Iceland, Farm Tools

Farm Tools, Iceland

This is the inside of an old farm building in Iceland. No windows - had to straddle my tripod over the door frame and sit on a stool outside to make this image happen - the only light was from the door so a three exposure HDR was necessary.

Notre Dame, Basilica

Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana

Back a few years I happened to be traveling through South Bend, Indiana and had the opportunity and access to make a few images on the campus. This is one of the images from that day.

Boston, Massachusetts

Boston Sunset

'Yeah, down by the river
Down by the banks of the river Charles (aw, that's what's happenin' baby)
That's where you'll find me
Along with lovers, fuggers, and thieves (aw, but they're cool people)
Well I love that dirty water
Oh, Boston, you're my home (oh, you're the Number One place)
Frustrated women (I mean they're frustrated)
Have to be in by twelve o'clock (oh, that's a shame)
But I'm wishin' and a-hopin, oh
That just once those doors weren't locked (I like to save time for
my baby to walk around)
Well I love that dirty water
Oh, Boston, you're my home (oh, yeah)'.........THE STANDELLS 

Night Baseball - Boston

 I was browsing the archives this morning and realized there were a few images of Boston made over the past 4-5 years. I was big into HDR back then - a bit over the top about it - but have re-processed and toned them down a bit.....I am not a big fan of HDR these days but do like the way it renders these difficult images.  

Boston - The Charles River

Boston Sunset

Boston, Massachusetts

This is from summer 2010. Photographed from a hotel near the bridge to Cambridge.......I was still playing with HDR at the time...whatever happened to HDR....

Made it to Carmel, Indiana yesterday - dinner with friends and past students last night - Indian Food.....always happy to catch up.....lots of talk about a location workshop next year - maybe the West Coast......

Packing the show today and off to Toledo tomorrow....I think Jamie Farr was from Toledo or maybe that was just in the Mash shows.....

I am slowly getting lost images back into the blog - the process will take weeks and weeks of tedious work. Actually am thinking about starting a newsletter instead....stay tuned...

Notre Dame, Indiana Style

Basilica, Notre Dame

In 2009 I was on tour with Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson. This particular day we were playing in South Bend, Indiana at the minor league baseball park. I had driven in from Chicago and had some time to spare so I grabbed a local and asked hm to take me to Notre Dame so I could look for images. Long story short it turned out he was a graduate student and had access to some interesting locations on the campus - the Basilica of the Sacred Heart being one of them. He actually got me in with a tripod - sometimes you need to be in the right place.....

I thought this image was lost but it miraculously appeared last night in a different hard drive...

Image Management:

Canon 5DMKII

16-35MM Lens

5 image HDR in Photomatix 

Photoshop CS5

Lightroom 3

Yosemite

River, Yosemite

'A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself'....Laura Gilpin 1949

Red Door - Christiania

Red Door_Christiania

OK, I did go back one more time to Christiania - I told everyone I was obsessed with the place. There was an iPhone image made on one of the previous trips that I liked so much that it was necessary to go back with my big boy camera and make a high res image.

So this morning I got up, packed as we were heading for Berlin today, showered, and made it over to Christiania for another hour of photographs....Really glad I went back as I got th eimage I was after and a few more that were unexpected....It was one of those great light days with perfect clouds in the sky. And if that was not enough a woman parked her bike right in the image perfectly and walked away...not that gives new meaning to 'meant to be'....

Hopefully this is it from Christiania but maybe not.........

ImageManagement:

Canon 5DMKII
24-105MM Lens
Converted using Capture One Software
Color balance in Capture one then exported to lightroom
NIK HDR EFX PRO for blending three iamges
Viveza for a touch of Structure

North Fork

Abandoned House, North Fork, Long Island

'What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on'.....Thoreau

Found this wonderful abandoned house on the way to Shelter Island this weekend. Yet another testimonial to a dis-appearing America. Can't help but wonder if walls could talk.....

Photographed with a Canon 5DMKII, 21M Zeiss Lens

Radio City Music Hall

Radio City Music Hall

This image was made about 18 months ago inside Radio City Music Hall. The comedian, Russell Peters was doing two nights at RCMH and I was hired to photograph the event. Before the first show I decided to make the image posted today.

Photographed using the Canon 5DMKII, 16-36MM Lens - this is an 8 image HDR processed using NIK software.

Central State Asylum

 
This image is what is currently left inside the Men's Recreational Room at the Indiana Hospital for the Insane aka Central State Hospital.

I wonder what that contraption with the hood is/was - some sort of hair dryer maybe.....need to get back to Central State before they demolish the buildings...

Photographed with a Canon 5DMKII, 21MM Zeiss Lens

Rancho De Taos

Rancho Taos Mission

My take on the often photographed 'San Francisco de Asis' Mission Church in Rancho Taos, New Mexico. 

My first knowledge of this Mission was a Georgia O'Keefe painting and two photographic images, one by Ansel Adams and the other by Paul Strand. I remember thinking, at first glance,  what an elegant almost 'great pyramid' type structure. Immediately this was on the bucket list.

I stood at this mission for the first time in May of 2009 and wanted to capture an image from a different angle then I previously saw in O'Keefe, Strand and Adams.

This image has been processed several times since capture. The goal was to isolate the Mission from the surrounding structures and this oddly cropped version is what finally worked for me.

Abandoned ireland

Abandoned Ireland

I was pleasantly surprised by the abandoned buildings still standing in Ireland. They seem to cherish these old structures, and, rather then take them down, these buildings, in many cases, are incorporated into much newer buildings. Most of them actually perform a function, whether it be to house a tractor or winter feed for the animals.

Driving down a road barely big enough for the car I noticed today's post set back on the right - of course I might have missed it had I not been driving on the wrong side of the car. Then, of course, there is the challenge to find someplace to park....Try as I might there was no way to get inside...
 

Death Valley

Death Valley Junction, California

'The creative process is a process of surrender, not control'......Julia Cameron

There is an ongoing conversation amongst photographic artists about why they choose an image to capture - mostly having to do with pre-visualization. Personally, I find this a difficult thought pattern. Yes, I can go back and look for images that fit into a particular project I am working on, but, for the most part I capture images that appeal to me for one reason or another, sometime personal, sometimes pure beauty, sometimes it is simply a gut reaction.

There are times when I look at a particular capture and feel absolutely nothing, and possibly can not even remember why I thought to make the capture. And then months or even years later I wonder at my complete understanding of the image and how could I have missed that originally. Not sure I fully understand this internal process but will pay more attention in the future.

Long story shortened certain forces came together this morning and I took another look at this image today and thought to make the center color and keep everything else black and white. Without being overly wordy it really struck a chord today.....

One other point is that I usually have trouble writing about my images but today it simply flowed...

Dunguaire Castle

Dungaire Castle, Kinvara, West Galway, Ireland

Located on Galway Bay just outside the town of Kinvara (or Kinvarra), West County Galway, Ireland.

Graffiti Underground

Graffiti Underground - Philadelphia

Finally getting around to my big dude high resolution camera this morning. This image is composed of 4 separate captures - 1 stop apart - processed to HDR in Photomatix Pro, the stand alone version.

The Graffiti Underground is 100 miles from my hoe but is fast becoming one of my favorite locations to capture images. Every day is different there depending on the color of the sunrise - and when ot on the end of the structure provides one with a sweeping view of downtown Philadelphia.

Looks like a return trip is in order in early January......maybe snow????

Philadelphia

Underground - Philadelphia

Up early yesterday (3:30AM) to drive to Philadelphia to visit two of my favorite locations - Graffiti Underground at sunrise and then  Eastern State Prison.

The image above is a high resolution HDR capture from the Graffiti underground.

The image below is a vertical two image ProHDR stitch from the IP4. The image was imported in CS5 for final processing before being converted to Black and White.

Eastern State Prison Cell

 Off to Woodstock area today -

Death Valley

Dunes, Stovepipe Wells, Death Valley

One thing being on the road allows for is time to look around the hard drives for images that have been passed over before. Why I am running around the country with all these hard drives is a separate blog but I am happy to have 80-% of my files out here - specifically on a lazy Sunday afternoon while watching football games.

The image today is from last March in the Dunes just outside of Stovepipe Wells. Processing dunes is always a challenge for me - I find myself pushing the envelope to get where I want to go. This one is all texture - all the time....not really sure how I feel about it yet - might take a few more days.

On another note an image I captured up in Maine earlier this year won first prize in the Artistic Category of the 2ND Annual Pogo Art Contest..the image it self was captured and processed in the IPhone 4...

Caddo Lake

Too much time on my hands this weekend. Just playing with various pieces of software on these images from Caddo Lake last November....

Coney Island

Play to Win - Coney Island

So a few of my buddies are coming into NY in early December to spend a day shooting at Coney Island. With that in mind I thought a Coney Island post seemed fitting today. I spent a good deal of time  in July shooting in Coney Island, culminating with the Mermaid Parade, and have not looked at most of the images since then.

This image today was located just off the main drag in a small alley...The image at the top was processed in the new NIK HDR software and the one below was Photomatix Pro. I am leaning toward the NIK software at the moment. The NIK HDR is simple to use with a great dialog box. Did I mention there are many many presets from which to start working.

Play to Win - Coney Island

Fern Canyon

Fern Canyon - Califonria

Captured last August north of Eureka, California in Fern Canyon  - re-processed in the new NIK HDR Pro software.

I keep thinking Alice wil come out of the trunk, or, possibly, Johnny Depp......