Hershey Gardens

                                                      Lovely rose garden

                                                     Day Lily tucked away under the tree.
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                                                Great Redwood tree, I felt like I was in California.

Lotus View

Black and white, or color, personally I love them both, I grew up with black and white film, my brother and I had a dark room in our basement. I spent  many hours in that room  messing up and creating master pieces( in my mind). I love the smell of it. Then the age of digital came and life has never been the same. Each one stands on its own, the beautiful rich pink, and contrasting greens, with the bright yellow that draws you into it's center. The many tones of gray and contrasting black, the clean lines, and textures that forms the petals. Yes I love them both. Valerie

Carnival Rides

These pictures are very easy to create. You have to find a summer carnival (this one was in Arbutis Maryland) and put your camera on a tripod, then try shutter priority from 1 sec to about 5. These pictures are all 4 or 5 second long exposures.

Camera Nikon D-300 / Lens Tamron 18-270 / Shutter priority 5 seconds / Iso 3 under 200

 Try zooming in while the shutter is open....Gary

Butterflies of the World

I have spent more of my time as a photographer taking pictures of  Butterflies and Moths than any other person, place or thing. The combination of beauty and color has provided me with a never ending project that no mater how long I spend in it, this project will never be over. There are several problems with photographing these insects. First you have to find them (go to a live butterfly show for those of you who don't know where to find them). After you find some butterflies you find that they are moving objects that don't sit still and may flap their wings while you are taking a picture. Next in order to keep the wings in focus a high depth of field is needed,  (try 400 to 800) but a slow shutter speed will cause blur if the wings are moving. I mostly have found that an iso of around 200 and a lot of waiting till their is no movement yields the outcome that I like. Macro lenses are great but not always needed, and flashes sometimes cause the butterfly to close it's wings before the shutter opens.... good luck  

This is a Hummingbird Moth it took me 6 years to figure out how get this shot. This moth spends about 2 or 3 seconds hovering on each flower. I mostly get a blur with every camera setting tried. With a nikon wide angle 18-35mm lens held at arms length (auto focus) using a shutter speed of 1/250 sec. and the pop up flash (iso 250) this is the result. Remember generally  I try photographing butterflies at around f-16 or higher.

 Blue Cracker

 Tailed Jay

 Browntip

 Heliconius doris

 Mimic

Emerald Swallowtail

Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pa

Valerie and I traveled to Longwood Gardens in Pennsilvania last week, it wasn't our first time there so we were ready to take some great pictures. This is a great place to visit even if your not a photographer. The doors open at 9:00 am, try to get there early because tripods are only allowed in the water garden area till 12:00 pm. We stayed all day from about 10:00 am till 4:00 pm and still didn't get to all the places inside Longwood.Go to their website for more info www.longwoodgardens.org 

 

Camera Nikon D-300 /Lens Tamron 18-270 / F-29 / Shutter speed  1/10 sec. / Iso 1 Ev under 200

Camera Nikon D-300 /Lens Tamron 18-270 / F-16 / 1/20 sec. / Iso 200

 Camera Nikon D-300 /Lens Tamron 18-270 / F-16 / 1/25 sec. / Iso 200

Camera Nikon D-300 /Lens Tamron 18-270 / F-25 / 1/50 sec. / 1 Ev under 200

 Camera Nikon D-300 /Lens Tamron 18-270 / F-16 / 1/20 sec. / Iso 200

Golden Days

I shoot this in Arizona, what a great trip, I see now why my brother loves it.Nikon D90, and Nikon 18-200 zoom lens.

Waterfalls in the Wilmington Wild Forest, New York

New York State has many regions containing waterfalls and rivers cascading down rocks carving out beautiful landscapes. I found one of these areas near where I went to college.Water running off  Whiteface Mountain and into the Adirondack Forest Preserve contain many rivers, these photographs were taken in the Wilmington Wild Forest and the river is called the Wilmington Flume...Gary



Whiteface Mountain

 Camera Nikon D-300 / Lens Tameron 18-270 / Shutter Speed 1/200 / Iso 200

Camera Nikon D-300 Tameron 18-270/ F-22 Lens / Shutter Speed 1/3 sec. /  Iso 320

Camera D-300 Lens Tamron 18-270mm /  F-29 / Shutter Speed 1/1.6 sec. / Iso 200

Camera Nikon D-300 Lens Tameron 18-270mm / F-36 / Shutter Speed 1/2.5 sec. Iso 320

Camera D-300 Tameron 18-270/ F-32 / Shutter Speed 1/3 sec. / Iso 320

A great day at the National Arboretum Washignton, Dc

Today I went to the National Arboretum and the heat made it a quick shoot but I did manage to take some cool shots. There is a world class bonsai collection that is a must see for anyone that loves bonzi trees. I will display some of the bonsai soon. enjoy

 Camera-D200   1/500 sec   f/11      ISO-640     Lens- Nikon 50mm 1.8

 Camera-D200   1/320 sec   f/10      ISO-100     Lens- Nikon 50mm 1.8

 Camera-D200   1/1000 sec   f/1.8      ISO-100     Lens- Nikon 50mm 1.8

 Camera-D200   1/200 sec   f/11      ISO-100     Lens- Nikon 50mm 1.8

 Camera-D200   1/500 sec   f/10      ISO-400     Lens- Nikon 50mm 1.8

Camera-D200   1/160 sec   f/7      ISO-250     Lens- Nikon 85mm 3.5-4.5 macro

U.S. Capitol at Night

This shot of our nation's capitol was taken across the street from Union Station in Washington, D.C. The colored lights in the fountain are not turned on every night, and you have to be lucky to catch a night when their on (lucky for me I work across the street and park here every night). The trouble I had taking this picture was that the shutter was open for almost 10 seconds. This caused the U.S. Capitol to be over exposed. So I used a telephoto lens and took a close up of the dome, replaced it in the picture in the right position and the result is as you see ....Gary

Camera Nikon D-300 / Lens Nikon 18-35mm / Aperature priority F-16 ( if I remember correctly)

Shooting Floral Photography

    You can see by the majority of my postings that flowers are a passion of mine. I like to get up close and personal with them. I love the colors,textures and shapes of the petals of each flower. Each one is more beautiful than the next.
    In order to get up close and personal with this Lotus, I used a tripod a very important tool to have when photographing flowers, I also used a  Nikon 50mm 1.8 lens. I lowered the shutter speed to 200, ISO 200 and shot at F22smaller aperture is important when you want crisp detail. I used a flash because I wanted to darken the background, but I prefer morning soft light or over cast light, you get more color an good detail in this light. Remember to fill your frame with your bloom, you don't want anything to distract from your beautiful flowers. Valerie

A Great Sunset

Gary and I went out chasing the sun this evening, went through some beautiful country side,it;s amazing what you find,just head west. Nikon D90,18-200 Nikon Telephoto, shutter priority, 200 speed ISO 500 F29, minor  work in Photo Shop CS5

Under the Sea

This was fun to shoot,I feel like I was in there, Shot with Nikon D90,1/20,F8, ISO800, no flash shooting through glass.Nikon 18-200 zoom lens, tripod would have been nice, left it in the car.

A great time with mom at the Washington,Dc Zoo

So today mom and I took a trip to the zoo and here are some of the pictures that came out good, or so I think. Shooting through thick glass is no easy task, i once was told to put the lens right up to the glass so u dont get a reflection and if using a flash it should be held off of the camera for better lighting.

 Nikon D200---F/8---1/60 sec--- ISO/400--- Lens/nikon macro 85mm--- Flash/Nikon SB-800

 Nikon D200---F/7.1---1/100 sec--- ISO/640--- Lens/nikon macro 85mm--- Flash/Nikon SB-800

 Nikon D200---F/5---1/40 sec--- ISO/400--- Lens/nikon macro 85mm--- Flash/Nikon SB-800

 Nikon D200---F/5.6---1/125 sec--- ISO/400--- Lens/nikon macro 85mm--- Flash/Nikon SB-800

 Nikon D200---F/4.5---1/100 sec--- ISO/250--- Lens/nikon macro 85mm--- Flash/Nikon SB-800

Nikon D200---F/7---1/100 sec--- ISO/400--- Lens/nikon macro 85mm--- Flash/Nikon SB-800

Waterfall's in New York

If you want to photograph waterfalls the place to go is Watkins Glen State Park in New York. It's part of the finger lakes region and very easy to get to, use google. For a modest  fee of 7 dollars you get to walk along a path which follows a river cascading down into at lease 10 spectacular waterfalls, a photographers dream. If you do go show up early to avoid crowds and to catch the early sunlight as afternoon specular light is to hard.
Also another half hour away in Ithaca New York their are more waterfall I will blog these location at a later date. Gary

 Camera Nikon D-300 /Nikon 18-35 lens / F-25 / 2.5 sec. / Iso 1 ev under 200

 Camera Nikon D-300 /Nikon 18-35 lens/ F-22 / 1.3 sec. / Iso 1 ev under 200

Happy 4th from Columbia,Md

When taking pictures of fireworks try blending them together in adobe photoshop, screen blend mood  works the best