Ohio Foothills Outing

I recently joined a Flickr group that share photos of the Foothills of Ohio. It is dedicated to the rolling hills of the area I live in. Sunday September 27, 2009 was their monthly outing. I decided to join them in the Hocking Hills State Park. Roman Wilshanetsky AKA Lost In the Hills put together a presentation about HDRI images. Though I have done HDR images before I did learn a lot. I had primarily used an open source program called QTPFSGUI. After seeing Roman use Photomatix from HDRSoft I became a convert. We spent the afternoon hiking from Old Man's Cave to the Lower Falls and back. The weather was cool and the day started out cloudy and windy. During the day the clouds came and went creating variable lighting. It was a great afternoon of shooting in a very beautiful place in Ohio. If you would like more information about the area click here.

So here are my results from the day. By clicking any image you can see a larger view.

The first shot is looking back up the trail towards the visitors center. I set up and waited for several minutes for foot traffic to clear before taking the 4 exposures that make up this shot. Most people when shooting for HDR, shoot a 3 to 9 image bracketed exposure. I tend to take as many shots as required to make sure I get all elements of the scene properly exposed. I do this using the histogram and taking shots until I have the highlights properly exposed. I make note of this setting and then find where I get the shadows properly exposed. I then take a dark frame(put my hand in front of the lens to let me know where the correct image sequence begins). Then I capture the shots as quickly as possible with a one stop interval between the light and dark exposures capturing the full range. This allows you to get every thing from the sky to the shadows properly exposed for the HDR conversion.

So now for the first image.



The next image was at the bottom of Old Man's Cave there is a bridge over the creek. I set my tripod up low the ground and got a great image of the bridge.



I looked right and saw the sun peeking out. I turned my camera and moved so the sun was just touching the edge of a tree trunk and grabbed another series to make what is my favorite shot of the day.



The next image is the stairs leading up, around and down to the Lower Falls at Old Man's Cave.



I tried getting a shot of the Lower Falls but every image seemed to have a person in it. I am going to go through and see I can get something worthwhile out the series in the next few days.

I did go behind the bridge at the lower falls and set my tripod up in the creek, balance precariously on a rock to get the next shot.



Hiking back up to the visitors center you come to a wooden staircase that is very narrow.



Then you climb a long staircase through a long dark tunnel. After going through the tunnel I got a shot of the exit/entrance.



Enjoy the photos and if you have any questions click here to contact me.

Also on October 17 I am going to a photography workshop at Hocking Hills so stay tuned.

What's in a Package?

The other day I was thinking about print delivery. I was trying to decide how to best package prints in a pleasing way.

When you go to any "chain" portrait studio your prints are delivered in a cheap envelope with a window. These envelopes usually have "Portraits" stamped on them in bold letters. They are just as cheesy as when your school portraits used to come home.

I thought a lot about how to stylishly package my prints.

I wanted to package my prints in a way that showed how much I care for my clients prints and their business. I did not want to hand my client prints in a plain envelope marked "portraits".

So after looking around the house and dragging my wife through the local craft stores, I came up with a solution I am happy with.

Using tissue paper and twine I wrapped the prints and placed a thank you card in a clear plastic presentation folder. So to give you an idea of how your prints will arrive I snapped a photo of my packaging.




Enjoy,
Chris

Photo Session

I had a photo session the other day at O. O. McIntyre Park District's Raccoon Creek County Park. This was a session with a brother and sister. We had a great time taking the pictures and I really enjoyed the shoot. The park provides a great place to photograph. Take a look, if you want to arrange your own photo session contact me.(just click the link)

So here are the photos. They were taken with natural light. On a few I had to use a little fill flash to bring out the shadows.



Jenny was a great subject we shot several poses and had a lot of fun.



It took Eric a little while longer to warm up to camera. Lilly the dog was the easiest subject though.


Thanks for looking and Enjoy.

Where Did Summer Go

Summer, so many plans, but where did it go???

With a new job getting the kids ready for school it was hectic. It was a wet summer and the garden did not do well but we did get some stuff canned. I have not been out shooting like I wanted to. With fall coming I hope to change that. I had my first portrait shot the other day and I am happy with the results. I have a couple of ideas for some shoots but lining up willing participants may be difficult. Last night I forced my self to go out and shoot a little and got some results I am happy with. I also have some new gear and will be talking about it later.

So now for the pictures. I ventured out after dinner to O. O. McIntyre Park District's Raccoon Creek County Park. I thought I would just hike around and see what jumped out as interesting. While hiking I ran across a mushroom. With light I used my tripod and 10mm extension tube on my 70-300mm.



I shot a quick Panorama overlooking the hills of the area.



While leaving I grabbed a bracketed shot of the Hummingbird Gazebo to try to put together an HDR. Using QTPSFSGUI



Last I stopped in town at the Bandstand in the Gallipolis City Park and snapped another set of bracketed shots for an HDR of the Bandstand after dark.



Thanks for looking and enjoy!

Vacation

I am still working on post processing my vacation pictures so I will throw some out here and there. You can view a larger image or go directly to the gallery by clicking on a photo.

We left May 24 for 8 days and 7 nights at Walt Disney's Pop Century Resort. We left right after school was done and drive through the night. We arrived at 7:15 in the morning and got checked in. Our room wasn't ready of course, so we freshened up and headed to Magic Kingdom. We arrived for park opening and headed for Dumbo the Flying Elephant first off. When we got in line we were up for the second trip of the day and with the sun out it began to rain.




We rode a few other family favorites including Peter Pan, Big Thunder Mountain Rairoad, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion. We had lunch at Columbia Harbor House and headed back to the room for a much needed nap. After a nap we started back to the park and it was really cloudy! We rode Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin and rain looked emanate so we headed to an inside ride the Carousel of Progress. When we exited it was an absolute deluge. With no end in sight and 3-4 inches of water everywhere we decided to call it a day. I did not get many pics on the first day.

So day 2 finally rolled around and it was off to Disney's Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Weekends. At opening we made a dash for the most infamous of villians, Darth Vader.




After Vader Jango Fett was close so we ventured over to see him.





We also visited Mace Windu, Princess Leia, and Ahsoka Tona before running into some jawa's. I stayed back but they moved in to try to trade Trevor's camera for a hair clip. Good thing he did not trade.




We also ran into some clone troopers before scouting a place to watch the parade. After the parade we returned to the room for a nap. After a nap we went back to Studios for the evening. We timed it just right because we arrived as the rain was ending.



We rode a few rides and headed back to the room. I left for the Magic Kingdom on my own for some photos during Extra Magic Hours.






Enjoy,
Chris

I'm Back

The past few weeks have been very busy. While on vacation I was offered a new job that is 3 miles from my house instead of 37 miles. So between the transition, my garden which was overgrown with weeds and life in general I have not had time to post so here goes.

Chris

Back from Vacation

Just returned from vacation and had a really good time despite a few issues. During the second day of the trip my Sony 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 "G" lens quit auto focusing. I neglected to bring my Minolta 75-300mm with my so I was stuck manually focusing this lens the rest of the trip and using my 50mm f1.7 for portraits. I love this lens for macro work, portraits, and for its zoom so needless to say I was disappointed. So Monday when I got back I shipped it to Sony's Laredo Texas service center for repair. It should be a warranty repair and I have heard only good things about Sony's repair services.

Here is a teaser from sunrise at Amelia Island Plantation.



Enjoy,
Chris