Jun 072012
 

This was a tricky shot to get as the light was low and there was an occasional breeze. I had to drop the aperture down lower than I’d have liked to keep the shutter speed fast enough to catch the flowers without the wind blowing. Even so, I had to make about 10 attempts to bracket 3 photos with a minimal amount of breeze. If I’d had a flash, it probably would have come in handy in this instance. I think I’ll go back another time with more light to try for full sharpness from front to back. But I think the blurred background in this version is kind of interesting.

View of pink oleander, white roofed houses, ocean dotted with islands under an orange sunset in Bermuda

May 272012
 

My First Time-Lapse!

I know I told you that my first time-lapse would be of an ice cube melting and that you’re all really excited to see that. Unfortunately, I’ve got to disappoint you. Yesterday, I shot a time-lapse of my friends as we cruised through Hamilton Harbor, Bermuda. The intervalometer was set to take a photo every 10 seconds. The end result is a 30 second video. I feel like it needs a sound-track, but can’t think of anything.

 

Today’s Photo: The Parrot in the Window

As a happy side effect of buying a second camera body, I took out one of my backup memory cards. Happily, I discovered some photos from New York I thought I’d managed to lose. Early in the morning, just before last Christmas I decided to set out and take some photos without anyone else around. The streets were empty as I’d expected. It was also really cold. Colder than I’d expected.

Bergdorf Goodman always has pretty extravagant window displays, so I decided to try to incorporate them in a few photos. I had seen a picture someone took on a train, where half the photo showed what was outside the window, the other half showed what was inside. This made me decide to try taking a similar approach with this shot.

Bergdorf Goodmans 2011 Christmas window of golden parrots and other birds while looking downtown on Fifth Avenue, New York City at night.

 

Feb 152012
 

I’ve tried to work up four different photos tonight. None of them would work for me. So, I reached into the reserves and pulled out one of my early attempts at HDR. This sunset may look surreal, but that’s what it actually looked like! Truly amazing.

The wall in the foreground encloses my friends’ neighbor’s backyard in Spanish Point, Bermuda. It’s a great spot, and perfectly flat. I’d really like to set up a croquet set over there. I do wonder how long it would take for someone to have to go swimming after their ball though.

It’s odd how sometimes you just can’t get inspired to process any pictures. I’m sure I’ll return to the same photos in due course and be happy with the results. They probably won’t even look much different than they did tonight. I think I need to get out taking some more photos of Bermuda. It’s always easier to work on photos I’ve just taken. Any suggestions for shooting locations? You can let m know in the comments here or on my Facebook page.

 

Surreal pink and blue sunset over Spanish Point, Bermuda with a water-edge backyard behind a low wall.

Jan 032012
 

This shot is from my friends’ house in Spanish Point, Bermuda and looks out across the Great Sound. I spent a good deal of my summer here after they moved in. I also took a ton of photos here and neglected the rest of the island. It’s tough not gravitating to this point at sunset as it’s perfectly located and seems to have unlimited vantage points and new angles to use. On top of this there’s always a beer or two available and the potential for spontaneous barbequing.

This image was created using one picture, shot in RAW format, rather than multiple images. I adjusted the exposure of the raw images to provide three images ranging from -2 to +2. Then I ran these through Photomatix before Photoshop where I used the Topaz Adjust to bump up the contrast and sharpen the image. I wish I could give you a sound reason why I used this method and not multiple exposures. But, it’s just because I used my multiple images and wasn’t happy with the results. There was far too much noise in the foreground and sky. So I started playing around with different methods  and found this worked far better in this instance.

Fiery orange sunset from a dock in Spanish Point, Bermuda that looks out across the Great Sound.