Late Night with George and Ryan: Revisited
Ok, so I've received some compliments and I've received some criticisms. Here are two of the pictures with the original auto-WB settings.
Happy Earth Day!
It's such a beautiful day! A perfect backdrop for Earth Day. In order to do our part to. help Mother Earth, Carolyn and I bought a battery-powered lawn mower yesterday.
We have about 12 days before moving, but I'm sure the grass will be ready to go by then. I'll let you know how it goes.
We have about 12 days before moving, but I'm sure the grass will be ready to go by then. I'll let you know how it goes.
Late Night with George and Ryan
Ryan and I ventured out into the middle of nowhere (a.k.a. Wilmot County) last night to give our tripods a bit of a spring wakeup. The sky was clear for the first time and weeks, and it was warm enough that we could stay outside for a few hours. The photos aren't quite crisp, but it's difficult to achieve that at night because A) it's very difficult to focus, and B) long exposures mean that things like trees sway. We did get a couple that we liked. Here are some of mine:
We finally stopped at some farmer's driveway, having decided we were far enough from civilization; however, as you can see in this photo, Kitchener-Waterloo produces a lot of light.
This one was also taken from the first location. You can see some star trails reflected in the pond. I wish I had done a longer exposure.
We stopped outside the town of Wellesley, at a T-intersection. The trees were tall, and thus ideal for the foreground of a star-trail photo. We got a few cars passing through, which added some "dynamisism" (thanks Ryan), but unfortunately the star trais are too short for my liking. I tried a longer exposure with a much smaller aperture, but ended up with a washed-out photo, thanks to the bus and few trailers that came hurtling through the curve. I know what to tweak for next time though.
We finally stopped at some farmer's driveway, having decided we were far enough from civilization; however, as you can see in this photo, Kitchener-Waterloo produces a lot of light.
This one was also taken from the first location. You can see some star trails reflected in the pond. I wish I had done a longer exposure.
We stopped outside the town of Wellesley, at a T-intersection. The trees were tall, and thus ideal for the foreground of a star-trail photo. We got a few cars passing through, which added some "dynamisism" (thanks Ryan), but unfortunately the star trais are too short for my liking. I tried a longer exposure with a much smaller aperture, but ended up with a washed-out photo, thanks to the bus and few trailers that came hurtling through the curve. I know what to tweak for next time though.
More pictures?
Yes! These photographs were taken two weekends ago, when Carolyn, Ryan, Joy, Alex, and I went to the Maple Syrup Festival up in Elmira. The pancakes drenched in maple syrup were most excellent - sorry Alex - and the maple burger was a intriguing and delicatable twist. Oh, and the baklava... don't get me started... not quite like the stuff we had in Greece, but still... when you mix honey and nuts and phyllo, you can't go too far wrong.
Anyway, afterwards we took a detour past the West Montrose bridge.
A rusty old padlock on a decrepit old barn, just outside the parking lot. I warmed up this photo by setting the white-balance to Shade.
I wanted to emphasize the tree, yet still show the bridge. I actually wanted to keep the bridge red, but A) it's been done, and B) it wasn't a very vibrant red, so it wouldn't stand out. It was a rather gloomy day, so I decided to strip out all the colour and stick with form.
I needed some picture with the red bridge in it, so I took this one. I thought the dark red would provide good contrast against the light and frail plants.
Alex wanted me to take a picture of the mansion on the hill, so this one's for him. If anything screams 'Private', or 'Do not enter unless you have this much money', it's this house.
Anyway, afterwards we took a detour past the West Montrose bridge.
A rusty old padlock on a decrepit old barn, just outside the parking lot. I warmed up this photo by setting the white-balance to Shade.
I wanted to emphasize the tree, yet still show the bridge. I actually wanted to keep the bridge red, but A) it's been done, and B) it wasn't a very vibrant red, so it wouldn't stand out. It was a rather gloomy day, so I decided to strip out all the colour and stick with form.
I needed some picture with the red bridge in it, so I took this one. I thought the dark red would provide good contrast against the light and frail plants.
Alex wanted me to take a picture of the mansion on the hill, so this one's for him. If anything screams 'Private', or 'Do not enter unless you have this much money', it's this house.
Still catching up on pictures
With the sun quickly setting on a Thursday evening, Ryan and I scrambled trying to find a new location to snap some pics. We eventually settled on Gzowski Park, near my house-to-be.
Ok, I will admit that this photograph has been blatently manipulated. Let me know if you can determine what I've done. I'm curious if I did a good job or not.
Ok, this one is a bit cliché. Everyone has their own 'red glove on a black-and-white landscape' photo. I was curious how easy it would be to do with my editor (Photoshop Elements), and also, the original background is rather hum-drum, so I wanted to place all emphasis on the glove.
This one wasn't edited at all. I just like the lines.
[addendum]
Here is the original version of the photograph under scrutiny. Richard was on the right track... I moved the moon so that it is more centered; I felt it was just too close to the branch in the original, which ruined the aesthetic. I attempted to reframe the shot with the moon centered, but then the rest of the composition seemed off. I am not quite sure what it is, but I don't like this second attempt. As for sharpening, perhaps there was a slight amount when converting from RAW to JPEG, but I would hardly call that a blatent modification.
The mitt picture was not staged or spliced from separate pictures. It was just a mitt we saw on the grass while walking back to the car. This is the original photograph. I think the green is not bright enough for a nice high-contrast photo, nor is it depressingly dark enough... it's just kinda blah. So I got rid of the colour. This mitt actually had a brother up the street a little ways. I took a picture of it too, but it didn't look quite so lonely. Maybe one day they will be reunited.
Ok, I will admit that this photograph has been blatently manipulated. Let me know if you can determine what I've done. I'm curious if I did a good job or not.
Ok, this one is a bit cliché. Everyone has their own 'red glove on a black-and-white landscape' photo. I was curious how easy it would be to do with my editor (Photoshop Elements), and also, the original background is rather hum-drum, so I wanted to place all emphasis on the glove.
This one wasn't edited at all. I just like the lines.
[addendum]
Here is the original version of the photograph under scrutiny. Richard was on the right track... I moved the moon so that it is more centered; I felt it was just too close to the branch in the original, which ruined the aesthetic. I attempted to reframe the shot with the moon centered, but then the rest of the composition seemed off. I am not quite sure what it is, but I don't like this second attempt. As for sharpening, perhaps there was a slight amount when converting from RAW to JPEG, but I would hardly call that a blatent modification.
The mitt picture was not staged or spliced from separate pictures. It was just a mitt we saw on the grass while walking back to the car. This is the original photograph. I think the green is not bright enough for a nice high-contrast photo, nor is it depressingly dark enough... it's just kinda blah. So I got rid of the colour. This mitt actually had a brother up the street a little ways. I took a picture of it too, but it didn't look quite so lonely. Maybe one day they will be reunited.
Catching up on pictures
I forgot my T4 slip at work, so instead of doing my taxes, I'm catching up on some pictures I meant to post a while back. These are from last week, when I was supposed to meet Ryan. Most of the photos didn't turn out, but these ones are post-worthy. More pictures to come shortly.
I loved the contrast between this bright red bush and the cool blue water. I'm worried that I have too much negative space in the bottom-left corner, but the picture with ducks in the space takes away too much from the bush.
Not a fantastic picture per-say, but I did capture this goose squawking and chasing other geese. Cropped to emphasize the action.
I loved the contrast between this bright red bush and the cool blue water. I'm worried that I have too much negative space in the bottom-left corner, but the picture with ducks in the space takes away too much from the bush.
Not a fantastic picture per-say, but I did capture this goose squawking and chasing other geese. Cropped to emphasize the action.
Dance your cares away...
As you may know, Carolyn and I have been taking dancing lessons for almost 2 years now (minus several business trips, vacataions, and European treks) at the Fred Astaire dance studio. We started because we wanted to learn to dance for my sister's wedding, but we just kept going, because it's fun and it's exercise, and we can do it together (awww, how sappy). Well, we had a test last week (along with 30 other students), where the owner of the studio marked us as we went through the typical six dances (waltz, foxtrot, tango, rumba, cha cha, and swing). Normally I don't like sharing this stuff, but I'm pretty proud to say that we averaged about 90% on our dances, ranging from 88% to 93%. Yay team! And, if you haven't tried dancing, you should give it a shot because you might be surprised.
Word of the Day
Today's word of the day is: proprioception.
Proprioception is, as defined by our friends at wikipedia:
"the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body".
So essentially it's knowing that your hand at your side, without having to actually visually check. Now, imagine trying to live without that sense. It does happen.
And you thought you took your five senses for granted.
Proprioception is, as defined by our friends at wikipedia:
"the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body".
So essentially it's knowing that your hand at your side, without having to actually visually check. Now, imagine trying to live without that sense. It does happen.
And you thought you took your five senses for granted.
