Room With a View

Room With a View

This past weekend, I took a nice photowalk with my good friend Jared of Ramsdell Photography.  Our topic du jour was “old mills”.  I can’t speak for all of New England, but our little corner of the region seems to be full of old textile mills that pretty much beg to be photographed.

This particular building was loaded with texture and color, but the thing my eyes kept going back to was the penthouse suite.

So what did I do?  Crawl through some brush, using my body to push it back from the camera lens while I contorted myself into a pretzel to see through the viewfinder on an low, upward facing camera (managing to avoid something that looked suspiciously like poison ivy at the same time!)

Maybe I should re-name it a “Yoga-walk”? 😉

Falling Water

Watkins Glen, NY – Long Exposure HDR

I discovered a photo of Watkins Glen by accident about a year ago (thank goodness for Google image search!) and put it on the mental “to-visit” list. Over the long holiday weekend, the opportunity to go there came up!  It was a bit of a detour from my final destination of Niagara and Toronto in Canada, but well worth the trip.

19 waterfalls, a few hours of hiking around to break up the road trip and stretch our legs, and a bracketed pano series later…and here we are. 🙂

The Big LE Reveal

Niagara Falls (ON, CA) Ferris Wheel – Long Exposure

Finally, the submissions are in and we can show you our interpretations of Long Exposure work!

My first submission is an image of the ferris wheel on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, which also happens to be one of my fondest memories of the place.  I had gone several years ago and really enjoyed the view from the top of the ride.  It puts you high above most of the other buildings and lights and gives you a nice view of the main attraction – the Falls.

This image is actually a composite of two different images, layered and blended by hand.  The short and long exposures of this image both had components I wanted in the final version, so it made sense to layer and mask, so I could have fine control over the fnal blend.

I contemplated desaturating this particular image, but in the end, decided the lights were indicative of the area the ferris wheel resides in (Clifton Hill) and the image was better with the color.  Tourist demand has turned Clifton Hill into a fair-like atmosphere, with lots of bright lights and gimmicks.  The Sky Wheel is a major feature of the tourist landscape and obviously, it’s own bright lights give it personality.

In the end, it is just a ferris wheel but the view of the Falls left a lasting impression.  Sky Wheel, I salute…errr…photo you!

Musings

Beavertail Lighthouse – RI

Let me start by saying, I’m not a “water” person.  I’m definitely an “I like my feet to be on solid ground, where sharks and alligators can’t eat me” kind of person.  I am also an “I almost had a panic attack while kayaking the other day” when my friend pointed out a snapping turtle in the water near us.

That being said, as much as I love being dry, I am drawn to be close to the water. It’s a powerful, beautiful force of nature and it makes a great addition to most photos.
Being at Niagara this weekend reminded me of how incredible, impressive and intense water can be.  There is a spot on the American side (in the Cave of the Winds) where you can stand under just a sliver of the Bridal Veil Falls.  The water slams into your skin, and the wind from the falls pushes you around on the deck – it is an experience that always takes my breath away.

As I walked away from the Bridal Veil this weekend, I turned to my friend and explained my feelings about water.  I don’t love the idea of being in it, but boy do I respect it.  And I love, love, love to photograph it in its various forms.  In fact, in the next few blog posts, you will definitely see some photos from the weekend.  But first…!

Today’s photo is one I’ve been sitting on for a few weeks.  It wasn’t what I envisioned when I drove to the coast in Rhode Island to take photos.  I have hopes of a colorful sunset on the horizon, rock formations in the foreground, leading lines, and somewhere in there, a lighthouse.  What I got was fog.  And some crazy powerful waves.  And lots of wind.  And raindrops on my camera lens.  And dangerous footing.  And about an hour of reflection – when nature acts up, it reminds me that we are just small (but mighty!) creatures in a gigantic (amazing, beautiful, wonderful!) world.

As I’ve had time away from the photo, it’s grown on me.  It is a pano, with only the rocks processed for HDR.  This was taken around 8:45pm, so obviously long exposure was used.  Also, as us photographers all know, the details make the shot.  It took me a few versions of this image before I realized I was missing the light from the lighthouse.  With it being socked in, I was hard to make out exactly what it was without the light so I had to begin counting the seconds per rotation.  Seven seconds per revolution, two second timer to allow the vibrations from my finger to dissipate.  So I set my focus, and began counting…at five seconds, I’d press the shutter and hope for the best. =)

People-Watching

For those of you who love people watching, idea number two is using a long exposure to capture the world as it goes about its business.

This image – one of my personal favorites – was taken in NYC.  The city and its inhabitants are in constant motion.  When I was setting up this shot, I purposely chose a long exposure to capture blur as people moved through their day.  I wanted that movement to symbolize the idea of a city that never stops.  Or sleeps, from what I’ve heard. 😉

Flat Iron – NYC

Bikes and Shadows

When I woke up today, my feet hurt.  My back was stiff. I was tired. And it was totally worth it.

I had a lot of fun in NYC with Will of www.wheretowillie.com – great photographer, full of information and more importantly, great company for a day in the city.  If you don’t know of his work, I highly recommend it.  He is great at HDR, and he goes the extra miles to get some unique shots.  He wasn’t joking when he told me that no things like fences were merely suggestions!

Will, Super Sized Egyptian Guys, and me!

We didn’t get to see everything we had hoped for.  The Buddhist Temple I wanted to see in order to create an image for my Quotography project (for those of you participating, you have until next Sunday at midnight to submit your images!) was closed.  Per Will’s suggestion, we even tried sneaking in through a back hallway…no luck!

We also missed the 9/11 Memorial by…mmm…about 30 seconds.

However, what we did see was nice and more importantly, I’m inspired to go back. Hopefully, next time, I’ll remember my tripod. (D’oh!)  Yesssss…I said it… I had an I’m-not-really-supposed-to-be-having-these-yet-senior-moment.  So, low light images were tough.  But shadow bike images were oh-so-right!

Shadow Bike

Wearing Some Hats

It’s been a busy few photo weeks, and I love it!

I just finished a great joint post endeavor discussing cell phone photography and the impact its having on traditional photo editing. That took a few weeks to research, with input from several other great photogs (we really have a great community of creatives, don’t we?) You can check that out here.

I’m in the midst of engagement shoots and wedding booking. Meetings, meetings, meetings!

I’m super excited about this weekend’s photowalk with Will from wheretowillie.com in NYC. Any photogs in the area with suggestions, let me know. 🙂 This particular photo was from a trip to NYC last year. It was a rainy day and we were all hiding in shelters where we coukd find them…except for this pup who was too curious to care!

Rainy Day Pup - NYC

And last but definitely not least…Quotography! For those of you quotographing…how’s it coming? If you have any questions, or need someone to bounce ideas off of, we are here for you!

So…what else does Seeing Spots have in the works? Find SSP on Facebook for exclusive updates!

You stay classy, World…and Thanks for Stopping By. 😉

New York State of Mind

Flat Iron - NYC

Next weekend I’m planning to road…er…train trip it to NYC to meet a good, long distance friend for a photowalk.  Obviously, I’m looking back through some of my previous NYC photos, and came across this guy…one of my favorite shots from a trip last year.

Does anyone have any good photo suggestions for next weekend? =)