Re-post October 2011
Todays post is from the Auburn Cord Duesenburg Automobile Museum. I’ve posted pics from here before. I’m still amazed of the quantity and quality of cars in their collection. If you are ever in Northeast Indiana, it’s definitely worth stopping in.
Re-post June 2011
Since starting this site in May I have not mentioned a whole lot about my self with the exception of having a newborn. I have many enjoyments in life, including spending time with my beautiful wife and daughter, playing basketball, lifting weights, working on computers, photography, and work which consists of fixing peoples ankles and feet. I guess I have to say that I’m very diverse in what I do.
My wife grew up in the country and her father put up a basketball goal in their yard. She never had interest in playing basketball but always watched me throughout high school (yes, we are high school sweethearts). Often times we would go out and shoot baskets for fun. I never thought much about the placement of the basketball goal but it sits out in the middle of a field with a small tree along side it. The solidarity of this structure interested me and thought it would be a great picture opportunity.
Re-post from July 2011
A few days ago I decided to travel the local country side to look for interesting structures to take pictures of. It was in the middle of the afternoon and is typically the worst time to take pictures because the sun light causes very harsh shadows and typically the camera cannot compensate for the amount of exposure. Besides HDR photography there are other ways to fix this problem. One way is to use a neutral density filter.
Neutral density filters are either colorless or grey and reduce and/or modify the intensity of light without harming color rendition. This allows photographers to shoot in situations that typically wouldn’t allow them. These filters come in different intensities, which allow for different shooting techniques.
I recently purchased B+W ND 3.0 at B & H Photo for my Leica 21mm Elmarit lens. It allows me to shoot in very bright light, thus allowing proper exposure. It can also be used to create a time lapse picture which shows the motion of clouds or objects in front of it. As I was driving around I came across this old school (built in 1896) that appeared to be on its last leg. You can see in the pic, the motion of the clouds in this 4 second exposure.
Re-post August 2011
Keeping it short today. Couple weeks ago when I was driving around Bluffton, Indiana I came across this old grey barn. Again, it was in the middle of the day which does not make for good shooting but I put my 3.0 ND filter on my 21mm lens and shot 7 exposures to create an HDR pic. I think it turned out well? I really like the movement of the clouds.
Repost from July 2011
My wife and I spent 4 years in Des Moines, IA while I was receiving my degree. The first couple years I was vey busy with my work and never showed much interest in photography. Midway through my second year, my father lost his year long battle with cancer. When he passed I inherited his film dSLR and lenses. Not until later in the year did I finally gain an interest in photography. Initially, I was just taking pictures in the operating room for the physicians I was rotating with. I remember getting many compliments doing this and thought it came somewhat natural. Canon came out with the EOS 20d (you can find the most recent version, Canon EOS 60D here). I remember how excited I was to get this and try out my dads lenses. Since then, I’ve traded, bought, and upgraded from the Canon 20d and his lenses.
Many years have passed since purchasing my first dSLR and I’ve now moved on to Leica M9 rangefinder camera but I still have many good pics that I took. One of those was from a trip back to Des Moines a few years ago. I was driving around Booneville, IA and came across this old railroad bridge. At that time I was starting to show some interest in HDR photography. Below is one of those pics (I also posted it in black and white).
February of this year my wife and I went to Wisconsin to visit my sister and family. We’ve never traveled to Wisconsin and never realized how hilly the landscape is. I didn’t have time to take too many pictures but we were driving around and found this barn only feet from the road. The sun was setting and thought it would be a great picture opportunity. I love the sun rays coming through the branches. Enjoy.
Repost June 2011
I can remember the many drives from Southern Illinois to Des Moines and how much I would complain that there was absolutely nothing to look at. If you’re not familiar with this part of the country lets just say it is extremely flat and all you see for miles is farm land.
Now don’t get me wrong, I loved where I grew up and wouldn’t change it for anything but when you are stuck in a car for 8 hours, it’s nice to have something to look at.
Until recently, I never realized that Iowa actually is not that flat and has many rolling hills. I took this picture just west of Des Moines, it captures the typical farm land scene in this area.
High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography has gained a lot of interest in photography. HDR Photography is where you take multiple exposures of a image and then stack them on top of one another to create one picture. By doing this you create an image that often times is very similar to what our eyes see. Most digital cameras can do this by using the auto bracketing function. For best results you need to use at least 3 exposures. If you are shooting in very bright or low light then you often times need to use 5, 7, or 9 exposures. Unfortunately, you typically need a semi-pro or pro dSLR to do this.
After you take the pictures, you then need software to stack the pictures on one another. The best way I’ve found is using Photomatix or you can use Photoshop CS 5. If you want to see some great HDR pictures you need to check out Trey Ratcliff at Stuck in Customs. He does phenomenal work and has many tutorials.
My wife grew up outside a very small town in Southern Illinois called St. Francisville (well known for the scariest bridge to cross in Southern Illinois/Indiana). In March, we were there for my wife’s baby shower. There is a very old Catholic church that sits down town. I decided to take a 7 exposure HDR pic using my Leica M9. Most of the time when shooting in HDR you want to create a color image, I think in this case monochrome works very well.
A couple years ago my family and I drove to Vermilion, OH. It’s a small town that has a marina where the Vermilion River connects to Lake Erie. There are many local shops and restaurants (one of my favorite restaurants Chez Francois is located there) that bring tourists to the area. On the lake, there is a small lighthouse that is now a historical monument next to the Inland Seas Maritime Museum. My nephew was visiting from out of town and his mother thought this would be a good place to take some photographs. As you can see from the picture it was a beautiful day with low lying clouds. The museum sits to the southwest of the lighthouse and casted a shadow over the south side of it. There was a ledge that stuck out from the lighthouse about 3 feet above the ground. My nephew was able to stand on it while I shot from underneath him. I used a wide angle lens which allowed for me to capture the sky and entire lighthouse. Shooting people with wide angle lenses is not always good because of the distortion but in this case I thought it added a little drama to the scene.
I’ve posted other pics from this location on my Flickr and 500px sites. I recently traveled back and grabbed a few pics with my Leica M9. I’ve mentioned previously how much I like the bokeh of Leica lenses. In this picture you can see how well it focuses just a small portion of the foreground and completely blurs the background. There’s an old run down bridge in the background but is obviously difficult to see. The composition allows for some imagination of what is ahead.
