12 Jan 19 A cardinal rule for most landscape photographers is that you never take a photo that contains a contrail; you just don't! But rules as they say are made to be broken, and so I break this one for today's Saturday Night Special, something I haven't done for over a year. Walking Miss Maggie this morning we saw a rather spectacular display of two intersecting contrails which at the moment we first saw them were much narrower than they are in my capture, as the capture required our returning back home to get the camera. I know, shame on me for not having it with me. In any event, I thought you might appreciate what we saw. I had planned on sharing some other info today sans photo, but since the opportunity presented itself I've added the photo. This is straight from the camera. Blow'n in the Wind Nikon D500; 18 - 20; Aperture Priority; ISO 160; 1/1250 sec @ f / 9. Most, if not all, of you are aware of my interest in two general ares of photography, those being macro first and landscape/nature second. I find inspiration in the work of others who share similar interests and towards that end I've shared the names of a couple of photographers whose work I admire. The one you will most likely recall is that of Kathleen Clemens a Maine based photographer whose specialty is fine art flower photography although she does much more than that. Another who you may or may not recall my mentioning is Harold Davis, a California base photographer and author who does very specialized light box based flower photography and creative landscapes. There is a third whom I haven't mentioned prior and she is the reason for this narrative. Hazel Meredith is a Connecticut based photographer whose major emphasis, from my perspective, is creative photography via the application of textures. All three of these individuals are VERY accomplished artists and offer individual/group training if you should be interested via paid workshops and free webinars with Topaz Labs which is where I initially came into contact with each of them. This past week Hazel put on a Topaz webinar in which she mentioned a piece of graphic manipulation software I had never heard of before so I went looking for it and found a real bonanza. Anthropics Technology Ltd. is a London based company that offers a variety of digital editing programs all of which are very reasonably priced and HIGHLY capable, although, like many things, come with a learning curve. I want to bring your attention to the photo editing program called LandscapePro. Click the “what it does” tab to get a feel for the program. In short, unlike anything else I've ever encountered, you drag a tab on an area of the photo, say the tab “sky” in the sky area of your photo. The program can then automatically ascertain what part of your photo is sky and change it. I know this sounds a bit weird, but apparently this is some very advanced AI technology. Even if you aren't in the market for a first piece or additional piece of editing software I encourage you to give it a look. If it tickles your fancy in any way you might also like looking at Smart Photo Editor which lets you make thousands of versions of a photo with a single click. All of the Anthropics products come with a try before you buy option. Just for the record, I have NO connection to Anthropics but simply found their products interesting enough that I wanted to share.
17 Jan 19 Arriving in Rockport we did our normal eagle scouting for a grand total of two and as we were leaving Jan said "have we ever gone down this road" referring to Saulk River Road which we had once prior but as she couldn't remember when we took it again. It was a good call as we got to see some really pretty stuff much of which I tried to record, some successfully, some not so much. Today's submission is one of those that came out rather good although, I blew the best shot. As I was taking one very much like this a juvenile Bald Eagle flew through about 12 feet off the ground but I was looking in the direction it was flying so by the time I even noticed it the critter was effectively gone. Not sure how well the bird would have fit in the picture but it is fun to imagine. You of course can just imagine it in the frame as you wish. ;-) As we approached this setting I originally saw only the low lying fog but it was enough for me to want to try and capture it. Walking alongside the road on the opposite of the barrier I looked back and saw the filtered sunlight; of course I couldn't resist trying to capture it. The rays were only visible for a distance of perhaps 20 feet; on either side of that space they didn't exist. By the time I was ready to quit shooting they were all but gone. Lucky shot? Today is supposed to be a creative image but I'll just let Nature's creativity speak for itself. This is what the camera saw. Late Morning Fog Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/200 sec @ f / 9.
18 Jan 19 A few yards from where I took the image with the fog and god rays and shared yesterday Jan found a few fallen branches with a lot of white stuff sticking out of them. She immediately recognized the white stuff as ice crystals but it didn't connect for me until today when I was working up a few images. I thought it would make for a good macro/close-up candidate so that's what I'm sharing today. You'll need to zoom in to at least 50%, preferably 100%, to really get an appreciation for this hair like ice. It made for a couple really nice creative images, one I might even print and frame, but you need to see the real thing as making anything creative "destroys" the filamentous structure of the frozen water. This is straight from the camera save for some small amount of cropping for presentation. Explosion Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/320 @ f / 9
