Trying To Find The Road Not Taken

I tried to get as close as possible to the great blue heron, but it was quite late in the evening and the sun had set. The picture is quite grainy.

I did some more experiments with Photoshop CS3 and the Black and White adjustments. This is another photo that originated in color digitally. I applied a red filter to make the clouds pop more and then did some fine adjustments to the levels using layer masks to darken certain areas.

Below is the original image.

In Photoshop CS3 there is a new feature, Image > Adjustments > Black and White. In the dialog there are several presets you can choose from, one is Infrared. I’ve always admired, Dave’s infrared photography, which he does with an attachment for his camera. I haven’t broken down yet and gotten an attachment.

This experiment though has made me really want to get one though. I did a little tweaking of this photo after the basic infrared was applied. I created a slight vignetting, along with some edge blur. I’m happy with the final product.

Here is the original image.

Looking back through Flickr at my most popular photos, I still love this one. It was taken at Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. If your a fan of outdoor music, picnics and don’t mind a drive, it’s well worth the trip. Tanglewood is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Craig will get lawn tickets for us and we’ll drive up with our chairs, blanket and a book and listen to classical music. Very relaxing.

I ordered from B&H Photo a 0.9 Neutral Density filter, just for taking photos of waterfalls. In Machias is Bad Little Falls, luckily for me, there was plenty of water flowing through them. I set the tripod up, with the filter and used my remote to snap photos.

I had the camera settings at ISO100 / f18 / 1.6s.

We took a ride out to Cutler on Wednesday. It’s a quiet peaceful ride out from Machias and the bay never disappoints. I took some photos with the 18-55mm lense, along with the 100-300mm lense. I like how the more close up photos came out.

I drove back to Mount Desert Island on Saturday evening and decided to try to meet up with my group at Thurston’s Lobster Pound, but stopped at Southwest Harbor (Map) to take pictures of the sailboats in the harbor. I tried to take photos here in 2004 but my camera was stolen later in the day and I lost the photos.

When I pulled over, another photographer was out shooting photos already. I took out my tripod, camera, remote and started setting up. I used the graduated filter to keep the sky in color while also getting the boats exposed.

When I walked over to the area side of the dock area, I met Ted, who was the other photographer. We started chatting and it turned out he lived one road over from where Craig and I lived for a year and a half. He shared with me information on the photography class he was taking while in Maine. We swapped contact information and websites. I finally had a chance to give a moo card to someone who did not know me prior.

By request, some more info : )

Location: Cadillac Mountain Summit Loop Trail on Mount Desert Island in Maine, in Acadia National Park
Camera Settings: ISO100 / f8 / 1/320s / 18mm focal length

I used a graduated filter on the lense to keep the sky a deep rich blue while exposing the trail properly. If you’ve never been to Acadia National Park, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s beautiful, scenic and the whole Maine coast is wonderful to explore. If you like to hike and particularly bicycle it’s a little slice of heaven.