Watkins Glen Long Exposure HDR

In the beginning of August, my family took a trip to the Finger Lakes. That included a hike through the Gorge Trail of Watkins Glen State Park. We had taken this trail when our kid was 10 months old, so she was in the Baby Bjorn. I didn't have a nice travel tripod at that time, and had thought about how cool it would be to do some long exposure shots of the waterfalls. I have since obtained the Joby GorillaPod travel tripod for my dSLR, and made sure it was packed. What I didn't take with me on the hike was a polarizer filter, to cut down on the light reflections off of the water, leaves, and rocks. 

My family was constantly waiting for me up ahead, as I was stopping to frame a shot, take a couple exposures, possibly reframe. A lot of the time was me just waiting for people to move out of the shot.

This water fall photograph is composed of three images blended into a High Dynamic Range image. The exposure times were 4 seconds, 8 seconds, and 15 seconds. After the image was combined, I also then create a layer of the 8 second exposure ontop of the HDR image, and erased everything but the waterfall. I wasn't happy with the way the waterfall looked in the HDR image, so the "normal" exposure shot was used. 

Watkins Glenn Waterfall Long Exposure HDR
Canon 5D Mark III, EF 24-105mm f/4, f/16, 4s + 8s + 15s, 320ISO, 105mm

Goodbye Summer Wide Angle Wednesday

Coney Island Beach View
Canon 5D Mark III, EF 24-105mm f/4, f/8, 1/320sec, 320ISO, 24mm

Last day of summer today, it always flies by fast. Autumn approaches, and it is my favorite season! Halloween, Thanksgiving, fall foliage, apple cider donuts!

And happy 100th post to this blog!!

Museum Monday (Lino Tagliapietra's "Endeavor")

I have recently posted about the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY, and wanted to share a few more shots of Lino Tagliapietra's "Endeavor" in the Contemporary Arts + Design Wing.

Canon 5D Mark III, EF 24-105mm f/4, f/8, 1/500sec, 3200ISO, 24mm

Going not that long after the museum opened allowed for less people, so I was able to get these empty shots.

Canon 5D Mark III, EF 24-105mm f/4, f/8, 1/500sec, 3200ISO, 47mm

The daylight filtered through the skylights and the white walls made photographing this wing a breeze after bumping up the ISO to 3200.

Birds, ships, or whales?
Canon 5D Mark III, EF 24-105mm f/4, f/8, 1/500sec, 3200ISO, 55mm

Atlas Wide Angle Wednesday

Atlas
Canon 5D Mark III, EF 24-105mm f/4, f/8, 1/1000sec, 640ISO, 24mm

This past weekend was Labor Day weekend, and I ended up working Saturday and Sunday. On Labor Day Monday, my wife and I took our 5 year old daughter into Manhattan, as she had received an American Girl gift card. The location is right across the street from Rockefeller Center. 

We went inside, and I was floored. Very pricey store, and so many areas. There was hair styling area, a doll hospital, a cafe, private shopping. Many different ways to get you to part with your money. Our girl isn't into dolls, she's more into stuffed animals. She decided on two dogs which are the pets of the dolls. We did ask if she was interested in a doll, but she seemed to only want one to pretend to walk the dogs. So to my daughter, the doll is the accessory, and the accessory is the primary toy. 

After we left the Palace of Dolls, we went through Rockefeller Center and spent the rest of the day at the American Museum of Natural History. Since we already looked like tourists with the American Doll bag, I wore my camera on the shoulder sling and snapped a shot of Atlas and also the composit of St Patrick's Cathedral, which is made up of 17 images that I combined in Microsoft Image Composite Editor. 

St. Patrick's Cathedral
17 shot composite
Canon 5D Mark III, EF 24-105mm f/4, f/8, 1/1000sec, 640ISO, 24mm

Sunset on the Farm

September Sunset on the Farm
Canon 5D Mark III, EF 24-105mm f/4, f/14, 1/80sec, 2000ISO, 35mm

One of the venues that I end up at frequently is Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Westchester County. It is a nice break from the urban environment of the city. Autumn is coming, which means that the scenery will be all sorts of shades of ambers and browns, my favorite time of year!

I snapped this shot when we were waiting for the wedding ceremony to end in another area of the property. The sun was setting, the cattle were grazing, and a flock of birds kept flying about. I love how long the shadows are in this shot.