year, I constantly find new material and new approaches and techniques. On this trip, I got into very long exposures using the Singh Ray Vari N Duo and the Singh Ray MorSlo stacked together for about 13 stops of ND, allowing me to get up to 8 minutes in fairly low light and 1-4 minutes in bright light. These conditions allow for a different and unusual look.

I also continue to explore the world of texturizing images using Flypaper Textures, Joel Olives Textures, and Nature Bits textures. Again, this allows us to reinterpret our images in new and exciting ways, further personalizing our work.

The infrared exploration continues, using textures and toning.

I’m off to the Maryland Eastern Shore for a software workshop next week.

Oh yeah, almost forgot…here’s an upcoming event:

June 14 – F Stop Int’l Professional Photographers MD/DC

Thanks for taking time to visit.

Please feel free to leave a comment….and….

I’ll see you online!

 Tony

We just finished our second consecutive Smokies workshop and are heading home tomorrow for one day before leaving for the MARS school in Cape May, one of my favorite places! As in Charleston, spring was very late here in TN, so when there is normally redbud, dogwoods, and spring flowers, there was none of that occurring this year! But, as in Charleston, we maxed out infrared photography before the workshops started. On each of the workshops, there was the usual myriad of subject matter in pretty great light, including mist, rain, flowing streams, lime green trees, interesting clouds, and the gift of rime ice one morning on Clingman’s Dome. Both classes were tremendous and created many images I wish I would have taken. My “policy” on seeing great student images in the field is to mentally file the scene away to revisit next year. That way, I avoid the irresistible urge to copy a great shot and will probably have a different take on the scene after the passing of time.

I had some weird light transference through my Singh Ray grad NDs, due to years of accumulated scratches, and had to replace my entire arsenal of filters, which I still use in the field. Why still using hardware filters when digital techniques and HDR software can do the same thing? HDR in nature can be very time consuming to get a natural look (if at all) and shooting several exposures to blend is time consuming. Arguably, the most natural and easiest way to shoot high dynamic range images in nature is to use graduated NDs, either singularly or stacking more than one together. I never use the P holder, opting to hand hold the filters. The only exception is when using a grad ND on extremely long exposures.

Here’s a few images from our second week in the Smokies:

We head out in the morning for Eldersburg. As much as we travel, it’s always great to get back home.

Thanks for visiting and we’ll see ya online!!

Tony

p.s. Check out my article on flower photography on Pictureline

p.p.s. Check out the latest Alien Skin blog post!

After our Charleston workshops, we returned home for a couple of days, then turned right back around to drive to the Smoky Mountains, which is one of our all time favorite venues. I actually began my photography in Cincinnati, OH as a member of the TriState Photographic Society, and photographed in the Smokies many times learning the craft. This trip, I was really happy to meet some of my friends and mentors from that period, as a group from the TSPS were here lined up to get into Cades Cove at sunrise, as we were.

The weather has been weird all spring.  Because of no real winter to speak of, the flowers were extremely early everywhere, including in the Smokies. Hence, no redbud, no dogwoods, and very few flowers, but as in Charleston, there is plenty to do aside from the early spring buds and flowers. The water is running very well, and the intermittent rain keeps the streams full and very photogenic, especially in Tremont!

As illustrated in the previous blogs, I’m pretty much dedicated to infrared these days, so the early spring greens were great for that! And, we had  an additional bonus of a rime ice event on Clingman’s dome! Wow, it looked like the trees were all turned upside down and dipped in snow. This probably happens quite a bit up there, but being there when it’s happening is a whole other thing, as the park police tend to err on the side of safety and close down the road to Clingman’s dome if any black ice or perceived danger is on the two land road up the last 7 miles to the mile high dome.

On this particular day, right after a snow, and right after the road was closed off, I decided to take a run at it, hoping the road would be open. Leaving at 0445, with a backup plan to shoot Oconoloftee if the road was closed, we got to the gate…..and it was open! Upon arriving at the parking lot, we noticed at the far end, opposite of where everyone was waiting for the sunrise, all of the trees were white! So, we stayed there and shot the entire time. It was cold. We left the hotel at 50 degrees and arrived at the top of the mountain at 28 degrees! But, we were all dressed for it and everyone had a ball!!

Here’s a few shots from our few days here:

Oh, I almost forgot about our computer nightmare…..

After some minor laptop malfunctions in Charleston, we got home and I worked on the desktop computer, forgetting to look into the problem. Well, I paid for that one! With two days to go before the workshop, my trackpad would let me drag, but not drop….major problem since all of the critique sessions were based on dragging and dropping images…so, we spent a fair amount of time at the Apple Store in Knoxville. After taking the techie’s advice to perform a system reinstall, the problem persisted, necessitating a wiping out of the hard drive and complete reinstallation of software and files. The backup was no problem, but I couldn’t just reinstall everything since the problem was based on software corruption…..soooooo…..I reinstalled clean versions of my main software and had to contact numerous vendors for serial numbers since most of the codes were home……so……long story long…..we’re back in business with only a few programs needing codes, but are on the way. Hopefully, here for our software workshop next week.

Thanks for taking time to read the blog and we’ll see ya online!!

Tony

We just finished our first workshop of the season in one of our favorite venues, Charleston, SC,  with a tremendous group of folks who were all outstanding photographers and great people! Because of an unusually warm and early spring, most of the flowers were past at Magnolia Gardens, except on Oak Lane, which was the best color I’ve seen there in years! However, Magnolia is only one of many incredible venues in Charleston and the lack of large areas of colorful flowers was hardly missed (although I was quietly freaking out about it…). Personally, I just got a new infrared conversion on my D300 (super color conversion), and after Sue got me going on processing, along with going through all of the videos on the LifePixel website, I was pretty much locked into shooting mostly infrared. I actually stayed up most of several nights working on processing using various software, trying to replicate and improve on my film infrared photography from many moons ago! My current workflow goes from Aperture, exporting the RAW file to NX to white balance. Then to Photshop to channel swap, finally go Magic Bullet Photo Looks (discount code sweet15) to add the glow and final adjustments. There’s a bit more detail, but that’s the basic idea. I’ll post a video when I get time. I’ve always….that’s always, been attracted to infrared photography from the first time I saw an IR image, and am pretty excited that I’m starting to get “the look” in digital. I know I have a ways to go, but I’m pretty stoked about the first steps! Here’s a gallery of a few images from the week. Click on the image for a larger view.

After a few days “off,” we’ll begin our Digital Edge software workshop next week!

Feel free to drop in a comment!

Have a great Easter weekend and we’ll see you online!

So, I’m updating the blog as Sue is behind the wheel heading home after a  really fun couple of days with the great Portland (Maine) Camera Club and our good friends, Jack, Rose, and John Kennealy. The Friday presentation was on three very diverse workshop locations: Whidbey Island, Iceland, and Cuba! The following day was a 7.5 hour seminar, presenting and discussing images, techniques, and creative ideas from 9 – 4:30. Needless to say, after all that talking and standing, I was wiped out, throat feeling like I swallowed razor blades for a few hours…..but, it was fun!! It really was! ….and we’ll be doing it again in Toronto next weekend!

We stayed with our good friends, Jack and Rose Kennealy, with the extra bonus of their son, John, being home for spring break from Exeter. We haven’t seen him in years and he sprouted up like a tree! Rose is a great watercolor artist and Jack is one of Maine’s top photographers and photography instructors. 

And, for the first time, with my travel Nikon camera kit (16-35mm and 28-300mm, D3X) with me, I didn’t take one picture…..but……I had my iPhone, and did manage to grab a few images.

Shot using Camera+ and optimized using Modern Grunge and Nik’s Snapseed.
Then, I ran the image through the Tiny Planet app, needing to clone out some distractions using Touch Retouch.

 
On the way to my short Friday evening presentation, I noticed this great scene of a church steeple.
Here’s a before and after (shot with Camera+ digital zoom, touch retouch, painteresque, Auto Painter Van Gogh, Blender, and Snapseed.

Zoe and Sandy took me to the church kitchen during the break for a couple of iPhone grabs!

   
I moved the tea pot to the stove to make use of the red control knobs. After shooting the color image, I converted to B&W in Snapseed, along with other contrast adjustments, then added the color  back using Color Splash. The kitchen knives were optimized totally using my main go-to app, Nik’s Snapseed.

 Special thanks to Jack, Rose, and John (we’ll get him in the picture next time!) for their generous hospitality and we look forward to our return in June.

We’ll be home for a few days (expecting my iPad 3 to be delivered tomorrow) and a bunch of office work before heading up to Toronto for a seminar and workshop next weekend!

Thanks for visiting and I’ll see you online!

Tony

After a few months of office work and get togethers with photo friends at several local venues, Sue and I are heading up to Longwood Gardens one more time before beginning our travel/workshop season in earnest with a couple of day long seminars in Portland, ME then the following week in Toronto, Canada. 

One of the flower events of the year is the display of the Blue Poppies and this is the best display I’ve seen in years. As one can imagine, Longwood Gardens is loaded with photographers and tourists with cameras, so we’ll be getting there when they open, getting what we want, then getting home by early afternoon to a ton of office work… : ( 

Here’s a few shots from a few of our local adventures!

At the Coal Pier #18, in Philadelphia, we have a really good venue for shooting and creating Little Planets. I’m  a huge fan of planets. This image was made using the RRS Omni Pivot Panning system and 72 images. The pan was assembled using Auto Pano Pro , then using the Polar Coordinates filter in PS.

 I then headed to one of my favorite venues on the coast, Cape May, NJ, joining up with friends Charles, Andrea, and Craig. I’ve always wanted to light paint the Cape May lighthouse, so we did. After catching some nice late afternoon light at lighthouse cove, we high tailed it over to lighthouse park to start light painting. We were lucky to have the moon nicely placed, but it was moving quickly. After everyone getting into position, I did a series of light paintings @ 30 sec exposures. The following image is a blend of two images. Shooting several exposures and painting in from all three  or more images is not uncommon in this type of photography. The image is converted to B&W using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro. (Nik discount code: tsweet)
Then, of course, while in the area, couldn’t resist one more trip to the 59th St. Pier.

Here’s our Cape May gang!!

Charles, Michelle, Moi, MarsGuy Eric, Holly, Craig, Andrea, Indo. NO ONE had any fun.

 Sue and I went to Longwood Gardens to shoot the Blue Poppies, and I took my Lensbaby  Edge80. I really liked the lenses ability to sharply focus on a slice of a scene. And the Bokeh is fantastic. (Lensbaby discount code available upon request.)

I also dragged out my 200mm macro and had forgotten what an incredible lens it is. 

We look forward to a great workshop season and meeting a new crop of fantastic people!!

See ya online!

Tony

  We had a great group of friends shooting at the mill this past weekend. This is my sixth visit and am still finding new ideas and new approaches! This is precisely why I like returning to the same location over and over again. This is also my last trip to the mill until June, as our workshop season starts in earnest mid March with a couple of day long seminars, one in Portland, Maine and the second in Toronto. Afterwards, briefly stopping home before going to Charleston. Busy time, for sure.

On this trip, I shot more iPhone images. The lead image is an iPhone stitched pan using auto stitch and Modern Grunge for texture. Here’s a few more:

Nik’s Snapseed is my main goto app, also used on these images was PicGrunger, Lenslight, ModernGrunge, Hipstamatic, and Flypaper Textures (non-app)

I was pretty excited to try a new (to me) light painting technique (illustrated in a previous blog). The dark basement created a pretty cool contrast between the other-worldly light spinning effect. Remaining in the basement, I worked on some close up subjects, then discovered a way to shoot an iPhone light painting image of our new “pet” old milk bottle. 

All in all another great day with friends, nearing the end of social events as we start preparing for traveling in a couple of weeks.

CLICK to play a slide show of the most recent Lonaconing and Accident visit.

But wait…..there’s MORE……

FLASHBACK to my musician days!!
Some great musician friends of mine just put out a super cool CD (using an image of mine for the cover and CD imprint image).
It was great to work with them again, although I wish I was playing drums on the CD!
CLICK HERE for more info, hear a sound clip, and to order.

Don’t forget to drop in a comment!

Thanks for visiting and I’ll see ya online!!