I'll be posting some random thoughts here about my photography: my travel plans, technical information behind some images, stories about how certain pictures were captured, etc. The timing of the postings will also be random as my priority is capturing new images rather than writing about existing ones. I hope you will feel free to comment on any of my postings and I appreciate you taking time to read my entries.

Florida Road Trip--Distribution by Lens

January 14, 2019 • 3 Comments

Nearly every time I return from a trip, I'm asked about which lenses I used to capture the images. At the end of a trip, I like to look at the distribution of shots by lens. Here's how it looked for my most recent road trip to Florida. CLICK HERE to view my favorite images from this journey.

I used just one camera for the entire trip--the Nikon D850. Almost 90% of my photographs were captured with one of Nikon's "Holy Trinity" of lenses--the 14-24, 24-70 and 70-200. Of those three lenses, I'm finding the Nikon 24-70 to be the least sharp...even though it led the way for this trip in the number of keepers. The latest 70-200 lens is razor sharp. And, the 14-24 is typically my most used lens and is quite sharp as well.

The Sigma fisheye accounted for just 6% of the pictures, but it's a very useful lens for me. It's a specialty lens that I don't use a lot, but when I need it there's nothing else that can do what it does. Here are a few images from this trip with the fisheye:

Ave Maria Catholic Church

January 12, 2019 • 3 Comments

During my road trip through Florida last month, I made sure to stop by the Ave Maria Catholic Church in Ave Maria...about 30 minutes from Naples. I visited this church back in 2012 while taking a similar trip. Back then, I had photographed very few places of worship, so I was content to capture just a few images...and I wasn't overly pleased with them. Since then, I've photographed more than 200 churches. I wanted to take the experience that I gained into the Ave Maria Catholic Church to improve upon the photographs from that past visit.

When I arrived, a mass was underway. After sitting through that mass (and I've sat through countless services in the quest to photograph churches), I thought the interior would soon clear. But, about 40 people remained in the church and conducted some kind of ongoing service with prayer and song. After another 30 minutes, the church interior finally cleared.

I quickly started shooting--because often times the lights go out shortly after a service ends. One individual from the congregation was telling other people that I was there to "film" the interior. I'm not sure why she was saying that, but everyone assumed I was there in some official capacity after that, so I had a well lit church all to myself for more than an hour!

This panoramic was captured during my last visit in 2012. Back then, I was shooting with a D700. But, the resolution was high as this is an 11 frame stitch.

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The crucifix is suspended from the rear wall of the sanctuary and weighs 4,200 pounds. It measures 23 feet in height. The two shadows on either side of the cross represent the two criminals crucified with Christ or the three persons of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

This statue of the Infant of Prague was brought to Prague in 1628. It was found in the ruins of a church. The infant is the Patron Saint of vocations, family life and travelers.

Vertical view of the nave

The front of the church displays sculptor Marton Varo's 30-foot-tall sculpture of the Annunciation, depicting the Archangel Gabriel greeting the Virgin Mary. It's carved in marble from Cave Michelangelo in Carrara, Italy. The 12 apostles are 18 inches tall and are fashioned from gilded-bronze colored gold.

Another perspective of the nave and sanctuary...

The 12 apostles are made of wood and range from 218-289 pounds and average 6 feet in height. They are surrounded by statues of Joseph and Mary.

Statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The baptismal weighs 3,500 pounds and was carved from a single block of white marble.

Fisheye perspective of interior

Choir loft and pipe organ speakers at the rear of the church

"Driftwood Beach" Wins Photo of the Day!

January 04, 2019 • 1 Comment

This morning, my "Driftwood Beach" 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 exactly one month ago during my road trip to Florida. Driftwood Beach was on my photography wish list for quite some time. I'm glad I was finally able to visit this amazing location on Jekyll Island in Georgia. It did not disappoint.

This marks the 56th 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 five years. Click here to view all of the winning entries over the past few years.

Stages of a Sunrise

January 02, 2019 • Leave a Comment

During my road trip through Florida last month, I visited the St. Augustine Pier for a sunrise. Here is a sequence of shots from that morning:

1- Taken at 6:51 am...about 15 minutes before sunrise

2- What looked to be a very promising sunrise really fizzled out. This picture was captured at 7:13 am. I used a neutral density (ND) filter to just go with the flow and soften the scene since there weren't any dramatic colors or clouds.

3- By 7:17 am, the scene was not brightening at all. In fact, practically all of the color was getting erased. I used a stronger ND filter to try to salvage the photograph by going with a more minimalistic approach.

4- Things started to open up a bit by 7:22 am. There was enough interest in the clouds and some of the returning color, that I removed the ND filter for this last shot.

All four image were taken from the exact same spot with the camera secured to my tripod. You can get a lot of different looks within a very short window of time!

"A Look Through My Lens" Published for 2018!

December 25, 2018 • 4 Comments

Each year, I create a book which compiles my favorite photographs from the entire year. Last year, I started limiting the images to just one of my photograph trips during the year. This year's book will focus (no pun intended) on my 28 day road trip through Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

One of the highlights of the year from a photography perspective was my 28 day road trip through the western portion of the United States. This road trip covered 6,428 miles by car (Prius), 460 miles by ferry (with Prius on board) and 245 miles by foot. It was tempting to include some pictures from two other trips during the year--Iceland and Cincinnati.

You may CLICK HERE to view a full preview of this year's book. It's most effective to view the images with the pages of the book expanded to fill your monitor. I also recommend selecting the Dust Jacket version of the preview (positioned under the book).

I use Blurb to create my books. I'm very pleased with the quality of the product--from the binding and paper to the image quality. Producing such a small quantity of books makes for a high cost per unit. I make these available for purchase at the base cost from Blurb. However, the book isn't intended for general distribution. I like to create one for my own records--and family and friends occasionally order books as well.

This is the 11th annual "A Look Through My Lens" book that I've created!

"Peeking Frog" Takes Second Place for November

December 22, 2018 • Leave a Comment

My "Peeking Frog" photograph took second place for Imaging Resource's photo contest for the month of November:

This picture was captured in October, 2018 at a photography conference that I attended in Cleveland.

My Ten Favorite Pictures of the Year...

December 20, 2018 • 4 Comments

As the year comes to a close, I went through my images to select my ten favorite pictures of the past year. It's not easy selecting just ten photographs from an entire year's worth of shooting. But, here goes!

These are presented in random order:

Summary

Ice Cave, Iceland

Halifax architecture, Nova Scotia

Grainger Engineering Library, University of Illinois

Rocky Harbour Sunset, Newfoundland

Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia

Harbor Atlantic Puffin, Newfoundland

Diamond Beach, Iceland

Girl Knitting, Louisbourg, Nova Scotia

Cincinnati Skyline

Overture Center, Madison, Wisconsin

That's a wrap for my past year of shooting. Now, it's onto processing the images from my recent Florida road trip!

Holy Trinity Anglican Church of Codroy

December 18, 2018 • Leave a Comment

For my last night in Newfoundland, I reserved a room at a B&B about 30 minutes from Port aux Basques (the location of the ferry terminal for my trip back to Nova Scotia). I needed to be at Port aux Basques early the next morning.

I arrived at the B&B at about 6 pm after a long drive from St. Anthony. The drive was made longer by the rain and fog. I was tired when I walked into the B&B...and wanted to get settled in and find the nearest restaurant.

My host was very enthusiastic and started telling me about all of the things that I needed to see and do while in Codroy. I kept trying to explain that I probably had about two hours of light left in the day, and that I was tired, and that I had to leave early the next morning. But, she started telling me about how I should at least see the Holy Trinity Anglican Church.

My first question was "how far is that?" She said it was 7 miles away--but on a two lane road in the rain. I pointed out that it was unlikely that the church would still be open on a Wednesday night. So, she made a few calls and gave me an address to go to near the church to pick up the key!

Since she was going through so much effort, I felt somewhat compelled to at least see the church. I drove there and knocked on the door of the building in hope of getting the key to the church. The person who answered the door handed me a key--and said to just make sure to turn off the lights and lock up when I leave. When I returned to the building after my visit, nobody was there. So, I just left the key on the kitchen table and left. It sure was a trusting group of people that I was dealing with in Codroy!

I was surprised at the size of the church and the overall grounds. The cemetery is large and stretches all the way down to the Atlantic coast. Keep in mind that the village of Codroy has a population of only about 50 people!

It continued to rain the entire time I was there, so I broke out my rain protection gear for my Nikon D850 and 14-24 lens...here's a picture of that sophisticated piece of equipment. I hold it over my tripod/camera/lens while triggering exposures by cable release:

Here are a few more from my visit:

Gusting Winds

December 12, 2018 • 1 Comment

During my road trip to Newfoundland, I visited Signal Hill in the capital city of St. John's. Signal Hill offers spectacular views of downtown St. John's as well as the harbor. I was glad that I hauled my Nikon 500mm lens with me. The super telephoto perspective helps to condense the scene. It was my objective to emphasize how busy and compact this area of downtown St. John's is.

First, the lighting presented problems. I arrived at Signal Hill one evening and before I could compose a picture it started raining. The rain didn't stop until well after sunset. I returned the next morning to better, but not spectacular, light. The issue that morning was wind.

High winds are common at Signal Hill. During my photo shoot, I experienced a sustained 40-45 mph wind with occasional gusts that made it difficult for me to stand. I really wanted this particular shot, so I did my best to minimize camera shake in these challenging conditions.

My first idea was to block the wind with my body and my open jacket. Unfortunately, that wasn't possible as the wind was blowing directly into the lens.

This is a photo that I captured of Cabot Tower at Signal Hill. You will notice the stone walls surrounding the building. The next thing I tried was to position my tripod so that only the lens was peeking over the wall. Using this approach, at least the tripod wasn't getting hit with any wind.

This didn't work either. The wind was too strong and caused the camera and lens to shake enough to blur the images.

So, I then tried the following additional steps to improve the sharpness of the picture:

I removed the lens hood. The lens hood for the 500mm f/4 lens is massive. It was acting like a sail in the wind. This helped.
I increased the ISO so that I could use a higher shutter speed.
I set the camera for rapid burst mode. Shooting at 9 frames per second improved my odds of getting one sharp picture.
Of course, I waited for brief lulls in the wind.

After capturing a few bursts with the higher shutter speed, I noticed that approximately 1 in 20 pictures was sharp. I did this by carefully checking the photograph on the screen on the back of my camera--after zooming in to at least 100%.

Thankfully, my Nikon D850 isn't a film camera. This makes it well worthwhile to capture as many images as it takes to get the shot.

In the end, I captured a sharp image of the picture that I wanted. I wish the light would have been better. That's one of the greatest challenges of travel photography. I had to leave after that morning's photo shoot--whereas a resident of St. John's can return once the shooting conditions become ideal.

Fortress of Louisbourg Chapel

December 08, 2018 • 2 Comments

During my recent road trip to Newfoundland, I visited the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site in Nova Scotia, Canada.

I almost always try to capture photographs of places of worship that I come across during my travels. In fact, I have now photographed 223 places of worship! So, the Chapel at the Fortress of Louisbourg was an appealing subject.

A young woman was acting as a tour guide inside the chapel. I politely asked her if it would be possible to have the lights turned on for all the chandeliers. I explained that the interior of most buildings looks a lot nicer when illuminated.

She looked surprised and told me that lighting those chandeliers takes quite an effort. She explained that the chandeliers are not electric fixtures. Rather, they must be lit one candle at a time! She said that the chandeliers have not been lit for at least a decade.

So, I lit them just a touch in Photoshop...although in a rough and sloppy manner.

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