Jul 31, 2013

Wide Angle Lens Landing Places

A wide angle lens is often the go to lens for scenic Landscape Photography and is a fabulous tool for grand seascape  and landscape photography with impact. Without a strong foreground feature, the image might loose its appeal and become average at best. It is often great to find something interesting in the foreground and place it into the lower third of the image. Anything goes that accompanies the picture; flowers, rocks, little trees or shells to name a few that come to mind. The idea is to present the viewer with a place to land and anchor before exploring the middle ground and background of the landscape or Seascape Photography image.


 




Jul 28, 2013

Photo of the Week


Every week I choose one of my favorite photographs of the week from my Fine Art landscape, seascape, cityscape, flower, abstract and macro photography collection and offer it throughout that week at a discounted rate. This week's photo of the week on sale is "Spring into Downtown Boston", one of this year's Boston skyline photography images taken on a beautiful morning shortly after sunrise as viewed from the Boston Seaport District with its new luxury condominiums. In the foreground parts of the Harborwalk along Fan Pier with its blooming flowers are seen while landmarks like the Boston Harbor, Boston Financial District, Boston Waterfront, One International Place and Two International Place are shown in the background of this sunrise cityscape photography picture

Starting today through this week and the week of 29 July 2013 this Boston morning photography image from my City Skyline Photography gallery, available as art photo print, acrylic and metal prints or on canvas, is on sale.

Jul 19, 2013

21 Most Beautiful Photography Examples of Orchid Flowers


The unique forms and shapes of an orchid make them prime subjects for any flower photography endeavor. Orchids come in many colors: pink, yellow, white, purple and others that also add to their appeal. One can photograph them in the wild, greenhouses or purchase them from a local grocery store and capture their beauty in a studio setting. Most of my orchid photography images were captured in a studio. Here we have total control of environment, background and composition. 

Environmentally we do not need to worry about any wind messing with our composition. I particular love back-lighting for my studio flower photography shots and the ability to study the impact of light. It is still amazing how small adjustments of the reflectors have such a huge impact on the final outcome of a picture. It often is the decisive factor for turning a good floral image into a piece of Fine Art Photography

Backdrops can be easily adjusted to our needs in the studio. There is no need to isolate the orchid against a more calming backdrop of other flowers or shrubs in the background. Cart boards or cloths in all colors work wonders to put the spotlight solely on these amazing flowers. I often use neutral white or black backdrops to make the colors pop. A Polarizing Filter eliminates any unwanted glare and saturates colors. 

As mentioned before, in order to beautifully isolate the flowers from the background in our composition, we are not limited to only moving tripod and camera around in the field; instead we are easily able to make compositional adjustments of the flower and backdrops themselves in a studio setting, thereby allowing for much more flexibility and better compositions.























Jul 18, 2013

Chateau Frontenac Photography Images

Quebec City has a charming European flair and is a paradise for city, landmark and architecture photography that provides the travel photographer with endless photo opportunities. Its most famous monument is the luxury Chateau Frontenac. The castle like building majestically towers over the skyline and can be seen from many corners around town. During my last photo trip I had a chance to photograph the Chateau from many angles in the morning, at twilight and during moonrise at night.


Morning Cityscape Photography: This photo image was taken atop Cap Diamant near the Citadelle. It took an extra effort to make my way out there in the early wee hours but was so worth it to experience a beautiful sunrise over the St. Lawrence River and the historic upper town of Quebec City. The sky was beautifully painted in early morning pink while the street lanterns and Chateau building lighting still provided a wonderful night atmosphere. I incorporated Avenue Saint Denis with its historic buildings in the foreground while the Chateau majestically towered over them. Aperture was set to f/22 providing an exposure time of 3.2 seconds at ISO100.

Twilight Photography: The intimate close up picture of Chateau Frontenac was taken from my hotel room at twilight. A 70-200mm telezoom lens combined with a 1.4x teleconverter got me in close to solely focus on the beauty of this historic landmark in the upper town of Quebec City. I was not able to open the hotel window which is why I set up camera and lens straight against the window. In addition I pulled the window curtain over camera and lens to further avoid any window reflections to be captured in the picture. I chose a Portrait over Landscape Format to cut out harbor lights and other distraction to the right of the image. It also resulted in a more powerful composition than the horizontal one. Aperture was set to f/11 providing an exposure time of 8 seconds at ISO100.


Night Photography with Moon: This last picture was taken from Levis on the banks opposite Quebec City. The small town is connected to Quebec City via a 10 minute ferry ride and provides ample skyline views. The night I explored the photo ops of Levis coincided with the moon rising over Quebec City. It was delightful to witness how the crescent moon actually grew and moved across the city skyline. I frequently had to minimally adjust my location and tripod to place the moon in the composition. I manually focused on the scenery and metered on the moon to not blow it out. Aperture was set to f/5.6 providing an exposure time of 5 seconds at ISO100.


Learn More:








Jul 11, 2013

Black Assassin Robber Fly Macro Photography


Photographing little creatures has become a real passion in my photography. It is truly amazing what I encounter on my frequent photo tours to a pristine macro photography location in Massachusetts; the Mass Audubon Broad Meadow Brook Wildlife Sanctuary in Worcester, MA. The sanctuary and its little but busy butterfly garden never let's you down. I always encounter something new or learn a bit more about the insects, butterflies or other small creatures that I photograph which makes me want more and keeps me coming back. This time I was challenged with heavy rain showers and while I was looking for shelter so were the bugs. The assassin robber fly for example sheltered under the petals of a cone flower. To my delight the black insect stayed put and clung to the stem of the floral after the rain allowing me to set up tripod with camera and macro lens. I manually focused to pin point sharpness on the eye. An aperture of f/11 supported a beautifully isolated bug and floral image against a blurred out green background. An ISO200 setting provided an exposure time of 1/5 second. During the digital post processing workflow I removed dust spots, minimally adjusted contrast, lighting and color saturation before sharpening the final photography picture of the assassin robber fly.

12 Insect Macro Photo Tips 

Close Up Photography Art and Quotes

Macro Photography in Massachusetts and New England

Favorite Flower and Gardening Quotes 

Like Photography? There is a button for it!

Buy High Quality metal, acrylic, canvas or standard photo prints ~ matted, framed or print only


Jul 10, 2013

20+ Examples of Magical Acadia National Park Photography

Acadia National Park in Maine is the only national park system in Northeast America. It is a good 5 hour drive north of Boston and worth a visit at any time of the year. We visit the park annually and love to hike the moderate mountains, wander the beautiful woods or explore the beautiful seacoast while schlepping tripod and gear along.

The park provides plenty of picturesque Photo Opportunities for the local or visiting travel outdoor photographer. The unique mixture of mountainous and wooden wilderness areas, and rugged seacoast are pristine photo material year-round. During the morning or evening golden hours the New England light paints the landscape scenery beautifully in all seasons. This blog post compiles 20 of the best Acadia images and scenic photography pictures ~ enjoy!