Water Totems

Yesterday morning I worked with a client in Fells Point. When I was waiting for her I noticed the Mercury like texture of the water and the reflections. When she arrived we talked about her objectives for the day, and started making some images of beautiful building reflections in the water. The colorful contrast of the red brick buildings and clear blue summer sky was just amazing. When I was processing some images last night, I thought these would make great "Mirror" images, but it was getting late and I went to bed. Today when I had a chance to revisit these images, my dear friend Barb Williams came to mind. She was a mirroring maniac and we laughed many times over the funky images we would create just to see what they looked liked....so this is kind of an homage to Barb, who died suddenly in May 2009, shortly after our week long photo trip together in Tennessee. Enjoy and think of Barb!
All of these images are what I call quad mirrors, that is: mirrored once on the horizontal and then mirrored on the vertical, so its four original images...; - ) Except for one which is a quad, mirrored, so that's eight original. I know she is laughing now!
But I was excited when I made these images, because they are so unique! They truly reminded me of the Indian Totems.

Fells Point

I met a client in Fells Point this beautiful morning. We worked lots of reflections in the water with the calm winds making the water look like Mercury. We had a great session. Oh the "Pop Art" style image is a photograph. The water was sparkling and I set my aperture to 2.8 and defocused until I saw the shapes appear. When I processed the image I applied a multicolor gradient, just for fun.
I had a nice diner breakfast at Jimmy's of Fells Point and headed home.

Processing isn't everything but it sure makes a difference!

Today I received a question on the "colors" in the beach series I posted last week. I love color!
I hope it wasn't too much.

Here I am sharing my raw file no adjustments at all, (that's bold) which is the second in the set of the two and my processed files the first one, on two images created and processed that week. When I see an image I have taken that has good possibilities for enhancement I first open it in raw and make adjustments there, I especially like the light and dark global zone adjustments. Also some global color toning as well using saturation and luminosity. Then I open the image in Photoshop. Make further adjustments as necessary, spotting or maybe some curves, horizon adjustments etc. When I finish that work, if I want a further enhancement in the image, that I know might work, I then open the saved processed image and go to the filters plug in and use Topaz Adjust or Topaz Simplify. Sometimes I use both on the same file. http://www.topazlabs.com/

I play with the sliders and effects while watching the image and land on an effect or color toning I like...that's about it. I think of it as a set of paints.....like in an artists box of paints.

The Boys of Summer

Tonight I had the pleasure of watching my nephew, Steve Bumbry, play his first home game and Win! Needless to say I had my camera in hand and made some shots, my first crack at sports photography, wish I was on the line with the rest of the photogs.
I was glad I bought the Nikon 70-200 2.8 earlier this year as it came in handy.
Steve made the first out of the came with a great catch on a fly ball to center field. He stole a base and walked twice, no hits, and he got tagged out trying to make another steal. It was great to be at the old ball game! Good Luck Steve!

Home again

I just can't stop looking at these images. The natural event of this storm created such fabulous sites. I was so glad to have witnessed this storm front and be right on the edge as it came through.

Last Post from the Beach

That's it until August! from the Atlantic Ocean! Just a few more from last night.

Incredible Evening

After getting things together around the house all day, laundry and home stuff, I headed to the Dairy Queen in Fenwick, for a root beer float around 5:30.
As I was finishing the sky was getting darker and as I drove North to S. Bethany the sky became ominous. I made a few images on the beach before the lightening started and I headed for cover. After reading the book, "A Match to the Heart" I don't mess with lightening! I waited it out on the porch and when it began to slow and clear headed back out. Then guess what another line of storms came through......it was amazing I pulled into a spot in Bethany after driving through a flooded street...to run up to the each. Well when I hoped for great light and awesome clouds this morning I surely got what I asked for..these are just a few of the images I made, I could literally spend all night developing them as there were so many unique cloud formations and light!

The Sun Came out!

It was a beautiful day, sunny 80+ degrees and for some reason, I guess the passing storms the waves were ripping the beach up once again. It was just a few days ago I felt good about the amount of beach left going into the summer, but after two days of pounding surf, the high tide line is almost to the dune fence again, you can't hold back the ocean! had a nice breakfast at the Frog House.
Had a late lunch at The House of Welsh.
Toured the Assowoman State Park and sat on the beach watching the breakers with a friend. Tonight made my beach walk again and made a few shots. A couple more for the beach collection.

Another day in a rainy paradise

It was a rainy and balmy day, good for shopping. The outlets were packed, so I breezed by them and just did the necessary list gathering. Last night I had a nice dinner with Teresa Sellitto, John and Lisa Worthington, some neighbors at Fat Tuna's Restaurant.
I had the grilled Salmon and it was excellent. Before dinner last night I had only a short time to walk around the side streets here and made a few shots, with the Lens Baby. The surfboard and the Cottage window have also been processed with Topaz Adjust, just for fun.

Cool, Windy and Stormy at the Beach

Today was a cool and windy day. I spent most of the day, cutting back some greenery and painting the wicker furniture on the porch, but as the evening was coming on I headed up to the beach for my evening beach walk. The wind was blowing off the ocean all day bringing in very humid air and the waves were thrashing the beach. The sea had carved a ledge in the shore creating some interesting shapes and shadows. There were very few people on the beach. It was too cold and windy to sit and too rough to swim. The sky was once again a real beauty with the stormy front moving through.