The cold temperatures continue to linger well into March here in the Chicago area. Rather than brave the cold again, I decided to stay in the house. My photo subject was an old baseball. As a long-time youth baseball coach, I probably have at least 200 of these baseballs in my garage!

The setup for this shot was simple. I sat the baseball on a desk and lit the subject with a desk lamp. My camera (Nikon D800) was secured to a tripod. I selected a macro lens--the Nikon 105VR. I also stacked three Kenko extension tubes between the lens and my camera to enable to lens to focus from a closer distance.

For shots like this--where the subject isn't moving--I always set the camera for mirror lock-up and use a cable release to trigger the shutter. That way, I remove the possibility of any camera vibration from pressing the shutter.

I wanted as much of the baseball to be in sharp focus as possible, so I selected a very narrow aperture of f/29. Using this small aperture, a shutter speed of 0.6 seconds was required to achieve the desired exposure at the base ISO setting of 100. I always use the camera's base ISO setting for stationary subjects in order to maximize image quality.

Since this is an old baseball, I wanted the emphasis of the picture to be on the texture of the seams and the cover of the ball. To highlight the texture, I moved the light (the desk lamp) to the side of the baseball. By side-lighting the subject, every little piece of elevated leather cast a shadow--making the baseball's cover appear rough. If I had moved the light to the front of the ball and lit it from the position of the lens, the light would have filled in most of the shadows and made the baseball appear smoother.

Baseball seams (sepia version) I used Lightroom 4 to process the raw file initially. The Clarity slider in Lightroom helps emphasize the texture. Then, I applied the Tonal Contrast filter within Nik's Color Efex Pro 4 plug-in. Generally, I first apply the default Tonal Contrast filter to the photo and then later dial down the opacity of the filter as appropriate. I also apply filters to the picture selectively by painting the effect into certain areas of the frame.

Earlier this week, I captured a series of photographs of a female orangutan at the Brookfield Zoo. Although this animal is housed in an indoor exhibit, the light streaming in from the skylight of Tropic World was a little harsh and introduced more contrast into the picture than I wanted.

At first, I secured my camera/lens to a tripod and dialed in an appropriate exposure (1/40th @ f4, ISO 800). Here is the result:

Orangutan Then, I added some fill flash (TTL -1EV) using my Nikon SB-900 speedlight along with the Better Beamer. The flash allowed me to increase my shutter speed slightly (to 1/50th) and to reduce my ISO by one stop (to 400). Additionally, fill flash reduced the contrast within the frame by filling in the shadows. This allows for more detail--particularly in her hands and the fur along her shoulder:

Orangutan Of course, the amount of contrast desired in the photograph is a matter of personal taste. I happen to prefer the second image. One method of increasing the contrast is to reduce the amount of fill flash. Or, I can always increase the contrast while processing the photograph. Reducing contrast during post processing is a much more difficult task than increasing contrast. So, having the second image as a starting point provides me with much more flexibility during post processing.

I captured this image of a single dandelion the other day.

Dandelion clock

It's just a simple dandelion; yet I used three flash units to create the photograph:

• My main light is a Nikon SB-900 positioned camera right and placed inside of a Lastolite EXYBOX softbox. The speedlight was set for TTL -1EV exposure.
• My rim light is a tiny Nikon SB-R200 speedlight positioned behind the dandelion camera left and facing the subject. This speedlight was set for TTL +1EV exposure. 
• My background light is another Nikon SB-200 speedlight positioned camera left. This speedlight was set for TTL -1.7EV. I placed a blue gel over this light and faced it towards a small piece of white foam board in the background.
• All three lights were then triggered remotely using the SU-800 wireless transmitter.

I used the Nikon D800 camera and Nikon 200 f/4 Micro lens for this picture. The exposure is 5 seconds, f/20 at ISO 100. Given that the room was quite dark, any shutter speed faster than 10 seconds removes any trace of ambient light--leaving the flash units to provide the entire exposure. Of course, the camera/lens is secured to a stable tripod.

Changing the gel color of the background light quickly provides a different background color with very little effort:

Dandelion clock But, I prefer the blue one as I think it looks more like the dandelion is being photographed in front of a clear, blue sky.

Today's camera sensors require very little light to record colors and details.

I noticed this ice-covered marker while walking on the South Pier off Silver Beach in Saint Joseph, Michigan. It was well after sunset and I could barely see the structure! I attempted to auto-focus by positioning the focus point on one of the blinking red lights at the top of the marker. I used the Nikon D800's Virtual Horizon feature to level the camera since I could barely see the horizon.

For exposure, I selected a middle aperture of f/8 to ensure that the pier marker would be sharp. I had to boost my ISO to a manageable 400 to keep the shutter speed at 30 seconds. As always, I set the camera for Mirror Lock Up and used a cable release to trigger the shutter without risking vibration. And, I set the Long Exposure Noise Reduction to ON to minimize any noise that might get generated from heat building up on the sensor from a long exposure.

Given that I couldn't see any colors or details with my eyes in the darkness, I was surprised to see what the camera had captured during this long exposure. Later, I added the moon (which I photographed on a separate evening) to add some interest and balance the composition within the frame. I also used a Photoshop brush to paint in the red light flares at the top of the monument. I think the final image takes on a surreal, otherworldly look:

Eerie Lakefront

While visiting Niagara Falls, I hoped to capture photographs of the falls at sunset and sunrise. My first photo shoot was at sunset. I arrived at the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side about 90 minutes before sunset. It's a good thing that I got there early. I noticed that the tall buildings on the Canadian side of the falls would block the light from hitting the water once the sun dropped much closer to the horizon. I found that it was better to start shooting earlier in the evening than I had planned.

Also, the place was packed with tourists. I literally had to wait in line to secure a spot along the wall to have a clear view of the falls! I estimated that the wait was 20 minutes before I could position myself for a shot. Even then, I had people bumping into me and kids crawling under my tripod throughout the shoot. This did not make for the most pleasant landscape photography that I've ever experienced.

In any event, I eventually captured a few images with this one being one of my favorites:

Horseshoe Falls In the morning, things were entirely different. I shot from the same location, but this time I was one of the only ones there. There wasn't another person within 20 yards of me!

Horseshoe Falls Horseshoe Falls There are also some interesting views from the American side of the falls. These were taken in the morning as well:

American Falls Niagara Falls rainbow

Niagara Falls is a spectacular location for photography. If you visit, I think you'll find the morning shoots to be far more enjoyable than the evening ones.

Just over two years ago, I came across a bulldog named Freddy while walking a path in Randall Park in San Francisco. I asked the owner for permission to take a photograph of the dog.

Freddy the bulldog

Later, the picture was selected as a winner by Hallmark in its "Your Greeting Card Competition". As a result, the card became available for online purchases.

After six months of so, Hallmark assesses the level of interest in the online cards before determining which ones will be offered for sale in stores around the world. Yesterday, Hallmark notified me that my card was selected for in-store sales and that the card will be available in stores after June 21st. In addition to a $500 check, Hallmark also sent me the original pre-production flat:

Hallmark winning card I'm not very fond of the way that Hallmark elected to display the photo on the card. But, I suppose they are the experts! This is my second card that was chosen by Hallmark for in-store sales.

This morning, my "Dawn in the Everglades" won Imaging Resource's "Photo of the Day".

This photograph was captured just before sunrise on January 23, 2012. I camped very close to the shore of Long Pine Key Lake in Florida's Everglades National Park--so close that you would see the campground in the distant trees if I hadn't cloned out most of the vehicles from the frame. I arrived at the campground the afternoon before taking this photograph and noticed this scene while walking a few of the trails that surrounded the campground.

I woke up early the next morning and walked around the pond with a flashlight in the dark to this spot which I scouted from the day before. I hoped to catch a few breaks during this photo shoot. Ideally, there wouldn't be any wind so the water would be still for better reflections. I also wanted a morning fog and some great color. Fortunately, I got all three of those things on that winter morning in the Everglades!

Dawn in the Everglades

This marks the sixth consecutive month that one of my photographs was recognized by Imaging Resource as its "Photo of the Day".

The weather was unseasonably warm and dry during my three week trip to New Mexico in December. This was helpful from a photography perspective as there were far less people in some of the resort areas. Communities like Taos count on skiers to visit in December. But, with no snow on the ground, skiers cancelled their trip.

The weather remained dry and warm until I arrived in Alamogordo, New Mexico. I stayed in Alamogordo for a few days while visiting nearby White Sands National Monument. The day I arrived in Alamogordo, there was high winds (in excess of 40 mph) and rain.

Windy conditions were a blessing. The ranger at White Sands told me that it had been several weeks since the area experienced high winds. Without wind, the footprints from visitors remained in the sand. Photographers had to hike great distances in the sand to reach a point where the sand was clear of footprints! After those strong winds (which served as footprint erasers), I was able capture photographs like this one of clean ripples in the sand just a few feet from the road:

Endless sand ripples

However, while it was raining, my opportunity to capture photographs was limited. I ended up looking for things around town that might benefit from the diffused light. One thing that caught my eye while driving through town was this colorful garage door with the three (or is it twelve) screened windows:

Windows on red Another subject that benefited from diffused light was the inside of this rocket engine located outside the New Mexico Museum of Space History:

Engine walls The rocket engine closeup would have been nearly impossible to shoot if bright sunlight was bouncing off the metal.