Merry Christmas

Hello Everyone,

I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thank you for all of your support.

Nick

The Little Things, African Violet

Hello everyone

As a photographer and in any business it's important to have goals. Sometimes the accomplishment can be monetary value

or a confidence booster. One of my goals for this coming year is that I want to increase my floral/macro collection. I came up with the name 'The Little Things,' to ensure the focus is on macro images. Here on this African Violet I used a small depth of field, low f-stop, to blur the background. Background control is very important with a close up shot like this, also I used a little Topez Buzz.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Gone fishing

Hello everyone

Here's another image from the small mountain stream near Worlds End State Park. While capturing the whole falls and stream a fisherman aka my father in law came in to cast a couple of times for some native trout. This image is all about being in the right place at the right time. The hardest part was getting him to get into the shot.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Standing Guard

Hello Everyone,

These rock formations are along the Loyalsok creek by the entrance to Worlds End State Park. They mysteriously appeared during the Sullivan County bowhunters festival this past September.

Enjoy

Nick

Worlds End State Park

Hello everyone, sorry for the delay in posts, it's been pretty busy around here. This past weekend I was up in Sullivan County and Worlds End State Park. This mountain stream is outside of the park. The water level on all of the creeks and streams was amazing.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

The Little Things

Hello Everyone, while shooting a barn scene this summer. I happened to look into a grassy area by a fence pole. That's where I found this little guy. I was able to get a few shots off. He didn't seem to be in a rush to go anywhere.

Enjoy

Nick

Windmill & Barn

Hello everyone, these past couple of week's I've been going over past images from the summer to see if there is anything I missed. This shot came from an outing with Ed Heaton around Strasburg. We both processed our images in B&W. I feel that it gives a look from a different century. A time in place where things moved a little slower.

I also want to give a thank you to all my viewers of this blog. I never realised how many view's I've been getting till I checked out the stats to this page. Thank you and your comments are always appreciated.

Hope enjoy

Nick

Kelly's Run

Yesterday I hiked parts of Kelly's Run nature preserve near Holtwood. Part of the plan was to scout out area's to shoot for fall color's the other part was to see how low the is the water. Now we've had a hot and dry summer so I knew the water levels would be low, but I didn't think they would be that low. This scene was hidden between a couple of boulders and it was the only 'white' water I could find. This gorge has nice tumbling water down a gorge and if it isn't for the steep hike in and out I'd shoot more often. Hopefully we can get about 3-4 inches of good soaking ran so these creek's can fill up again. Enjoy

Nick

Hot Air Ballon

Hello everyone,

This is the first image of a couple of Hot Air Balloon image's from Sunday. Ed Harding & I spent about 45 minutes stalking this ballon. At first it was to far, then the light was bad, or a distracting background. Finally we reached a spot were the balloon seemed to stand still for a minute while low to the ground. Giving us ample time to shot off a couple of images. One of the amusing things about this is about 10 Amish buggies went by and neither of us took a shot at them.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Warm Light on Farm

This morning I met up friend & photographer for a sunrise. Like a couple of days ago there was no cloud in the sky and a little bit of mist. This shot here is a 5shot HDR image. I used Topez Simplify to enhance the warm light and mist.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

First light on the Railroad

Here's another image from yesterday morning. We met at the Strasburg railroad. The light from the day was just starting to light up the tracks. Also I liked the silhouette of the water tank.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Country Sunrise

Hello everyone, this morning I met up with Ed Heaton and did some farm shooting in Lancaster County. There was some area's of fog out all in all with the cool temperatures it made a nice day out. This shot was taken just as the sun was coming up over the horizon. I wished the hot air balloon was a little closer but I felt it added a little bit to what already is a nice scene.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Reflections

Hello Everyone, here's an image taken from a recent trip to Longwood. One of the things I looked for when shooting the water lilies are reflections. To better promote the subject. Also simplicity, there is nothing that takes your eye away from the subject.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Longwood #2

Another image from Longwood Gardens. I drifted away from the water lilies for a bit. I wasn't to happy with allot of the blossoms. Because of the direct sun and high temps. the blossoms were not very good. I did mess around with this group of cone flowers for a bit though

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Waterliley

Hello everyone, I met up with some friends at Longwood Gardens the other day. It was a good time catching up with some that I haven't seen in a while and meeting some new people. Here's my first image. I did alot of simple shots with a reflection this one seems to be one of my favorites.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Gladiola

Hello everyone here's an image from some of the Gladiola's that are blooming in the backyard. I liked how all the pollen stems are standing together.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Red & Yellow

With these hot temperatures that we are having I spent most of this weekend trying to keep cool. I made a couple of floral arrangements from the flowers in the backyard and shot them inside. The first one I used a little buzz for a painting effect. Really makes the colors pop. The second one I set up for a long exposure. I moved my lens in and out of focus for a soft type of look.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Black & White

Every once and a while I'll shoot flowers in Black & White. I like the 'old school' feeling. Like it was taken back in the 1930s. But it was just today.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Fireworks #2

Enjoy

Fireworks

Hello everyone, every year on the Friday before the fourth of July Lancaster has fireworks downtown. This year I had a really good vantage point. Fireworks can sometimes be a little tricky but if you prepare enough a head of time it can go really smooth. The metadata on this image is a 30 second shutter at f-11.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Soft Stream

Hello everyone, here's my quarterly shot of these falls in Tucquan Glen. I went down on Sunday with Ed Heaton for the Rhododendrons. We were too late and I'm not going to hike a mile and a half one way with camera equipment for nothing. I wanted to do things alittle different. I took a couple of steps back to concentrate more on the water, also I used my Tiffen soft f/x filter & applied a buzz during editing. Same scene that I've shot before just a few adjustments. I probably won't be back down there till peak fall foliage so I made most of my time.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Stand Together

Hello everyone with a newborn in the house it's alittle more difficult to get out and shoot. I think that's why we have a garden. In between naps I did some macro work with the Lily's out back. Here I wanted a blurred background and the mouth of the flower blurred. So kept my Depth-of-Field so narrow that only the tips of the first couple of stems are in focus.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Winding Road #2

I want to share this other image I took while scouting out some area's in Lancaster County. This was right before the amish buggy came barreling down behind me.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Skyline Sunset

Last night I jumped up on my roof to capture the sun reflection in the Marriot as it set. This reflection will only last about a month and the clouds and sky have to be perfectly set up for it. The only problem I had was the wind. That's why all the tree's have a little blur to them.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Winding Road

Yesterday my wife & I went out on a little scouting trip of some back roads in southeastern Lancaster County. We came up on top of this hill and both liked the view of the farm and hills around it. When we were wrapping up a amish buggy passed by us and I decided to take a quick one.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Dayliley #2

Spent some this afternoon capturing some of the Daylilies in my wife's garden. I had some great late afternoon side light then back light.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Gulf Pelican

I wanted to post this blog on account of what's going on in the Gulf of Mexico. Even through the oil is still leaking we will be losing alot of wildlife. Images of oil soaked Pelicans are very common now but we will rebound. I don't want to write a political blog. I just feel it's important to understand what we are losing.
Hope you enjoy
Nick

Tucquan Trail

Here's another shot from my trip to Tucquan Glen last week. Like I said in an earlier post I spent most of my time shooting the tree's and the trial's. Here I think is a nice simple shot with plenty of patterns.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Tucquan Trees

Today I made a scouting trip over to Tucquan Glen. The point of the trip was to check out the progress of the Rhododendrons. Unfortunately they were not yet blooming. I didn't take very many creek shots. But what I did do is spend time photographing the tree's. Have a great weekend

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Dayliley

This evening I spent some time shooting my brand new Day liley blossom. I was tinkering around with different approaches that you can take with flower photography. This image I used a narrow DOF to blur the stems of the pollen at the same time I used a flash to highlight the water droplets on the leaves.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Walking in a Spider Web

I've been spending time shooting this Spider Web in my backyard. I can only crouch down so much till my knee's get sore.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Rose experiment

This morning I went out to capture some images of my Rose bush. I really wanted to get some creative close up of the leaves in sort of a pattern detail. I also wanted water droplets. One of the main problems I've come across with this bush is background control. As well as over saturated colors. While processing the image I used a gradient tool with selective color to keep the background dark without losing the detail in the blossom.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

First Light in the Rocks

This is another image from the outing at Holtwood. I concentrated on shooting just the reflection in the rocks because 1 I wasn't sure how long this light would last. and 2 Ed Heaton was shooting a wider version and I wanted something different. I ran this through as a pseudo-HDR image to bring out the shadows then added a Topez buzz for the painterly/colorful effect.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

New Falls

Sunday morning I got together with Ed Heaton for a sunrise shoot. Well the sunrise was a little bit of a washout. We did manage to venture up a familiar trail to both of us at Holtwood. This set falls are up stream from an area that I've shot many times. But this is the first at this spot.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

From the side

With my backyard blossoming everyday, I'm really saving on gas. This image I took this morning, with rain coming in I wanted to get it before the petals became damaged. I shot it from this angle because of the stems in the back as well as the pollen stems inside make this flower interesting to sit and stare at. Actually I don't know what this flower is called. I usually call everything a daisy but I know it's not that.

Hope you enjoy and have a good weekend

Nick

Ajuga Abstract

This is a seven image multi exposed abstract image taken in my backyard. The Ajuga also known as a 'Bugleweed' is a great ground cover / broader plant for any ones garden. Grows approximately 12" in height but it covers a radius of about 24 inches. The Latin word is 'Ajuga genevensis.' It is a native European plant.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Before & After

This past weekend we had some storms roll through the area. Although it was the same system that wrecked havoc on the plains and southern area's of the country. They weren't as damaging here. Yesterday afternoon while working around the house my wife informed me of a 'dark sky' approaching. Due to the wind already picking up I had only had a few seconds to take the shot. Later on in the evening I was outside in time to capture the light reflecting of the buildings of downtown Lancaster. Both images were in my backyard taken while standing on a lawn chair and about 4 hours apart.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Erbs Covered Bridge, part 2

I wanted to share another image from Erbs Covered Bridge. This time I shot it horizontally. I wanted to get the entire length of the bridge as well as the white picket fence and the fisherman on the bank. And for an artistic approach I added a Topez Simplify for a painterly effect.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Erbs Covered Bridge

Saturday morning I made a little trip up to Erbs Covered Bridge. I did some scouting of the area a couple of weeks ago of the creek and the bridge. My main goal was to get a solid shot of the bridge with a good reflection.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Rflections

I'm a big fan of reflection shots. I'm also a big fan of making frequent visits to one spot because you become familiar with how the weather and seasons effect the area. Down around the Holtwood Dam I've been there so many times that it becomes challenging to come up with something new. But with the sun out on a late afternoon you can really capture the light hitting the trees on the bank from the water in the creek.

Hope enjoy

Nick

Bank of the Loyalsock

This past weekend I made a trip to Sullivan County mainly for the start of Trout season. I did allot of scouting out locations for future trips, and figuring my way around. Even though it was a fishing trip I did manage to take a few shots. Which with everything going on these days is getting harder to do. This is just outside of World's End State Park. Hope you enjoy.

Nick

Snow Goose

Here's another image from Middle Creek. I wanted to share this because of the last several weeks it seems the discussions among friends has been 'background control.' This was taken just when the sun was hitting the bird and the grass behind it. But by working through layers and levels I was able to darken the grass to keep the attention and focus on the bird who happened to be a good subject for a few minutes.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Goose in the fog

This morning I got together with Ed Harding at Middle Creek Wildlife Management. Most of the Snow Geese are gone but there were still plenty of birds to photograph. This image I ran through Topez Detail I wanted to kept it soft to enhance the mood of the light fog. But also bring out the sun as it was rising.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Tulips

This image I took at Longwood about a week ago. I really liked the composition. The out of focus Tulips and the two leafs on either side build a good frame to the one Tulip that I focused on. But the one thing I didn't like was the rest of the background, it was to distracting. Late last night I was reading Bob Lott's blog, he had the same issue with different flowers. So following his idea I cut out the background in layers then filled it in with a solid color. Bob used Topez but I just kept it to Adobe Photoshop. I still used the same post-processing that I would use with any other image. Thanks Bob,

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Empire Tulip

These tulips at Longwood really caught my eye. Except for the foot traffic increasing I could have spent a few hours. I like the details in the stems and the color scheme.
Hope you enjoy
Nick

Compostion 1 of 2, Rule of Thirds

"Great Photographs are created, not by following some recipe, but by careful process of thinking and planning." --Unknown.

This month and next month I want to discuss composition. This month I'm discussing rule of thirds. Next month will be lines. For everything we do in life there is a set of rules without rules there would be chaos. But also there is a time and a place 'break' the rules. In photography we have the 'rule of thirds.' Which states that an image should be broken into 9 equal parts spaced by 2 equal horizontal lines and 2 equal vertical lines. And important compositional elements should be placed where these lines intersect. This creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition then just centering it up. Now there is a time and a place to break this rule and that is if the image is a stronger image and you purposely broke the rule to enhance your composition and increase your creativity. Go ahead and break it. My bridge reflection here I purposely broke the rule to have an equal amount reflection and sky. My creek image I did place it off center to make the eye move along the stream. I feel one of the pitfalls that is easy for anyone to fall into is being 'bound' by the rules. Don't be afraid to break them in order to enhance your image.

Hope you enjoy

Nick

Hans Herr House

This afternoon on our way home from Longwood Gardens, my wife and I made a quick stop over at the Hans Herr house. With it being so close by I've never made it out to the site. But I really wanted to get over while there is some snow on the ground. Hans Herr is one of the original settlers to the Lancaster County area. This year is marking the 300th anniversary of there settlement. Due to the high winds and snow I underexposed for a fast shutter. Then I processed it as an HDR image and added Topaz Simplify for the paint.

Hope you enjoy

Nick