I surmise that last week’s homage to a country on many of our minds in Travel Tuesday – Ep. 7 was rather challenging; this capture was from my trip to Ukraine in 2018 to the wonderful people and city of Kharkiv. The building is the Annunciation Cathedral (in Ukrainian: Свято-Благовіщенський кафедральний собор), which I found to be a stunning edifice.
This week, we’re going back to 2015 and a location that might be easier for many of you to figure out…
Water Everywhere
One of my favorite locations and waterfalls, so I expect that some of you may know where this is…
Time to revisit Yoga Tree with an image from March of 2015….
The Lone Tree
There was a bit of resonance with how I feel today in this image. As dark skies are still overhead and a cold landscape surrounds, Yoga Tree relies on her roots to remain grounded and stay strong.
Last week’s Travel Tuesday might have been a bit tricky, even with a sign is written in Hebrew (it was rather small). It was a photograph taken at the Apollonia National Park in Israel just north of Herzliya. The park contains a 13th century fortress, roman villa and a 13th century mosque. Even on a hot day, it’s a wonderful place to explore, as long as you bring some water!
For today’s location, let’s find something a bit more straightforward…
Gorgeous Hills
This shot from almost 10 years ago reminds me that I wouldn’t mind retiring here, as I’d never be wanting for landscape to photograph.
Sand and minerals turned to butterfly wings; now that’s geology!
During the week of January 30, 2023, I had the pleasure of spending 4 days in a stunning state park in Nevada: Valley of Fire. This first of Nevada’s state parks lies in the Mojave Desert and is known for its red Aztec sandstone formations that appear on fire when lit up by the sun.
My visit was part of a photo tour organized by Joseph Rosbach Photography and was a wonderful experience, as Joe really knows the park and area. Joe organized our day to be in the park by sunrise to catch locations that set up great for that time of day and spend 3-4 hours shooting until the light was not ideal. A break and time for some quick editing tips and lessons (I learned some cool techniques), and then back to the park by 2:30-3pm to shoot until after sunset.
The park has many features and lots of color in the rock, so as I start my editing, I’ll kick off with one of my favorites so far…
Rainbow Vista Butterfly Wing
The rock formations in the Rainbow Vista area of the park present a stunning array of colors, as seen in the image above. As the dunes turned to sandstone during the Early Jurassic period, various minerals were captured in the sand lending vibrant colors. The continued erosion and geological forces created exposures that are dramatic in their appearance and form.
As there is still a lot of editing to do, keep an eye open for future posts, featuring a variety of colors, arches and stunning landscape features, even including bacon strips!
Some Winter mornings present us with beautiful, sweeping views that allow us to take a moment out of our busy days and breathe in the wonder that is Nature. Whenever we get one of these opportunities, we should simply stop whatever we are doing and allow the moment to embrace us.
On one such December morning in 2014, I was allowed to capture the following moment in the universe…
Sweeping Clouds
The higher velocity winds in the upper layers of the clouds create a magnificent vista, giving us the sense of motion blur. Our beloved Yoga Tree is very much stripped down for the season, conserving her energies for that change into Spring.
Shot with an iPhone 5S and cleaned up a bit in Luminar AI and Photoshop.
In New England there are few more sights spectacular than the color of the trees during the Autumn season; during a good year, vibrant red, yellow and orange hues contrast the remaining green leaves and evergreens across the landscape.
Autumn’s Colors
Yoga Tree is no stranger to the changing seasons and is adapting nicely from the vibrant greens of Spring and Summer to Autumn’s more earthly color palette.
This image was taken in October of 2014 with an iPhone 5s (many generations since then!). I did a re-edit of the image in Luminar AI using a template that I developed for some of the Kinderdijk images. Final touch-ups were done in Adobe Photoshop.
Another little bit of inspiration from our intrepid tree, as she stands firm amidst the elements and whatever the New England climate can bring to bear…
A Winter’s Tale
This capture from nearly 9 years ago during a lovely snow fall intends to share a bit of the peace and tranquility that exists during these weather events. I love watching the soft, fluffy snow flakes fall toward the ground, while taking in the near-perfect quiet that comes from having a sound-absorbing blanket of snow.
What do you like about Winter? Or is it the one season that you simply hope to see finish as soon as possible?
For me, photography is about more than capturing the scene that we find in front of ourselves. Granted that there is a lot to be said for great photography technique, so that the capture truly represents said scene and highlights the subject(s) in the best way possible. I enjoy that part of photography and particularly like a good lighting challenge. The aspect of photography that keeps me challenged mentally is the creative process. In this series of blog posts, I’ll try to share a bit of this process.
In this first post, let’s take a look at an image that I captured yesterday while exploring a beach in southern Connecticut with great friends of mine.
Meigs Point Beach Scene
As we came upon this section of beach by Meigs Point, I thought that the piece of driftwood across the seashells made for a great bit of counterpoint to the rocks in front of the sky. Overall, I was happy with this view of a bit of beach life, but there was something more that could be done with this.
17th Century Beachscape
A bit of creative exploration brought the idea of taking this image back to the golden age of Dutch seascape masters. As part of their Seaside Artistic Collection for Luminar AI, Skylum provides the sensibility of various seascape painters in a series of templates. Testing some of the treatments, I selected the Rotterdam template, setting it to approximately 1/3 opacity to allow for a blend of captured scene and Dutch seascape that my mind’s eye perceived.
Next steps were very much about bring the age of seascapes in with subtle adjustments, such as film grain, details, contrast aiming to get a sense of the present of the driftwood reaching back to the 17th century of the sky. Taking a bit of a meandering walk through creative options enables me to connect to the points that resonate with what I’m feeling about the scene.
I love to hear what creative approaches you take to your photography. Please let me know in your comments.
Dutch goes the Photo! 