Photography – Page 15

cincinnati sunrise

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

I recently celebrated my birthday by treating myself to the sunrise from Mt. Echo west of Cincinnati. Mt. Echo is 9 minutes away, so I had to get up at four in the morning to be on location with pleny of time to set up my equipment. Afer seeing the resulting images, I have no regrets about waking up so early. The view was spectacular and the sunrise did not disappoint.

I created a few shots with my 70-210mm lens but most of the images were shot using my 18-55mm. I liked the wider angle for shots from this distance. To steady the shots, I used my heavy duty tripod and a remote shutter release.

As the sun rose behind the city, the buildings were silhouetted against the light and reflected on the surrounding buildings. I managed to see a gorgeous light show that morning. I continued shooting until the sun was well above the skyline. Along the way, I shot a series of images that I will eventually stitch together to form a panorama. I'll be sure to let you have a peek at the results when I am finished. Meanwhile, enjoy the sunrise over Cincinnati.

well behaved bee

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

I like shooting close up to interesting insects and flowers. Put the two in the same shot and I am in heaven. The problem is that my favorite insects are equipped with stingers and they move around a lot. The first issue makes me nervous and the second makes them hard to get in focus.

Imagine my surprise when this big bee sat still and let me shoot several shots of him without flying off. Imagine my surprise when I finally realized that he wasn't moving at all. The poor bee was dead. He probably landed on the sage plant and gave up the ghost. On the upside, I was gale to really work the shot the way I wanted with all the time in the world on my hands and without the fear of making him mad. Good Bee.

see jane. see jane run

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Jane is one of the percherons at Carriage Hill Farm & I have been trying to warm up to her lately. Imagine my delight when I walked up to the fence yesterday evening and she came running…. right past me and into the corral where there was fresh hay to eat. Man, was my ego deflated. She wasn't excited to see me, she was looking for a meal.

Sometimes, that is the way life goes. I made the most of the moment and took this picture as she ran towards me… um, I mean the food. Having a full grown percheron thunder by you is one of those events that makes the ground shake. You can feel the impact of her hooves crashing into the ground as she flys over the ground.

Exposure	0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture	f/6.3
Focal Length	55 mm
ISO Speed	1600

Note the high ISO, slow shutter speed and large aperture required to take this shot of Jane as she ran in the low evening light.

composite moon

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Our eyes are amazing instruments. They can see a wide range of shades of light at the same time. The term used to describe the shades of light that you can see is Dynamic Range. Unfortunately, cameras do not have the ability to see the same dynamic range that your eyes can. You may have noticed this the last time you decided to take a picture of a clear moon and when you got it home, all you had was a bright sphere in a dark background. The features of the moon were missing.

I this image, I wanted to show the clear blue twilight sky, the deep black of the tree's silhouette and the moon with all of its details intact. The limited dynamic range of my camera's sensor meant that I needed to shoot this image as two separate photos and then combine them in Photoshop.

The first image photo was exposed to show the moon's surface details while the second was exposed to get the blue and black in the rest of the image. With both images loaded into Photoshop, I cut the moon out of the first image and composited it into the second. The resulting image has the full dynamic range that I needed to achieve. Now the resulting photo looks just like the scene that I saw with my naked eye.

That is one fine looking moon.

wedding kids

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

I don't normally shoot weddings but when a great friend asks you to help out, you say, "YES, I would love to shoot the wedding!" That is what you say. It's not that I am too good to shoot weddings, it is more like I am terrified to mess up somebody's once in a lifetime event. One where you can not go back and have a "do over".

I shot lots of great images but I will not show them all to you. I mean, who wants to sit and look at pictures from a stranger's wedding? I do however, want to share these photos of the kids at the wedding. They are what made this a really wonderful event for me. This particular image is of my favorite little girlfriend, Josie. Josie is the daughter of the afore mentioned great friend.

This little boy seemed to get a real kick out of the flower's scent. It was as though, for the first time in his life, he did not smell like Play Doh, Crayons, and Cheese Doodles.

This little girl had the biggest eyes that I have ever seen. She was also pretty shy, not liking strangers and flash units.

Same boy as before. Later in the evening, he changed out of his micro-tux and showed us how to breakdance out on the floor. He was all boy and all energy. I'm glad that he didn't have a brother to multiply his activity level.

Josie has reached that age, where entertaining babies has become fun.

To wrap things up, here is a picture of Dad helping out with the clean up work. I don't know about you but, wedding kids can be the best part about attending weddings. They are all dressed up in little dresses and suits and looking their best. How can you not like that?

the heat is gone!

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Finally, the heat has broken and we are enjoying cool days. I would say perfect days. The temperatures at night are in the upper 50s and the temperatures during the day are in the upper 70s. Perfection! Thank you Ma Nature for laying off the heat this week.

I shot this cat at the end of the heat wave during a photo outing with my friend Jim last weekend. The poor critter didn't want to move. The day was beginning to get hot and the cat was cool laying on the porch.

When approaching this shot, I decided that placing the focus on the feet while the head was visible in the background would be interesting. I like the way it elongates the cat by forcing the eye to start at the cat's feet. Your eye naturally wants to go to the cat's head. Paws + Head = Elongated cat.

Bet you didn't know I could control your eyes that way, did you? I'll bet that, after moving to the head, your eyes went back to the cat's rear paws. Let that be a lesson to you. I don't have to stop at controlling your eyes. I can control your mand and your body as well.

Watch this:

send me a pie, make me a cherry pie and send it to me

Did you suddenly have the urge to bake a cherry pie and send it to me? Internet magic is a powerful thing. I'll try to use it responsibly.

send Tim a cherry piiiiieeeeeee

flower in window

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Good morning good people of the internet. If you are a bad peson of the internet, then you are on your own.

Today's image is pretty simple. A potted oxalis plant in the kitchen window at the farm. This image is straight forward. The difficulty lies in the dynamic range of the camera's sensor. I wanted to show the blue skies in the background while still showing some details in the shadows of the flower. A rotating polarizing filter helped to pop the sky by increasing the contrast between the white clouds and the blue sky. Without the filter, the sky would appear almost wite with little distinction between clouds and sky.

Exposure	0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture	f/5.6
Focal Length	50 mm
ISO Speed	100

Have a great day.

opportunity calling

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

There are times when I plan a shoot to the smallest detail. I will have the subject in mind, I will check my gear, set up lighting, reconoiter the site, and in everyway possible be prepared to shoot exactly what I have in mind.

On other days, I simply walk around with my camera hanging off of my shoulder and let the shot come to me. Both situations can be rewarding. In the first, I enjoy seeing the positive results of my hard work. In the second, I am wrapped up in the moment of unplanned inspiration. In each situation, I know that I have a great shot in the camera the moment I press the shutter button.

To me being a great photographer has to be a mix of hard work and inspiration. When I become one, I will let you know if I am right.

living the life

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

When I was young and growing up outside of Boston, my parents had two VW vans. They were not as fancy as this one but, for a kid growing up, we drove in style. The oldest was a 60s era rectangle with two doors on the passenger side. Dark blue on the bottom and a white top, we called the vehicle Fritzi. The 70s era microbus was light blue and had the first sliding door that I can remember on a car. In so many ways, these vans were ahead of their times.

When our family would go camping, my father would take out the center seat and replace it with a plywood box he had made. the box acted as storage but, would also fold out into a bed. Fritzi's windows had striped curtains for privacy when camping. We really looked like a hippy family when we were heading down the highway as we played I Spy and Punch Buggy.

We didn't have a lot of money when we were young. My father had to do all of the maintenance on the VW himself and I can remember that there was not much heat to speak of during the cold New England winters. However, when you are young, you don't realize any of that. All you know is that, when you all piled into Fritzi's cavernous interior, there was adventure ahead of you. Camping trips, beaches, forests, zoos, and road trips all bore witness to my family rolling and laughing down the road in a big VW bus. We might not have had much money but, we sure thought we were living the life.

Exposure	0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture	f/5.6
Focal Length	35 mm
ISO Speed	100

This image was shot just after dawn and was steadied using a tripod. I had been out shooting the sunrise over a field of corn when, I spied this church van on the way back to my car. I thought the rich morning light created a nice atmosphere for the bright colors. The original image had a giant power pole on the right hand side and heavy electric lines in the sky in front of the van. I removed them in Photoshop because they distracted from the van.

cane

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

A little texture for you on a Saturday morning. This is the seat of a caned chair at the farm. I am serriously thinking about submitting it for a photography challenge with texture as the topic. I don't know about you but, I can feel the texture of the cane when I look at this image.

Exposure	0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture	f/5.6
Focal Length	55 mm
ISO Speed	1600

This image does a fine job of pointing out how well the Sony a55V handles ISO1600. The lack of noise at this range is spectacular. Good job Mr. Sony, keep up the good work.