Rose Bud in a Jungle of Rose Bush Leaves

The curve of the stem and the direction of the bud make this image something that I enjoy. The flower almost seems to be posed, maybe in some sort of dance position. My F-stop is set to f/2.5, allowing for just enough focus on the flower and the leaves closest to the camera, while creating a blurred effect for the leaves and the background of the image. This is another one of my photographs that was created from 11 exposures, tonemapped in Photomatix and then further tweaked in Aftershot Pro.

New Bud and Leaves on Miniature Rosebush Plant

This is the eleven exposure combination of the new rose bud and leaves on the miniature rosebush that I picked up from the grocery store for Valentine's Day. It's set in front of a window.

True Confessions... Time to Spill the Beans

Ok, true confessions time: I have never really been a coffee drinker. I remember the first time I had a sip of coffee, from a fast-food burger chain -- and, it was just gross. I remember wondering: "Who in his right mind would drink this stuff?"

In my spare time, I do work with an organization that is involved with mission and mercy activity in Haiti. For one of our fundraisers, we sell... coffee. (Someone in our group hear of a supplier, Singing Rooster, which offers coffee that they get directly from Haiti.) Since getting involved in this line of fundraising, after years of diligently avoiding the practice altogether... I am now drinking coffee.

And, as a photographer who is always looking for new and interesting subjects, I grabbed a paper plate and 'spilled the beans' -- to see how they would look in HDR. The following image is the processed version of 11 exposures sent through Photomatix:

Rosebud with Shadow

I sometimes like to play with shadows in my photographs. I've made several 'self-portraits' in which I captured my shadow against trees, or in seaweed, etc. In this photograph, I was going for the shadow that my grapefruit tree cast against the construction paper (the oddly shaped stick figure on the right) on which I had placed the rosebud. However, seeing the pronounced shadow of the rosebud, I liked that as well. Perhaps if I try this one again, I will line up the shadows in such a way as to get a silhouette -- the stick figure holding the rosebud.  

Fallen Rose Bud on a Stem

This rose bud has seen better days. It was one of the Valentine's Day mini-roses that I brought home in a potted plant from the grocery store. (Actually, there were four plants in the pot; two still survive.) As I was cleaning one of the dead plants out of the pot, this bud with its stem fell off the plant. The flower never actually opened up like I might have hoped that it would, however, it does seem to be nicely preserved -- maybe I'll get a few more photos out of it. I set the rose bud pm black construction paper (hence, the fibers) and made 11 exposures for this HDR image. I tonemapped the exposures together in Photomatix, and then edited (cropped, etc.) in Aftershot Pro. Thanks for looking!

More Colorful Trees from Mackinac Island

This image is actually one from last year. I recently reworked it in Photomatix, bringing out more of the color in the leaves, giving the image a more 'surreal' feeling. It's not perfect, but... it is colorful. Thanks for visiting!

Colorful Trees on Mackinac Island

I'm working on a little project from my Mackinac Island photos from our visit this past autumn. If I bring the project to completion, I'll post something here on my blog. Thanks for visiting! (The image in today's post, part of my project, was tonemapped from a single raw image file.)

Blue Milk Cans

If I had to guess, these milk cans were probably not originally blue, but... who knows? They caught my attention sitting outside of the antique store (and I particularly liked this shade of blue), so I thought I'd give it a try in HDR and see what happened. It's definitely a gritty picture, between the dirt that you can see in the icy snow on the right and the dark grain of the wood at the top of the picture, and even the rust spots on the milk cans themselves stand out. Maybe the picture would have been better without the HDR (tonemapped zero, plus and minus three exposures)? Here's the (Aftershot Pro-edited) original zero exposure below:

Window Shopping (3) -- Wicker Baby Bassinet Display

On the opposite side of the location of yesterday's antique store window display image was this one: A display featuring (what seems to me to be) two wicker bassinets, one with wheels and one without. I can't imagine that the wheeled version would actually be some kind of stroller, because there aren't any wheels on the back end with the handles. My guess is that it's probably some kind of portable bassinet, not meant for long distance travel but able to cover short distances without having to pick the whole thing up (like the first one) in order to be moved.

Window Shopping (2) - Heart Shaped Chairs

I like looking at the window displays in antique stores. I think antique stores in general are interesting, because I can often find something in them that brings back memories - the kind of toys that I played with in my childhood, etc. 

For me, this particular window image brings back memories of those years when I was active in high school and college theater. There is something about the arrangement that reminds me of the set of a play. I'm not sure that it reminds me of a particular play or a particular production; there's just something that seems 'theatrical' to me about this arrangement. 

Faded Advertisement on the Side of a Building (2)

Earlier this week, I was visiting another town here in Minnesota. Walking around, I saw another faded advertisement that had been painted on the side of a brick building (similar to the one that I had posted here: http://goo.gl/Luo6xh). You can tell that this painted advertisement was made a long time ago, not simply because the paint is faded, but because someone came along and cut a hole in the middle of it for a door, and then added a complete balcony over top of it!

Honey Jar in the Window

I have a friend who keeps bees, and when I run into him from time to time, he has honey available. We like to use honey in our cooking (bread) and as a condiment (pancakes) and even as a sweetener (coffee). So, when I brought home my latest honey supply, I added a new use to my honey: Photography subject.  

Window Shopping -- Gazebo

I've got a few "window shopping" photos coming up this week. The various places that I found myself walking were homes to antique stores, with their unique items and displays in the windows. So, out with my camera and looking for something to photograph, what do I do?

Today's photo is a black and white version of a little white wire gazebo (price tag and all!). I especially love the pattern at the base of this gazebo -- quite pretty.

Sculpted Face in the Wall

I'm not quite sure what the exact name is for this particular type of architectural design. It's built into a wall, set on top of a (if memory serves correctly) rectangular decorative stone column, at the base of arches. (I'll have to take a picture of the full storefront sometime to see if I am remembering this correctly.) In color, this little piece is one of the shades of color that you might see in terracotta clay. In color, the face doesn't seem to stand out as well as it does in black and white (hence, the bw image above.) 

Reflection in the Barbershop Window

This little pole hangs in the local barbershop window. I was shooting handheld with my NEX-6. Taking the pictures straight on, I found that a wavy reflection had projected itself across the middle of the image. So, contorting myself into a weird position, I managed to angle the reflection out of the image. (Actually, I set the camera to automatically shoot three exposures, which I then merged together in Photomatix. I also edited the end result in Aftershot Pro.) You can actually make out my reflection in the chrome portion at the bottom of the pole. 

Lamppost in the Window

Our town is home to all sorts of lampposts. This one outside the Post Office caught my attention for its unusual shape. As a bonus, being situated in front of the window, it gives the opportunity for a photograph with a reflection.

Sunset Over the Frozen Lake

I just caught the end of this sunset over our local frozen lake. I was shooting handheld (no tripod) and came out with three exposures (minus 3, 0, and plus 3) that I was able to merge in Photomatix. I took the results over to Aftershot Pro for further editing. (I really like how Corel's Noise Ninja is able to clean up some of the noisy weirdness that I sometimes find in my images.)

Reflected Sunset off a Really Long Window

Reflected surfaces can often be used in one form or another to make an interesting photo. Walking by this building yesterday evening, I was pleased to catch the clouds and the sunset reflected in these really long windows. For the process, I tonemapped my 3 exposures (zero, minus and plus three) in Photomatix, and then I cleaned up some of the noise in Aftershot Pro. 

One Week to Go Until Springtime in Minnesota

Nothing quite says "it's almost springtime here in Minnesota" like lawn furniture still surrounded by mounds of snow. I guess we've got one week to go until we arrive at the March Equinox and the official first day of spring. (Whether or not it looks likes spring outside at that point in time is a different issue altogether.)

Open Circle in the Brick Architecture

The local public elementary school has an interesting architectural feature built into its building: Circular, bricked in holes in the wall. (There are at least two of the on the building, although - the same one is pictured below twice.) I'm not sure that this feature serves a functional purpose; I think it's purely decorative. 

Faded Advertisement on the Side of Building

On our warm weather walk of a few days ago, I captured this scene of a faded advertisement that had been painted directly on to the bricks of the side of this downtown building. It has a 'graffiti' feel to it, this advertisement that is probably fairly old. (I can only imagine how long ago it must have been that Henry George would have been selling flour at 5 cents!)

Local Church Statuary

Yesterday, it was nice enough here to get outside and go for a walk with the camera (40°F!). So, while we were out walking downtown, I took a few pictures of this statue of Mary outside one of the local churches:

The original images were shot with my Sony NEX-6, using the 55-210mm telephoto lens. I used the auto exposure bracketing, which gave me three exposures (0, minus 3, and plus 3) which I double-tonemapped in Photomatix. I then sent the resulting image through Aftershot Pro. I like how the image has a gradual shift from dark to light moving across the image. 

Here is single-tonemapped edition, prior to the bw edits: 

While nice, it lacks the 'drama' that I see in the black and white version, with the gradual dark/light shift across the image.  

Looking Forward to Seeing Some Green

Looking back through my photo archives, I came across this picture of a tomato plant (from the same time as I was shooting the pea plant that I posted yesterday). This picture is almost seven years old, shot with my Canon XTi as a JPEG. (For HDR effect, I generated two more exposures -- one darker, one lighter, and then tonemapped all three images together in Photomatix.) The green was what really drew me to this image, and... having been snow covered here in Minnesota for quite some time, I guess I'm really looking forward to spring. 

Little Garden Plant (2007)

This flower is different from those that I have been posting recently. It's an image that goes back a few years, so I don't even remember exactly what kind of flower this is! Actually, I'm pretty sure that it was from our garden, and that it was probably some kind of pea, or possibly even a bean plant. Whatever it was, I took this single JPEG image and generated two additional images - one darker, one lighter. I fused them all together in Photomatix, and produced the image that you see above. Thanks for looking!

Found Branch of Little Leaves

I found this branch of tiny leaves on my snow covered driveway. It struck me as an odd find (on my driveway), and so I brought it inside and made a few exposures. It reminded me of a museum piece of something altogether different that I have seen somewhere... although I can't quite put my finger on what it was. I fused together the exposures at minus one, zero, and plus one, and... voila!

I still find that I am having trouble getting my F-stop adjusted to exactly the focus that I want. Here, the F-stop was set to f/1.8, giving the image a very shallow depth of field. (Only a handful of the leaves that were closest to the camera are actually in focus, while the rest have a blurred effect to them.) Yet, when I opened up to a larger depth of field (f/5.6), I still didn't quite completely get what I was looking for in terms of focus. Here's a single image (simply cropped and edited in Aftershot Pro):

Leaf on a Minnesota Grapefruit Tree

I'm not sure exactly how many grapefruit trees are growing in Minnesota, but I can tell you that there are at least two. (Mine are both indoor potted plants.) This photograph features some leaves on the grapefruit tree that I have at my house, brought up from a sprouted seed that I found a few years ago inside of a grapefruit at my local grocery store.

Media vita in morte sumus

New leaves have sprouted on the same stem as the dying rose bud in today's photo. They seem to be thriving. The juxtaposition of life and death (new leaves; dead rose bud) reminded me of an old liturgical phrase, one that I think is used at funerals: "In the midst of life we are in death".

This liturgical text was rendered as a hymn by Martin Luther -- in English translation here: "In the Midst of Earthly Life (snares of death surround us)". Like the death and new life that I see in my flower, the hymn sets death and its woes against Jesus. Jesus died to give us new life; Jesus died to "save us lest we perish in the bitter pangs of death".

All these thoughts, simply from new leaves sprouting on the same stem as a dying rose bud....

Caption for the Zoo Polar Bear and a Dead Fish

Revisiting my old photos, I came across this polar bear from a trip to the zoo in St. Louis in 2005. (I single image processed this JPEG and then cropped it.) 

I thought, "This one is begging for a caption." My two best were: 

"Oh, no! What have I done?"

and

"Dear God, I thank You for this food...".

More Care Center Birds from the Aviary

This is another photograph of the birds at the Care Center from a couple of Sundays ago. (You can tell that I'm shooting through some kind of window, probably Plexiglas, due to the streak across the dove.) The attention of both birds is on the camera, with the littler bird seeming to display some kind of attitude; the brown streaks on the sides of its head at first remind me of headphones, or possibly even sideburns. This was a single image that I processed into a total of 5 exposures using the Image Data Converter program that came with my NEX. I sent these generated exposures through Photomatix, and then I cropped the image in Aftershot Pro.

Fiery Clouds at the Sunset over the Mackinac Bridge

This HDR image of the Mackinac Bridge at sunset (from October 2013) is a fusion of 3 exposures (-3, 0, and +3). I love the colors in the clouds, and how they have taken on a fiery orange (and some purple hues) from the sunset.

Out of Focus Pictures Article in Digital Photo Magazine

Reading the latest issue of Digital Photo magazine (April 2014), I found an article by Tracey Clark of Shutter Sisters, who wrote of her adventures in figuring out how to take 'out of focus' pictures with her iPhone. My first thought was, "Why would you want to take out of focus pictures?" which, Clark (in the article) answers: "I've always enjoyed shooting out of focus (on purpose) for images that feel more like dreams than reality." And then, I started thinking about some of my own 'out of focus' photos.

Where my own 'lack of focus' may have been a little less intentional than Clark's, I went back and looked at these images with a different sense of interest. Do they feel "a little bit more like dreams than reality"? One in particular that caught my attention was this one, an early morning photo of the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan, with a freighter preparing to pass underneath. Autofocus was no match for the low-light (and the lights), so that I ended up with what follows.