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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Not to be stopped by some challenging weather. I went out this morning with the new waterproof Olympus TG-4. Here are some of the rain day images.
Earlier this week I did a private workshop for about 3 dozen participants at the Glasbern Inn located in Fogelsville, PA. The place is gorgeous and they raise, grow and prepare most of their food on-site. I had been here in the past. But never took the time to meander around the grounds. They have ponds, pools, green houses, walking trails and beautiful architectural structures. I look forward to revisiting this place.
I have done some work in the past for WLVT PBS 39. A few weeks ago they asked me if I could assist them by creating a new backdrop, which will be used, when they interview local and regional politicians. We discussed various options and decided on downtown Allentown, PA. Particularly, with all of the new activity and construction taking place, it seemed to make sense. The following final three images are what they selected. It was fun to see the image show up as a backdrop on MSNBC the other day.
This past weekend I was delighted to do a presentation and a photo-walk for National Camera Exchange and Olympus in the Minneapolis area. I had never been there before and I can tell you it is a beautiful area. The people and the city were amazing. A special thank you to Ashley Ondricek who organized both events. I’m looking forward to visiting again.
The last couple of weeks have been amazing for spring time images.
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