Lake George - Fall Foliage

Fall is definitely the season for great landscape photography. The colors are amazing ! Couple of things that you might want to consider:

1. With sun, blue skies, water and all bright surroundings - a polarizing filter will help cut some reflections. 
2. A fill in flash can help fill in strong shadows and may bring out some bright colors thereby adding vibrance.

Here's the stream from Lake George, NY:

 [F 10, 1/100sec, ISO:100, 2010-10-10]

 [F 8, 1/250sec, ISO:100, 2010-10-10]

  [F 8, 1/100sec, ISO:100, 2010-10-10]

[F 8, 1/160sec, ISO:100, 2010-10-10]

[F 7.1, 1/160sec, ISO:100, 2010-10-10]

[F 2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO:100, 2010-10-10]

A Disoriented Visitor

More macro fun.
Also found out that Drupal guys have a theme dedicated to this visitor.

 [Canon EOS 40D, F 2.8, 1/1000sec, ISO:320, 2010-08-21]

 

 

 [Canon EOS 40D, F 4.5, 1/250sec, ISO:320, 2010-08-21]

Fire in the Building

This place is definitely full of surprises ! Fire on the 10th floor, building evacuated, smell and smoke all over - and there was me with my camera.

When fire is cried and danger is neigh, 
"God and the firemen" is the people's cry;

But when 'tis out and all things righted,

God is forgotten and the firemen slighted.

~Author unknown, from The Fireman's Journal, 18 Oct 1879

The Truck

 [Canon EOS 40D, F 5, 1/60sec, ISO:400, 2010-09-26]

The Men 

[Canon EOS 40D, F 5, 1/60sec, ISO:400, 2010-09-26]

Men at Work 

[Canon EOS 40D, F 2.8, 1/125sec, ISO:200, 2010-09-26]

The worried Residents 

[Canon EOS 40D, F 2.8, 1/60sec, ISO:200, 2010-09-26]

Don't cross the line 

[Canon EOS 40D, F 2.8, 1/100sec, ISO:200, 2010-09-26]

The Mechanics

 [Canon EOS 40D, F 2.8, 1/200sec, ISO:200, 2010-09-26]

 Almost done

[Canon EOS 40D, F 2.8, 1/200sec, ISO:200, 2010-09-26]

 Wrapping up

[Canon EOS 40D, F 2.8, 1/100sec, ISO:200, 2010-09-26]

 All done, party time

[Canon EOS 40D, F 2.8, 1/100sec, ISO:200, 2010-09-26]

The Beasts ! Ready to leave

[Canon EOS 40D, F 2.8, 1/80sec, ISO:400, 2010-09-26]

The Queue

[Canon EOS 40D, F 2.8, 1/80sec, ISO:400, 2010-09-26]

The Gear

[Canon EOS 40D, F 2.8, 1/80sec, ISO:200, 2010-09-26]

The End !

Speed Boat Race, NYC Hudson - Sep'12, 2010

Another surprise from the window. Time for some high speed action ! 

It's an overcast morning. No sun at all. Fast shutter speed, on a non IS lens (24-70 mm 2.8 L) - most of the photographs were shot with shutter wide open. I couldn't really go high on ISO, anything above ISO 400 was producing visible noise in the clouds.  Enjoy !

 [Canon EOS 40D, F 7.1, 1/500sec, ISO:320, 2010-09-12]

 [Canon EOS 40D, F 5, 1/1000sec, ISO:320, 2010-09-12]

  [Canon EOS 40D, F 5.6, 1/1000sec, ISO:320, 2010-09-12]

  [Canon EOS 40D, F 5, 1/1000sec, ISO:320, 2010-09-12]

  [Canon EOS 40D, F 5, 1/1000sec, ISO:320, 2010-09-12]

  [Canon EOS 40D, F 3.5, 1/2000sec, ISO:320, 2010-09-12]

  [Canon EOS 40D, F 4, 1/2000sec, ISO:320, 2010-09-12]

  [Canon EOS 40D, F 3.5, 1/2000sec, ISO:320, 2010-09-12]

  [Canon EOS 40D, F 3.5, 1/1250sec, ISO:100, 2010-09-12]

[Canon EOS 40D, F 2.8, 1/2500sec, ISO:100, 2010-09-12]

As an added bonus, I was able to shoot a ~4 min video of the race. It's an old non HD camcorder - still not a bad watch at 480p. 

The Fin

[Canon EOS 40D, F 2.8, 1/15sec, ISO:800, 2010-08-08]

The joys of wide aperture and narrow depth of field. The picture is shot inside an aquarium.

If you haven't been there yet - Mystic Aquarium, CT is a fun place to be in.

A Clear Cloudy Night

[Canon EOS 40D, F 10, 3.2 sec, ISO:100, 2010-07-23]

Jul'4, 2010 - NYC Fireworks

[Canon EOS 40D, F 4, 1.0 sec, ISO:200, 2010-07-04]

Here's a lesson ...

Always, always take time to explore your subject/place before getting on to actual shoot. It is all the more important for landscape photography where light along with time of the day plays a major role in the quality of output that you may get. Look out for other similar photographs on the subject at various sites to get some more perspective. 

What I have got here is the side view of fireworks going out from six parallel barges and that too from quite a distance. I probably would have enjoyed more if I was shooting it from somewhere in front of them.


Anyways, here are few more pics in this stream...

[Canon EOS 40D, F 3.2, 0.6 sec, ISO:100, 2010-07-04]

 [Canon EOS 40D, F 11, 2 sec, ISO:100, 2010-07-04]

 [Canon EOS 40D, F 14, 8 sec, ISO:200, 2010-07-04]

 [Canon EOS 40D, F 8, 1 sec, ISO:200, 2010-07-04]

 [Canon EOS 40D, F 8, 2 sec, ISO:200, 2010-07-04]

 [Canon EOS 40D, F 14, 8 sec, ISO:200, 2010-07-04]

Cheers !

[Canon EOS 40D, F 2.8, 1/10 sec, ISO:200, 2010-07-09]

Perrier in a glass. Not much to say. All indoor room lighting, no flash. Wide open aperture provided high DoF. Monochromed/Sepia

NYC Fireworks - June'27, 2010

[Canon EOS 40D, F 16, 6.0 sec, ISO:100, 2010-6-27]

Today evening, I was surprised to see some fantastic fireworks from my window. The view was simply amazing. Normally, I would be prepared to shoot an event like this - I would have read what kind of lens settings I need, what effect a larger or a smaller aperture would have on the image. At the very least I would have chosen the location, setup my tripod etc ... But not today, I turned around and the magic had already started.

I had to quickly choose the window from my house, setup the tripod, put my Canon 24-70mm lens and had few seconds to think about the settings. I imagined these shots to be of longer duration(4 - 15 sec), given there is plenty of city light in the background, I did not want to over-expose the shot by opening the aperture wide. Since there is already plenty of light generated by the fireworks itself a smaller ISO number(100-200) is good enough to avoid extra noise in the picture.

[Canon EOS 40D, F 16, 6.0 sec, ISO:100, 2010-6-27]

[Canon EOS 40D, F 13, 6.0 sec, ISO:100, 2010-6-27]

 [Canon EOS 40D, F 13, 6.0 sec, ISO:200, 2010-6-27]

[Canon EOS 40D, F 13, 8.0 sec, ISO:200, 2010-6-27]

[Canon EOS 40D, F 13, 8.0 sec, ISO:200, 2010-6-27]

[Canon EOS 40D, F 16, 10.0 sec, ISO:200, 2010-6-27]

[Canon EOS 40D, F 16, 6.0 sec, ISO:100, 2010-6-27]

[Canon EOS 40D, F 16, 6.0 sec, ISO:100, 2010-6-27]

Had a good practice, learned what works. I am so looking forward to July 4th now.