This morning, my "Gorilla Portrait" picture won Imaging Resource's "Photo of the Day". CLICK HERE to view Imaging Resource's Photo of the Day page.

This photograph was captured two months ago at the Brookfield Zoo. This is my fifth Photo of the Day winning entry from the Brookfield Zoo.

This marks the 58th time that one of my photographs was recognized by Imaging Resource as its "Photo of the Day". A photographer is limited to one winning entry per month, so this series of winning images stretches back more than six years. Click here to view all of the winning entries over the past few years.

GorillaImaging Resource's Photo of the Day for May 1, 2019

One of my favorite subjects to photograph is architectural abstracts. During my road trip through Florida, I visited several large cities. I enjoyed walking the streets and composing abstract images. I find the geometry of these scenes to be interesting. The photographs emphasize lines, colors and shapes.

Here are a few from Tampa...

Tampa architectural abstractArchitectural abstract of the Regions Bank Building at 100 N Tampa Street in Tampa, Florida on December 11, 2018 DotsAbstract of the ceiling outside the Tampa Museum of Art at 120 Gasparilla Plaza in Tampa, Florida on December 11, 2018 DotsAbstract of the ceiling outside the Tampa Museum of Art at 120 Gasparilla Plaza in Tampa, Florida on December 11, 2018 And a few more from Miami...

Architectural abstractArchitectural abstract on Brickell Avenue in downtown Miami, Florida on December 15, 2018. The green building on the left is the Mayfield Condo Building at 1395 Brickell Avenue in Miami. Architectural abstractArchitectural abstract at 1395 Brickell Avenue in downtown Miami, Florida on December 15, 2018 Solitair Brickell ApartmentsSolitair Brickell Apartments at 86 SW 8th Street in Miami, Florida on December 15, 2018 Miami Beach Convention CenterMiami Beach Convention Center at 1901 Convention Center Drive in Miami Beach, Florida on December 14, 2018

In my last blog entry, I explained the lighting setup that I used to photograph the players on my 12U baseball travel team.

In addition to creating individual portraits, I used the images to produce a banner for the team:

12U Orland Park Warriors12U Orland Park Warriors baseball team in Orland Park, Illinois on March 30, 2019 This was a fun project. It was a daunting at first (because I have so little experience with portraits and lighting), but I was able to get a little help. I purchased a Photoshop layered template for the overall design. I then lit and photographed the players, inserted and sized them within the template, and adjusted the text and colors. The file was sent into a banner printing company...and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product.

In recent years, my photography has moved mostly towards architecture, landscapes, wildlife and nature. I very rarely shoot portraits. Typically, I break out the studio lights once a year to capture photographs of the players that play on my travel baseball team.

Most years, I keep the lighting very simple. This year, I tried something far more complex--five lights and a reflector! I also photographed a volleyball player during the photo session.

The setup consisted of the following:

• Main light was a large (47") octabox with Einstein strobe positioned camera left.
• One rim light was a gridded strip softbox with Einstein strobe positioned behind the subject to the left.
• Another rim light was a gridded strip softbox with Einstein strobe positioned behind the subject to the right.
• The green screen background was lit by a Nikon SB-900 flash unit fired into an umbrella.
• The hair light was a Nikon SB-800 suspended over the subject with a bungee cord.
• A large reflector was used to partially fill in the shadows on the subject.
• The camera was a Nikon D850 placed on a tripod.

Here are a few photographs from the session:

Max HeidenreichMax Heidenreich of the 12U Orland Park Warriors baseball team in Orland Park, Illinois on March 28, 2019 Cooper SigelCooper Sigel of the 12U Orland Park Warriors baseball team in Orland Park, Illinois on March 29, 2019 Ali ElaghaAli Elagha of the 12U Orland Park Warriors baseball team in Orland Park, Illinois on March 28, 2019 Madelyn StackMadelyn Stack of the Michio volleyball team in Orland Park, Illinois on March 30, 2019 Madelyn StackMadelyn Stack of the Michio volleyball team in Orland Park, Illinois on March 30, 2019 I would like to do more with the studio lights in the future. One thing of interest to me would be pet photography.
 

During my road trip through Florida, I visited Naples Pier to capture some sunset photographs. It was a nice sunset. About 20 minutes after the sun went down, I packed my gear and started to leave the beach. I then decided to walk onto the pier to see if there might be other photo possibilities for the next day. To my surprise, the pier was suddenly illuminated! In my opinion, it was the lit pier that would make for a much more interesting photograph!

So, I returned the next night to capture the picture. The challenge is that the pier isn't lit until the sky is very dark. By that time, the colors in the sky are mostly gone and the picture has too much contrast. The way that I approached solving this problem was to blend a couple of exposures. The first photograph was captured during sunset when the sky looked good to my eye. I then kept the camera in the same spot (mounted securely to my tripod) until well after sunset when the pier lit up. Later in post processing, I blended the two images. I used the original scene as my base picture and then brought the lights from the pier into the image. This way, I was able to light up the pier myself!

The softness of the water in the Gulf of Mexico is a result of a very long exposure. To accomplish that, I attached a ND (neutral density) to my Nikon 24-70 lens. My neutral density filters got a real workout during this road trip.

Naples PierNaples Pier at 25 12th Avenue S in Naples, Florida on December 13, 2018

During my road trip through Florida, I visited the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg to capture photographs of the staircase. I enjoy staircases and have compiled a collection of staircase photographs. And, the spiral staircase inside the Dali Museum is certainly one of the more unique staircases that I've seen.

Not unexpectedly, I was told that I wouldn't be permitted to bring my tripod inside the museum. Also prohibited was my camera backpack. Since I had walked a great distance to get to the museum, I had no way of returning to my car to store these items. The security guard suggested that I use the storage lockers which were situated outside the building. As my gear is quite expensive, I was hesitant to do so. But, the security guard assured me that the items would be safe. He said that nothing has ever been stolen from the lockers in the history of the museum! I took a chance by storing my tripod along with three or four lenses in the locker--and everything worked out OK.

There were several challenges to overcome in photographing the staircase. First, the scene is very crowded. Not only are people constantly on the steps, but there's quite a crowd standing near the information desk right under the stairs. There's also a small cafe in the lobby which made it difficult to set up. Finally, a security guard is stationed at the top of the staircase. I was able to overcome most of these issues by being patient. I also revisited just before closing--and the security guard tended to wander away from his chair at that hour as very few new visitors were entering the building.

My next challenge was dealing with the wide range of light. Ordinarily, I would stabilize my camera with the tripod and bracket some exposures to create a high dynamic range (HDR) image. Since I couldn't use a tripod, I tried another approach. I set my Nikon D850 to a continuous burst of 9 frames per second with bracketed exposures (1 stop apart). With the frames blasting so quickly, I hoped that I could keep the camera steady enough to allow me to align the images later in post processing. Later, I used Photoshop to align the images...and it worked! The only downside of hand-holding the camera for these shots was that I had to raise the ISO setting to achieve fast enough shutter speeds. Instead of using the base ISO setting of 64 for the D850, I boosted the ISO to 800. ISO 800 is still very reasonable and fully capable of creating photographs of high image quality.

Here are a few photographs of the staircase:

Dali StaircaseSpiral staircase inside the Salvador Dali Museum at 1 Dali Blvd in St. Petersburg, Florida on December 11, 2018. Referred to as the "Enigma", the glass entryway is 75 feet tall and encompasses a spiral staircase. Dali StaircaseSpiral staircase inside the Salvador Dali Museum at 1 Dali Blvd in St. Petersburg, Florida on December 11, 2018. Referred to as the "Enigma", the glass entryway is 75 feet tall and encompasses a spiral staircase. Dali StaircaseSpiral staircase inside the Salvador Dali Museum at 1 Dali Blvd in St. Petersburg, Florida on December 11, 2018. Referred to as the "Enigma", the glass entryway is 75 feet tall and encompasses a spiral staircase.

During my recent road trip through Florida, my plan was to stay two nights at Jekyll Island to photograph Driftwood Beach. I revised this plan when I was only able to reserve a hotel for the one night at Jekyll Island. I spent the other night at nearby St. Simons Island, Georgia.

I very much enjoyed my time on St. Simons Island. The highlight of my stay was a sunrise photo session at the Avenue of Oaks near the entrance to the Lodge At Sea Island Golf Club. I arrived at the location well before sunrise. I knew that it was expected to be a clear sky and that the scene would be destroyed for photography once the direct, harsh sunlight struck the oak trees.

So, I started shooting before sunrise. I like the photos, even though the light was a bit flat. I kept shooting through sunrise until the sun became too bright. My favorite picture of the morning was the one taken right as the sun rose over the horizon and gently lit small portions of the live southern oak trees:

Avenue of the OaksAvenue of the Oaks at 100 Retreat Avenue near the entrance to the Lodge At Sea Island Golf Club in Saint Simons Island, Georgia on December 4, 2018 I like the photograph for a number of reasons. First, I very much like southern live oak trees. Also, have a tendency to favor pictures that feature a vanishing point as it draws my eyes into the frame. Lighting is always important. And, the colors and textures are an added bonus.

This morning, my "Naples Pier" picture won Imaging Resource's "Photo of the Day". CLICK HERE to view Imaging Resource's Photo of the Day page.

This photograph was captured two months ago during my road trip to Florida. This is the second picture from that road trip to win a Photo of the Day. This photograph is a blend of images spanning about 45 minutes. I first captured the sunset and then waited until the pier was illuminated after dark. I later blended the two images during post processing. The tripod never moved during that 45 minute window.

Another element in creating this photograph was the use of a neutral density filter. This enabled me to use a long exposure of 25 seconds--which helped to smooth out the water and capture some motion in the clouds.

This marks the 57th time that one of my photographs was recognized by Imaging Resource as its "Photo of the Day". A photographer is limited to one winning entry per month, so this series of winning images stretches back more than six years. Click here to view all of the winning entries over the past few years.

Naples PierImaging Resource's Photo of the Day for March 15, 2019