Smithsonian Candidate #2…Ghost Ship

I am thinking of entering the Smithsonian Photo Contest even though I have zero chance of winning. I say that not to denigrate my ability as a photographer, but each category already has over 50,000 entries. Sure a lot of them are crap but some, well follow the link above and see for yourself. Also you can only submit work from 1/1/2016 until the present and all works with people must have a model release.

If you are familiar with any of my work (e.g. Moment and Souls) you probably realize I don’t have a lot of model releases.

Fortunately I do have some images that may qualify in other categories and will be publishing some here to see if you feel they quality. Please comment and let me know your thoughts. This is an entry in altered image category of a boat at sunset off La Isla Dora in Quintana Roo, Mexico.

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

Ghost Ship

Smithsonian Candidate #1…African Butterfly

I am thinking of entering the Smithsonian Photo Contest even though I have zero chance of winning. I say that not to denigrate my ability as a photographer, but each category already has over 50,000 entries. Sure a lot of them are crap but some, well follow the link above and see for yourself. Also you can only submit work from 1/1/2016 until the present and all works with people must have a model release.

If you are familiar with any of my work (e.g. Moment and Souls) you probably realize I don’t have a lot of model releases.

Fortunately I do have some images that may qualify in other categories and will be publishing some here to see if you feel they quality. Please comment and let me know your thoughts. This is an African Butterly photographed at The Tucson Botanical Garden.

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

African Butterfly

Really Volkswagen? You have time for this?

I have thousands of products for sale on my commercial site. I have only received two complaints for copyright violation. The first came from the Jerry Garcia Family Trust a couple of years ago. We agreed that I could continue to sell prints, cards and posters of my concert images if I removed all the apparel products from my site. I understood their objection and I complied.

The second came today from Volkswagen. That’s right Volkswagen, the maker of German tanks for the Nazi’s. Yes, that Volkswagen. You know, the one that recently confessed to falsifying mileage data over the last ten years. My first new car was a VW Bug. I bought it in 1969 for $1969. It lasted ten years but I sold it when the bottom began to rust. That was before undercoating. We the bought a red VW Rabbit and after the third warrantied clutch replacement, traded it in. We have looked at VW’s since but dislike their rough ride and feel.

It wasn’t a special image but was one of the first animal pictures I ever took and quite frankly it is not that good. It has been on the site for ten years and has never garnered a sale. Now I understand why Red Bubble had to remove this image. I don’t fault them. I probably would have removed it in my next purge of products on my storefront. But really Volkswagen you have time for this?

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Sunset at La Isla Dora

Our condo in Cancún is located on La Isla Dora on the Caribbean Sea. Across the street is a shopping center with a dock overlooking the lagoon. It is a perfect place to capture the sunset.

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

Sunset at La Isla Dora

Skippy Redux

A few years a go I published skippy the Pelican. So named by me since he seemed to skip across the water. This was taken at a small harbor on Isla Mujeres a small island near Cancún in the Mexican province of Quintana Roo. I decided to edit the image using the HDR tool from the NIK Collection by Google. The new image is on top, so you be the judge. Comments appreciated.

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

Skippy Redux

Skippy Redux

A Skipping Pelican

© Richard Burke 2016 All Rights Reserved

Pittsburgh–Mon View

I have been going through images I have uploaded to my blog but not published. Some I look at and have no idea why I never published them. This one I understand though, it is not taken from a Disney Photo Spot. If you have every been to any disney park, you know there are certain places with a Kodak sign identifying the perfect place to take a picture of Cinderella’s castle or Space Mountain. That way everybody’s photo book looks identical except for the grinning people blocking the view.

Pittsburgh has a couple of these. One is from the riverwalk along the North Shore of the Allegheny and the other is from the top of Mount Washington showing the confluence of the three rivers. This one was rejected because it is the dirty old Monongahela River. Except the steel mills are gone, the river has been cleaned up and people actually fish in it now. Sure there are still the barges and the trains running beside it. It is not the money shot but all and all not a bad view of our fair city.

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

Mon View

Mon View

The NIK Collection from Google

A photographer friend and former student of mine and I were discussing HDR. I have started to use auto bracketing and the new HDR merge feature of Lightroom on some images. I am generally pleased with the results.There is almost no ghosting with tripod shots. I also did hand held shots with a VR lens and the ghosting correction option worked perfectly. See Yesterday’s post

My friend suggested I try the NIK filter collection plug-in from Google which I have since installed and am really amazed with the options offered by this product. I have just started to experiment with it and so far I am wowed! I cannot yet comment on all the features but compare the two images below.

The first was done with standard editing using saturation, highlight and monochrome tools on Lightroom. The second using one of the many editing pallets from the HIK Silver plugin for Lightroom.

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

Standard Editing Monochrome

Standard Editing Monochrome

NIK Silver Tool

NIK Silver Tool

New Lightroom HDR Merge

I don’t normally write reviews on equipment or techniques. There are many people who do it much better than I do. I did write a series of technical How To articles for eHow a few years back but when they stopped paying me, I stopped writing them. Since then I have been more concerned with creativity than technology.

I have been disappointed on how difficult it has been to create HDR images. I don’t travel that much with a tripod which has been a prerequisite to do these sorts of images. I have tried HDR plug ins but have been disappointed with the results. GIMP made a pretty good plug in but the images were usually noisy or ghosted beyond repair. However, today I tried the new Merge Photo tool on the new Lightroom.

I took this picture, edited and posted it in less that 30 minutes without a tripod! I used auto bracketing on the Nikon 5200 with three images one f-stop apart. Easy to use with a great how to video on YouTube that takes four minutes to watch. Once again Adobe products continue to amaze. Wait why do I need Photoshop again? Oh yah its bundled with Lightroom.

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

Lightroom HDR

Lightroom HDR

Leaves on Black Water

The waters at Lettuce Lake Park in Tampa Florida are dark and foreboding but very clear. The dark waters make this scene a little ominous. Is an alligator lurking below or some terror from a Stephen King Book? Sometimes my imagination gets the best of me.

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

Leaves on Black Water

Leaves on Black Water

Panning Running Deer

Most still photographers don’t think about panning very much. Panning is commonly used in cinematography but in still photography will cause motion blur. Sometimes motion blur can make an image work by giving the illusion of motion. If you place the camera on a tripod and pan with the action during a slow shutter speed you can still create blurred motion but through panning make the subject blur less. This was shot at an exposure of 1 second and the camera was panned with the action during exposure. The panning causes the background to blur but by panning with the action the deer are not blurred as much making them stand out. You can see more of my nature images at my gallery by clicking here

Running Deer

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