September happens to be one of my Favorite months... and I am super excited to be able to try and get some interesting shots around Cape Cod.  Here are two from sunrise this morning.  One Color and one Black and White.

This evening I spent a little time re-visiting an older project which I always felt a little unhappy with the results of.  This Bridge was a great subject but at the time of shooting the light levels were very low and the images I captured were rather washed out.  Well I am now playing with the Topaz Software plugin for Photoshop and at last I am able to get close tothe results I was "hoping" for when I did this shoot.  Here is the first....  stay tuned ...

Now the days are getting a little cooler I am getting the shutter bug again ....   Here are a few random shots which I completed this morning.  All with different processes.

Two from the weekend.  I found some nice subjects this past weekend which I am still working on but here's a couple of new ones.  Firstly a tree.  A giant weeping English Beech which had the most amazing "elephant skin" texture to it.  The other is a stairway I noticed as I walked along the Beach.  Thought it would make a nice B&W

I definitely feel like I am going through a gothic phase when it comes to my photography as of late.  Something draws me to it.  So here are a few of the shots from the last week or so that I have processed.  Firstly we have an old run-down house which as usual I saw as I drove by.  My rule of ALWAYS carrying my camera gear with me in my car paid off....    A few more shots from the Graveyard from last week here also.  Finally to cheer us all up was a snap of a nice flower and driftwood over on Chapin Beach.  Enjoy!

As promised here are some of the shots from the shoot at the Woodside Cemetery in Barnstable last week.  A very unique place.  It has a great sense of age which is why I have processed my shots in this way.  Dark vignettes seem to fit the mood I think.  These were taken at around 6pm so there is some nice dappled light filtering through the trees.

Sometimes I get a picture in my head of a shot I want long before I get to shoot it.  This is one such occasion where the finished result is very much like the one I had in my mind for well over a month.

























And a closer look at the ironwork

I have been thinking about creating a personal watermark for a while and I have now finally completed it.  I was wanting a "stamp" effect.  Nice and simple.  Here you can see it in the bottom right of this image.

What to do on a rainy afternoon?  Well it just so happens that overcast skies offer some of the best light to take photos so off into the garden I went in between showers to have a little fun.  Found a small flower which looked nice on the rain-soaked wooden decking and then had some fun in Photoshop.  These two images are almost opposites of each other and show what you can achieve with a little de-saturation on color.  Very effective and very cool.

Last one from the shoot and a slightly different view of the tracks taken from the right hand side.  I used a polarizing filter to bring out more color contrast without using photoshop.  It worked rather well.

Here's something interesting.  I have posted four different processes of the same image.  All of the same scene.  I took the shots on top of the Bridge which I had photographed for my previous Post.  They show how a picture can look so different and interesting when textures are applied.  The First (top) is taken as a five exposure shot from the tripod and then tone-mapped to bring out the details.  Next is a Black and White which shows how much amazing contrast comes out when shooting multi-exposures.  The third one is a mixture of the first two.  Just letting the colors bleed through....        I cropped them to look like the tracks were leading into a distant hole.  Turned out good in my opinion.      Click on them for a closer look.                            which do you like best?

Another drive down scenic Route 6a and this time I got to stop and shoot a landmark I have always wanted to take a closer look at.  The bridge in itself if a really good subject but when you add on the unique Graffiti it becomes something completely Great.

I drive past this view at least five times a week and it is one of the places I have wanted to stop and photograph as it is such a "picture perfect" scene.  Well tonight I did just that and managed to capture the trees in their first Spring coat of the Season.  I will return to this later in the Summer I think when things are in full bloom.  Five exposures taken with Pentax.

I have been having a lot of fun lately "playing" in Photoshop....  so much to learn. Almost too much.  However, I have been treating a few of my older shots with some interesting effects and processes.  This shot of Follins Pond really needed something that looked antique.  After many attempts I came up with this effect.  Many layer styles combined with paper texture and I think it looks rather nice.  I may even have this one printed and framed.  The original shot was taken with 3 exposures on my $180 Canon point and shoot.  Get creative people!  Take a look.....

What to shoot on a rainy cold weekend?   How about a bowl of water and some flash photography.  My first time trying this and it was a fun project to waste away an hour or so....   Taken with my Pentax (on tripod) at 55mm  @ F5.6.

Shot One:  Isn't it amazing how nature has a funny way of repeating patterns?  This one came out looking very much like a tudor rose.



















Shot Two:  A much softer image with some extra light added to smoothen things out a little.













Shot Three:   Just as the droplet hits....

Just a few more of my "leftover" shots from my evening shots at Scudder Lane.  First is a sunset over the rocks and the second is one of those scenes that caught my eye.  It was a footprint (not mine) which was about to be washed over by the incoming tide.  A perfect definition of a "snapshot" if there was one...

Sometimes I find it fun to play with compositions.  This was a piece of Mill machinery on display. I went for a symmetry in this one. Almost as though it were a building drawn on paper by a architect.  Converted to Black and White for more impact.  I like the way it turned out.

Here I wanted to write a few words about my "style" which I think I am falling into.  I tend to enjoy taking shots which are full of detail and micro detail.  Ones which you can get lost in by looking around at all the details instead of just looking at the "bigger picture".  On my way home from work today I stopped at a Grist Mill which I have driven past 1000's of times before without even thinking of taking a closer look.  Tonight however I stopped and as I always carry my trusty Canon Point and shoot and tripod in my car I thought I would do a couple of quick shots.  I wanted to give you an idea of what I try to "capture" at a scene like this.  The top image is the one that I used to take.  It's a fairly nice shot.  One I would normally have been happy with. However, it lacks tone and definition simply because my camera is unable to pick up all of the details/colors/contrast in a single shot.  Look how over-exposed the wall and water is on the bottom right of the image and how the grass on the left is very "flat"  The bottom image is where I am at right now on my journey.  Taken from a low vantage point (I was on my belly getting wet!) and after a total of five different exposures it came out so much more vibrant and packed with the details I was looking for.  The wall, the grass, the water.  Zoom into both shots to see the difference.  So yes, I think my style is developing nicely.....















And here is another angle.  This time looking down from the top of the slew.

More shots from the beach again ....   These were much later in the day and the sun was almost over the horizon.  The last rays were being cast onto the rocks on the first shot which give it a very "alien" landscape.  Wonderful!   The other shot is a close-up of an old wooden stump leftover from some long forgotten Jetty which is now barnacle encrusted and almost completely washed away....

An evening stroll along the beach always produces fantastic opportunities for interesting shots.  What was there one day can look completely different the next.  Here are three examples of my trip to Scudder Lane.  These three were 6 exposure shots taken with my Pentax 18-55mm

I forgot about this one which I took a couple of weeks ago.  Low POV which Im really enjoying using.  I made the bad choice of compressing this by accident so it's a little "washy"

Not the greatest of days to take pics but even when at work I find a few minutes to find something interesting.  Again, shot with my trusty Canon (easy to fit in my pocket) I found some nice looking rusty pipes in a wood pile....   3 shots....  done!

I used my small Canon camera for this as it works best at showing micro detail on shots such as this one.  It feels like you could almost reach out and touch the reeds and grasses.

Although this shot has a TON of noise and looks so over-processed I posted it on here to show how much detail multi-bracketing can bring out.  The 3 shots for this were taken in almost complete darkness and the final exposure was 22 seconds!  NO FLASH USED!  All things considered it turned out better than I thought it would.