Crusin' 2 Ocean City, Md.

Cruiser Reflection

Lined up to enter the Convention Center Lot

Saturday was an absolutely magnificent day at the shore. Temps in the 70's clear blue skies and a slight breeze! The Cruisers were out in force. I spent the afternoon in the Convention Center parking lot enjoying the old cars, chatting with owners and making a few images. Although bright sunny day light is not the best for moody shots, it does have some potential for reflections and lighting details.
I grabbed a few documentary shots just to give folks an idea of the scene. Yesterday I had business to tend to in the afternoon and then it rained all night and chased the q-tip clean cars away! Bummed I didn't get to shoot any more of them.

Pontiac Chieftan Original Hood Ornament. This man has owned this car for 43 years all original! Amazing.
(as a photographer, I loved the yellow ad blue combo)

And who doesn't love a life size Betty Boop with roller skates?

1964 Chevy Impala Tail lights (gotta love the blue sky color in the chrome)

1963? Pontiac Catalina fender emblem

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and then there are the spectators...parked in every empty space along the highway, piled into the back of their jacked up pick ups....enjoying the the cruisers run up and down the highway! A fun day in Ocean City, Md.

Crusin' Ocean City, Maryland 2013

Nikon D4 ISO 2400 28-300mm at 300 1/80 sec: VR on hand held

Back on the photo blog after several weeks of real estate distraction, and happy to be shooting again! Like the Horseshoe Crabs that migrate to the beach in the spring to lay eggs, the "crusiers" and I return as well!
I made it down to the beach Thursday as some of the cruisers were also arriving. Then I headed down to the Burger King in Ocean City around dinner time. What can I say about cruisers, except they are awesome! It is really great that we have folks on the planet that spend hard earned dollars and sweat to keep these beauties running! It is a big piece of our history! Shooting is always a challenge in a venue like this...a parking lot party so to speak!
Cars I find are best shot on the edge of night and day at the golden hour. I started shooting about two hours before sunset and walked several blocks making shots and having some fun choosing different angles to minimize all the business of the scene I started getting down on the parking lot and shooting up against the sky. When you change up from your normal standing position to the subject interesting things begin to happen. Reflections are also more interesting from a low angle to the subject.

Nikon D4 ISO 2500 28-300mm at 105 1/13 sec: VR on hand held

Nikon D4 ISO 1250 F13 28-300 at 28 1/80 sec hand held

Then the sky turned awesome colors and I happened to be by this cool 56 or 57 Chevy Belair. The beautiful sunset light was raking down the side of it and really caught my eye. I made a few comps until the light changed. Parking lot lights added fun highlights.

White or Bright Overcast Skies Work, don't run from them!

Handheld Nikon D4 ISO 400 28-300mm lens f-16 1/200 sec VR on.

When I first started making images, it was suggested that white or bright overcast skies in landscape photography, are to be avoided. In other words keep them out of your images. But I have learned to embrace white or bright overcast skies and not run from them. White or bright overcast skies for me, work well alone in monochrome conversions and are especially good with textures. Yesterday was a windy, cool, desolate day on the beach. I think the the bright skies added to that feeling in the opening image.
The sand was blowing across the dunes and there was not a person in sight. I loved how the dune fences had deteriorated due to the harsh winter weather. Sand was piled high and fence tops in places were barely visible. I tried to capture the beauty of the beach as winter had left her! No footsteps except mine, no beach umbrellas, no fishing trucks on the beach, just nature at her finest! All the images here were processed in Photoshop with Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 and or Color Efex Pro 4.
I will be leading a workshop at the beach the weekend of  November 8-10, 2013. Hope you can join me then!

 

Flypaper does it again! Launches new Tintype Edges...try them out!

 

I shot this great bottle, actually it is about two feet tall, at Fonthill a couple weekends ago. It sits high on a ledge above the library. I have been working on it for a few days and been putting it away, thinking it just needed something else. I ran it through Vintage Scene a desktop app for Mac but I was not finding a look that worked...until tonight when I received an e-mail about new Textures available from Flypaper Textures announcing their new Tintype Edges, well I tried one and it was perfect to finish off this image!

If you have not tried Flypaper Textures this is a great assortment to start with. Save some money on the pack and use my discount code KarenM.

Pennsylvania and Flypaper Textures

Last weekend I had a great opportunity to join fellow photographers in Pennsylvania for a private shoot in the Fonthill Mercer Museum...I stayed in a B&B which was the former home of Oscar Hammerstein II; Highland Farms.  I had planned on returning there to do some shooting before going home, but instead decided to head on home through the Pennsylvania Amish country.
I just love the land and the farms in this area of Pennsylvania. I am always reminded of the work of Andrew Wyeth when passing through as the winter palette here is much like the palette he worked with in his paintings.
The afternoon light was soft and the sky was white. As I rambled through the back roads I saw a sign that said Tobacco Road...well you know I just had to turn around and ride down Tobacco Road! As I drove slowly imagining the lifestyle of the people who farmed this land and lived here I saw a barn on a ridge that made me stop! I made several compositions but the one above is the one I loved when I down loaded my images. I used several Flypaper Textures in Photoshop, with different blend modes, layers and masks to get to the final image here and add interest to the sky. When I finished making a few shots of the barn, I turned and looked around only to see the shot below.....I loved the bicycles, rocker on the porch, trees, grain towers...well everything! It is such a different way of life.

The shot below was made in Fonthill, and I used Flypaper Textures to add tones and texture. It also echos the Pennsylvania I have in mind from seeing Andrew Wyeth's work. While I loved shooting in the Mercer Museum, some of my favorite shots from the day were these...Serendipitous discoveries on a back roads ramble! If you would like to try Flypaper textures use my discount code on the side bar of the blog when you buy for savings! These textutes were from their August Painterly pack.

Experimenting...Lensbaby....Soft Focus....iPhone apps processing...

Processed on the iPhone

Yesterday I headed to Second Chance in Baltimore. The Reclaim, Retrain and Renew team was hard at work...bringing in new materials. I spent some time wandering around looking at what's changed since I was there last time. I was trying to get a few HDR shots, when I decided I was not feeling it; the creative part that is. One of the guys said it was probably frozen! That made me laugh. I did make a few bracketed shots, but soon changed up and put the Lensbaby with a Soft Focus insert on my D4. Looking through that funny bendy lens always gets me started; I love soft focus and blur! I decided to ditch the tripod and cranked the ISO up to 1200, so I could hand hold and get into tight spots. They had set up a separate area in the warehouse for dining room furniture. The light and old warehouse walls in that room were interesting to me. Then I spotted this old set of maybe 50's style vinyl covered chairs. So I played around with a couple chairs in different comps. A few of the shots here I processed in an app on the iPhone for a certain processing look.

Processed on the iPhone

They also have some great old stoves and washing machines from the same era and more.....it was fun shooting with the Lensbaby! and looking at the odd assortment of stuff that Second Chance has in its warehouse.

Processed on the iPhone...Pixlr-o-matic

and radiators.....processed on the iPhone

and baby carriages...........processed in Photoshop and onOne Perfect Effects

Processed in Photoshop

Looking forward to going back with my workshop group on Sunday.

Bombay Hook Winter

In camera multiple exposure, processed in Photoshop using a few texture blends from Flypaper.

This past Sunday, I got out on the road with Steve Oney and Don Vetter; we headed to Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware. It was a beautiful blue sky day..not exactly what we were hoping for but we went anyway, we were all up for a day out with photo buds!
We were hoping to find some snow geese, but we found none. However, as we were driving the loop road around the pools a small red fox appeared on the side of the road...Don, who was driving slowed to see what the fox would do as he inched the car closer. Well the fox traversed the road, marked the other side of the road and then headed back across the road in front of us and dropped off beside the car into the grasses. I couldn't get a real good shot of him because of the tall grasses, the shadow of the car and rear view mirror. I did manage at one point to snag this shot out the passenger window.

We tracked this little fox hoping for better shots, but cars making the drive around the loop kept spooking the fox back into the grasses. The light started to fade and Don parked his car and we waited for something to happen as the light slipped away.
While we were waiting for sundown, I saw there was a gentle color in the sky behind the marsh trees and I made a few multiple exposures.

In camera Multiple exposure with Flypaper texture blends.

 .......And the Canada Geese flew over as the moon was rising. I shot the geese, then shot the moon and blended the images together in Photoshop then added a little SnapArt3 and a layer of texture from Flypaper.

It was not such a productive day, photographically speaking but it was fun getting out in the field with friends!!