That’s what travel agents, like my wife, call the vacation we are leaving on today.  Can you guess where?   I will be back in a couple of weeks and have posted ahead to keep you all amused. I shall be checking in when I am on the land part of the trip.

Keep working on the Blue Hour Assignment.  Though I will be in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean when it occurs, I still would like your submissions in by the deadline.  Mine, included. However, the Recap post will be posted a few days later than normal as I will need time to get my land legs back.

If you wish, you can follow my adventures via Twitter on my Disney account @Scottwdw or on Google+ at Scott Thomas.

I will give Mickey Mouse his best for y’all!

Young girl curious about my camera during her First Communion ceremony at the St. Francis Xavier Church in Marcellus, New York. Nikon D700/24-85G, 1/60s, f/8, ISO 3200, EV +0.3, 85mm focal length, flash.

During the Crawfish Festival, this young man was taking on all challengers for a polite game of Connect Four at a table on Clinton Square.

Can You Beat Me? Guy in hat has fun at the 4th Annual Crawfish Festival with a Connect Four challenge at Clinton Square in Syracuse, New York. Nikon D700/28-300VR, 1/250s, f/10, ISO 200, EV +0.7, 96mm focal length.

I meet this young driver getting ready for her Junior Dragster “A” race at ESTA Safety Park Dragstrip and was kind enough let me photograph her.

Junior Dragster driver preparing for her race at ESTA Safety Park Dragstrip near Cicero, New York. Nikon D700/28-300VR, 1/160s, f/5.3, ISO 200, EV +0.7, 98mm focal length, fill flash.

May is only half way through.  Who knows what other people I may meet along the way.

Flowers for Mother’s Day

My wife and I are very lucky to still have both our Mom’s in our lives.  Merrie’s on the left and mine on the right in the photo above.  Each are strong and proud and both love flowers in their favorite colors. Each have large families with many grandchildren and even great-grandchildren and they love them all…as we all love them in return.

Hope all my readers who are Moms had a very Happy Mother’s Day yesterday.

Blue Hour photography requires long exposures.  A tripod is the best way to secure a camera for long exposures.  Even if you own a point and shoot or phone camera, a tripod is the way to go.  I have substituted bean bags, tops of garbage cans (I call them Quadpods) and other flat surfaces with varying degrees of success.

I have talked about when Blue Hour starts in the past.  There are no firm rules and weather plays a big role.  Apps like LightTrac for iOS and Android devices will tell you when Civil Twilight starts. Though not exact, it’s a good indication within a few minutes leeway before and after to plan your photography.

Once your camera starts to pick up deep blue sky color, look around you to see if you can detect it.  What I found was the black night sky I always saw before was now different shades of blue depending on how far before or from the sunrise or sunset time and location I was looking at.

You can control the amount of blue in your Blue Hour photos by changing the shutter speed.  Below are two photos taken a few seconds apart at f/16 and ISO of 200.  Only difference is the shutter speed.

Lincoln Memorial photographed from the World War II Memorial at night in Washington, DC.

I shared the photo on the left with you last month as I prefer the brighter blue.  Some people my like the Midnight Blue from using a shorter shutter speed.  Remember to try different exposures when you are photographing during the Blue Hour.

I really like photographing Blue Hour with buildings and lights around.  I like how the blue and artificial lighting go together.  I would really enjoy seeing some natural landscapes so I hope some of you will be trying some for the assignment.

I hope these Blue Hour bits of information will help you in this month’s assignment on Blue Hour.

I want you to go out and photograph Blue Hour for this month’s assignment.  Here are a couple of links where I explain when it occurs.

Blue Hour Facts

Blue in Syracuse

If you have any questions, leave them below and I will answer them on Friday.

Blue Hour over the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC.
Nikon D700/Tokina 11-16mm, 10s, f/16, ISO 200, EV 0, 16mm focal length, tripod.

This month, I will be giving away an Electronic Gift Certificate good for FOUR eBooks from Craft and Vision.  You will have your choice of nearly 40 titles by photographers David duChemin, Mitchell Kanashkevich, Michael Frye, Darwin Wiggett and others. Anyone participating will have a chance.  I will draw a name randomly and announce the winner in the Recap post.

As in the other assignments, do not send me your photos. What I would like you to do is post them on your blog, flickr, Google+ or other photo sharing site, personal website or any place on the Internet where you can place a link to it here by making a comment to this blog entry. Then, we can all visit those sites and enjoy everyone’s Blue Hour photos.

Please, have your photos posted on or before Midnight (your time zone), Wednesday, May 23, 2012.  Might be a good time to start up a blog or join a photo community like flickr.  As I have done for all the Assignments, I will put together a recap with my comments.

If you have any questions, leave me a comment and I will be happy to answer them. With the addition of the eBook prize, I would doubly appreciate it if you would help spread the word about this assignment so we can get lots of people to participate. Blog it, Tweet it, FaceBook it, Google+ it, email it and talk about it to your fellow photographers, bloggers, friends, strangers and family. Thank you!

The first event was my great nephew’s (Linda’s Grandson) First Communion.  The challenge here was getting there in time as we were late getting to the church. I made my way through the children lined up outside and was able to photograph the beginning of the ceremony.  This photo shows you the excitement of the event.

A girl pauses before walking into church for her First Communion ceremony at St. Francis Xavier Church in Marcellus, New York. Nikon D700/24-85G, 1/60s, f/5, ISO 1250, EV 0, 24mm focal length, flash.

After enjoying lunch and an excellent cake at my niece’s, I headed to downtown Syracuse, New York to attend the 4th annual Crawfish Festival at Clinton’s Square.  I had a few ideas for some award winning photos but I did not count on this…

SOLD OUT! Crawfish were gone by 4 in the afternoon at the 4th Annual Crawfish Festival held at Clinton Square in Syracuse, New York. Nikon D700/28-300VR, 1/250s, f/8, ISO 200, EV 0, 36mm focal length.

Next year I will get there early enough to enjoy my first taste of Crawfish and get those photographs.

Remember last year’s Super Moon?  Last Saturday was this year’s version and I had another grand idea.  The local TV weather forecaster promised we would see it. However, she failed to say when the sky would be clear enough to see the moon which happened for a few brief minutes an hour after moonrise. Another photo op spoiled by a bank of clouds.

As I was waiting for the moon, I turned around and with the help of the new steeple in town, photographed a colorful sunset. Normally I would tell you to drink the Kool-Aid.  This time enjoy the lemonade.

Sunset over Baldwinsville, New York the evening of the 2012 Super Moon.
Nikon D700/28-300VR, 1/30s, f/8, ISO 360, EV 0, 300mm focal length.

Finally, everything came together yesterday for a trip out to the ESTA Safety Park Dragstrip.  Beautiful weather and lots of fast race cars.

The popular SpongeBob SquarePants yellow Barracuda at ESTA Safety Park Dragstrip in Cicero, New York.
Nikon D700/28-300VR, 1/500s, f/4.8, ISO 280, EV 0, 68mm focal length, polarizer filter.

Fitting that I end this post with a yellow race car.  Thank you, Linda!

With Perfect Layers in mind, I photographed some action sequences during a performance of Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show in Disney’s Hollywood Studios last October.  I have seen my Photoshop buddies produce similar composites like these and now I can make them, too.

The red Hero car jumps from truck to truck during Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in this composite created using OnOne Software’s Perfect Layers 2.
CLICK PHOTO FOR LARGER IMAGE.

What Perfect Layers 2 allowed me to do is select a series of photos which featured the same scene with the red Hero car in a different position and puts each photo in a separate layer.  I then select the car in each layer and paint it onto the next layer.  Notice the camera truck is only seen once even though it was in a different position in each of the six selected photos. I only selected it once. When I save the file, it flattens each layer together into one final image.

Stunt Man falls during a performance of Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show in Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida using OnOne Software’s Perfect Layers 2.

I did have some trouble getting this to work at first.  Coming from Apple Aperture 3 which lets me change anything from anywhere, to get these composites to come out, I had to follow a set of exact steps.  Once I figured that out, it was easy to create them.  You know how guys are.

Here’s Photoshop Guru Scott Kelby with OnOne Software’s Brian Matiash explaining more about how Perfect Layers works.

It is going on three years since I lost my sister to Brain Cancer.  Since then my family has lost other loved ones to various cancers.  Yet, there is a hope.  Last year deaths to cancer dropped 1% from the year before instead of increasing.  Each year, researchers and doctors develop new ways to fight cancer and learn from each success and failure.  There is still a long ways to go but we have turned a corner.  No looking back now!

Please, consider helping my team reach its goal by clicking this link and donating.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart as we join hands symbolically to find a cure.

Joining Hearts & Hands to Find a Cure

Martina McBride is one of my favorite country performers and she released this song from her latest album.  This is for all the caregivers who love and loved people through it.

Help make it so when you hear of someone living through it, the IT means life and not death.

The 2012 edition of the Onondaga Redhawks breaks the pre-game huddle before playing the Rochester Greywolves in the first game of the Can-Am Senior “B” Box Lacrosse season at the Onondaga Nation Arena near Nedrow, New York on Saturday, April 28, 2012. Nikon D700/70-200VR, 1/500s, f/2.8, ISO 8000, EV +1.0, 200mm focal length.

The game was close for most of the first period until the Redhawks scored three unanswered goals late to take a 4 to 1 lead.  That proved to be a precursor as the home team opened up a large lead in the second period.

Onondaga Redhawks Percy Shenandoah (19) scores over the Rochester Greywolves goalie at the Onondaga Nation Arena near Nedrow, New York on Saturday, April 28, 2012 in Can-Am Senior “B” Box Lacrosse game action. Nikon D700/70-200VR, 1/500s, f/2.8, ISO 8000, EV +1.3, 130mm focal length.

Box lacrosse is a rough sport.  Cross checking is allowed and is used frequently to try and separate the orange rubber lacrosse ball from the carrier.  This game was the roughest I have seen since I started going to Redhawks games last year.

Rough action in the Can-Am Senior “B” Box Lacrosse game between the Onondaga Redhawks and Rochester Greywolves at the Onondaga Nation Arena near Nedrow, New York on Saturday, April 28, 2012.

The Onondaga Redhawks really took this game seriously and avenged last year’s playoff loss with a 19 to 4 win before a large crowd in the Tsha’hon’nonyen’dakhwa’ (Onondaga Nation) Arena.

Onondaga Redhawks James Cathers (22) bulls his way through defenders to score in the third period against the Rochester Greywolves at the Onondaga Nation Arena near Nedrow, New York on Saturday, April 28, 2012 in Can-Am Senior “B” Box Lacrosse game action. Onondaga won 19-4. Nikon D700/70-200VR, 1/500s, f/2.8, EV +1.3, 200mm focal length.

If you like your sports to be fast, highly skilled and physical, check out a Can-Am Box Lacrosse game near you.

Click Here for More Photos from the Game

New York street in Disney's Hollywood Studios which is full of details that are only skin deep.

This is a great opportunity to discover some of the hidden treasures found among the streets of the big city sets. There might even be a surprise or two along the way. The photowalk is limited to 20 people and you can sign up on the AllEars.net Facebook page (click here). We will meet up at the Studio Catering Company seating area between 12pm and 12:30pm.

Spots are filling fast so pop on over and sign up today!