It is time for another Black and White Wednesday, run by Lisa at The Long Road to China. She has a new baby daughter, and another daughter, and a son. They are beautiful children, but the photos are outstanding! Please go check them out, and while you are there, check on the submissions from others. From what I have seen, everyone who submits does a great job on their photos. We all have fun doing this, and we get ideas from others.



I have not submitted any photos to any challenges since last week. I am falling behind, and must get caught up. My Black and White is a photo from the Dutchess County fair in August. There is a building in which many gardeners display their ideas. Many wonderful designs and setups. This particular one made for some great water shots. All I did was take the original color shot, do a contrast adjust, revert to BW, then do an HDR. I am attaching the original below just for looks.

Black and White Wednesday

Welcome to another Black and White wednesday at The Long Road to China. Again, I have not felt very motivated lately...knowing that soon we are facing months of gray dismal skies, lack or color outside, no flowers, and snow. About the only motivation I have is looking at my fall shots from the pond on my road. I have to admit, they are fantastic. If I knew that I could post them for all to see, I would! The lighting was dead on, the colors were outstanding, and it makes me glad to have the Nikon. There is one shot I need to get, and that is a waterfall with an 'inn' behind it. In the afternoon the sun is shining perfectly. Trouble is, the location is right by a busy intersection. I will get it this week I hope.



See...I was rambling on about fall and colors and not the matter at hand, which is Black and White Wed. I took this shot earlier in the year, of a mirror dog in front of my house. I like the affect of the circular reflection. My son Matthew is standing there next to me. We just found out today, although I knew this, that he will not be able to get another year of high school in 2011. He will turn 21 in August, and in New York, (maybe other states) he cannot be in school past the age of 21. Matt thought he could have another year, but I told him that he will be 21, and will not be allowed to go another year. So this year is really his senior year. Matt can be a good model for Amy and I, and both of us try out various actions and photographic tricks on him. I wanted to post a photo of them here but it is on my other PC.

Pixel Perfect Before and After

Hi, and welcome to another addition of Pixel Perfect's Before and After. Last week I showed you a shot of the pond outlet, with my effect of editing. This week, I am showing a leaf that fell onto a flower pot on my deck. We have a lot of trees around, and a lot of leaves! I have other shots of leaves that are nicer, but for this I applied a Sunny script in Gimp ( which would be like Sunkissed in PSE). I rather like the outcome, as the colors are brighter and there appears to be a fog in the background. It is amazing what we can do to photos with Gimp and PSE, (or CS4 I suppose).

SOOC



AFTER

Black and White Wednesday

It is Wednesday, and time for another Black and White photo. This is a photo I took of a light behind a school, from the third floor window. I just thought it looked interesting against the trees behind it. The color version is okay, then I did an HDR on it, and converted it to BW. Any opinions?



Check out other Black and White photos here at The Long Road to China

Macro Friday

Another Friday and another macro Friday, run by Laura at Blogging from Bolivia. I was not too motivated this week, am worn out from a long week of working. I think I walk about 5 miles a day in all the schools I go to. I did manage to get some nice autumn photos on my road earlier this week (check my Before and After post from October 14. I will post some of them soon. I am not sure if I will be getting to the Sunday Scavenger Hunt by Ashley, but we'll see.

Being that it's the Halloween season, we have some decorations around, not in the detail or amount we did when the kids were younger. I still love to decorate. This is from one of the dining room pots.



Head over to Blogging from Bolivia to check out other great photos.

PixelPerfect: Before & After

Hi, and welcome to my entry for Before and After by Monica at Pixel Perfect. I love to see what she has to offer, and of course what everyone else submits for their entries. There are many blogs and many challenges. I particularly like this one, for us to share how we might change, or improve, an otherwise boring or simple photo. I have a lot of photos that I know could look better. At the same time, some of my photos look just fine SOOC. In any case, my entry tonight comes from the pond on my road. The photo is shot in the yard of a neighbor who lives across from the pond, and he graciously let me down to photograph 'his spot'. He formed what you see in this photo, every rock, every stump, and the perfect path for the water. Made for some great shooting!

Before


After


Basically I popped the color, increased the contrast and removed the black hole. So, I did a soft-glow, then layers of Gaussian Blur at Normal, then Lighten, and Dodge and Burn layer, levels adjustment, clone rocks into black hole, followed by an Unsharp Mask. Comments?

Black and White

Another Wednesday is upon us, and time for Black and White Wed, hosted by Lisa at The Long Road to China. They have been waiting a long time for another child, and their dream has come true. Her photos and stories make me smile. Anyway, here is my entry for this week. Hope you all enjoy. I am off to work, so later I will check out the other submissions.



This was taken at the Java Hut in Fishkill, a wonderful take-your-time, come-as-you-are, relax-a-bit eatery on Main St. I'll post a photo shoot of the inside on an upcoming post. Until then, relax!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Today is Sunday, and that means Scavenger Hunt at Ramblings and Photos, run by Ashley. I had these photos all set to go from last week, when I caught a glimpse of the categories for this week. I hope Ashley is feeling better...I read that she has a headache {{sending an Advil and a back massage}}.

1.Pink (not very creative I think)


2.Books


3.Fall Colors


4.Leaf


5.Orange


Looking forward to see the submissions by everyone else. Now, I must get back to yard work.

Before and After

I did not have a macro shot today for Macro Friday, but while surfing I found this site (Pixel Perfect) and thought I would play along with the Before and After theme. Actually, I always knew about Pixel Perfect, and I look at the site regularly. I have many before and after photos, experimenting with features and filters in Gimp and PSE. I also play around with Photoscape. Here is a shot I took in New Jersey, and then after editing with software.


Before


After


To accomplish this, I added the Sunkist action from the CoffeeShop Blog, another site I frequent. Then I adjusted the colors and contrast, giving the photo an HDR look. Gimp and Photoshop have filters and actions for this. There are also some HDR programs available. I like the outlook I acheived. Opinions?

black AND white

Thanks to all the comments on my Scavenger Hunt at Ramblings and Photos. I worked hard on those shots. But everyone who submitted had wonderful shots themselves. Anyway, I am not much of a writer, so I never really just write and write, but I find myself adding words as I write. Sounds crazy, but I always think that maybe I would like to write a book, however the thought of typing that much scares me. I would not know what to write about. Fiction is easy, but the story line needs to be very long. Here I go again...just mouthing off. Maybe I should write about something funny or having to do with photography. No. Won't work. I should just stop here and show you my photo...




We were at a cousins house for a late lunch early dinner gathering, amongst many apple farms in the Highland area of the Hudson Valley. Lots of farms, apples, peaches, (and yes Ashley, lots of pumpkins!). This item was sitting on a rock wall, next to the barn. It was begging for capture, lighting was good, and all I had was a goofy point and shoot kodak (ugh). My Nikon was in use by my son...again. The shot came out really good though. Tomorrow I will post other shots from the party.

Scavenger Sunday....

I'll be posting tomorrow for Scavenger Sunday, run by Ashley (Ramblings and Photos). I managed to do some shooting this morning but only got to editing about an hour ago. However, I am tired from working and need to sleep. I will post my entries on Monday for Scavenger Hunt. (edited...)



Okay. Here are my entries for Scavenger Sunday at Ramblings and Photos. I realize I am late but in the interest of finding just the right photo...well, some of you can find the right photo with no trouble, and sometimes the idea does not work. I start off every other month with the intent of doing the PhotoHuntChallenge, and never quite make it. But I just noticed that Kristi at PhotoHuntChallenges is making it easier for us...10 photos Nov, 10 in Dec, etc. Anyway, enough rambling (sorry Ashley)...Finding 5 photos for Ashley was easy, so I thought. I struggled with the simple, and the fruit, like, should I use real fruit, or fake fruit. I chose real, since I have so many apples staring at me from the breakfast room. At this point I am almost tired of apples, eating several a day. Of course, photography is not about real or fake, but presentation. So.....

1. GOLDEN


2. SMELL


3. FRUIT


4. SIMPLE


5. SPORTS

Black and White Wednesday

Earlier today while tending to dinner on the bbq (steak and onions), I took some photos. We have these Adirondack chairs and I thought they might look good in BW. I knew it was BW Wednesday, and since I have not posted for BW Wed in awhile, this seemed like a good chance.





Check out other great photos submitted at Black and White Wednesday!

Dutchess County Fair 2010

I am late posting these, but better late then never! These are photos from the Dutchess County Fair which was in August. I did not give these much editing time, so they are just SOOC. I sometimes get really good shots SOOC, but other times I edit...colors, contrast, etc. My next post will probably contain more fall shots, and more of my sky shot previews. I have been cleaning up some recent sky photos from a photo shoot about a month ago. The air was perfect! Look at my previous post, last photo of the Mother House at Mt. St. Mary College.








Anyone care to guess what, or who, these are in the photo below? And has anyone seen this kind of art before? I never have until seeing this at the fair.



This was a sand castle display. When I was growing up in Long Island, I was always making sand castles, at Fire Island, Jones Beach, Point Lookout and Long Beach. I really miss the sand and ocean.









If the rain holds off, I want to stop on Tuesday morning at the pond on my road. There has been a Great Blue Heron standing in the pond, posing for a photo! Hopefully I won't scare him off.

Autumn upon us...

Well, it's that time of year again, at least here in the Northeast, anyway. Fall is making it's way in. We don't have full color yet, but in about 10 days, the colors will be brilliant.

We took a walk yesterday, the air was crisp, a slight breeze, and I shot a few photos to get ready for the autumnal equinox on Thursday.
















See how blue the sky is? This is the way I see it, so my camera should show it as I see it. Not always the case, for me, when I first started using digital. I always got film to show what I saw. Having learned the controls on the D80 lets me capture what I see, and I can always enhance in Gimp or PSE. The following shot was taken at Mt. St. Mary College in Newburgh. The conditions were perfect. (Note: editing is not always desired, nor something we should just 'do'. I try to bring out more details, and sometimes shoot in RAW, which holds a lot more details in higher bit rate (16-bit vs 8-bit). None of these photos are raw, but I alternate.

Apple picking 2010

We went apple picking today at a local farm. There are several farms around here in Dutchess County, New York. One of them, the biggest, charges to park, or admission. Then you pay for the bag, like $10 or $15. The bag can get heavy as you are picking. A lot of people come to this farm...as far as NYC, Jersey, Conn. But the small farm we went to has apple trees, cider, donuts, the usual fare, but there is no admission fee. and a lot less people! Anyway, I'll be making apple breads and cakes. One of the recipes I found at OFA (Old Farmers Almanac). The cake is fantastic, and lasts 2 days tops at my house. I bring one to work for the ladies in the front office. I'm so nice I wanna cry!

Note: please excuse the lower quality photos than the photos many of you expect of me and my Nikon. These photos were taken with an iPhone since my son was using my D80 today at a concert. :-(