(1/2 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; 0 EV; FL 43mm)

Image was made yesterday morning at Lake Galena in Peace Valley Park (Bucks County, PA) in the minutes before sunrise. The lake obviously was frozen.

Used my Canon 50D; 24-70 2.8L w/ a 3-stop graduated neutral density filter; all tripod mounted.

When I got home and looked at [...]]]>

(1/2 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; 0 EV; FL 43mm)

Image was made yesterday morning at Lake Galena in Peace Valley Park (Bucks County, PA) in the minutes before sunrise. The lake obviously was frozen.

Used my Canon 50D; 24-70 2.8L w/ a 3-stop graduated neutral density filter; all tripod mounted.

When I got home and looked at the images on the big screen, I felt they were cold, desolate, lonely and boring. I wanted cold, desolate, lonely and less boring. So I went to work. I started with cropping out some of the excess ice in the foreground in order to provide a better balance. Then I ran the image through Nik Dfine to remove any noise that may have presented itself. Moving on to Viveza 2.0, I opened up the blacks in the trees on the left and right and reduced brightness while adding saturation to the ice and sky accentuating the blues and reds. I also reduced structure a bit in order to start smoothing the ice blemishes. After contenting myself that I did what I wanted to do in Viveza, I moved on to Color Efex Pro. I said that I had used a 3-stop GND while shooting but felt it could use a bit more so I used the Graduated ND filter in Nik and finished it off by softening and smoothing the image using a filter designed, I think, for portraits called Glamour Glow. Finally I used Sharpener Pro to, believe it or not, reduce the structure and focus a bit more in order to reduce the impact of the ice blemishes even more – much like a portrait photographer would do to remove skin blemishes.

“Fire and Ice” is the result. Remember… cold, desolate, lonely. Let me know what you think!

8.0 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; -1/3 EV

6.0 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; -2/3 EV

Barb and I were up at 0400 and headed off for Sandy Hook. We arrived before sunrise, actually before civil twilight, and I set up on Chokecherry Beach to photograph the sunrise. The morning was tad cloudier than I had hope [...]]]>

8.0 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; -1/3 EV

6.0 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; -2/3 EV

Barb and I were up at 0400 and headed off for Sandy Hook. We arrived before sunrise, actually before civil twilight, and I set up on Chokecherry Beach to photograph the sunrise. The morning was tad cloudier than I had hope but I was still able to capture some nice color in the early morning sky. We ended up having a very nice day at the Hook and came away with a number of nice images (at least to my eye). But the day started pre-dawn so that’s where I’ll start with the images. Additional images from Sandy Hook will follow through out the upcoming week.

Images made with a Canon 50D and 24-70 2.8L lens w/ a Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter to lengthen the exposures. Camera and lens were tripod-mounted.