Well the rain here in NE Ohio has been relentless fortunately I made it out to shoot last week.  I had a tough time making images as the forest lacked the clean shots I like to take.  I liked this one because of the detail and color.

When I go out to do photography I sometimes go with an idea of an image that I want to try to make.  This particular evening I saw that the weather forecast was dicey so I figured I might have a chance of getting good clouds and light over downtown Cleveland.  Fortunately the light on downtown never materialized and because of that I was watching for other things to shoot.  As the sun was setting this tug motored out to meet two incoming freighters.  The water texture and the sun glinting off the hull make this image for me.

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This was taken at North Chagrin Reservation. There was an area right in the parking lot full of bluets so I spent about an hour shooting different angles.  This is my favorite.  Proof you don’t have to go far to find a photograph.

Thanks to my friends Amie and Todd, I was able to make this image last night over near their house.  This is a pair of juvenile  barred owls that were actively begging their parent for food.  This made them much easier to locate but they were still very hard to find in the dense trees.  I lucked out and was able to make this image.  Pushing the camera equipment and my skills to the limit.  If you noticed in the exposure stats I was using a very, very slow shutter speed for such a long lens.  Most of the time you don’t want to be shooting any slower than 1/500 sec.  I also had to use noise ninja to clean up the image since it was shot at ISO 1600 and cleaned up a branch that was distracting.

It feels good to be back out shooting again.  Unfortunately I have to send the 500mm back to Lensprotogo Thursday it’s a nice piece of equipment.  Thanks again Amie and Todd for the help finding the owls and the great stir fry!

Well after two days of snow and about 8 or so inches later, I figured I’d venture out and do some shooting.  I only had about an hour of light left after going to a great photography exhibition at the Brecksville Center for the Arts.  They are featuring 6 photographers from the Cleveland Photographic Society.

According to the National Park Service website the Everett Road Covered Bridge is a historical replica built in 1986 after high water during a spring storm lifted the original off its foundation in 1975.  This is also the only remaining covered bridge in summit county.

For this shot I used the polarizer to remove the reflections from the water in the opening in the ice and the ND filter to produce a long exposure to blur the water.  I also used a very low camera angle to make the foreground an important element in the image.  So far 2009 is off to a good start.

I got a new camera this week and had a chance to go out and do some shooting with it yesterday. The camera I got is a Sigma DP1 it is a point and shoot sized camera with a DSLR sized sensor and an excellent lens. One advantage of having a DSLR sized sensor is that fact that you have control over depth of field. On all other P&S cams the sensor is so small that even with an f/2.8 lens you can’t get a shallow DOF. The DP1 isn’t for everyone though, I’m still getting use to the fixed 28mm equivalent lens. I’m use to the telephoto lenses I use for shooting wildlife. With the wide angle you have to get pretty close to small things to make them a reasonable size in the frame. I’ve posted a few more shots on Flickr so you can check them out. I’m looking forward to shooting a lot more with this camera and seeing what it can do. Hit up the link below for a wallpaper sized image.

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Well it is dark gloomy day here in NE Ohio so I’m going to post a picture from last spring in hopes that it makes spring come faster. This was shot from the boardwalk in the North Chagrin Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks. I was laying on the boardwalk watching as the woodduck ducklings made their way across the pond. They as so light that they barely sink the lily pads.

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Here is a quick post from last Friday at the zoo.  The only really interesting thing about how this shot was taken is that persistence was used.  We visited the koala exhibit and couldn’t see the joey but decided to stop by on our way out and were rewarded for our trouble.

Today I had a productive day at the zoo.  I got some pretty good shots.  It was overcast so that made me do a lot of shooting at higher ISOs.   The cooler weather made for some very cooperative subjects.  I was fumbling a bit with the camera today. So I definitely need to get out and shoot more.  Photography, like everything else, you need to keep practicing to stay on your game.

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