Hi everyone-

As I mentioned yesterday I enjoy watching the Trumpeter Swans while I am in Yellowstone National Park or Grand Teton National Park.

They are graceful and peaceful and to me very calming and relaxing to watch.

In today's image I tried to create a feeling of looking back in time to a more peaceful and leisurely era. At a time in my life and I'm sure for many others where it seems like we never have a chance to take a break, this is just what I need.

Not often enough do I take the time to escape reality and get away for a few hours in nature. More times than not sitting here at the computer working on the images is about as close as I get to spending any real time with nature unless I am on a trip.

I think that I am going to change that this spring. Even if its just for an hour here or there I think it just might make all of the hustle and bustle of my everyday reality a little easier to take.

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

Today's post is somewhat of a follow up to yesterday's. This image is an example of a situation where I would previously never have gotten a shot.

I was in Yellowstone National Park on Mount Washburn watching the Arnica Fire's massive thermal column. While I was at the turn out a man pulled in on a motorcycle. I looked over and was like wow, I have got to take a photograph of this guy.

Had I not gotten over my phobia of taking images of strangers I would never have walked up to this guy. But without hesitation I approached him and struck up a conversation.

In a matter of second I found out that this guy was traveling around the area by himself on his Harley. I also found out that he lived about 45 miles from me back home in Pennsylvania.

On a side note I find it amazing the amount of people that I have met while in the National Parks that live very close to me. Several years back we hiked a trail in Glacier with a couple who back home in York walked by our house every evening but we had never met.

Situations like that have happened over and over. Its funny but if you never "talk to strangers" you would never know. Last year I met a guy who was the flagger at a construction site in Yellowstone. Turns out he'd from Hanover, PA less than 30 miles from my house.

Anyway. This guy had such a unique look and was very nice. We talked for several minutes, I took several photographs and then he was on his way wanting to get to his destination before dark.

I was pretty happy with the image having not planned it and only having a minute to pull it off. The sun had just set so I put the sunset to my back and used the sky as a giant soft box to light him. He never even got off his bike.

A few years ago this would have been someone that I never would have approached. And a great opportunity missed.

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

Today I thought I would take the same images from yesterday's post and go about processing them in a different way. Same images, totally different look.

The basis for the look is a vertical blur. This is normally done in camera but I have decided to do it via photo shop. Once the image is blurred it becomes an abstract opening to door to just about any type of processing you can come up with.

The first image is pretty much just the blurred shot. The later images are all the same but processed an similar but different ways.

The nice part about this technique is that you really can't go wrong. But some will turn out better than others. I just like to experiment and let the process go where it takes me. The results are never quite the same.

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

Well its raining here and my sister said they might get up to 5 inches of snow in some areas of PA today! Crazy.

Today's image was shot during Carolyn and Floyd's engagement session. For part of the day they dressed up in period attire and shot at locations that fit into the period.

This image was shot in front of the PA Capital building. Floyd came up with the idea to simulate a broken down car while on a date. I think Carolyn's expression says it all!

The image was lit with one beauty dish and ambient light.

Don't forget to check out all of the cool SKYWATCH action by clicking the link: SKYWATCH BOG
Have a great day!

HI everyone-

Well Carolyn and Floyd's big day is only a few days away. I spoke with them yesterday and everything is running smoothly and everyone is excited for Friday to arrive.

Today's images from their engagement shoot were taken in and around Carolyn's '64 Ford Thunderbird "Jet Bird". It's a very cool car that I will feature on this blog sometime in the future.

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

Thanks for all the feedback yesterday on the series of thunderstorm images. They were great fun to create and post. I thought since this week has had a series of dark images that I would end on a brighter more uplifting image of the girls.

This image was shot in the Priest Butte area just outside of town. There is a really cool old grain elevator, which you can see there and some railroad tracks and great scenery in any direction.

We shot these images around 3 in the afternoon and used a large scrim and a few reflectors to control the lighting. Post processing on this image was basically cleaning up the image, playing with local contrast, adjusting the colors and then adding the textures.

Hope you enjoy, have a great day and a better weekend!!

Hi everyone-

We woke up today with remnants of a bit of snow overnight. Nothing of any significance but I am holding on for the chance of one more good shot! I mowed the grass the other day and can't believe it's that time already. Now the list of outside things to do is growing and growing. One more snow would help to put that off just a bit longer.....

Enough for wishful thinking....

Today's image was shot back in February while in Las Vegas. This is Chad Fuller of Fuller Edge Photography in Calgary. He and his wife Erin were kind enough to model for us in the downtown area. They were a lot of fun and super models.

This image was shot against a white brick background along a motel in that area. I added a few layers of texture to remove the brick background and to age the image a bit. Then I added two borders in varying opacity's and finally converted the image to black and white. Lastly I added a bit more blur where it was needed.

Have a great day!