Sherwood Gardens

I spent Monday morning working with a student in Sherwood Gardens. We worked on selective focus, by managing depth of field and composition. That is always a good exercise to sharpen one's skills. I made a couple shots while looking for a shot for my student. The large pink tulip is a 9 shot multiple exposure with several shots made in focus on different parts of the tulip and several shots out of focus, creating a very dreamy look. The other shot is a straight shot with a shallow depth of field, and careful attention to the background, framing the subject.

Field Shoot Baltimore Camera Club

Today was the last day of the Baltimore Camera School weekend. We spent time in the field helping students use the knowledge they gained from the classroom sessions on Saturday. There were lots of photographers at Sherwood Gardens for the tulip display.

It was a fun weekend with lots of learning.

O'Keefe Clouds

One evening in Tennessee, several of us went to Morton Overlook for sundown. The clouds so reminded me of a Georgia O'Keefe painting, I exclaimed they are Georgia O'Keefe clouds! Tonight I decided to see if I could work two images to emulate the image I had in my mind of the O'Keefe paintings, Sky Above Clouds. O’Keeffe worked almost until the very end of her long life.

In her 70s, she took her first trip by airplane. From 30,000 feet, she was inspired by the extraordinary view of the clouds below her and later produced Sky Above Clouds IV, the largest painting of her career. To make the work, she stretched the huge canvas across the outside of her garage, painting from dawn until the last light of the sun dimmed at night. To reach the top of the canvas, she climbed a ladder and for each of the lower levels, she stood or sat on a special platform: a table, a box, a small Mexican chair, and finally, the floor.

Never would I even think this image compares to the painting but the idea is that artists impact artists! and we are still amazed and enchanted with the essence and beauty of our planet.

More from The Tennessee Trip

Tomorrow is the Baltimore Camera Club School and I have finished off my lecture on composition. I processed a few more from Tennessee to add to the lecture. Had a new hot water heater installed today, when I got home from Tennessee the old one had sprung a leak! Finally got around to putting in some annuals in the flower pots on the patio..Can't wait to do some shooting on Sunday at Sherwood gardens with some students enrolled in the BCC field shoot, the last session for the Camera School.

Macro Night at BCC

Yeah, the replacement, Lensbaby was in the mail box when I got back from Tennessee, thanks to the terrific service folks and Kirsten at Lensbaby. So tonight I gave it a try again, since my first Composer broke.
These are just a few of the images I made of stuff folks brought in to shoot, Dominos, marbles and my Stabucks cup! Fun, I look forward to shooting more with the composer!

Processing Smokies Images

Spent the day catching up on some house chores and processing images from the Smokies. The ten hour drive is a little long but worth the trip. Here were a few shots from the second day there, when the skies were bright blue. The water in certain locations was reflecting the bright blue sky and spring green vegetation and made a wonderful color play. The trilliums were abundant in many varieties. The multiple exposure here was created on top of Clingmans Dome, while waiting for sundown. The pattern was created by the natural mixing of pines and the dead pine trunks of silver gray mixed in between them.

Last Day Smokies

Its been a great week trekking around the park with Barb, Fred and Don. We have been non stop except when it was pouring rain, and even then we were out shooting.
Here's a few from the last couple days shooting. Heading home tomorrow and I hate to leave as the dogwoods, redbuds and spring beauties are really looking great! We even found a Luna moth on a tree near a beautiful waterfall, and they were two mating.

Smokies

Wow, since Thursday we have been logging over a hundred miles a day running all over the park. Today is the first day I have had a chance to log on because the internet is not working in the rooms and we have gotten back so late each night the office is closed. The park is a behive of activity, with photographers. Tony Sweet, and Joe Rossbach to name a few! The last two days have been bright blue sky sunny days.
We shot some flowers along Greenbrier with diffusers to cut the sunlight, some water in the shade in Tremont, and yes a Comet Caravan on the grounds of the hotel where there is an old Ford Bronco show, just a few minutes ago, while Barb, Fred and Don went in for a rest, I just couldn't pass it up!

Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Peters_Rawlings_Conservatory_and_Botanic_Gardens_of_Baltimore

Today was a mentor event day at the conservatory. They had a beautiful display of spring flowers. Several members of The Baltimore Camera Club gathered for a morning of photography. The light was perfect, overcast and rainy. I made several images after helping some members with composition and technical aspects of working with their cameras for creative multiple exposures.

Sherwood Gardens

Today I conducted a Macro Workshop in Sherwood Gardens. The weather was perfect, no or little breeze, and overcast skies. There were a few tulips just about to open, some Leucojum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucojum were blooming, as well as Narcissus and Magnolias. The flowering trees were magnificent, as well as the red maples about to leaf.
I made some images along side Joan, as we worked together capturing both macro and landscape images. Some of the images on the blog were processed using Topaz Simplify.

Lens Baby Broken

Today I made my first trek of the year to the beach to open the house for the season. I didn't get away until late morning and drove straight there. It was a very cold and windy day, and as I drove I thought I don't mind photographing in most weather conditions, but I do on windy cold days. So I didn't stop anywhere on the way down. After unloading the car and putting all the porch furniture back out on the porches, I headed out with the idea that I wanted to shoot with the Lens Baby. Well I went to the boardwalk In South Bethany and goofed off a little..but was not happy with the performance of the Lens Baby, not me of course! Well when I got back to the car I tried to change the lens insert and discovered the problem, there really was a problem. I made a few shots only as the light was fading. I didn't want to discard these few shots due to lack of clarity so I applied some artistic filters in Photoshop to try and salvage them a little. Well it was something to do tonight in a sleepy little beach town on a very cold night. I have also e-mailed Lens Baby corp to see what can be done to either repair or replace the lens.

The Cloisters

After a private lesson this morning I headed to the open house at the Cloisters and they very graciously allowed me and a few others from the Baltimore Camera Club to photograph with tripods in the building.

http://www.cloisterscastle.com/index.cfm?page=history

Its a wonderful old home that is very interesting architecturally, filled with wrought iron works and leaded glass.