Frank's Photography Blog

Archive Page 27

Oct

Jim Thorpe Photo Expedition 2015

By Frank T. Smith Closed

Categories: Photography
Tags: Autumn, Dan's Camera, Expedition, Fall, Jail, Jim Thorpe, Olympus, OM-D E-M1, Photo, photo workshop, Photograph, Photography, Rain, Train, Vintage, Workshop

This past weekend we had another sell out Dan’s Camera City workshop/photoshoot sponsored by Olympus in beautiful Jim Thorpe, PA. Mother Nature started us off with a little bit of rain in the morning. But she cooperated as the day went on. We had a great group of very creative photographers on the excursion. We had private access to the Old Jail, our own train car and amazing opportunities in the town. All-in-all we had a great day and great fun! All my images below were shot with the Olympus OM-D E-M1.

Oct

Saucon Valley Conservancy 2015

By Frank T. Smith Closed

Categories: Photography
Tags: Artifacts, Barn, Conservancy, Docents, Olympus, OM-D E-M5 MkII, Photo, photo workshop, Photograph, Photography, Photoshoot, Saucon Valley, Vintage, Workshop

A few weeks ago, we had the annual SVC barn/workshop/photoshoot in Hellertown, PA. We had a great group of photographers and some wonderful young docents/models. We were also granted access to some new locations with some amazing artifacts.

Oct

Super Blood Moon Eclipse

By Frank T. Smith 4 Comments

Categories: Photography
Tags: Cape May, Eclipse, Lunar, Lunar Eclipse, Moon, Night, Olympus, OM-D E-M5 MkII, Photo, Photograph, Photography, Super Blood Moon

I was fortunate to be in Cape May NJ the evening (September 27th) of the Super Blood Moon Eclipse. What an amazing experience to witness this rare event from the beach. This was shot between 8:00PM & 1:00AM. The images were taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II and the 40-150mm f2.8 + MC14. This gave me a full frame equivalent of 421 mm.

Sep

TEDx Lehigh River 2015

By Frank T. Smith Closed

Categories: Photography
Tags: Allentown Symphony Hall, Miller Symphony Hall, Olympus, OM-D E-M1, Photo, Photograph, Photography, Symphony Hall, TED Talks, TEDx, TEDx Lehigh River

Theme: Why Not?

TEDxLehighRiver 2015 will bring together a diverse group of speakers and audience members from the Lehigh Valley and beyond for a program of engaging and thought-provoking presentations and conversation reflecting the quotation from George Bernard Shaw: “You see things and say, Why? But I dream things that never were and say, WHY NOT?”

The event was held this past Saturday at Miller Symphony Hall in Allentown, PA to an audience in excess of a couple hundred people. I love the concept of TED talks. I have had the opportunity to photograph this local event since it started in 2013 and I was one of the original presenters also.

This year’s cast of presenters (see the images below) did not disappoint. They included:

Dr. Catherine Moore
English Teacher, English Literature and Theatre

George Hrab
Multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, producer, composer, and heliocentrist

Joyce Marin
Executive Director of Renew Lehigh Valley

Lauren Villaverde
Engineer and entrepreneur

Liz Jordon
Certified yoga instructor trained in Trauma Sensitive Yoga

Michael Brolly
Wood turning artist, teacher, environmentalist

Sep

Yale University

By Frank T. Smith 4 Comments

Categories: Photography
Tags: Architectural, architecture, Dramatic, Historic, Milford Photo, Olympus, OM-D E-M5 MkII, Photo, Photo Walk, photo workshop, Photograph, Photography, SOOC, University, Vintage, Yale, Yale University

Last weekend I led a photo-walk for Milford Photo sponsored by Olympus at Yale University. We had a great turnout and great weather. I have never been to this location and I’m already looking forward to going back. During the photo-walk, I thought I would concentrate on various graphic elements of the buildings and work with the built in black & white filter “Dramatic Tone”. Most of these images are SOOC (straight out of the camera) with some minor lens perspective correction.

Aug

Wehr Covered Bridge

By Frank T. Smith 2 Comments

Categories: Photography
Tags: Bridge, Clouds, Dam, Live Composite, Olympus, OM-D E-M5 MkII, PA, Pennsylvania, Photo, Photograph, Photography, Sky, South Whitehall, Wehr Covered Bridge

In South Whitehall, Pennsylvania there is a park area known as Wehr’s Dam/Covered Bridge. The historic wooden bridge was constructed in 1841. So with my gear in hand from an earlier shoot, I thought it would be a good place to capture a few pics. The only challenge was it was the middle of the day with harsh light.

I have been experimenting with Olympus’s “Live Composite” mode which is a feature available on the OM-D series cameras. Most of the time this mode is used for night shots. Lately, I have tried doing this during the daytime hours with the hope of creating a painterly effect. However, to do this during the day, you will need some ND filters. The images I’m sharing consist of two 10 stop ND filters. Needless to say you must have a tripod to make this work and some moving component to create the desired effect. In this case it was the clouds that I wanted moving. The effect is a result of cloud movement and not a post-processing effect. The first two images were about 5 minutes in length & the third image was approximately 2 minutes. On Saturday we had some beautiful fast moving clouds which made for ideal conditions to accomplish my objective.

Jul

Sunset Beach Water Tower

By Frank T. Smith Closed

Categories: Photography
Tags: Cape May, Industrial, Industrial Ruin, New Jersey, NJ, Olympus, OM-D E-M5 MkII, Photo, Photograph, Photography, Water Tower, Wide Angle

A few weeks ago I was in Cape May NJ. We were working our way towards Sunset Beach. The plan was to get some shots of the abandoned water tower. I thought it might be a 30 – 60 minute shoot. It ended up being a couple of hours. I was quite amazed with the place. It sits on a Magnesite plant that was active during WWII. The plant was used to make Magnesite which was used to make steel among other industrial supplies. All of the shots were taken with my Olympus 7-14 f2.8 lens. The location begged to be shot with a wide angle lens and processed in B&W.

Jul

Brookgreen Gardens

By Frank T. Smith 2 Comments

Categories: Photography
Tags: Brookgreen, Brookgreen Gardens, Flora, Flowers, Gardens, Landscape, Olympus, OM-D E-M5 MkII, Photo, Photograph, Photography, Plantation, SC, Sculpture, South Carolina

Last week I was on vacation in Myrtle Beach, SC. I took the opportunity one morning to visit the Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet. The place is a sculpture garden & wildlife preserve and it is beautiful beyond belief. The property consists of 9,100 acres and is built on four former rice plantations. I would compare it to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. But with a very southern feel and charm. One of their missions is to collect, conserve and exhibit figurative sculpture by American artists.

Jul

Jurassic Park

By Frank T. Smith 2 Comments

Categories: Photography
Tags: Elk, Jurassic Park, Landscape, Olympus, Photo, Photograph, Photography, Rain, TG-4, Trexler Nature Preserve

On the morning of the 4th of July, we decided to brave the elements (pouring rain) and do a hike at the Trexler Nature Preserve in Schnecksville, PA. It consists of over 1,100 acres and was originally funded by General Harry Trexler. The area we hiked reminded me of Jurassic Park, hence the name of this post. I kept waiting for a Pterodactyl to come swooping down. Fortunately there were none.