Harrisburg from City Island

Back on November 11, 2012, the Harrisburg Camera Club had a group photo shoot on City Island.  Over 20 members showed up to take pictures.  One of those members was me.

The Harrisburg Marathon was on the same day and the place was packed.  Hurricane Sandy had put a serious damper on the New York marathon so there were plenty of runners looking for an outlet for all of the training and preparation they had made.  So, instead of the New York Marathon, they ran the Harrisburg Marathon.  We photographers found room to shoot once we got away from the race route.

My best pictures from the outing were of the Harrisburg skyline and the Susquehanna River.

One of the upcoming competitions has "Reflections" as the theme, so I was looking for reflections.

All in all, it was a beautiful day with time spent shooting and conversing with other photographers!

Troy, All Boy and a Great Joy!

We had been on hiatus from taking people pictures.  However, Annette is again very interested in taking pictures of people.  As you saw in a previous post, we had a great time taking pictures of Elizabeth in her bridal gown.

This past weekend, we took pictures of Kathleen & Troy and again it was a great time.

Troy is a beautiful little three-year-old boy whose real name is "Troy, the Joy", because he is such a great kid to be around!  When we first got to the park, Kathleen told Troy to give Annette a hug.  So Troy comes running full speed at Annette and throws himself into her, throws his arms around her neck and squeezes.  At that point, Annette was in love!

Troy has an active imagination.  He was searching the woods looking for dragons and monsters.  At one point, he intensely said, "Shhhh!  Do you hear the monster?"  It was great.

Troy also had great energy combined with great curiosity.  He searched the creek bed and all along the path.

I would love to adopt him as a grandkid!

Let me show you this great kid!

The picture above was when we first arrived.  Although he had given Annette a hug, he wasn't quite sure about that huge camera she was carrying around.

Hey, Troy!  Give your mother a kiss!

He did kiss his mother, but then he wiped it off!

Emerging from the enchanted forest.

I know there is a dragon out there somewhere!!!

A momentary pause.

These leaves were made for throwing!

I'm gonna get you with these leaves!

You can't get me!

The Dragon Slayer

A boy in his glory!

Experimenting with Fall

Annette and I are in the midst of a long weekend.  We travelled to Bath County in Virginia to enoy the fall colors and to see how well we can capture them in photographs.

It turns out that we are not doing a very good job capturing the beauty of fall.  We see the beauty all around us, but when we view our images, it's just not the same.  Landscape photography is more difficult than it looks!

At one stop we made, we were trying to capture a barn in the valley against the backdrop of the fall colors on the mountain.  But, alas, we were five minutes too late.  The barn was in teh shadow of the mountain on the other side of the valley.  Still, I tried to take the picture, but in my haste, I didn't check my settings and the shutter speed was too slow.  I got a blurry mess!

But the next day, I was shooting from the deck of the house where we are staying and I remembered that.  This time I did it on purpose.  I made some abstracts of the fall colors.

Early morning fall abstract

Tree abstract in Fall

I found that the shutter speed is important.  The shutter was open for a longer period of time in the first image than in the second.  You can tell because the lines stretch farther and there is less detail.  There is obviously more detail in the trees of the second image, which was made with a shorter shutter speed.  Experiment until you find the speed that lets you obtain the image you have envisioned.

 If you want the trees to show up as an element in the image, you must move the camera in the same orientation as the trees.  In other words, I moved the camera up and down.

Another experiment, is to modify the colors in post production.  There are so many presets that you can experiment to your heart's content.

After you apply the preset, you can modify the image with the sliders  for saturation, blacks, exposure, etc.

Check out these weird images of the Humpback Covered Bridge near Covington, VA.

Humpback Bridge in Yellows with Blue Sky

Isn't it weird how the image still has a blue sky?

Humpback Bridge in Sepia

Old time sepia color for an old time bridge.

Some experiments work.  Some do not.  The important thing is that we get out there, use our imagination, make images and continue to grow!