Theme # 300 "Spring"

Well "Spring" has arrived. I have been trying to get a picture of these little spring " Crocus's" for about two weeks now. My wife and I walk our dog all over the place and every time I spot one of these little guys I say to myself I'll come back in a day or two with my camera and get a shot. And the next time when I go back all set to get a fabulous picture the little flowers are gone. Needless to say I think Ron (from down under) has been reading his mystical powers book and has put a hex on letting me capture a spring Crocus picture. Well yesterday, when I saw these little guys I placed a Rosary, Garlic Cloves, a Wooden Stake and a Cross in front of them and it worked I got my shot today. I waited until almost sunset for nice warm, soft light. This location is down the block and across the street in the local non-denominational cemetery. I took another image here for my blog titled "Rusted". Because of the setting sun almost everything was in deep shadow except for the little flower. The light was perfect and I was able to isolate the Crocus from the background pretty well. On the light side I took a little plastic water bottle with a spray attachment and when I sprayed some water on the flower it closed up on me. Luckily I took around a half dozen shots before I did that. Sadly I must also say that the gravesite where I took this picture was an aquaintance on mine who was killed in the 9-11 attack on the WTC. I used my Nikkor 105mm Macro lens and a Tripod.

Nikon D90 2009/03/31 16:41:57

RAW (12-bit)

Lens: 105mm F/2.8 D

Focal Length: 105mm

Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern

1/15 sec - F/22

Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Sensitivity: ISO 200

White Balance: Auto

AF Mode: Manual

Theme # 329 "Tilt"

Well this is the "Tilting Tower of Riverhead. These surrounding area's are the last remaining rural areas on Long Island. At one time most of these farms were growing potatoes and various other vegetables. Now one by one they have been bought out by developers for housing developments or wineries. They have found out that the sandy soil and the climactic conditions are ideal for growing wine bearing grapes. This little tilting water tower is situated on a farm that still grows vegetables. It is totally covered with thick, heavy Ivy vines. In the summer you cannot really see the tower very well because of the Ivy vines. I moved out to this area thirty years ago and the tower was not on such a steep tilt as one sees today. The water tower it self is made out of wood and one wonders how long it will remain standing. I have passed this spot thousands of times and finally this blog has forced me to get my first image of the "Tilting Tower".

Nikon D90 2009/03/17 15:54:54

RAW (12-bit)

Lens: VR 18-200mm F/3.5-5.6 G

Focal Length: 40mm

Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern

1/60 sec - F/14

Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Sensitivity: ISO 320

White Balance: Auto

AF Mode: AF-A

Theme # 233 "Photographer"

I have been struggling with this theme since we started. I had no clue on how to do a self portrait. I got this idea from one of my CS-3 books , "Photoshop CS-3 Essential skills " by Mark Galer and Philip Andrews. Personally I think it looks pretty neat ,I love it. But of course I am biased in my opinion. My wife doesn't really care for my artistic sense of humor she kinda thinks I look gross in this picture. The Flag image is the same one I posted the other day (Old Glory). That handsome guy is me (of course) and with the help of my dear bride I got a shot of myself. My wife has no idea on how to work a Nikon D-90 so I set up the tripod in the living room, placed two modeling lamps (the ones from my Lightbox ) on each side pointing to the sides and upward. Placed the D-90 on my tripod with the flash (SB-800) on the hot shoe pointing up toward the ceiling. Then I got my wife to sit on the sofa and I zeroed her in with a full face shot with my focusing spot on her right eye. Then we swapped spots and all I did was adjust my position till the focus spot was on my right eye ( my wife looked through rear viewfinder) and when she said OK , I pushed the infra red remote to fire the shot. So it was a self portrait with a little help. We took six shots in which four of them were use able. Of all the posts so far this to me was one of the ones I had the most fun with. I converted the image to Black & White in Lightroom (not auto-then really boosted up the contrast) an did the rest of post processing in CS-3 and the frame in PSE-7.

Nikon D90 2009/03/28 21:28:12

RAW (12-bit)

Lens: VR 18-200mm F/3.5-5.6 G

Focal Length: 80mm

Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern

1/60 sec - F/11

Exposure Comp.: 0 EVS

Sensitivity: ISO 200

White Balance: Auto

AF Mode: AF-A

SB-800 Flash and side lighting

Theme # 187 "Monotone"

I took this image about ten days ago and did not where to place it in my blog. So I finally Googled "Monotone" and it said basically in photography it means one color like Black & White so since this image had a lot of contrast I figured it may work. This little house is situated in either Baiting Hollow or Riverhead. I am really not sure. When I passed this house I told my wife that on the way home remind me to get at least one shot at a picture. So on my way home I pulled into the driveway got my camera and got out of the car and all of a sudden I realized that this place possibly was occupied. The side door has a lock on it and there are ground lights all around the front lawn in front of the little house. There also was tire track in the driveway. I quickly took about a half dozen shots jumped back in the car and drove off. I wonder if it really was some sort of grinding mill or that if the wind mill was a prop. Any way I converted it to Black and white in Lightroom 2.3. If I can find out any more info on this little house I'll update the blog.

Nikon D90 2009/03/17 16:03:55

RAW (12-bit)

Lens: VR 18-200mm F/3.5-5.6 G

Focal Length: 32mm

Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern

1/60 sec - F/14

Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Sensitivity: ISO 320

White Balance: Auto

AF Mode: AF-A

Theme # 101 "Flags and Banners"

I am sure that most likely I do not have to explain this image. It was taken a few day's ago when I took that picture of the invisible tower that was supposed to look like a pine tree. Both images were taken from the same spot, the parking lot of the local Catholic Church, Saint Jude's. It was a beautiful clear, very windy day with gusts probably in the 30-40 mph range. It was perfect for a waving Flag and I took about twenty shots. I had the camera in shutter priority mode and started shooting at around 1/50 sec. This gave the flag some blurred movement but I couldn't get it right. So I kept increasing my shutter speed until I had a balance between stopping the motion and lending a little blurred movement to add something to the photo. In this photo there are very slight blurred areas when viewed at 100% magnification. I really like to take images of flags waving in the breeze. Gives me a sort of patriotic feeling.

Nikon D90 2009/03/23 16:53:22

RAW (12-bit)

Lens: VR 18-200mm F/3.5-5.6 G

Focal Length: 95mm

Exposure Mode: Shutter Priority

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern

1/200 sec - F/7.1

Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Sensitivity: ISO 200

White Balance: Auto

AF Mode: AF-A

Theme # 53 "Clock"

This structure about ten years old replaced an old Lace Mill dating back to the late 1800's. My wife worked there back around 1959 while in High School. The local department store Swezey & Newins which also dated back to the late 1800's was located on Main Street , Patchogue, NY. It was considered by many the mercantile monument of the area. The Swezey family ran that business for over 100 years. I really do not know the exact reasons but the younger generation of owners built a new Swezey's at the site of the old Lace Mill and it never really took off. Possibly the ill fate of many a main Street in rural America as a result of the encroachment of larger and larger shopping malls. These large shopping malls on Long Island has laid ruins to many a main street. The new Swezey's Department store , a portion seen in the above photo lasted maybe 5 years or so. They sold the property to a local small college called Braircliff College and they sublet a portion of the building to Quiznos Restaurant and also a well equipped Gym. I have fond memories of the old store with its squeakie wooden floors and little nooks and cranny's all over the place . The old store had class and even particular odors that were inherent in very old wooden buildings. It still stands on Main Street but has been unoccupied for at least ten or so years. I made about three trips to this place before I got the image I wanted. Today was a beautiful day with a clear blue sky and when I took this image there was a fire red setting sun directly behind me as I snapped this photograph. The sky never changed colors as there was no clouds. But the setting sure warmed up the red brick on the building.

Nikon D90 2009/03/23 17:59:17

RAW (12-bit)

Lens: VR 18-200mm F/3.5-5.6 G

Focal Length: 56mm

Exposure Mode: Shutter Priority

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern

1/50 sec - F/4.8

Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Sensitivity: ISO 200

White Balance: Auto

AF Mode: AF-A

Theme # 60 "Communication"

Believe it or not this tower is for our wireless communications commonly called "Cell Phones" connections. It is located right behind a beautiful Church in Mastic Beach, NY. When they originally designed this tower the "locals" objected to its horrible, ungainly, sight right smack in the middle of a residential neighborhood. I believe these large telephone companies paid off enough Lobby Money and had a law passed that basically said these towers will be put up wherever required. The only concession was to make the tower look like a pine tree and look like part of a natural landscape. IMHO they failed miserably. But Uncle Sam gets what it wants and when it wants it no matter what.

Nikon D90 2009/03/23 16:47:32

RAW (12-bit)

Lens: VR 18-200mm F/3.5-5.6 G

Focal Length: 60mm

Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern

1/40 sec - F/8

Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Sensitivity: ISO 200

White Balance: Auto

AF Mode: AF-A

Theme # 260 "Rest in Piece"

The location for these grave sites is Calverton National Cemetery in Calverton, NY. I have friends and relatives interned at this cemetery. Being that it is so close to my house I make frequent trips here to pay my respects. Sometimes I will just drive around and say hello and reminisce about the good old days and times we had together. In each of these small vaults are the cremated remains of the respective individuals. A very close friend of mine, Harry had his father buried here in this section and I payed my respects a couple of weeks ago. This is the area where I took the other picture "Repeating Pattern" that I posted a while back. It's kind of hard to capture a great image as it's sort of confined and difficult to set up and compose. Any way you get what you get. I think its because we all are so used to seeing the headstones so perfectly aligned, row after row, for as far as one can see. This type of scene is not one usually sees in the Military Cemetery. This is the first time I tried to make a Collage or Montage from three different images. All three images were photographed by me on different occasions. The Statue of Liberty photo was taken when we went on a Circle Line Cruise around the island of Manhattan back in October 2007 and the waving flag was taken here at this cemetery during the Veteran's Day ceremony back in November 2006. Both of them were taken with my Nikon D-80. The reason for the Collage was to try and give some depth to the photo by adding the symbolic symbols of our Nation. Harry's father served in the US Army throughout out WW-II and was a active member of many Veterans organizations.

Nikon D90 2009/03/12 15:46:15

RAW (12-bit)

Lens: 12-24mm F/4 G

Focal Length: 12mm

Exposure Mode: Shutter Priority

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern

1/80 sec - F/18

Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Sensitivity: ISO 320

White Balance: Auto

AF Mode: AF

Theme # 365 "Yellow"

Every day I keep getting further behind but I promise to try and get more photos now that the weather is nicer. This photo was taken at the Railroad Museum in Riverhead , New York about ten miles from my house. I took my camera, dog and my wife (notice the importance of the listed order) for a short ride to this place. It's in total dis-repair and actually is closed. Since this car is on the tracks they did not fence it in. Some homeless people are living in and around some of the other cars but I did not see them but saw only their cloths and garbage all around. The sign on the bright yellow car indicates that at one time it may have been used for a traveling circus. Since nobody was around and the place was closed I could not ask anyone for any information. There's about 15 different types of old railroad cars here. I'll have to go back in the summer to see if it's open.

Nikon D90 2009/03/17 15:19:01

RAW (12-bit)

Lens: VR 18-200mm F/3.5-5.6 G

Focal Length: 18mm

Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern

1/50 sec - F/11

Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Sensitivity: ISO 320

White Balance: Auto

AF Mode: AF-A

I have been tagged,...........

Madelaine tagged me and here are the rules:

•Go to your photo folder on your computer (My Pictures)

•Go to the Sixth folder of photos

•Go to the sixth picture

•Put the picture on your blog and a description of it

•Invite six friends to join the challenge

Friends that I have invited for this challenge are:

Lorri, Barbs, Jo, John, Sunny, and Dart

This image was the photo that I used back on January 5Th to test out the blog and post a picture to see how every thing works. The reason I picked this image was simple, I went to "My Pictures" folder and quickly browsing saw this one was already a JPEG and nicely framed. I would have loved to use this image as one of this years 365 but it was taken back in October 2000. My wife and I were camping in the beautiful Smokie Mountain National Park. On this particular day we went for a short (5-6 miles round trip) day hike relatively near Cosby Campground, where we were camping. It was a beautiful fall day in the mountains and we had a very nice hike. The Trail led us through a small group of very old camps that most of which were un-occupied. The park contains some privately owned land and homes which will become the property of the National Park System when the original owner dies. In this particular group of old homes only one or two were still occupied. It was like a sort of 20th century ghost town. The Park personnel do not (to my knowledge) destroy or burn the old cabins down. They let the elements take over and I suppose that in 30-40 years the old camps will be taken over by trees and the buildings will just rot out. I've hiked a lot of trails in these Mountains and every once in a while you will come across a old homestead that is being slowly returned back to the wild or just a old foundation with nothing else around. .

This image was taken with my old film camera the Nikon N-90S, 24mm f/2.8 lens and 35mm Etachrome E100VS slide film. I scanned this image from a 35mm slide into my PC with a Epson Perfection 4180 photo scanner. Post processing was done with PSE-4.

Theme # 259 "Repeating Pattern"

I was at Calverton National Cemetery here on Long Island visiting the grave site's of relatives and friends. This area is so different then most areas as this is the "Columbaria" where the inurnment of cremated remains are placed in small vaults. I have a very good friend whose father is buried here. I paid my respects to Harry and noticed that in between the sections where the vaults are located is a sitting area where one can meditate and perhaps reminisce or say some prayers. The repeating patterns were apparent but how do I photograph this structure which is at least fifty feet long and get the impact that I was looking for. It was late sun and the shadows were not cooperating with me at all. It was cold and my hands were freezing cold and I knew that this was a image for a wide angle lens. The car was parked quite a distance from here so I took about ten shots with my Nikkor 18-200VR lens but when examining the the focus with the zoom on the camera it just was not hacking the job. So off I went colder then ever and got my wide angle. Took one shot and came home. I use Adobe Lightroom extensively for PP my RAW files. I did all sorts of PP but just could not get the POP that I was looking for. So I went over to my presets menu and hovered my mouse over each one and you can see a thumbnail of the effect and when I hovered over this one I knew it was the one I wanted. Sort of surreal but it does get your attention. I very rarely use presets as I'd rather do the job myself and then save some of them for future use. Prior to using the preset I did not like the fact that I had some trees on the right and left as they(IMHO) were distracting. No matter what I tried I could not get what I wanted, but when I hit the preset the image popped out at me and the trees didn't bother me in the least. The link for those presets are here: http://www.albertdebruijn.com/gallery/page.php?13

He also has some new ones simulating film, The one I used for the image above was called ADB Steel Dark. His site is very neat.

Nikon D90 2009/03/12 15:48:27

RAW (12-bit)

Lens: 12-24mm F/4 G

Focal Length: 12mm

Exposure Mode: Shutter Priority

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern

1/80 sec - F/22

Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Sensitivity: ISO 320

White Balance: Auto

AF Mode: AF-A

Theme # 94 "Fasteners"

I probably stretched this theme a little but ordinary paper clips do fasten sheets of paper together. By the way these are the small colored paper clips not the big ones. I used my Macro lens, light box, tripod and shutter release. Also I find that one must use manual focusing as the auto-focus does not know what detail to focus on and 99% of the time it focuses on the wrong detail.

Nikon D90 2009/03/11 15:54:56

RAW (12-bit)

Lens: 105mm F/2.8 D

Focal Length: 105mm

Exposure Mode: Manual

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern

1/13 sec - F/32

Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Sensitivity: ISO 200

White Balance: Auto

AF Mode: Manual

Theme # 43 "Celestial Bodies"

Not quite a full moon but I figured I would get some large craters with possibly more detail. But I like this shot anyway so here it is. I took this out on my deck tonight and because of the high humidity today there was a very thin sheet of frozen ice. I almost went slipping and sliding a couple times with tripod and camera.

Here is one of the best links that I've seen on Moon Images.

http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/moon/index.html

It explains in detail the how's, do's and don'ts of moon photography. I found it very useful and for one of my first attempts I don't think this is that bad. Possibly could be a bit sharper but then again I'm not sure. It goes without question I used my tripod, and delayed release with the infra red remote.

Nikon D90 2009/03/09 22:39:03

RAW (12-bit)Lens: VR 70-300mm F/4.5-5.6 G

Focal Length: 270mm

Exposure Mode: Manual

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern

1/500 sec - F/11

Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Sensitivity: ISO 400

White Balance: Auto

AF Mode: Manual

Theme # 149 "Hobby"

Now since this is a Photo Blog how could I not post a picture of one of my first cameras that I got when I was around ten years old. Photography has been one of my favorite hobbies for a long time. There is a story about this camera and I promise to keep it short. My grandfather died when I was only four years old and my grandmother never remarried. There was a gentleman who was a very close friend and in ways a business partner of my grandmother named Mr. Alex Laky. He adored my mother when she was a child and when I was born I became his sort of adopted son. He always showered me with love and attention. Our family heritage is of Hungarian extraction and Mr. Laky occasionally went back to Hungary to visit friends and family. It was on one of these trips that Mr. Laky bought me this camera. It was made in Germany and when I goggled it I became aware for the first time the history of this camera. This particular model was made in or after 1938, it has a fixed lens and used 120 roll film. I shot hundreds of images with this camera but only a few survived the passing years. For those interested here is a link for Voigtlander who as I just found out is the oldest name in cameras and dates back to 1756. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voigtl%C3%A4nder

If you hit this page on the right side is a picture of my camera with a link for its history. I learned a lot about camera history from these sites.

I again used the light box with the plain white background with three lights. One on each side and one on top facing down. The lights on the sides were pointed up towards the top of the box.

Of course I used a tripod , manual focus and manual exposure. Post processing done in Lightroom2.3 and I applied a duotone effect to give the image a older vintage look.

Nikon D90 2009/03/07 18:26:46

RAW (12-bit)

Lens: 35-70mm F/2.8 D

Focal Length: 58mm

Exposure Mode: Manual

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern

1/20 sec - F/16

Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Sensitivity: ISO 200

White Balance: Auto

AF Mode: Manual

Theme # 107 "Footwear"

These old sneakers were at one time part of my canoeing equipment back in the mid eighty's. My wife and I love to camp, hike, and of course canoe. Today with all the new fancy gear, this, I guess looks outdated. Anyway my DW figured that these were obsolete, disgusting and disposable so in the garbage they went. Well Mr Ed (me) takes the garbage can up to the street and being the type of pack rat that I am checked out what she (MDW) was throwing away. Need I say any more? The sneakers were saved for another canoe trip up in the Adirondacks. Of course they are only back up gear as I now have new and fancy slip on canoe clogs. But you never know when they will come in handy.

I guess I am becoming a light-box-aholic as I again used it for this shot. I use my wide angle lens for the best possible DOF, Manually focused on the toe of the right sneaker and used a tripod..

Nikon D90 2009/03/07 15:09:42

RAW (12-bit)

Lens: 12-24mm F/4 G

Focal Length: 24mm

Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern

1/8 sec - F/18

Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Sensitivity: ISO 200

White Balance: Auto

AF Mode: AF-Manual

Theme # 128 "Greek"

Well if you look real carefully at the equations from my college physics book I think you all will agree with me... Meaning that it all looks like "GREEK" to me. This book dates back to 1961 when I took Physics at the University of Florida. I cannot believe that at one time I actually understood Greek. I mean Physics and all the other Math and Engineering courses. I did well in the sciences but had to take extra English courses before they would let me graduate. I used my new light box with the dark blue poster board sheet for the background. Another plus for the light box is that the light was so good that this shot was hand held and only took a couple minutes to set up and get four shots.

Nikon D90 2009/03/05 21:01:44

RAW (12-bit)

Lens: VR 18-200mm F/3.5-5.6 G

Focal Length: 44mm

Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern

1/200 sec - F/4.5

Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Sensitivity: ISO 200

White Balance: Auto

AF Mode: AF

Theme # 59 "Colored Glass"

The Church that my wife and I belong to is Saint John the Baptist Roman Catholic. On Ash Wednesday when my wife and I went to church I noticed the large circular stained glass windows which dominated each side and the front and back of the interior of the church. Basically the Church is orientated North and South. This stained glass window is on the west side so I figured the setting sun would be ideal. The weather has not been cooperating in this endeavor but today was ideal. Nice clear blue sky and near sunset was my chosen scenario. I called the Church and asked permission to take a few shots. They were very happy and if things turned out OK they would be happy for a JPEG copy for their web site. I'm sure they will be as happy as I am. I got to the Church at around 3:15PM and was surprised that there were about 10 people visiting and saying prayers. I then realized that we are commemorating the season of Lent so I tipped toed around to my vantage point and luckily was not bothering anyone. The window sits around 25' off the floor so I wanted to get away as far as possible in order not to introduce distortion by pointing my camera at a steep angle upward. So I grabbed my big glass and took a few shots. I purposely did not use any flash so as not to bother any one. All the painted walls around the window were in deep shadows and I figured that would add to the image by not distracting from my main subject the "Stained Glass Window". Most times when using my tripod and long lens I will use the infra red remote and delay when taking the shot. This will help dampen any vibration from the mirror or my hand. The Exif data below will show the basic set up. It goes with out question that I tried hard to align the camera and tripod vertically with the glass window. As the sun was setting I was watching for that shadow to disappear ( just to the left of the main vertical brace) but all of a sudden it started to get wider so I had to fire away. This was because of the low angle (to the south) of the sun. So this is the best for now. I suppose that if I want the perfect aligned shot I would come back again when the setting sun is more vertically aligned. I hope I'm not losing every body but I don't know how else I can explain my method. In fact if I ramble on any longer I too will be totally lost.

Nikon D90 2009/03/04 15:48:05

RAW (12-bit)

Lens: VR 70-300mm F/4.5-5.6 G

Focal Length: 122mm

Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern

1/13 sec - F/16

Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Sensitivity: ISO 200

White Balance: Auto

AF Mode: AF-A