15-SEP-2013
I am not a good wildlife photographer
27-AUG-2013
Daughter and Grand daughter
25-AUG-2013
Rain shower over Maryland
14-AUG-2013
Playing with a candle
I obviously have not kept this blog up. Maybe I can try again.
05-JUN-2013
Finally -- Fountains in Rockville, MD town center
06-MAY-2013
Another aviation image - Spring over Pennsylvania
01-MAY-2013
About the last of the Dogwoods
20-APR-2013
Spring colors in the area
18-APR-2013
Trees and clouds before the storm
15-APR-2013
Typical day over Northern Maryland. That's Carroll County Airport in the picture.
09-APR-2013
Colors and contrails on our walk tonight
08-APR-2013
At it again. Let's see if I can keep it up.
05-FEB-2013
It is easy to catch a sunrise from this spot. It's in our back yard.
03-FEB-2013
And from the second set of images with the EOS M
I certainly would like to try it with some sunny skies, maybe even a nice sunset.
02-FEB-2013
Pretty blah picture, but the first with my new Canon EOS M
23-JAN-2013
Variation of a theme
And improvement of technique
22-JAN-2013
It is cold and we need this medicine
21-JAN-2013
Maddie and Emily
We inaugurated her third year tonight.
20-JAN-2013
It was a very windy day at the airport.
Yes, the windsock pole is bending slightly.
02-MAY-2012
Working on Photoshop
I suppose this is not an actual photograph, but I have been trying to learn new Photoshop techniques.
15-JAN-2013
Another wet foggy day
Actually a picture of the side door to our house.
13-JAN-2013
Foggy Key Bridge
I have finally been able to take pictures again. Thanks to a rotator cuff injury I have barely been able to hold a camera.
I think we are ready for Christmas
14-DEC-2012
Rabbit Shadows?
I wish I could say I saw them when I took the picture.
08-DEC-2012
She was amazing
From grand daughter's Bat Mitzvah
01-DEC-2012
Maddie again
She wouldn't pose but at least sat still for 1/125 of a second.
29-NOV-2012
Dinner Cooking
I was tending the grill and snapped this image with my Android phone. Not bad image quality at all.
22-NOV-2012
Apple Pie
Our job today was to bring dessert. My wife made 2 apple pies and 2 pumpkin pies. They were excellent.
14-NOV-2012
Rose
This is a cloth and plastic rose on our counter
06-NOV-2012
Carroll Creek Park in Frederick, MD
From a pre-dinner stroll though the area.
04-NOV-2012
Salted Landscape
The Amish area around Lancaster, PA looks like the landscape was salted with pristine white farm buildings when you fly over it at a lowish altitude.
03-NOV-2012
Light Painting in our Living Room
26-OCT-2012
Home on a scuzzy day
The mist and clouds are increasing ahead of Sandy.
06-OCT-2012
Snow White (I think)
Of course we had to take the daughter and grand daughter to a "Princess Breakfast."
07-OCT-2012
Its A Small World
Of course we had to go through here. I was amazed at the quality of the Mark II at an ISO of 12800 and some noise reduction in Lightroom.
04-OCT-2012
Conference Hotel in Orlando
I was working as the event photographer and grabbed this in between mug shots.
29-SEP-2012
Another River Street
This time I carried a tripod for a 3 second exposure.
28-SEP-2012
River Street, Savannah, GA
These are catch-up postings. We have just returned from a road trip stopping in Savannah, GA, then a conference in Orlando followed by a birthday gift to our daughter and granddaughter of a visit to Disney World. This is from an evening walk on River Street in Savannah.
22-SEP-2012
Afternoon Sun
The neighbor's mail box and fall flowers in the afternoon sun
20-SEP-2012
Snowflake
Here is Snowflake. He? She? It? was a promotional gift from Wells Fargo my wife picked up at a conference. Snowflake is now a favorite of the granddaughter. For the past week or so, Snowflake has been serving as a willing and non-complaining model while I have been trying to learn the radio control and ratio system on my new Canon Speedlites. Say hi to Snowflake.
19-SEP-2012
Sun and Trees
I liked the way the low sun was hitting the trees in the yard this evening.
14-SEP-2012
Maryland or Maybe Pennsylvania Again
Flying at only 5500 feet and being over the clouds is unusual in this area.
13-SEP-2012
White House Shooters
A lot of our activities in Washington take us past the White House. I like to get a couple quick shots of the tourists along Pennsylvania Avenue. The usual crowd of point and shoot toting tourists was present this evening with a whole bunch of very obvious sharp shooters on the White House roof.
12-SEP-2012
Flower Arrangement
The bouquet of flowers that often sits in our living room is a convenient subject for playing with lighting or whatever. I recently purchased two Canon 600EX-RT speed lights and am a newbie at using Canon’s group and ratio system for controlling light levels. I still have a lot to learn about them, but I think I have the basic concept down.
07-SEP-2012
Maryland Eastern Shore
This is from a low flight over the wetlands just south of Cambridge, Maryland.
09-SEP-2012
Maddie
I certainly have not kept this PAD up for a over a month. It is time to get back at it. Once again, this has got to be the cutest granddaughter ever.
08-AUG-2012
Packing Essentials
Not much of a photograph, but an omen of things to come. I am packing for almost a month in California and Alaska. I have to go light on the camera gear.
06-AUG-2012
Sun Rays
Truth be told, there is a whole lot of Lightroom, Photoshop, and Color Efex Pro 4 in here.
05-AUG-2012
Light Painting
I did a quick little bit of light painting of a bouquet of roses in our living room.
04-AUG-2012
Home.........Quick
Frederick was nice and sunny this afternoon. Behind us was a big ugly thunderstorm that we watched safely on the ground.
03-Aug-2012
Family Night
Let's see, this is grand daughter, daughter, grand nephew, and niece. We had them all over for dinner this evening. It was a nice time.
31-JUL-2012
About to be smoked salmon
While my wife and I enjoy cooking, I don't photograph the results a lot. I guess there is too much else to do rather than set up for a decent shot. I cured these salmon fillets over night in salt and brown sugar, and as I put them in the smoker the color and texture caught my eye. We will see how they taste tomorrow morning.
30-JUL-2012
Glass and Lines
I liked the patterns of the lines and glasses sitting on the kitchen counter.
29-JUL-2012
Flying Again
It was a beautiful day for flying and I was glad to get back into the air. This is turning somewhere over northern Maryland.
26-JUL-2012
Tourists and a train
We spent much of Thursday in good old Washington, DC. I carried my camera as usual, but only had time to use it while waiting for a METRO train with a flock of tourists.
24-JUL-2012
Hilton Parking
On our return trip we stopped over night in Hartford,CT to visit some family. This is from the parking lot at the hotel.
23-JUL-2012
Evening Harbor
Clouds rolled in during the afternoon of our last day in Bar Harbor and it made for much better photography. Another evening harbor scene.
22-JUL-2012
Winter Harbor Lighthouse
We took a small boat to visit several lighthouse around Frenchman's Bay. It was a beautiful day with cloudless, blue skies and calm seas, but in my opinion, this made pretty boring photographs in mid-day light and little drama. You take what you get.
21-JUL-2012
Bar Harbor at the blue hour
We stayed at the Bar Harbor Inn in the resort town and walked around the harbor area and town the first night at just the right time for photographs.
20-JUL-2012
Hitting Ace
We spent the next day at the grandson's camp watching more sports. He is quite the hitter.
19-JUL-2012
Summer Camp Lacrosse
We finally arrived at the girls summer camp and spent a nice day watching various sport activities.
18-JUL-2012
Framed
From a shop in Hartsdale, NY
17-JUL-2012
On the Road
From July 17 to July 25 we were on a road trip to visit the grand kids at their summer camp and then to spend a few days in Bar Harbor, Maine. I found it difficult to be inspired to take decent images on the several long driving days, but wanted to keep up the PAD. So, this first is some where between Maryland and Scarsdale, NY.
16-JUL-2012
Dreamy
I noticed a shaft of morning sunlight hitting the flowers on our deck. I grabbed the camera and headed out on the warm humid deck and forgot that a cold camera from an air conditioned house will get nice condensation all over the lens. However, I kind of liked the resulting dreamy image.
15-JUL-2012
Beautiful Sky
The sky and clouds were absolutely beautiful while we were heading to the airport to beat some thunderstorms coming from the other direction. This was processed in Color Efex Pro 4.
14-JUL-2012
Tree Bark and Moss
It was a mostly cloudy day today so I hauled out the Speedlight again. The patterns of moss and bark on an old oak on our property caught my eye.
13-JUL-2012
Flower Theme Continued
I had light painting, natural sunlight, and I now felt it appropriate to use some flash. This was done with a single speed light to the left of the camera. I had another set for a little bit of fill from the right, but it isn't noticeable.
11-JUL-2012
In the Kitchen
A ray of sunlight coming through the skylight in our kitchen lit up these flowers.
10-JUL-2012
Cutest Grand Daughter Ever
Of course, I am not prejudiced.
09-JUL-2012
Light Painting
The bouquet of flowers in our living room caught my attention so I did a little bit of light painting for this image. I got really lucky. This is one of the few images that is straight from the camera.
08-JUL-2012
Final at FDK
It was a very hot and hazy day today with thunderstorms moving around. We stayed in the pattern for "touch and goes" until we got too hot.
07-JUL-2012
Inside When It is Hot
I tried my hand at images of beading water drops on glass today. I had trouble getting nice big round drops of water. I tried a thin coat of cooking oil on the glass, but that didn’t work too well. More playing for the next hot day.
06-JUL-2012
Our Street in HDR
I went to my usual spot at the end of our street thinking I might get a nice after-sunset-pastel sky. It was sort of there, and I fired off 3 shots thinking I might try a hand held HDR with my new Nik Eflex HDR. I am more impressed than I was a few days ago.
04-JUL-2012
Washington, DC, July 4th Fireworks
We were privileged to be able to view the fireworks from the historic Arlington House on top of the hill in Arlington Cemetery. It was a great view.
02-JUL-2012
Home Court
The sky looked ominous again this evening but there were no storms.
01-JUL-2012
Neighborhood Yellow
From a walk through the neighborhood to look at damage from the storm. Fortunately, there wasn’t much.
30-JUN-2012
Praise the Generator
We lost electric power when the derecho storm hit the Washington, DC area last Friday night. This is essentially a snap shot of the gray box which has made life easier for us, a 13kw generator feeding the house’s electrical system. Unfortunately, it is not big enough to run the air conditioner, but at least we have fans and water. Praise the gray box.
29-JUN-2012
102 Degrees
It seems that this is going to be a very hot summer.
28-JUN-2012
Balanced
I decided to play with water drops tonight. I need to get more creative with my backgrounds.
27-JUN-2012
Creativity Crisis
I could not have said it better.
26-JUN-2012
Sky and Trees
This isn’t much of a single image, but it was a windy day with low humidity and I thought the puffy clouds moving overhead needed to be captured with a time lapse video. I am very new at this art form and have a lot to learn, but it is very intriguing. I realize that in this one I needed a slower shutter speed yet, (I was at ¼ sec at f22) and a smaller interval between shots. It will be fun to learn more. My wife just noted that maybe on the next one I could watch grass grow.
I will post a link to the video when Vimeo has finished processing it.
25-JUN-2012
Tufted Titmouse
At least I think that is what this little guy is. I am not much of a birder, but it was fun waiting by the feeder this afternoon and watching them.
24-JUN-2012
3200 Feet over Maryland or maybe Pennsylvania
I have taken this kind of shot hundreds of times. The tonal range is huge between the instrument panel and the outside. Pick one for the exposure. I was carrying my 30D today and had the simple idea to pop up the little mostly useless flash. Given the lay out of the cabin I can only hold the camera over my head and hope for the best. This is about it.
23-JUN-2012
Life is a Bowl of Cherries
A twist on my previous strawberry image. I learned cherries sink faster than strawberries, for what its worth. I went with a large aperture to blur the background, but in the future I will go a bit smaller to give me more depth of field to work with.
22-JUN-2012
Nik Efex HDR
I admit that a photo of the back of our house in the hot mid-day sun is probably not a good test, but I wanted to play with the Nik Efex HDR software I now have. I must say that I am not that impressed. I need to play more, but I like the effects I can get with a single image in LR4 better.
21-JUN-2012
Hot
I think the temperature reached 99 degrees today. It didn't seem as hot as some of the scorching days this area can get in August.
20-JUN-2012
Suburban Nighthawks II
I was not at all happy with the image in my June 13 "Suburban Nighthawks" post. I had to do way too much processing and never got the image I had in my mind. We were by the same restaurant tonight. The light was much better and I was able to get a better angle.
19-JUN-2012
400mm Pine
As the sun was setting today I grabbed the 100-400mm and went out to look for subjects I could isolate in the last rays of the sun. I found this pine branch. I just purchased Color Efex Pro and processed the final image in that software. I have a lot to learn about it, but I think I am going to like it.
18-JUN-2012
Work In Progress
Ok, I did not take, as in photograph this image today. I am experimenting with some techniques in Photoshop and this is my faux rain image so far. More tomorrow.
17-JUN-2012
My Wife
My beautiful and tolerant wife who, among many other things, puts up with being a test subject. In this case I was testing out the fill light capabilities of the “Demb Flip-it” flash diffuser. I like the results and it should serve well for event photography.
16-JUN-2012
Cute
We have had a family weekend with a mini reunion. It was great to see a bunch of cousins. Our youngest grand daughter is kind of cute. At least we think so.
15-JUN-2012
Owen
Owen is grand nephew, and that makes me feel old. I did this composite for my niece to give to Owen's father.
14-JUN-2012
Bowls in a Shaft of Light
The nested glass bowls on our kitchen counter caught a ray of sunlight from a skylight this morning.
13-JUN-2012
Suburban Nighthawks
When we were wandering around Kentlands this evening I got an idea to create a suburban interpretation of Edward Hopper’s famous painting, Nighthawks. Unfortunately, I realized I had left my 100mm macro lens on my camera so that would have to do. Here is the photo, and I will definitely have to try this again.
12-JUN-2012
Leaf and Water
We had some needed rain today so between showers I hauled out the flash and macro lens.
11-JUN-2012
Limo Row
Limousines and their drivers seem to congregate outside of the Willard Hotel. It is always an interesting sight.
10-JUN-2012
Tilghman Island, Maryland
It was another hot, hazy, and humid day in the East. This is a view of Tilghman Island from about 4500 feet. We flew to Cambridge, Maryland for the usual very expensive lunch.
09-JUN-2012
The Cat
I don't think the neighbor's cat was happy with me when I disturbed its nap on our patio.
08-JUN-2012
Final Approach
I noticed that the honey bees were active today on some bushes on the side of our house. I hauled out the 100mm macro and tried some shots. Almost got shot myself.
07-JUN-2012
Maryland Big Sky
We usually don't have "big skies" in Maryland. However, it looked pretty big this evening.
06-JUN-2012
IPhone, IPad, and The Like
We went to a lecture at the Smithsonian tonight by Walter Isaacson on his book about Steve Jobs. I thought this photo of am audience member before the lecture was appropriate.
05-JUN-2012
Need Softbox
I am trying to improve my lighting abilities. If I am going to do a decent job of shooting, among other things, reflective things like glass, then I definitely need a large softbox. Amazing what one can justify.
04-JUN-2012
A little Experiment
A view out of our driveway just after sunset. I tried a little experiment with HDR. I shot a series of images with the standard two over and under and used CS6 HDR Pro to process the images. I simply tinkered with this image in LR 4 until I got the effect that I have used a lot recently. I like this shot much better.
03-JUN-2012
Line Up and Wait
It is Sunday so another flying image. The new control tower at FDK is operational and it is a new experience, at this airport anyway, to line up for a take-off clearance.
02-JUN-2012
Farmers Market
The bread looked delicious.
01-JUN-2012
Sight
I spent awhile sitting behind this today and then couldn't see much to do any photography.
31-MAY-2012
In The Sun
It was a beautiful afternoon with some nice Sauvignon Blanc.
30-MAY-2012
New Old Town
Yes, I didn't post a photo last night. We had numerous thunder storms around the area and I shut the computer down. I wanted to catch the Kentlands new old town center in the "blue hour." The sky had darkened almost too much for this picture, but I liked it the best.
28-MAY-2012
Memorial Day
We enjoyed Memorial Day with a family dinner. Here is Owen and Kim.
27-MAY-2012
Summer Flying
Summer flying has returned with hot, humid and hazy air. There were also thunder storms popping up along the Catoctin Mountains. The photo was taken on about a 3 mile final to the airport in York, PA. Funky things happen when one shoots through an old Plexiglas window and then a propeller spinning at 2300 rpm, but I like the photo.
26-MAY-2012
Heirloom Tomatoes
These were at the farmer's market in Rockville today. They were about the only vegetables on display that were not in harsh noonish light.
25-MAY-2012
Banana Bread
My good wife made it tonight and of course I had to take a picture. And that of course required slicing the warm bread. And of course, I just couldn't let that piece just sit there.
24-MAY-2012
Bookshelf and Camera shelf
It is getting late, a camera, tripod, and flashlight were handy.
23-MAY-2012
Strawberries
I dropped the strawberries into a small fish tank this time. I need to work on this kind of shot more.
21-MAY-2012
And #5
It works better on good crystal.
21-MAY-2012
And #4
I tried the technique on some what I believe is "Depression Glass" that came from a set my mother had.
20-MAY-2012
Wine Glass Experiment #3
So now I tried a real wine glass with some real wine, good wine, I might add. The top of the glass and bottle are too dark for my taste, and lighting the top with a Speedlite through an umbrella resulted in too many nasty reflections. I need a softbox.
19-MAY-2012
Glass Experiment #2
Ok, I am on a photographing glass kick. The top of the buffet in our kitchen is smokey glass and is perfect to put a Speedlite under it to light the glass on top.
16-MAY-2012
Strawberries in a Glass Experiment #1
I have seen this type of shot many times, and tried to replicate it. I need a lot more practice.
12-MAY-2012
Evening at the Kennedy Center