Mountain Clouds

I find that I’m constantly going through my whole archive of photos for one reason or another, usually because I’m always changing my mind about how I want to organize the library. One day I’ll learn to leave well enough alone, because as my archive is constantly getting bigger, this task becomes more and more laborious. (On the bright side, finding a particular image keeps getting easier and easier.)

One thing I’ve noticed this time around isn’t just how much my camera and post processing skills have improved over time, but also just how much photos that I thought were good at the time just aren’t. I’m not sure why that is – either my eye has gotten better, or I’ve become more self critical as time has gone on (probably both). I still have some amazing images dating back to my earliest days as a photographer (I call this luck), but these days I kind of cringe looking at most of my older stuff.

So with that in mind I thought I’d return to one of my old ones today, and spare my blog readers from yet another Niagara Falls pic (you can still check out the latest on my Photostream though). This was shot on Prospect Mountain near Lake George one rather rainy Columbus Day weekend – the cloud layer was only about a hundred feet above my head here.

Exposure: 1/160″
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 100mm

Hayden Planetarium

I’m kinda under the weather today, so this will be short and sweet. Taken inside the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC.

This photo, incidentally, is one of my few that’s every been published by someone other than myself, having been featured in the Shmap New York Guide

Exposure: 1/160″
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 28mm

Forest Winter

I hate winter.

First of all, it’s cold. I hate the cold.

Secondly, my creative output always takes a dive this time of year, and this year is so far proving to be no exception. The months of January and February are months of perpetual gray and dullness, with little to no usable sunlight anywhere to be found. The landscape just transforms into this dark, muddy, ugly thing – even uglier than NJ normally is.

Thirdly, on top of that there’s SAD, brought on by those short, cold, gray days, which really cripples motivation and creativity, as well as just makes me feel funky for weeks on end.

And fourthly, as photogenic as snow often is, it’s more a pain in the ass than not. There’s the whole digging your car out thing only to drive on icy roads, which really lowers any enthusiasm I might feel about getting pictures of it. And by the time it’s safe enough to actually go out, it’s already turned black anyway. Plus, it’s cold.

The above was shot in the winter, a few years ago. If the white balance seems off, it’s because I hadn’t yet learned to shoot in RAW – but in this case I actually like the cool colors.

Exposure: 1/100″
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 38mm

Fiery Sunrise

It’s been one month since I rebooted this blog with its new format – I have to admit I’m rather proud of it, both for the content and that I’ve managed to keep up a post a day schedule for this long.

To mark the occasion, I thought I’d post one of the first photos I took with my new D70, back when it was new anyway. It’s an early morning sunrise over Lake George.  I woke up at the ass crack of dawn and took well over a hundred shots altogether to get it.

It’s straight out of the camera, untouched by Photoshop. Hadn’t even learned to use RAW yet, I was shooting in JPG when I took this. I know sunrises and sunsets are cliche, but it’s still one of my favorite photos, years later.

Exposure: 1/8″
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure Bias: -2/3 EV
Focal Length: 28mm