Happy New Year!!!
Well it is new years eve, Happy New Year everyone. For me it has been a good year. Lately I haven't done much photography. I find I go through spells mainly due to lack of time. In any event I've been meaning to post my favorite photos that I've taken in 2009.
Choosing my favorites is harder than I thought it would be. I'll start with this one here
The Rose
I bought my wife some rose oh back in January I guess it was. I captured this photo with my old camera which was a Nikon D50. This is not the original picture though. A few months ago I went back through some old photos and applied some knowledge I've gained in CS4. This particular photo I applied a couple of different textures.
Fast forward a few months and I find myself with a new Nikon D90. I've been happy with the D90 but I sometimes wonder if I should of held out for a D300. In any event the D90 saw a lot of use, over 3500 photos for the year. In July we went out to Lake Winnipesaukee for vacation. During this vacation I had a goal of capturing some photo that I liked enough to use for a gallery wrap. This is what I ended up with ....
On The Lake
Had this mounted as a 20x30 gallery wrap, came out pretty good. While on this vacation I also ended up with this photo that became one of my favorites
This photo was a total surprise when I transferred everything over to my PC. Didn't realize I captured something like this.
The next couple of photos that made it to my favorite of the year list were taken at Sturbridge Village. I'll tell you visiting Sturbridge Village is a photographers dream. Every time you turn around a new composition pops into view.
Daily Ritual
This is probably one of my favorites. I took this around the time that I started shooting in full manual. This photo was taken indoors using natural light. What you see is pretty much straight out of the camera. The tray is a little blown but overall I'm happy with the results.
I almost didn't include this photo. The original had three turkeys in it. I loved the detail on the turkey pictured, but the other turkeys were out of focus and did the photo no justice. I went to work in Photoshop and added a background. I haven't done much with layers and masks but I was happy with the results I've achieved in this photo.
On my commute to work I pass this barn most mornings. I'd been thinking about this photo and going back and forth on how to frame it best. The problem was directly in front of the barn was a fairly new car garage. It just didn't fit in well with the barn as well as also preventing a straight on capture of the barn. I finally made it out and here are the end results...
This fall I had fun with colors. I was in a creative mood and had my camera with me almost anywhere that I traveled. This here is one of my favorites from that time period captured at rail trail in West Boylston.
We now find ourselves at my last favorite photo of the year.
This is my childhood school. I've been exploring HDR techniques and was very pleased with the results I ended up with here. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and is a process where you take multiple photos changing the exposure in each to capture. By doing this you have photos that are properly exposed for the shadows, midtones and highlights. Using Photomatrix I created a tonal map and merged three photos to get these results. Looking back at this photo if I were to do it again I would spend time removing the telephone wires.
Well that's what I have from 2009. I hope to explore HDR more in 2010. I hope to also explore flash photography some. I say I like to shoot in natural light the best. But the truth is I really don't know how to use strobes well. So I may venture into that area.
Happy New Year everyone!!! Hope you and your families have a healthy and prosperous year!!!