Valley of Fire, Nevada

Valley of Fire, Nevada

'The poetry of the earth is never dead'.......John Keats

Dumont Dunes #3

Dumont Dunes #3

Still experimenting with leaving the off-road tracks in the images using them as graphic elements instead of  distracting lines....I used Viveza2 to enhance and sharpen the lines in this image before going over to ColorEFXPro2 for final adjustments. I tend to use a good deal of photoshop masking with both CFX and VV2 including using the brush option in the software. 

Red Church, Iceland

Red Church, Iceland

This image is from two years back on my first trip to Iceland. On this day it was off and on rain with a few moments of decent light when the rain would stop. This image, posted today, was made through the bus window during a particularly hard rain using my Canon 5DMKII. This was the first time I realized if you kept your lens wide open most of the moisture on the window would not be apparent in the final photograph. Point in fact it actually made the image appear soft and, and for lack of a better word, semi foggy....which I think actually made the image work.

There are times when I get into thinking images always need to be sharp and have a full dynamic range - I might need to get over that....

I was able to process this image in a way that worked for me using Photoshop CS6 Beta, NIK Color EFX Pro4 and Lightroom4.

Northern Ireland, Carrick-a-Rede

Carrick-a-Rede, Northern Ireland

This is my first time posting from an airplane. I truly love the modern technology - between my computer and the ipad it passes the time quickly....And I might even get some work done....I am short of hard rives up here at 31,000 feet but did find an image from the last trip to Ireland. The place is called Carrick-a-Rede in Northern Ireland. It is where the famous rope bridge can be found. That particular day was much too windy so no one was allowed near the bridge so I turned around and of course there was an image behind me.....

I can not get enough of Ireland....

New Jersey Shore #2

New Jersey

'There are places I remember

All my life though some have changed

Some forever, not for better

Some have gone and some remain'......Lennon and McCartney

Jersey Shore

VIP Motel - Jersey Shore

Driving back from Cape May today we took Route 9 instead of the Parkway..I was amazed at how desolate the beach strip was - no cars - no people - other then a few getting ready for the winter months. It was like everyone just got up and walked off to return again next summer - an apocalyptic film set. I know the summer months are the complete opposite but it was nice to see the shore in this particular mode.

These places are throwbacks to a time gone by for sure. They have such wonderful shapes and colors and are simply irresistible when one has a camera in hand. And the light was particularly cooperative today...

Death Valley, Mesquite Dunes 13

Death Valley, Mesquite Dunes #13

'Choose only one master - Nature'.......Rembrandt

Ireland, Loch Na Fooey

Loch Na Fooey, Finney, Ireland

Today's image was made late in the day, almost sunset, on the shore of Loch Na Fooey in the town of Finney, Ireland. And, yes, another one of those Irish days with on and off rain and wind.....pretty much had to lean against a barbed wire fence to get the image. How much do we love the landscape possibilities in Ireland......and yes that is snow on the hillsides...

Just a note that after this last weather adventure in Ireland I bought weather protection gear for my equipment. This after reading Laurie Excel's blog and learning about Lenscoat, a company that makes covers to protect your gear in foul weather....Click on the name above to see their website.

That being said this image was processed in the new Adobe Lightroom LR4 Public Beta application. Adobe has made several upgrades to the existing LR3 modules and has added two new modules, Book and Map. The Map module will allow one to display the location of the image to include GPS coordinates and metadata information.  The Book module is in partnership with Blurb - although there might be others coming. You can output to a book or simply print a PDF. It has all the capability of the online Blurb site right inside of Lightroom.

There are several changes in the other modules and rather then go into a long winded description of LR4 please fond below a link to the Luminous Landscape video overview - They have done a superb job of showing what LR4 is all about.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/software/whats_new_in_lightroom_4_overview.shtml

I would suggest anyone using LR3 should take a look and give LR4 a look.

And here is the link to where the LR4 Beta can be downloaded - it is, of course, free.

http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/2012/01/lr4betanowavailable.html

Thanks to my good friend Mark Segal in Toronto for letting me know about the LR4 Beta and the Luminous Landscape tutorial....

Northern Ireland, Vintage Caravan

Vintage Caravan, Northern Ireland

Just back from Ireland yesterday. Other than the fact that I picked up the wrong bag from the carousel and had to go back to Newark Airport the flight home was rather seamless - albeit almost 8 hours due to high winds - also The Edge was sitting right in front of us....as my friend David said, 'The Edge is the soul of U2'...On a good note I got to play with images for the entire flight.....

As I mentioned most days were filled with rain and wind....but there were enough pockets of decent weather to get around. It was a two week class in shooting in less then favorable conditions and I learned a good deal on how to make that work....I will be buying a raincoat for my camera next week...

Found this image along the road driving from Belfast to Derry...the same day we also saw yellow sheep in a meadow by the water and a rainbow at the top of a hill.....quite the colorful day....

Happy New Year everyone - 2012 is finally here.....and it is a Leap Year...

Ireland, Malin Head

Main Well, Ireland

Today was County Donegal - northwestern Ireland. Headed out early wanting to make Malin Head, the farthest northerly point in Ireland. As usual in Ireland, if you don't like the weather just wait 5 minutes and it changes.....there were a minimum of 10-12 weather changes today from rain, to sun to hail to winds around 50 miles per hour........I can honestly say being pelted with sleet really stings......

PS: Both photos on this page were taken within one half hour of each other.....

At any rate we stumbled upon a rocky beach around three miles from Malin Head....the car was actually parked just behind where this image was made...This rock was just in front of Malin Well (the sleet adn rain came in so hard I never got that image) which contains both a natural spring as well as a natural cave. Since pagan times locals have viewed these as holy....The spring water was though to cure disease. Legend has it that a hermit once lived in the cave and no matter how many people entered there was always room for more....If only the weather had held up..but at worst a wee bit of a history lesson...

Not sure about anyone else but I see a fairly well defined face in this rock formation.....

The image below is an iPhone4s panoramic image looking east from the top of Malin Head... luckily there were some old military structures still standing to block the wind....

Malin Head is on the Inishowen Peninsula... According to Wikipedia during WWII the Irish Government allow the British to site two radio direction finders on the head. This was a top secret operation - The RDF equipment was to to monitor U-Boat and aerial activity in the North Atlantic. After the war it became a weather station..Several of these structures are still standing today...

Looking East from Malin Head

Ireland, Foul Weather

Irish Sea, White Park Bay, Ireland, Canon 5dmkII

Yesterday was one of the my worst weather days ever touring Ireland. We had Rain, Sleet, sun, clouds and winds sometimes as high as 60-70 miles per hour. As I posted on my iPhone blog one could lean back against the wind and it would hold you up. It was also one of the most fun days fighting these elements to get the image....

It was very difficult to photograph in a wind that strong - had to shoot at high ISO and shutter speeds and still hold the tripod down - the other problem was the water being blown on to the front element of the lens.....fun day all around fighting the elements....in the end it all worked out and now I know a few new places to get back too in the future....

Below is the image made just to the right of the above image - shot with my iPhone 4s also on a tripod.....took a few creative liberties with this one.

This morning it is the 'political murals' in West Belfast...Needed to hire a car and driver as the advice was to not go in there without a local....looking forward to seeing these famous murals close up with a camera in my hand.

stay tuned..more coming...

White Park Bay, Ballintoy, Ireland, iPhone4s

Bon Jovi

Jon Bon Jovi

This image from the opening of the new Meadowlands Stadium last year....

Coney Island Pier

Coney Island Pier

Coney Island - Morning Fog

Coney Island - AM Fog

I really enjoy walking on the beach on a cool foggy morning -  always create an much diffrent perception of the beach when the fog rolls in - creates something very different to photograph....Reminds me of a quote a friend sent me awhile back...

'I do not want to end up simply having visited this world'.....

Carmel, Indiana

Carmel, Indiana

On the road traveling to Indiana....Seems like I spend a good deal of time out there these days - who knew! The image today is from the car show in Carmel, Indiana a few weeks back....

My blog is still w=out of whack - going to have to reload every image one at a time....Http://HarrySandler.com is still up and running....And I have added a print purchase page.....

Iceland - Sunrise

Iceland Sunrise

Two images today - one from the big boy camera and another from the iPhone4.

The sunrise image was made is on the way to the Glacier Lagoon (at 4:00AM I might add). We realized we were missing the sunrise at the lagoon so started shooting on the side of the road whenever a possible image caught the eye.....twilight starts at 2:30AM with sunrise at 4:00AM....can one get up early enough in Iceland....At any rate as we made these images we knew the next next day it would be a 3:00AM departure from the hotel....

The second image is an iPhone Hipstmatic shot from the car window on the way to the airport..caught the s-curve out of the corner of my eye barely got the image...my favorite combo of Kodot and JohnS was used...Hipsta is the perfect camera for a visual diary...

Iceland Departure Image

Stay tuned for more Iceland over the next few days....

The Sleeping Bear

Sleeping Bear - Icleand

Up at 3:45AM this morning for the 40 minute drive to the glacier on the east side of Iceland. We were not dis-appointed at all. The light was spectacular and the icebergs were all in flux - actually watched a few turn over and drift away....After the glacier lagoon it was off to the black beach - now I know where these ice structures go when they float out of the lagoon...

Must be a day at the beach because this one looked like a sleeping bear.....After I made this photograph the bear drifted away.....

Have to run now - another glacier calls...stay tuned for more...

Image Management:

Canon 5DMKII
70-200MM Lens
Lightroom 3
Photoshop CS5

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

Mumbai, India

Mumbai, India, 2008

Cruisng the archive this morning and came across this image from Mumbai, India a few years back. At the time I was simply not able to correctly process the image mostly because I simply had not mastered the tools. Finally today I arrived at something I liked.....

If memory serves me well I captured this through a car window....