Hi everyone-

Today wraps up some images that I shot of Cree this week. We had a lot fun fun with this little impromptu photo session.

Today is a short post because i have a TON of photo editing to do and have to get to it!

I hope you have a great day and weekend!

Hi everyone-

Last night we went to the mall to pick up Cree's Christmas dress. We decided to walk around a little bit and show Cree where Santa will sitting.

Well much to our surprise and even more to Cree's Santa was already there. When Tonya said oh look he's here Cree said "HE"S HERE!?!" and got real close to mommy.

It was pretty funny. So we walked up and talked to him for a while. Cree was completely silent while daddy and Santa had a great conversation about Christmas and Disney World and what time if year is best in Florida. Who new that Santa winters in FLA!

So in the end Cree got a coloring book and said she would like to come back. So I guess we'll try a few more times and eventually I think she'll go for a picture with him.

As soon as we walked away, just as Santa predicted, she was back to her normal self laughing at the reindeer and snowmen.

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

We are enjoying another great fall day here in South Central Pennsylvania today. Beautiful crisp morning giving way to what appears to be another super day. I'll be spending the day raking leaves and working outside. I'm not sure how many of these days we really have left so I will be enjoying as much as possible.

So today's image was shot just before yesterdays were shot. This is one of the images taken from the precarious position I described in yesterday's post.

Cree was very happy she was getting her nails done and let me get a few cute images before the diva in her took over and wanted nothing to do with the camera...lol

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

I hope you all had a great weekend. I was a bit under the weather but got to spend a lot of time with my girls so it ended up being a great weekend.

And for you gamers out there I also upgraded to Play Station 3 and got Modern Warfare 2. AWESOME!!!!!!!!

On Saturday afternoon Cree was getting her nails painted by her mom and I wanted to capture a few images. Cree wasn't overly excited about that idea. So actually capturing the images was quite a task which ended with me standing on the bathroom vanity with on leg and the other across the room against the wall shooting almost straight down on the two of them who were sitting on the floor.

Cree though that was just crazy so she loosened up a bit and a few of the images came out ok. During the process though I was able to catch a few other images that were a bit more serious.

These were taken at ground level with me in the bathroom and Cree in the doorway looking in. I just replaced the vanity lights with 4 100 watt incandescent soft white bulbs so the light was very bright and soft. It was camera left and up pretty high. It made for some bright but nice light falling onto Cree's face.

The resulting images were a complete departure from what I had set out to capture. I am not really sure how to characterize her expressions in these shots but they really moved me.

I darkened them up a bit in the background and added a few sight textures to bring out the mood that had developed in these images.

I might add a some more info about how this was all accomplished later but for now I have to end the post as the sun is moving and between now and 10:15 will be shining directly into my eyes as I sit at the computer... So for now its off to rake some leaves....

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

Earlier this week our friends Chuck and Abi had a visit from the stork. Camryn Elizabeth was born on Monday the 9th.

She is just super cute!

I had the chance to stop by the hospital on Wednesday and catch a few shots. She has black hair and blue, blue eyes.

And did I mention she is super cute?

Here's a few shots from that day....

Congratulations Abi and Chuck... Oh and by the way Chuck, I can't wait until we are screening boyfriends for her and Cree... Um actually I think I can wait!

Hi everyone-

Recently I traveled to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for the first time. My experience was a bit different than I am used to. Thousands of people, traffic jams and areas that were closed at which you had to wait in long lines until they opened.

One of those areas was Cades Cove. On the morning this image was taken the Cove drive was closed longer than its normal over night hours due to fog. So we waited at the gate for about 45 minutes in a line of well over 100 cars. Not the nature experience I was hoping for here.

That being said there were little pockets of natures beauty there just waiting to be found. If you ventured just off the road often times something beautiful was waiting to be seen.

On this particular day the delay in opening the road allowed for me to pass through the area where this images was shot about an hour later than I would have. In the end It was one of my favorites from the day.

I am currently working on a larger panorama of several images stitched together from this same spot. I hope to have it done soon.

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

Today's images were shot in Great Smoky Mountains National Park a few weeks ago. One of them is an HDR image and the result of combining six different exposures. The other is a single exposure with a good deal of photoshop work to it.

Can you tell the difference? Let me know which one is which.

That being said both of these images had a ton of photoshop work done to them after they were brought to the same spot. Meaning once I did the HDR and got the two images looking roughly the same exposure wise there was a ton of additional work done. That included, local contrast increases, selective color adjustments, adding a glow, curves adjustments, color saturation adjustments and a few others steps that I know I did can cant seem to remember what they were...

Anyway I hope you have a great day!





****UPDATE****

Hi everyone-

So in the comments Nick, Barry and Jan responded to my question and one of them is correct. That would be Barry. He surmised the second image was the true HDR image and he was right.

This image was shot at 6 different exposures and combines in Photomatix and then further processed in photoshop to create the final look. Here are the 6 images used to create the HDR:

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The next image is the sooc image that i worked on in photoshop to give it a n HDR look.