New York, New York!

I visited New York City last weekend with my wpnderful friend, Mary. We departed from Union Station here in Utica and traveled to New York City's Penn Station by train. (Here is a photo of Union Station taken at trackside. I am also posting an "artistic" photo of the fence.)

It took us five hours to arrive in the Big Apple. Lynn, Mary's friend from her college days, met us at Penn Station. She took care of our luggage.

I took my first subway ride from Penn Station to Broadway. We really weren't on the subway too long, but it was a good trip!

I had dinner with Mary, Lynn, and their friend Kim at a barbeque restaurant in midtown Manhatten. Mmm...delicious! And the company and converstation was fantastic!

Mary and I went shopping in the Big Apple. Here is a photo of Mary at American Girl, one of her favorite stores. Mary loves to shop there and find collectible dolls.

Mary and I were invited to stay at Lynn's apartment on Long Island. Lynne and her husband, Frank, were gracious hosts. Here is a photo of Rockville Centre, Long Island where Lynn and Frank live. The photo was taken from their train station.

I will post more photos in my next blog entries! We also went to The International Center of Photography as well as the top of the Rockefeller Center building.

I'm Still Here!

I am still here! I have been so busy lately. My friend Mary and I went to New York City last weekend, so I will have photos from the trip to post here soon. I have also taken a few more spring photos, so I hope to post them here, too.

Hopefully, I will be visiting your blogs agains soon!

An Inspiration

It was a beautiful Sunday. The sun was shining on this Mother's Day and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

It was a wonderful day to honor mothers. I went to celebrate Mother's Day with my family. My Mom has six children and five grandchildren. She always puts us first in her life. The amazing thing is that she found out that she has multiple scerlosis a few years ago. But she keeps going and has such a positive attitude.

She is such an inspiration! So I am posting a single tulip in honor of my Mom and all those in our lives who serve others.

Pretty Petals

Spring has finally returned to this part of New York State. The flowers seem to be blooming later this year, but the daffodils and tulips are now in full bloom. And what a joy it is to see these miracles of nature!

Recently, I was out with my camera as the late afternoon sun was shining through a group of gorgeous tulips. I just sat and marveled at the way the light danced through and among this lively group.

I decided that I wanted to do something a little different when photographing tulips. My goal was to make some creative photos using a limited depth of field. I also wanted to retain the rich flower colors. So, I used my macro lens (60mm) and focused on the front petal. I was able to get the very front petal to be in focus while blurring the rest of the flower and background.

I was pleased with the results. I don't think that every photographer would appreciate this style, but I was excited because I was able to work with color, composition, and the camera's settings. What do you think about this image?

Experimentation and Frustration

I was pleased that I was able to produce a few night shots at the carnival. As I wrote in my previous entry, I have not done a lot of night or low light photography. I found it very helpful to have a photography instructor as well as experienced photographs with me last Friday night. I gained some helpful tips from them.

I was a bit frustrated due to the fact that there was a loud, noisy crowd at the carnival. I couln't hear my camera "beep" was the shot was just right. So, I really had to trust my eyes. I also found it difficult to take photos with all the people in the way. I just could get close to the objects that I wanted to photograph and I am short to begin with.

It was good to be able to try something new. I learned more about shutter speed as well as my camera's settings.

Now it is back to photographing flowers. The tulips are in bloom!

Experimenting with Night Photography

On Fridat evening I attended a workshop sponsored by the local camera club. The workshop turned out to be a "hands-on" learning experience with night photography techniques. The presenter teaches photography courses at the local community college. She gave the participants some basic tips pertaining to the subject while we were still meeting inside.

Next, we headed out with tripods and cameras to a local fair. Amusement park rides and games had been set up, so we thought that this would provide use with some coloful night shots.

I have to admit that I tend to shy away from low light situations. I really enjoy working with natural daytime light. However, I thought that this workshop would be a good learning experience for me. So, I worked with light and movement as the presenter suggested and considered it to be an experiement. We shot with slow shutter speeds while using the tungsten setting on our cameras. I am posting the photo of the "Vortex" amusement ride. I was pleased with the color and movement that I was able to capture with my camera.

I will write about some of the frustrations that I encountered wiht photographing at the fair in my next blog entry!

A Work In Progress

We had gray skies and rain showers for most of last weekend. Fortunately, the sun peeked out on Sunday afternoon. I went for a drive outside just outside of the city and found this old house alongside of the road. The wooden frame is all that is left of this long abandon house. It must have been a Victorian beauty in its day (during the late 1800's).

I stopped at took several photos of this old house. The lines and textures fascinated me. I have seen several photos of this same house at local photography shows, so I thought that I will photograph it myself. The late afternoon light was working for me.

Unfortunately, I didn't get as many photos as I would like to because the neighbors drove up when I had the camera out. I am definately going back and taking more photographs of this old house. I would like to take a wide angle photo of this house and then convert it into black and white.

For now, I would am going to work with this photo in Photoshop. I may use the artistic features in Photoshop in order to produce more digital artwork. I really enjoy working on challenging projects in Photoshop. As Stephen Nachmanovitch wrote, "Creative work is play. It is free speculation using materials of one's chosen form. "