Photography

[Jim143]

Here are the pictures from the photo album of a "Past Life".  These were all taken with my Olympus OM1 almost 40 years ago.  One of them is date stamped 1982.  These are both Japan and England.  Due to the age and loss of quality from scanning, I hope they are acceptable.

Hirosaki Castle, Hirosaki Japan for the Cherry Blossom Festival



Hirosaki Castle



Steam coming off waterfalls, Towada Japan


Waterfalls coming off Lake Towada,


Lake Towada, Japan.  This is a dormant volcano that over the millennia filled up



More waterfalls off the Lake


Ice Sculptures, Sapporo Japan


More from the Ice Festival


Looking down on Warwick Castle, Warwickshire England.  Wish I knew more about my family when I was here.  I have family from the 1500's that lived in Warwickshire.  What's even funnier. . . I grew up in a town called Warwick



More of Warwick Castle



The "Elephant Cage". . .the Antenna I used in Japan and England for my job in the Service



Tower Bridge, London England



Changing of the Guard, London England.

[LennG]

Since we are reminiscing about the Giants and some of our adventures at training camp et al, I used to have so many pix and just can't seem to find most of them but I do have a few from a BBQ we did at an old BBHers home in Albany, when our own JimV turned 80. The Giants were nice enough to send him an autographed pix of Tom Coughlin.


Ed and Rich


JimV


Jim and gift


Anotrher gift for Jim, his 'fav' player of all time


Mr. V Cruz


Our one and only, TC


We settled in to watch a game after the BBQ. Too many to name them all

[Ed Vette]

Hey Ed, Now you made me get my glasses. Did you hang these in your 'tiny' house???

Love them, of course.

Didn't want to use up too much band width.

[Ed Vette]

Didn't want to use up too much band width.

Click on them and they expand.

[LennG]

Click on them and they expand.

[Sem]

With the fantastic shots of Giants' camp two things immediately stand out.
1. No matter what year it was always a great time!!
2. When all the lovely ladies of big blue huddle join, it becomes very obvious many of the guys here really married-up!!

[LennG]

Just going thru some of my pix, and this could take weeks, but came up with a few I think you might enjoy

We were in Amish Country, some where around Lancaster, PA. As usual, we love to travel back roads and see the country, as they say. Amish people are very fussy about having their pix taken, so if you do, you have to do it while they aren't looking and from far away. This was taken with one of my zoom lenses, just an Amish farmer in his wagon, out for a ride somewhere



We were off on another cruise, leaving from NYC, sailing down the Hudson. Most cruises usually leave about 4-5 in the afternoon, but in winter, just a perfect time to view the Manhattan skyline in all it's glory. I had to have taken 50 pix, just saing by and into the open harbor. This was one of the best.



This pix was taken in Cape Cod. Believe it or not, they have many lakes on the Cape. We were driving around. It had just started raining and was exceptionally warm that day. You started to see the 'steam/fog/ coming off the lake.




We simply LOVE New England, in all seasons, but we do spend time there in the winer months. For a Jewish guy, I have a faciination for these magnificent, pure white churches, against a deep blue sky, with the snow on the ground.



Again on Cape Cod, I think around Brewster, we just had a nice snow and then the sun came out to start melting it. We were walking along the street and noticed this one store with all these icicles hanging from the eave.



Somewhere in New England, another of my facinations are brooks, streams small rivers, just rushing along over rocks. Some are mere trickles and some are a bit more prominent. Here was one where I slowed the speed down on the camera to sort o blur the water a bit. A different effect that I try with shots like these and with waterfalls. I think it gives it a nice effect.

[Shoelessjoe]

Lenn, great photos.  Going back to your photos on the sun setting behind the Maine Lighthouse, I loved the last few as the sun is setting behind the horizon and you get into the blue hour, which last only about 20 minutes give or take depending on where you are located in relation to the equator.  The further from the equator the longer the blue hour. 

By the way, there is an app for cell phones called "PhotoPills" that you can get for $10.  This software will tell you where the sun, moon, stars, the Milky Way, and planets are at any given time in the sky, at any location on Earth, at any time of the year.  It allows you to plan a shoot in advance.

Also, love your picture of the old New Hampshire bridge looking thru to daylight.  If you wish to expose for the inside of the covered bridge you can take a high dynamic range (HDR) photo.  All cameras have a limited dynamic range which is where the highlights begins to wash out and the shadows loose detail.  By combining the photos you can increase your cameras dynamic range without having to buy more expensive equipment. 

Below are three photos the first two are over exposed by one f stop and underexposed by one f stop.  The third photo was a merger in photoshop that combined the over and underexposed images that created an increase in dynamic range that my camera lacked.  I opened up both photos as layers in photoshop and placed a layer mask on one so that the other picture or layer would filter through.  This method can be much more easily performed today by using HDR which is in most of today's edit software. 

A tripod should be used to line up the photos correctly.  Also, your camera should have a bracketing feature that allows you to take 3 consecutive pictures with different exposures without having to change your camera settings.

Over,


Under.


Composite.

[ozzie]

Great shots one and all, guys! Keep 'em coming.
Those ice sculptures are amazing, Jim.
Lenn, I don't know why, but my favorite of all you lighthouse pix was the second from the top, with the lighthouse to the left. Something about it just made it stand out to me more than the others.

[Ed Vette]

I tagged everyone.

[LennG]

Frank

I really appreciate your knowledge of photography. A lot of it is lost opn me as far as the technical aspect.

Also, love your picture of the old New Hampshire bridge looking thru to daylight.  If you wish to expose for the inside of the covered bridge you can take a high dynamic range (HDR) photo.  All cameras have a limited dynamic range which is where the highlights begins to wash out and the shadows loose detail.  By combining the photos you can increase your cameras dynamic range without having to buy more expensive equipment.

This intrigued me as I do make shots, sort in the dark. looking out at bright scenes. This HRD you speak of, is this something you have to manipulate your camera to do, or just set it to take a certain type of pix and it does it automatically. I am using a Canon Rebel T-6 which has specific srttings for all sorts of different types of pix, yet I rarely use them, preferring to stay in Auto, or move it to a Tv setting, which I can control the speed of the pix. I am sort of familiar with that where I can manufature effects, like trying to shoot into the sun, or blurring the  water, as I have posted. After that, I am sort of dumb and dumber. I should enroll in even an online photo class, I believe I would love it.
Again, I really don't understand too much of the technical aspects, but I appreciate any help you offer.

[LennG]

You guys have created a monster now, but I love showing some of my pix, so get ready

I truly love the Fall. It is my favorite time of year--football, all my kids birthdays are in the Fall, Jewish Holidays and most of all, feeling the chill in the air. It's just my time of year.
For the past few eyars, we have made a huge effort to get to places where we can really feel Fall, with country roads, foliage changing colors and jsut that cozy feelings, at least for us.

Last October we spent a week in the Berkshires of Mass. I think we were about a week late to 'peak' color as some of the trees were already lsoing their leafs, but it was still just magnificent. I could post a pix a minute and still be here tomorrow posting, there are jsut so many.

so let's look at the Berkshire Mountains, mid October 2019

Just cruising along the back roads.



Again, just riding about, finding great shots



A deserted bench overlooking a lake



I am big on reflection pix looking into a lake or whatever. You have to hit it right, when the water is perfectly calm, as they say 'Calm as a lake'. I have literally dozens and dozens of pix like this, all, at least to me, great shots. I'll post more as we go along.



One of so many covered bridges that dot the entire area

[LennG]

As I have a few extra minutes, I want to post a few of what I like to call my 'imaginative' pix. What I mean by that, is I try and look for an image that is just not scenery, but more, as I said a few pages back, what I might want to see on a jigsaw puzzel box, or some pix that MIGHT make some one turn their heads and say, WOW look at that. Again, it might not be to everyone's taste, but I like to think I have a pretty good eye and these are some of what I get from that.

I simly LOVE pix of Fall objects, like gourds. Here is what I think is a great shot of gourds in a basket



This idea I will credit to my darling wife. She uses a Samsung Galaxy tablet and also takes pix of everything. We were walking along in a park and she saw all these leaves on the gound and started taking pix of them. I said why not, and think they are great





We went to a pumpkin farm and I spent more time taking pix and never bought a pumpkin. For sort of abstract work, this place was a gold mine







And my last pix. We stopped at an empty farm stand and I took some pix of the veggies, but again credit my DW, as she saw this sign on the street and started laughing. Well, we thought it was a very cute pix

[Jim143]

Lenn

I love the icicles, the waterfall/stream and the covered bridge.  If we created a "monster" then so be it.  Keep them coming.

Sadly, most of my pictures now consist of our pets or our progress on our "recoil therapy dates" = not really pictures I think would be appreciated/accepted here.  I will go back and find others that I have taken and post them though.

[Sem]

This is one of my favorite pictures, mostly because it's my granddaughter, but also because of the unscripted expression on her face. It was taken nearly 4 years ago when she was the flower-girl at her aunt's wedding.



I have a ton of pictures to go through at some point, all residing on a PC that I haven't turned on in over two years. No telling if I'll be able to recover them or not.