Tracks to Nowhere
Standing beside the dam at local pond during a recent snowfall, wondering what lil critter had the audacity to walk out onto the thin ice not long before I got there. And what became of them.
A long exposure on a cold January sunrise with a tiny bit of light painting added in by virtue of combining the best of a series of different exposures. No - there was no light added to specific parts of the bridge, so an HDR based method had to suffice.
A few images from a recent daytime trip here, using an ND filter and a simple blend of light painting and manually applied HDR.
Surfers, admirers, visitors, gulls, and some unfortunate clams, all collecting in a mashup at Narragansett Town Beach on a recent day in January.
The big tree on Bowens Wharf, Newport, and other scenes from the area.
A free flowing winter morning at Step Stone falls in West Greenwich, part of Arcadia Management area. Icicles and green grass up against a roaring river.
Train Approaching, Train Approaching
A bright sunny long exposure of a slow moving Northeast Regional Amtrak train coming into Westerly. Thanks to a varying ND filter. Nothing special happening here except to show the handiwork of a lens filter that can chase away enough light at about a 1 second exposure that otherwise would have washed out an image. Click on this for some other interesting scenes from a recent walkabout using nothing (much) more than the trusty D5100 and a Sigma 18-200.
This was my first visit to Pier 2 in Brooklyn, with a grand view from left to right, including my wife and son, of the Statue of Liberty, the Staton Island Ferry, lower Manhattan and all its detail, and the Brooklyn Bridge. An amazing spot!
I’ve always sensed that sports photography has long had a bad rap as any kind of art form, and I’ve always disagreed. Basketball especially has always appealed to me, boys or girls, and high school especially. Yes, you largely shoot what you see and have no control over the game, only where you position yourself, and may shoot with high-frame-rate cameras. But the end still shows the game in a way you don’t see live. Here is a string of three shots, for instance, all tied together that tell a story without letting you know exactly how it ended. Yet, as your eyes travel around the last frame, you see from the crowd, the player, and the score board exactly how it ended.
This week included a trip to the Kingston Amtrak station for some fun with long exposures and slower moving regional trains that make stops in Kingston, and much faster - up to 125mph Acelas - that shake your bones as they woosh through.
This cover images shows a slow moving Northeast Regional train caught as it begins moving from left to right creates a line of sight nearly clear through its window portions to the opposing tracks it ordinarily would be blocking from view.
Click on the image to see more images from this trip, including the Acelas; that is, what can be captured of them.
A Wintery Scene
This week's biggest wander happened in a nearby favorite, California Jim's Pond, during a steady snowfall. All shot with the small but mighty Olympus TG-4, which certainly has no fear of a little snowfall.
One of the many reverent faces braving the elements at this year's Wreaths Across America ceremony at Rhode Island's Veterans Cemetery.
This gallery has a collection of images shot at the Vatican during the summer of 2019. It is interesting partly for the how-to if it. Not the how-to as in the basics of photography, rather as to how much light was available inside the Basilica, and would I have the correct combination of camera and lens(es) with me, without hauling a trunk load of gear. I certainly did not want to travel all that way on the trip of a lifetime and come away with images I would not be happy with, either because the lens I used was not sharp enough or the camera’s sensor I chose could not have its ISO pushed high enough. In the end I was happy the entire trip with what I chose: my Nikon D750, a rather small full frame DSLR that can handle relative high ISOs such as 3200 without too much trouble, as well as my Nikon 28-300mm and 50mm f1.4 lenses. That’s it. Not too much to hulk around, yet enough to get decent (28-300) images outside with a wide range of focal width options, and tack sharp (50mm) images with a lens that could also open up wide if need be. Browse around this gallery and click on the details button on any image to see technical aspects of any image. Enjoy!