* * *
As we float away,
Across Sky and Water’s Lift.
Transcendentalism.
* * *
Inspired by the WordPress Daily Post Prompt – Float.
Across Sky and Water
And all points in between
Month: January 2017
Winter Beach Weather
Are you feeling it?
As the chilly season is really begining to exert its hold on the New England area, we’re facing a pretty cold weekend and it’s even snowing outside! It makes me think back to a couple of years ago, when I joined John Slonina to do some beach front photography (and more) during a rather cold and bright January day.
This is from a record-setting Witner in our area, when snow fall records were shattered and we had enough snow in our yard that we couldn’t look over it to get out of our driveway. All in all, a beautiful time of year…
Crashing Waves
Flotsam
Universal Existence
Winter Beach
Cold Morning
In case your drink needs some…
These images give an idea of Winter can be like in this neck of the woods, both beautiful and rather cold!
Inspired by this week’s TPC: Cold.
New Year’s Temptation
Tempted by the food of another…
As we start 2017, we’re fully charged up on resolutions… I’m sure many of us have one that looks to avoid temptation of the comfort food kind…
Inspired by WordPress Daily Prompt of Tempted. [I’m not responsible for any eating that occurs as a result of this image]
Three Line Tales – Pennant Chase
Explorers wanted!
It’s great to participate in Week Forty-Nine of Three Line Tales run by Sonya of Only 100 Words!
****
Outdoor life beckons,
Breaths of fresh air lift spirits.
Capture the flag.
****
Thank you to Sonya of Only 100 Words for coming up with Three Line Tales.
You’ll find full guidelines on the TLT page, but here’s the tl;dr:
- Write three lines inspired by the photo prompt (& give them a title if possible).
- Link back to this post.
- Tag your post with 3LineTales (so everyone can find you in the Reader).
- Read and comment on other TLT participants’ lines.
- NEW: If you want your post to be included in the round-up, you have until Sunday evening to publish it.
- Have fun.
Happy three-lining !
Warped Wednesday – pt.1
Transmogrification
As promised with the New Year there may be a new series of posts to try out something different and see how you like the idea… Yes, it’s all up to you to determine whether Warped Wednesday will become a regular feature.
You may be aware that I enjoy the occasional bit of abstract photography among my plethora landscapes and other subjects that catch my mind’s eye. What I enjoy most about abstract work is the process of discovery: finding something within the view in front of me that I can change, transmogrify in camera.
This image is a bit more unusual among my abstracts, due to the process that I used. The Canon 5D MkIII has the capability to do in-camera HDR, where it combines 3 exposures into a single JPEG using High Dynamic Range imaging techniques. The exposures in this case range from 1/10 second to 1.6 seconds; the fastest exposure was held still and when I got to the 1.6 second exposure, I twisted the barrel of my lens to get a significant amount of zoom blur. This confused the in-camera HDR processing to such an extent that artifacts were created around the leaves, which caused a sense of the leaves detaching themselves from the background.
Now, I’ll admit that I didn’t know what the final result might be, as this was a bit of an experiment. Trying out different things and techniques is part of the fun of exploring in photography and many other areas in life; it’s good to stretch the boundaries and keeping those experiments that we like.
I kind of like this experiment… what do you think? Have you ever tried some different techniques?
Tuesday Photo Challenge – Cold
Baby, it’s cold outside!
Welcome to Week 38 of the Tuesday Photo Challenge. This first TPC of 2017 is something appropriate for the season that we’re currently experiencing in the Northeast of the United States, as temperatures have started dropping for the onslaught of the lovely time of year that we call Winter.
The theme for this week’s Tuesday Photo Challenge is Cold! Of course, cold is a relative concept, and it doesn’t require that you’re in a colder climate to capture it… Use your imagination and let it roam free with the excitement of the new year to interpret your view of cold.
Here’s an image from almost 10 years ago that gives an idea of how cold it can be in this area…
This capture from January of 2007 came from a little expedition to the town of Deep River, Connecticut, where I went to give a presentation on action photography to the local camera club. As I arrived early in the afternoon, I decided to do a little sightseeing and found this lovely view of the Connecticut river.
The full rules of this challenge are in TPC Guidelines, but here’s the tl;dr:
- Write a post with an image for this week’s topic
- Please tag your post with fpj-photo-challenge (if you’re not sure about how tags work, please check out this WordPress article about tagging posts)
- Create a pingback link to this post, so that I can create a post showing all of the submissions over the week (note: pingbacks may not appear immediately, as my site is set up to require approval for linking to it; helps against previous bad experiences with spamming)
- Have fun creating something new (or sharing something old)!!
Have fun going out there (or staying indoors) to capture cold (just don’t catch a cold!) in your style!
Technical Details
This image was captured with a Canon EOS 1D MkII using an EF 70-200 f/2.8L lens. Exposure settings were at f/7.1 and 1/200 second with 250 ISO. Just fast enough so that I wouldn’t add shake to the lens from the outside temperature.
Tuesday Photo Challenge – Round Up 37
In with the New!
Happy New Year to all of you! May 2017 be wonderful for you; I hope that you have your goals set for this year and that you will be successful in attaining them. In this New Year, we’re kicking it off with the 37th collection Tuesday Photo Challenge entries for this week’s theme of New Year.
The contributions for this week’s theme were nothing short of amazing, as all of you are clearly looking forward to 2017 and all the new that lies ahead. With all this great participation, you can be sure that there will be plenty more Tuesday Photo Challenges ahead for this year.
Here’s another bit of reflection on the New Year from me, as the year starts brightly akin to the day depicted in this image.
The following were this week’s participants in the challenge with links to their posts:
- Charles was first to contributed with his post in CharlesEWaugh that looked at the old year we were closing out with a magnificent sunset; Charles also posted a second entry in CharlesEWaugh with a lovely sunrise to ring in the New Year!
- Candy’s post in her blog, Netdancer’s Musings and Photography, provides a beautiful image that asks us to consider whether or not we’re starting with a clean slate.
- Emily shares her wishes for the New Year in her blog, Zombie Flamingoes; I will tell you that bacon is part of them, but you’ll have to go look for the rest of them.
- Judith lets us in on the things she values most about the New Year in her post in Nature Knows Best; new stationery is one of them.
- Bikurgurl shares hew New Year’s Eve plans with us, which appear to include the force, but probably not in a way you expect!
- Leaking Ink presents us a view of renewal that is a key part of the New Year, as we’re looking to explore the new.
- Debbie’s post in Forgiving Connects talks of her dreams for the New Year and the wonder that they might bring.
- …and Marie of The New 3Rs: Retire, Recharge, Reconnect is telling us to keep the eye on the ball in 2017 with a rather cool photo.
- …also, Miriam’s post in her wonderful blog The Showers of Blessing rings in the New Year in style!
Clearly, all of you have a positive direction for this year, and I wish all of you and yours a happy, healthy and prosperous year filled with wonder!
Starting Anew – 2017 Kicks Off!
At the beginning of 2016, I made the decision to revive my anemic blog and make a serious effort to not only start anew, but also stay the course during the entire year. During the year, I read other blogs, commented on them, made new friends and posted plenty of entries, so that now I have a pretty well established blog with a loyal following of fantastic people from all over the world.
As a result, I feel pretty good about what I managed to pull together during the past year. So what to do next? I plan to retain my focus, continue to sharpen the quality of my blog and generate some (hopefully) interesting content throughout all of 2017.
This is where we’re at right now… we have some rust, but there’s new growth that will lead us into the future!
Like many, I have some plans for this year:
- Restart my workout schedule with a goal of getting to an aerobic level that I feel good about (and lose 30 pounds).
- Continue my guitar learning journey with focused practice that gets me ready for a more significant public performance.
- Learn basic Italian conversation, so that I’ll be able to chat with people during our vacation in Italy.
- Focus on enjoyment in my photography by having a completely new eye on the world around me.
With all this, there will be dedication to my work at Red Hat to continue to expand the positive impact that I have on the organization and the community that we support. There will also be some fun things to do with the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress, which is my favorite charity to support, as there’s so much positive energy in this group.
Expect to see some updates from time to time, some old features, such as the Tuesday Photography Challenge, as well as some new content. We’ll have lots of fun together throughout this year!
What are your plans for the year?