Springtime!

This past Friday was the Spring Equinox. It was also another snow storm. That didn't stop us from heading out to Planting Fields Arboretum State Park. One of the best values as a New York State resident is purchasing the Empire Passport, which allows unlimited entry to all of the state parks. We take advantage of it, just by our visits to Jones Beach over the summer.

First Day of Spring!
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/400sec, 320ISO, 40mm

Snow was still covering most of the grounds, and the trees haven't awoken from their winter slumber. However, the greenhouses on the property both have most of their plants in bloom.

Dangling Texture
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/160sec, 400ISO, 40mm

There were two greenhouses we visited, the first was the main greenhouse, which housed cacti and succulents, houseplants, ferns, orchids, amongst others. There were so many different orchid blooms, so these are just a small handful of the photos I shot.

Orchid
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/160sec, 400ISO, 40mm

The lighting conditions outside were grey and overcast, though not to dark. It created a nice soft light inside the greenhouses. In the main greenhouse, I also used an LED ring light attached to the front of my shorty forty. 

Tower of Orchid
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/125sec, 640ISO, 40mm

All shots are handheld since monopods and tripods are not allowed in the greenhouses. 

Orchid
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/160sec, 640ISO, 40mm

The struggle was to keep a fast enough shutter speed to have sharp photos, but have a small enough aperture to get as much depth of focus when shooting near macro photos. 

Orchid
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/160sec, 640ISO, 40mm

I wish I had taken pictures of the nameplates, so unfortunately, I am unaware what each of these orchids are named.

Orchid
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/160sec, 640ISO, 40mm

That is something I should work on, as I often forget the names of the animals after a trip to the zoo as well.

Orchid
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/5, 1/160sec, 640ISO, 40mm

I have always enjoyed greenhouses. It has always been cool to see exotic flora.

Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/5, 1/160sec, 640ISO, 40mm

After the main greenhouse, we visited the Camillia House with its many roses.

Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/5, 1/200sec, 640ISO, 40mm

There was a sign outside this greenhouse that lighting equipment was prohibited, so I did not use the LED ring light. I still need to use it as more before I make a decision, but so far I am a little unimpressed. I was hoping it would be a little brighter than it seems to be.

Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/5, 1/200sec, 640ISO, 40mm

Once again, I failed to take note of the names of each of these flowers.

Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/5.6, 1/200sec, 640ISO, 40mm

I also noticed that a circular polarized lens would have helped a lot in these conditions, as it would have eliminated the reflections off of the leaves and petals.

Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/5.6, 1/200sec, 640ISO, 40mm

Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/5.6, 1/125sec, 640ISO, 40mm

Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/5.6, 1/125sec, 640ISO, 40mm

Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/5.6, 1/125sec, 640ISO, 40mm

South Mountain

Dobbins Lookout
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/16, .4s, 320ISO, 18mm

The winter weather has a way of messing with travel plans. My wife had dealt with delays and cancellations when she flew back to Texas in April. She left town a couple of days after she was supposed to because of the weather in the Northeast, then had returned a couple of days late because of ice in Dallas.

We had visited family in Phoenix over the Christmas break in 2013. The night before our flight was supposed to depart to be awoken by a phone call around 2am from American Airlines cancelling our flight, and we had been rebooked with two layovers with entirely too much travel time between PHX and LGA. After calling customer service and explaining that no one would be happy with a 2 year old on a late night flight after several layovers, we had a new flight for a day later, and an evening flight, than originally booked. 

Since it was nearly 4am, I decided that I wanted to go up South Mountain and shoot the sunrise there. In my 18+ years that I lived in Phoenix, I had never observed the sunset from South Mountain. I grabbed my camera gear, woke my wife and mother up to inform them of my plans and departed. 

It was very peaceful, though cold, up on the mountain. I didn't encounter another human, though I saw about two cars driving up the road before the sun was fully up. I was happy for the delay, as I got to spend one more day with my family, and I was able to see the sunrise from a location I never had before.

Sunrise Over South Mountain
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/11, 1/2s, 320ISO, 18mm

 

RIP Rex

My family lost another loved one this past weekend, our beloved chihuahua. My three your old daughter has handled it better than my wife or I. We miss him tremendously already.  The house is too quiet now.

This is the last picture I took of him about a week ago. 

RIP Rex.

WAW Honoring a loved one

This past weekend, my family and I flew to Texas. My mother-in-law passed away, and we had come for the memorial service. She lived a good life and had lots of people who loved her and will miss her. The show of support at the funeral home was amazing. After the service, we went to a small Baptist church that her brother was a member of for a pot luck style lunch prepared by some of the members of the congregation. 

I had brought my camera with me on this trip because I wanted to get a family shot since my brother-in-law and his son would be there. After I ate my lunch, I excused myself and went outside to the lake to spend a little quiet time by myself. It was a beautiful day outside. A big snowstorm had came through New York the day before we were to leave, so I was happy to enjoy some warmer weather. I grabbed my camera from the car and decided to capture some of the scenery. 

Arrowhead Baptist Church
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/8, 1/800s, 160ISO, 18mm

Rest in Peace Paula. Your family will miss you.

Frozen Smoke

I have started getting in the habit of trying to take some personal shots on my way home from photographing an event. I'm out already with the gear, might as well take a little time and try to capture some great images.

Frozen Smoke
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 13sec, 100ISO, 40mm

 The shorty-forty lens was used to take this shot. I always grab it and take it with me if I have another lens attached to the camera; that's the benefit of the pancake design. The long exposure makes the smoke from the large chimney look frozen.

Watery Wide Angle Wednesday

 

Nightfall as viewed from the venue
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/8, 2.5sec, 100ISO, 11mm

I have been photographing a lot of our company events, but have not done much in the way of photographing for my personal work since the new year. The first big snow storm of the year yielded a couple of action shots of my three year old playing in the snow, and I tried to get a couple of photos from one time when I was prepping dinner (the lighting from the kitchen window was too good to pass up).

This past weekend I found myself in Greenpoint, Brooklyn photographing a 40th birthday party. When I scouted out my trip there on the map, I noticed a public park just a block away called WNYC Transmitter Park. As the name says, there used to be a transmitter for WNYC located there, but now it is a park with a pier that takes you out over the East River. I decided that I needed to make time before I left the area and grab some shots for my personal portfolio.

After I was done getting the room shots for the event, I left and made my way to the pier. It was a cold night, though in the high twenties as opposed to the teens as it has been. The wind whipping off of the icy East River did not feel good though, so I stayed out there for maybe 20mins before I decided to pack it up.

Williamsburg Bridge linking BK to Manhattan
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/8, 25sec, 100ISO, 11mm

Post Processing was done by tweaking the RAW files in Adobe Lightroom. I tweaked the white balance towards the cool side because that is the mood I felt these pictures convey to me, but it may be I am still frozen. I usually crop to the original aspect ratio or 16x9, but this time, I decided to do 2x1 aspect ration. These cityscapes just felt very wide to me and 16x9 wasn't wide enough.

Midtown
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/4, 3.2sec, 100ISO, 11mm