Valley of Fire
I had a little time to myself today so I decided to check out Valley of Fire State Park. It is a little over an hour from Las Vegas. By the time I got there, it was Noon and the light was not good. Also disappointing was the sky. There were no clouds even though while driving there the sky looked promising.
The image above was taken as the sun dipped behind one of the many ranges in the park. I was using the Lumix S1R with the 24-105mm f/4 lens. Exposure triad: f/16, 2 sec., ISO 100.
The next image is from a more direct viewpoint and captured shortly after the first image. For a brief moment, the colors in the sandstone just came alive. Exposure triad: f/16, 2 sec., ISO 100.
Peace and Tranquility
f/10, 60 sec., ISO 200
Please click on the image for a larger rendition.
This image was captured earlier this year in Falmouth, Massachusetts. At about 7:00 PM the sun was low on the horizon. I wanted to do a long exposure capture but these pilings had a flock of cormorants perched on them, Fortunately, a noisy ski boat disturbed them giving me just enough time for this 60-second exposure.
Creative Photography
As I tend to spend more time indoors during the winter, I am looking for unique ways of image capture. I love using my Platypod - tripod alternatives as they are so convenient and maneuverable. For these images, I went a bit overboard, one Platypod Max to support my Lumix S1R with the 24-105 f/4 lens, one Max to hold up the LensBall, two Platypod Ultras with a Platypod gooseneck and a Litra Torch 2 each. A third Platypod Ultra with a gooseneck and a clothespin to hold the flower.
Tiny shifts in the camera angle or flower position create beautiful fluid lines since the Lensball acts like an exaggerated fish-eye lens.
I captured hundreds of images - here in this post are two that I really like a lot.
Light Table Photography on a Snowy Day
With 8 or more inches of snow and not being in a mood to go outside, I set up this composition on a makeshift light table. It is the top of a slide viewer placed on four plastic cups for support. The lights are three Litra Pros set at 5500 Kelvin and full brightness. 7 images were captured starting with a normal exposure for the flowers and then increasing in exposure by 2/3 stop for each subsequent image. The images were then blended in Photoshop 2020 with selective masking for this final result that gives the effect of translucency.
The starting exposure was f/14, 1/160 sec at ISO 400. Captured with the Panasonic Lumix S1R and the 24-105 f/4 lens.