Merry Christmas

Halloween 2010

Smelson Fall Portrait

Went out for a hike on River Trail last Sunday, we had gone out the week before and I saw a couple spots for shooting the Xmas card for the family. The Smelsons joined us on the hike. I really like the shot I got of the kids also, but you will not see that one until the holidays.

D700 - 24-70 2.8 Nikkor - 2 sb800's shot into white umbrellas

Just around the bend

Fall 2010

Went for a drive down Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park last Friday with the family.

D700 - 24-70 nikkor @ f3.2 800 ISO - yep 800 ISO - It makes it hard to grab the D300 to shoot with now.

C&O Tow Path

View from Olmsted Island on 10-7-2010

(Click to view larger)

Went for a walk out to Olmsted Island at Great Falls Park yesterday and took this pano.
Its a 8 shot pano shot with my D700, 80-200 2.8 nikkor, 200 ISO, 1/25 sec for some movement in the water.

Fun at Devils Den in Gettysburg

Crispy Tilapia Fingers with Lemon & Garlic Mayonnaise

I did a shoot last week with Jenn of Once Upon a Chef, that she uses for her site and then I can submit for stock. Very symbiotic relationship = ) I did take a couple of these home and warmed them up in the oven, they were excellent, as are all of her recipes. You can check her out here.

Executive Portraits

I did portraits this week for Julia's team of executives in her store. I did a basic 2 light setup with SB800's in shoot thru white umbrellas and used the CLS system to sync.

Weekly Photo Tips

My Pixel Bender posts were picked up to be featured on Weekly Photo Tips. Scott has a blog that is a wealth of information for photographers. Go check it out.

Just shoot it!!

Georgetown Canal HDR with Pixel Bender

Shot this last weekend in Georgetown on the canal, I used D300, 24-120vr Nikkor, 5 shot HDR and merged and tonemapped in Photomatix Pro, back to Lightroom 3, small develop tweaks, then to CS5 and used Pixel Bender. Click it to enlarge the shot, I am digging what it does to the water, the image was going to be trash due to the moving water for the HDR process. Let me know your thoughts...

Pixel Bender Plug In For CS5

(click to enlarge)

I saw this yesterday over at Jeff's blog. I thought is was worth checking out since he gave it a thumbs up. I must say that I like it also, especially the trees, so check it out if you have CS5.

Here is the link for the plug in at Adobe Labs.

Braid Diptych

We went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival over the holiday and Olivia had her hair braided.

Green Bokeh & a Dragonfly

Used some content aware fill (new feature in CS5) to quickly remove some distractions in this shot. I really like the composition of how I had the branch (twig) coming in, but there were a couple other twigs and web to get rid of. The bokeh on the 80-200 nikkor is very nice in this shot also. This shot was taken at Kennilworth Aquatic Gardens in DC in July.

I am still plugging away at getting my images sorted from the past few months and running some CS5 tutorials.

HDR with CS5 First look

I am getting caught up with the latest upgrades to Lightroom and Photoshop. One of the first things I had to try is the new HDR Pro feature in Photoshop. After watching a turorial on the NAPP site, I had to give it a run on a bracketed shot I took in July in Central Park. I like the remove ghosts feature so you can pick which bracket image to "feature" and since I hand hold a bunch of HDR, this will be used a lot. The image is okay, but I do better HDR so its time to grab the camera (and tripod) and shoot.

Also on a personal photography milestone, after submitting images to Stockfood.com and being accepted as a contributing photographer, my portfolio has started online with them. Its only a few images, but its a start in the right direction for my personal goals this year.

Really?

That was about the reaction to a 7am shoot with her, she just wanted to get to school.

Back to School

Today is back to school day and Camp Palmer is officially closed for the 2010 summer season. Michael is starting 4th grade and Olivia is a 1st grader.

I have been taking most of the summer off of photography. I was feeling a bit uncreative and not really wanting to shoot that much. When we traveled this summer, the camera stayed in the bag most of the time.

Well, its time to get creative again and start posting here with new work and personal shots.

Julia told me this morning to dust off the camera and take a back to school shot. This was shot on white seemless paper, I wish my studio space was bigger (don't we all), so I had to photoshop the background wider, as the paper was only 5 foot wide. I used a ultra 600 in a medium softbox left and a ultra 600 in a umbrella right, F11 @ 125 sec, D700 camera with a 24-70mm Nikkor.

So this is sort of a new start, I have a ton to catch up on.......Lets get started

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Water Lily at Kenilworth Aquatic Garden

World War II Shoot - Fundraiser at Towner Jones Photography

I have not been posting much this summer, but this is a worthy cause and you get a excellent image to hang or give as a gift. If you interested in helping, follow this link to my friend Rob's site.

Top of the Rock Pano

(click to view larger)

OBX Storm Pano

(click to view larger)

Giving it his best

Photography Meet Up Tomorrow

I am having a Photography Meet Up tomorrow morning at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens.

Click for info.

U know it a good Vacation.....

when you can grow a beard like this on it.

Horses On The Beach in NC

Shooting Silo Images for Stock

A request was made yesterday for some silo stock images of a couple kitchen utensils. A quick call to Julia (she has a Kitchen Shop in the Bloomingdale's she is the GM of) and I had the utensils in hand last night. Up at 6 this morning, (had to get Michael JR to gobo the reflections) and I have the images for a noon deadline today.

I posted a shot of the set up to show how I did it. Want to know more about silo? click here.

Strawberry Picking

We went out the Butler's Orchard for another round of berry picking. We have picked and frozen about 20lbs this year. Yep, that is a lot of smoothies!! We are doing Strawberry,Banana, Fiberbek and Vitabek and a little OJ. You can get the supplements at your local Robeks.

I am going to photoshop out the Butlers and submit this for stock.

Mixed Spice Nuts II

The recipe is here.

Mixed Spiced Nuts

I did a shoot with Once Upon A Chef last week and brought home some of the sweet and spicy nuts for a studio shot for stock. I will do a link when she gets the shots from that day up with the recipe.

D700 * 24-70 2.8 @ f8 * Ultra 600 w/ 20% grid back left * Ultra 600 in medium box right * fill card in front

Meet Up Tomorrow

Feeling Lucky

I went to the Photography Meetup at Colvin Mill last Friday. I am scheduling a new meetup for next week to check out the Allen Ginsburg Photography Exhibition at the National Gallery of Art.

Olivia's First Rickshaw

Olivia is out of school for a couple days while they orient the new K's. We decide to go to the Natural History Museum in DC. We parked by the Washington Monument and walked to the American Indian for lunch (Buffalo Chili Indian Fry bread Taco) and then back to the Natural History. She was a bit tired after a few miles in sandals, so we jumped in a rickshaw back to the car. Gotta go..... perfect day for a visit to the Zoo.

Off To The Races

Julia was comped some tickets to the Virginia Gold Cup races this year, her and Liv got in to the part this morning and are heading out with some gal pals to enjoy the day.

Enjoying a Popsicle

Dunn at Bat Pano

(click to see larger)

For Take Your Child To Work Day, Michael Jr wanted to shoot some photos with his Dad this year. I took him on Thursday for a walk around the Zoo to shoot some and then over to the Ball game.

Cameliciuos

Japan at Epcot

Michael Jr

There is a lot of bad technique in this shot, but I really like it. I have been pointing a camera in his face for 9 years, and every once and a while I get him...........I captured it for a second.

Gran Fiesta Tour at Epcot Mexico

Surfer Boy and his Squeeze "Babe"

Smiling In Canada Epcot

Vintage Henard

My good buddy Todd and his family at Daytona Beach last week.

I shot some last week on vacation in FL with the family, should have more to share this week.

Finalist in the 9th Annual International Photography Competition at the Fraser Gallery

My image of the National Cathedral that I shot earlier this year was selected to be shown as part this years competition. It can be seen be at the Fraser Gallery in Bethesda, MD from March 12th - April 3rd. There is a opening reception and awards ceremony, Friday March 12, 6pm – 9pm.

Cubano's Website

I did these shots for Cubano's last year, they used the shots for their new website. If you like Cuban food, this place is a must in in the DC area. I am going tonight with David of the Pleasures of the Table blog. I am thinking Paella and a Mojito!! David should have a post about it next week.

Social Media Portraits

All the kids are doing it these days!! = )

We had a small but EXCELLENT group yesterday at the Carriage House Studio yesterday.

I will tell share more next week, I have a shoot to get to this morning.