Roy City Christmas Lights

OK, a little bonus today.  I've always thought I should go and shoot the Roy City Christmas lights.  Well with the big snow storm we are having I thought conditions would be perfect.  So I took my rugged camera out in the cold and snow and blowing and took a lot of pictures.  I did a couple of panoramas.  This is the second.  The first is way to big to post.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Temple Square Christmas

It's been to long since I posted.  I have a goal to post at least weekly.  It should be that hard, but it is.  So I thought I would just post another of the shots I took at Temple Square a couple of weeks ago.  Hope you like it.

Temple Square Christmas lights

While shooting the pictures of the family, I also shot the scene with out people.  Here it it in HDR without people.  My wife really like this one.  I guess I do also.  This is a three shot HDR.

Family Christmas Photos

It's been a while since I've had the opportunity to take pictures of people (on purpose).  The specific request was Temple Square pictures with Christmas lights.  Not a real easy thing to do.  Here's one of the four I ended up with.

A New Photomatix

I recently upgraded my HDR software to Photomatix v.4.  Some major enhancements!  Can you tell?  I took these pictures at sunset in downtown Ogden about a year ago and HDRed the top one then in v.3.  The lower one I just HDRed in v.4.  BTW there was no retouching of either photo in Photoshop.  If you've got Photomatix it's worth upgrading (it a free upgrade from v3 to v4).

Winter Tree

The title for this post is kind of dumb, but oh well.  Back when I was in college taking photography classes (1976) we did something called solarization.  This is a photo I used in the assignment, I replicated the process in Photoshop and here are the result.  It was a lot easier to do in Photoshop!  The photo was taken on the mountain above Provo between Christmas and New Years as I was there visiting my grandparents.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is definitely about family and friends.  Family and friends represent about the most important thing a person can be thankful for.  We shared thanksgiving with family and ended up kind of spontaneously out at Sundance.  I took this 35 frame HDR from the balcony of the place we stayed at.  There is so much wooded area in the foreground that it's hard to make out Mt. Timpanogos in the background.  Hope you all had a happy thanksgiving as I did.

Yellowstone - Mystic Falls

Mystic Falls is a beautiful little falls an easy hike from Black Sand Basin.  It had been years since I was there.  A year ago my family and I visited again.  Great stuff.  If I remember correctly the last time we hiked in there my oldest son was in a stroller.  This is a one shot HDR hand held. 

My profile picture found on this page was taken while I was taking this picture.

Cambridge Churchs

Well, how about another church in Cambridge, MA?  This little gem was on a very busy corner, like a beacon - pretty impressive. Single shot HDR

Liberty Bell

Can't be in Philadelphia with out getting a picture of the Liberty Bell

Philadelphia - Schuylkill River

There's a nice walk along the river it's located behind the Philadelphia Art Museum.  There are some really interesting things to see along this walk including the rowing club houses and the crews out rowing.  The orange buoys in the river mark the rowing course.  The fall colors where not quite in full yet, but we did some nice color in this shot.  This is a five shot handheld HDR of the river. 

Churches around Harvard

A couple of years ago I went to the AIA convention in Boston and spent a day photographing churches.  I went to see Harvard and MIT as well so most of the church pictures where taken around that area.  I had some sore feet at the end of the day.  The reason I took all these pictures is completely unimportant know, but I've never had a chance to share them so why not here?  This church is on the Harvard Campus.  A striking piece of architecture as most of the Harvard campus is.

Philadelphia - Juxtaposition

New and old live together and cause an interesting texture.  The historic church placed in juxtaposition to the sleek non religions that surrounds it.  I tried to make this a panorama, but the hand held pan and the variation in exposure didn't work out.  So this is a three picture HDR of about half of this beautiful old church in Philly

George Washington in Philadelphia

George Washington and Philadelphia share a lot of history.  Here he is immortalize in front of the Philadelphia Art Museum.  This is a five shot HDR hand held.  I wonder what this founding father would think about how things are going these days.  The setting seems appropriate to our current condition.  Remember to vote!

First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry

This building was next to the one we had meetings in on Thursday and Friday.  1774 was a while back and it's still functioning.  This is a three shot vertical panorama.  I did a light HDR on it.

Philidephia - Liberty Bell

Here's another three shot HDR from our trip to Philadelphia last week.  We hiked over and the building was closed so this is the best I could do for a shot of the liberty bell.  Independence Hall was under going renovation so we struck out getting decent pictures of that.  My buddy Layne had the park ranger come over and tell him he couldn't use his tripod.  I thought this was a free country!?

Philidelphia

I spent the last week in Philly and took my camera.  I couldn't fit my tripod in my luggage and I'm not sure I wanted to lug it with me every where.  On Monday night we took a walk over to the liberty bell and independence hall.  On the way back to the hotel I grabbed this picture of the new Jewish Center under construction.  Thought it was pretty cool.  BTW this is another hand held 3 shot HDR

My First LOTOJA

I love this picture.  It was taken by my daughter as I rode in my first LOTOJA.  Cars and bike were allowed to be a little closer in those days (2002).  It's a bigger event these days. 

Stop and Smell the Flowers

I was scanning a few pictures today.  I'm a little disappointed in the quality of the scans, but the pics are precious.  This one is of Tyler smelling the flowers at my in-laws house a few years ago in Elkhorn, Wisconsin.

Rough Life

I was going through some old black and white film and found this picture.  I'm pretty sure it's a tree - you think your life is rough look at this poor tree.  I have no idea when or where I took this.

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

I'm doing a lot of bike riding lately, as a result the camera doesn't come out like it should.  So...I thought I share some of my rides.  Here's today's.  I wanted to see how it worked publishing a ride from the Garmin Site also.

Plain City - Pleasant View - Ogden loop by tstoney901 at Garmin Connect - Details

Fungus Fun

While out taking pictures a few years ago I happened across this fungus.  I had my camera loaded with black and white film the result were an interesting pattern

St Louis Dome

A few years ago (1985 or 86) I went to an AIA convention and took my camera.  I don't remember which building this is.  It's in St. Louis, MO.  I don't even remember what camera I took this picture with (good chance it was a Canon I had way back when).  Thought is was pretty interesting.  This was taken in Kodak Ektachrome slide film.  Any one remember that stuff?

Halloween?

My daughter in law was over last night and mentioned she wanted something Halloween looking to decorate with, so we got looking through my photo's and playing in Photoshop and came up with this.  The sky is really interesting - see any ghoulish faces?  I shared an HDR version of this or a similar photo a couple of months ago.

One Week Old

Yesterday was Claire's one week old celebration.  She actually opened her eyes for a second when Kelsie's friend Malory came over to check her out.

Babies - again

Well, babies take the spotlight again.  My daughter had a daughter and the resemblance in unmistakable!  Here look for yourself!  What a miracle life is.

Fishing

Ever try fishing with a camera.  It can be pretty challenging and pretty rewarding.  It requires a bit of patients and your camera has to be taking pictures when the fish surfaces.  My camera shoot three frames per second which is barely fast enough to catch these.  This one was shot as 210mm f5.6 at 1/160.  I did these hand held because it's hard to keep up with a fish on a tripod.

Grand-kids

Grand-kids who'd a believed how fun this is.  Had fun getting to know the grandson a little this week end.  Didn't take pictures of anything else.  Can you believe it?

Christmas in August

Not really Christmas in August, but I was just going through some old photos again and came across this one.  I really like it so I thought I would share.  This was taken in the Washington DC area in 1975.  This much snow in DC is very uncommon.

Babies

So...my baby's having a baby and she wanted a baby picture for her shower.  The one they found didn't look so good.  But wait it's the digital age, I can fix that!  Here's the original and the fixed one.

Upper Mesa Falls

Upper Mesa Falls is one of my family's places to stop when we are at the cabin there's also a Lower Mesa Falls, maybe one of these days I'll share that one as well.  This one was taken at 18mm, f9.5 1/60 ISO 100.  I don't remember if I had a polarizing filter on.

Cabin Flowers

Alright, I like the moon at the cabin.  I also love the wild flowers.  I hope you like them as well.  My 50mm macro lens does an awesome job of capturing them.  This one was taken at f5.6 and a 1/180 shutter speed.

Indian Paint Brush

I don't really have any idea if that's what this really is, but somebody told me it was so that's what I'll call it.  Taken at the cabin last week

Moon Shot

Not sure what my fascination is with pictures of the moon but here's another one.  The moon was nearly full again as I was at the cabin and I am amazed at the amount of light the naked eye can operate on.  This is an attempt to HDR and see if I can replicate what the eye can see.  Needs more work.

Spring Wild Flowers

Memorial Day I went up to the cabin with my dad and brothers.  We finally had a breif intermission from all the rain.  We went for a little walk and I capture this flower.

Colorado National Monument again

Here's another of the panoramas I took while driving through the monument.

Colorado National Monument

Here's another panorama I took while I was exploring.

Grand Junction

I spent a couple of days this week in Grand Junction, Colorado.  As I drove around town I noticed there were lots of things with Mesa in there names.  I think I know why now.  I also had a friend tell me I needed to take pictures of the rocks.  I didn't know what he was talking about, but I think I figured it out.  This was the view out of my hotel room looking across the Grand Junction airport.  I should probably apologize for the size of these files, but then again that's the nature of the file.

The Old House

On the one hand I can't imagine living in a house this small.  On the other hand there's a lot of detail you just don't see these days.  Notice the porcelain door knob on the old door, not to mention the detail in the siding and trim.

Hooper House

While out for a little bike ride this morning I discovered this old house.  I went back to photograph it and found the old truck which was way awesome.  The house and truck were on the same property.  I didn't see the truck this morning.  The house is still pretty cool.

Another moon rising

Went to Island Park this week end and worked my..., well I worked hard and so did my dad and brothers.  Got up there Friday night and missed the best picture of the moon rising, but this one turned out pretty good.

Henry's Fork Sunset

I had a great picture that was under exposed.  I decided to try to make a three shot HDR out of it.  I took the original and made a +2 and -2 stop exposure in raw.  Ran the three photos through Photomatix and presto - a reasonably good shot.  Man I love digital photography!

Birds in Miami

I was having so much fun taking hand held long exposures for HDRs that I thought I'd pull out my 300 mm lens (not recommended for hand held use) and see how things went.  A lot of years ago I did lots of photography hand held (couldn't afford a tripod).  This turned out pretty good in my humble opinion.

Miami

Another hand held HDR in Miami and some of the Art Deco architecture on Ocean Dr actually Miami Beach. Janis and I went out for a little stroll after dinner.

Miami Art Deco

Spent time at the American Institute of Architects convention in Miami last week. Record heat and the humidity made being outside a bit uncomfortable, but we got out in the evening and tried our hand at some hand held three shot HDR. I surprised myself.

Bird Chillin'

Memorial Day week end at Island Park snowing and cold. Sunday we got a little break in the weather and hiked up the river. We found this group of pelicans huddled against the weather.

Mount Sawtelle

I spent Memorial Day weekend at the cabin.  The weather was frightful, the company delightful.  Sorry about that, it was a bit like Christmas with all the snow.  Sunday the weather cleared and we took a little hike.