View 93: St. Lawrence River Panorama

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Scott Thomas Photography

View of the St. Lawrence River from the US side span of the 1000 Islands Bridge in New York state. Click photo to see larger version.

View from 150 feet above the St. Lawrence River from the US span of the 1000 Islands Bridge in New York state. Click photo to see larger version.

I mentioned I recently attended a workshop on Landscape photography. Besides learning how to do HDR (High Dynamic Range) images, I learned how to create panoramas from multiple photographs by stitching them together via software. Now, that sounds easy but there’s lots to keep in mind when photographing panoramas which I wrote about on my Disney blog (click here).

I did everything you were supposed to do for this panoramic of the St. Lawrence River from the 1000 Islands Bridge except use a tripod. Oh, I had one with me but there is not a lot of room on the bridge’s walkway and the bridge moves so a tripod would not have been of much use. I did pretty good hand holding as the software didn’t have much trouble stitching the photos together with very little cropping needed. You’ll probably be seeing more panoramic images in the future around here. They are fun to do and give a new prospective to my photography.

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Follow Me

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Scott Thomas Photography

twitter-logo In case you haven’t noticed, I added a Twitter feed to the left sidebar. On Twitter, I announce new blog posts for here and my Disney photography blog. I will also send out links to other interesting photography articles which come my way.

Recently, I downloaded a couple of iPhone apps which will allow me to upload photos to Twitter. The one that’s really exciting is Chase Javis’ Best Camera Ecosystem recently launched which includes an iPhone app, book and community.

So, if you are on Twitter, click on the Follow Me on Twitter link.

I have done a little house cleaning on the list of Favorite Blogs. Some of the blogs had gone dark which means they were no longer being updated. I have hidden them for now. If any of them wake up, I’ll add them back.

I have added a new link category which was kind of hidden on my Links Page called Photographers. These are photographers I admire and all have great images to share and/or wisdom to pass on. Check them out when you can.

Do not forget about the Photography links. Some great stuff from How To’s to inspiration can be had from them.

Have dropped the ball on the Photo Assignments I did early in the year and will be bringing it back later this month. You can click on the Assignment category in the left sidebar to review what they were about and how they worked. I hope you’ll all jump back in!

Have a wonderful weekend everybody! See you back here on Monday!

Sincerely,

Scott

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HDR Fun

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Scott Thomas Photography

I enjoyed a photo workshop on Landscape photography last weekend which I’ll share more about in the coming weeks. One of the techniques the presenter went over was how to create a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image from a series of photographs. The series consists of photos where the exposures are altered to cover a difficult lighting situation. While I got acceptable single shot exposures the night I took these, I think the final result shows the potential of this technique.

I used the Photomatix Plug-in for Aperture 2 to create the HDR image from the above three images which were all taken at ISO 200, f/22, EV +0.3 with photo 1 at 5 seconds shutter speed, photo 2 at 8 seconds and photo 3 at 15 seconds. Oh, I did clean up the left corner a little, too.

HDR image of the Oswego Power Plant on Lake Ontario.

HDR image of the Oswego Power Plant on Lake Ontario.

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View 92: Autumn

Posted on September 28, 2009 by Scott Thomas Photography
A red Sugar Maple leaf on the Bog trail of Beaver Lake Nature Center, Baldwinsville, New York.

A red Sugar Maple leaf on the Bog trail of Beaver Lake Nature Center, Baldwinsville, New York.

Now that the Autumnal Equinox has passed, I went out looking for signs of autumn at the Beaver Lake Nature Center near my hometown of Baldwinsville, New York. I headed to the Bog Trail because I knew I’d find the first signs there as trees and shrubs on a bog are very stressed. Stressed because the bog environment is very acidic as nature proceeds to transform the stagnate wetland to terra firma using Sphagnum mosses as her main architect.

Another sign of autumn is the flocks of migrating Canadian Geese using Beaver Lake as a stop off on their way to points south for the winter months.

Canadian Geese flying over Beaver Lake near Baldwinsville, New York.

Canadian Geese flying over Beaver Lake near Baldwinsville, New York.

Posted in Nature, Weekly View | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

View 91: Castle at Dusk Redo

Posted on September 21, 2009 by Scott Thomas Photography

For the first time in a long time I was not able to get out and take some photos last week. So, instead, I looked back in the archives and came upon one of my favorites from Walt Disney World. Surprised? 🙂 I took this back in 2007 when I was still learning how to use the Nikon D70. I was riding the Tomorrowland Transportation Authority, or WEDway Peoplemover to any old timer Disney park goers out there, when I took this.

To see a before and after of this photo, visit the Picture This! article I did recently called Back to the Future where I explain how I created this image from the original.  Oh, this version is different from the after version in the article.  Can you tell me how?

Castle at Dusk. Cinderella Castle taken from the Tomorrowland Transportation Authority in the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida.

Castle at Dusk. Cinderella Castle taken from the Tomorrowland Transportation Authority in the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida.

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