Litchfield Beach Dawn and Dusk

Often when I'm photographing a spectacular sunset or sunrise, I get caught in the moment and focus on what I perceive is the most interesting photographic subject.  On this morning, I was up early and in the surf clicking away.  It wasn't until my father-in-law, who was also out for a walk, tapped me on the shoulder, pointing my attention to the rainbow that had appeared directly behind me.

-Tom

Big Bluestem, Canada Goldenrod

Where has the week gone?  After a day of rain, yesterday's semi-sunny day seems a distant memory.  I'm on dad duty the next four days while Megan heads to California.  Wish me luck!

-Tom

Point and Shoot

Delaware County, Ohio

I love the times around the equinoxes.  Why?  Because I'm traveling to work just before and just after sunrise.  This can lead to some absolutely incredible photographic opportunities.  Today I just had to stop the car and snap this image with my Canon D10 point and shoot. 

This roadway was built with the expectations that it would be home to shops, offices, and condos.  But the recession hit, and now there is nothing but a fancy roadway meandering through a chopped down forest that is now starting to grow back. 

Wordless Wednesday

Somewhere in Marion County, Ohio.  9.14.2010

Good Morning, Delaware County

Many of you know that after nearly seven years of working in the 1960's era sprawl of Columbus, Ohio, I moved to a rural field office in Delaware County this past June.  Over the last few weeks I have been treated to several incredible sunrises on my daily commute.  This morning, I had my camera ready, and as I drove north on North Galena road headed towards Ashley, I had to stop and capture an image.

Tom

The Best Camera....

Good Morning Squirrel, originally uploaded by Tom Arbour.

......is the one that's with you. That's the title of a book about iphone photography by Chase Jarvis, and I have to agree with him. Yesterday morning, while driving to work headed east along Worthington's Dublin Granville Road, the sky was on fire with purples, pinks, and indigo blue. This was just too good of a sky not to photograph, and as I came to a park along the south side of the road, I knew that I had to pull over. My camera of choice? My trusty new Canon D10, waterproof and ultra-durable, served me well on this cold, dry morning.

Good Morning, 2009

Good morning, welcome to 2009- I made it out this morning to catch the rising winter sun cast a fiery glow across the bases of these clouds.

The Final HDR Image- Sanibel Sunrise

And here is my final HDR image, created from the five images that I posted yesterday.

Pretty cool, isn't it? Notice how the people walking on the beach have been mostly removed from the final image. The software isn't perfect, as you can still see a their faint outline, also called ghosting. Still, without a tripod, and only balancing the camera on a railing, the Photomatix software did a fairly good job aligning the images. The Australian pine tree in the upper left was waving in the breeze, and in the final image, it looks as if I took this shot using a long exposure with motion blur.

The Australian pine (Casuarina equisetifolia) is a nasty invasive in Florida. There are so many of these trees there, that most visitors would just pass them off as an interesting part of the native flora. But they are a non-native invasive, and they grow quickly, replacing native dune vegetation. I first had experience with this plant when I was traveling around Australia in 1999 with Hiram College.

So, have you tried to create your first HDR image? It can be addicting--beware. I have a great guide called the HDRI handbook that I'm reading now, and it comes with software and image demonstrations. I found it in the catalog in the Columbus Metropolitan Library, and to show you how popular HDR is becoming, I had to wait three months before it became available. Who knows, future cameras may be engineered to take pictures without any post-processing to create these incredible images. For now, it takes a little bit of work, but I think the final results are worth it. Just another tool in the bag of the nature photographer.

Update: After Gale suggested I clone out the sunspot, I gave it my best shot using Paint.net. I am by no means an expert, but my cloning doesn't look all that bad! Now if I had photoshop...just think of the possibilities!




Tom