29-JAN-2009
Day 030 - Orphaned Posts
Not the typical "Day after the snowstorm shot" (now that I think about it). I took a short trip at lunch after I completed my running around that I had to do. I decided to visit an area I'd not yet gone. This is a much tighter view of this water area right off the river. I'm sure these posts were used for a pier at one time, I don't know how ships would have gotten into this little area, but the landscape has probably changed a lot over the past hundred years (or so).
None of my other wider shots seemed to do it for me. They were too busy. I was trying to capture a ship in port from a totally different angle, which I did, but it just didn't work.
28-JAN-2009
Day 028 - Fogg Memorial Building
This is the culmination of about 45 minutes of driving along back roads in a raging blizzard, in a Honda Civic, looking for something to shoot in the snow. OK, it wasn't "that raging" of a blizzard, but there was/is a lot of snow.
I swear these trees in the foreground were planted in such a way, many, many years ago to facilitate this particular shot. I would like to thank the greens keepers of Berwick Academy of 'ole for this particular arrangement.
This is the Fogg Memorial Building, or rather part of it. It sits atop the hill off Academy street in South Berwick. When I attended Berwick Academy (in 1980 - 82) this was the High School. I didn't stay at Berwick into High School so I never actually go to know this building. I'm not sure what it is currently used for now. It sure makes for a great subject though.
Part of the problem with taking photos in the snow, other than all the snow on your camera gear, is locating a suitable parking spot for your vehicle. Most of the barns are located off side roads with no space to park your car. The roads are constantly cleared by large trucks that would easily destroy my little Honda Civic so I have to be very aware of where I am stopped. For this shot, I was able to pull into the entrance way at the foot of the hill to the campus. I figured no one else would be driving on this unplowed road. Just as I was headed out with my monopod, sure enough, someone was coming down the hill.
I took some initial shots on the monopod to start. I had every intention of setting up the tripod because I wanted to drag the shutter a little to let the flakes blur. I did the fastest tripod setup ever. . .
27-JAN-2009
Day 027 - The path
This morning I had no clue what to shoot. I knew I had to shoot something in the morning because the rest of my day was stacked up and there would be no opportunity to shoot once I pulled into work. I have a go/no-go mark for shooting that is purely subjective to my mood more than anything else. It is the point just before the on-ramp to I-95 South in Maine. It's bunk as I could easily find some other areas to shoot once I make it across the bridge to New Hampshire, but for me that's my point. There is an old telcom building that is just before this on-ramp, in fact, the entrance to its parking lot is the last possible turn before the on-ramp which is only about 200 feet further down the road. I pulled into that parking lot today. I figured I would do some kind of contrasty shot of something projecting through the snow, be it a large blade of grass, a branch, weeds, etc. There was this path through the snow leading right out of the parking lot that I figured was some kind of blessing because a) it wasn't my path and b) I could easily shoot this from the parking lot.
Its really tough to shoot snow once the sun has come up. Today was no different. I imagine I will have a similar problem in the desert when we head out to Arizona, though sand presents more problems besides color casts.
We have a a potentially big storm coming tonight/tomorrow. I am usually opposed to taking any kind of photos in a snowstorm. I don't mind the snow on the camera gear, its the flakes that really pollute the photo. After viewing some stunning snow shots out here in the galleries and on other sites, I think I might give it a try tomorrow. My ride back from work this evening was spent trying to identify a "contrasty location" to shoot. I hope to find either a weathered barn or possibly a red barn. I know where there are a ton of red barns (this is New England). I'm drawing blanks on weathered barns (though there are a lot around). The key will be accessibility with a Honda Civic in a snow storm. . .
26-JAN-2009
Day 026 - Locked
I'm not sure the rewards for my troubles for this shot were worth it. I started out trudging through 3 feet of snow, sinking in to my waist. Each time I trek out a bit in the snow I think it might be a good idea to pick up a pair of snow shoes. I soon forget when I get back, or into work and my feet & legs begin to dry. . .
This is the "hidden side" of a trailer in an empty lot near the Kittery dump that I pass most mornings. It has been here for quite some time (it's not going anywhere in this snow either) and I've often thought about stopping and checking it out. Today I did more than think about it.
25-JAN-2009
Day 025 - Bump in the moonlight
Call this a save. . .
It looked great through the lens at 2 or 3 pm today, but not so great during post processing. This would have been my second failed attempt at a PaD shoot today. Some earlier shots of an old bridge just didn't do it for me earlier today. While trying different presets, I wondered what it would look like with a blue tint, a sort of moonlight feel to it. I basically cranked down the temp, if this were photoshop, I'd have added a blue filter layer and blended it in (yes, I am feeling the pull back to Photoshop now).
The blue really does it for me, it gives it that "scary late at night outside a child's window" kind of feel (as envisioned by a child).
24-JAN-2009
Day 024 - Stuck
On our way back from the Stratham SPCA (looking for a cat for my daughter), I saw these really cool streetlights & pulled over to shoot them. The lot that I pulled over into was an Animal Hospital which threw my daughter because we were just talking about other places to look for cats or kittens (she thought we were going to ask there). The Hospital was closed and the street lights were bust (I'm sure they worked, the photos, however, did not). Before I packed my gear away, I noticed this fence beside the car and took a bunch of shots from various angles of it. Good thing I did as this works. . .
And we didn't get a cat yet. Though we still have one (who hates me).
23-JAN-2009
Day 023 - Reflected
This was about the only salvageable, highly processed (and cropped) shot from this morning's PaD shoot. In the span of the year, doing a Photo A Day, you have some good ones and some bad ones. You also have good ones you thought were bad and vice-versa. This morning was the latter. I really thought I had some good shots. My problem was that everything came out overexposed. I took the shots too late in the morning, after the sun was pretty high up. My primary subject was a ship across the bay. A very dark ship against a very bright & blown out background (there was even an all white boat or two to boot).
To top it off, I spent my lunch admiring
Scott Kroeker's Flickr Photostream. At first I felt safe, thinking this guy had a Full Frame setup, and an all pro lineup of lenses. Turns out he has a 40D like me and I believe we may even have a few of the same lenses.
Tomorrow is another day!
22-JAN-2009
Day 022 - Right On
I seem to remember being able to clearly read this sign on the side of an abandoned service station in Kittery, Maine a number of years ago. Without a clue as to where or what I was going to be shooting, I decided to head a tad bit further South in my commute (there is very little land in Maine South of this...) and the opportunity would present itself. I've driven by this station a number of times and really wanted to stop for photos and today I did. Well, I didn't stop, I drove by, thought "it would be nice" then kept going until I doubled back a short time later.
This is a truly desolate station, the virgin snow was very high. Again I stood in about 2 to 3 feet of snow to take my photos. I had to walk through quite deep snow to get to a decent vantage point. Every time I see this station I think that this is what old buildings in the Southwest must look like.
I was torn between this shot and another that was in my "cull pile" I passed over it a lot during Post Processing and was about to delete it, even though it had all the elements I'd wanted to capture about this station. Here is that other photo:
21-JAN-2009
Day 021 - Winter Mist
This morning I wasn't sure where I was headed for a shot, that was until I passed through town and saw a huge plume of fog from the falls. I took a back road to the falls. There is a park beside the falls that has the best vantage point (well, the best accessible vantage point). Unfortunately the park is NOT plowed in the winter. I parked in the local museum parking lot (err, space) and walked through a ton of snow to get to a wall off the river. I cleared a section of snow (with my boots) for the tripod and myself.
The sun was to my back, making it very hard to focus via live view (probably should have just left AF on). I used my ND 1.8 filter and forgot to shoot the whibal card so all my shots picked up this ugly reddish cast that I had to try to get out.
My goal was to shoot the falls, but there was so much fog coming off the falls that it was seriously affecting the clarity of the ice beneath the falls and the water itself. I basically nixed all the falls shots. . .
20-JAN-2009
Day 020 - Working Class
I made it to my intended destination this morning. We drove by this marina a couple of days ago in the snowstorm and it reminded me that I wanted to capture something in this marina during the winter. I was standing in 3 feet of soft snow, otherwise I would have gotten a bit closer to the dock and would have captured an entirely different composition. This boat was not my first choice, but I kept coming back to it during Post Processing.
Completely handheld, even after I had a discussion with myself earlier about the use of a tripod. I wasn't talking out loud with myself ;-)
There are a lot of boats in this marina, the exotic ones are wrapped up and resting on land. There are a few exotic ones wrapped up and sitting in the water, a few not wrapped up & resting in water, and a few not so exotic ones resting in water. I can guess that this particular boat in the foreground was going out sometime today. If I ride by tomorrow, I can bet that most of the other boats will still have snow on them, unless the marina cleans them off for posterity.
19-JAN-2009
Day 019 - Under the bridge
There is a lot of water under this bridge, both frozen and liquid form. This is an old rail road bridge that is still in use today that I have been trying to capture for quite some time. It is tough because there are galvanized steel fences that surround & block part of the base, there are telephone poles beside it, and a dam of some sorts below it. This is a tighter shot than I would prefer, but there are these three steel poles that are so out of place just out of frame below this that I had to crop them out.
I stood on what was once another railroad bed, but is now an access road to a path (rails to trails). Technically, I was standing beside my tripod that was resting on this road, but I digress.
The shot worked out, there are so many things to photograph in this one little area as there is this bridge, some falls, another auto bridge, an old mill, more falls, a small mill town, and other various sundries all within walking (well pivot actually) distance.
Here's a shot that didn't make the PaD:
18-JAN-2009
Day 018 - Worn
Today it pretty much snowed out all day, nixing any chance of an outdoor shot. I had some running around to do later in the afternoon (early evening) and I came up with this idea for my PaD shot for today. I believe I saw a very similar shot in someone's PaD gallery recently, but can't remember who it was. These are an older pair of work jeans (not work as in day job, but work as in "its ok if they get paint on them" work jeans).