Holiday images

Holidays are always fun with the family. This is Cori and Sherry, and the image serves as a test of image handling in Blogger. And look at that...both are Nikon users! It makes me proud!!

Portait session with Emily

Last summer, my friend Emily Carpenter, a successful Web designer and Social Media guru (find her on Facebook, Twitter, WhizBang Web and just about all over Rochester), was looking for some new portraits. She wanted to keep the shots informal and ended up going to her sister's house in Webster. The landscaping was a photographer's dream! Here are some of the shots from our session.

Sherry's portraits

Not too long ago my oldest step-daughter asked if I would take some portaits of her so she could help out a friend who was starting up a website. I generally can't say to no to any of my girl's requests, much less one to take pictures of them, so I set up the family room to shoot portraits. Here's one of the shots:




I do like the image in black & white. Here's one more, a little closer:




On the whole, I think the images turned out quite nice. I would, however, love to have a longer room for shooting portraits. I was pushing the limits when I attached my 85mm.

Slowing down the shutter

Per my previous post, here's a bit more on slowing down the shutter speed. The first image is without filters and shot at about 1/15. The second image used a 3-stop neutral density filter and a circular polarizer to obtain a 4-second exposure.

As you can see from the images, the filters are nice additions for shots like these, allowing you to obtain that creamy effect on the water. Here is one at 13 seconds; the water looks almost surreal:




And perhaps my favorite shot of the day is this one. It's only a 5-second exposure, but that's enough to get a nice effect with the water.

Using a polarizing filter

I was out experimenting with shutter speeds over the weekend. For me that usually means adding neutral density and polarizing filters to my kit and hiking to a waterfall (hopefully) nearby. I'll post more on the shutter speeds later, but during the course of shooting, I noticed the huge difference a polarizing filter can make. Here's a shot without the polarizer:




I think both shots have their merit but there is something captivating about being able to see the details on the floor of the creek bed through the water. The polarizer will also help to slow down the shutter speed and add to the visual appeal of the water as well.

First time blogging

Oh what a fright! I have never done this, mainly because I never felt I really had the time to do it right. But with help and suggestions (and occasional pushes) from friends and family, here goes...