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-

Today's post was shot on Tuesday during Carolyn and Floyd's e-shoot. We had a great time and shot at a bunch of different locations. There will be a ton of images to come from this shoot so stay tuned! Don't forget to check out the SKYWATCH BLOG and see great skies from around the world.

In the comments from the post yesterday Larry asked me to talk a little about how the image was created. So here is a bit of information on how it was created.

First off here is the SOOC image:



This is a diagram of the basic set up:



So here is the story- Over the past three years Floyd purchased and restored this vehicle. So while we were shooting he asked if I would shoot some images of him and the car. We were at the Harrisburg Train and Bus Station which is a fantastic location to shoot.

The car was parked outside of the main entrance of the building. As you can see in the images there are a lot of lights that hang under the canopy. I wanted the light that I was going to use to look natural like it might be coming from one of those lights.

To do that I used a beauty dish with a diffuser on it to soften it up a bit. I had my assistant Kayla hold it up as high as she could so it would kinda of shine down on the car. She was at about a 45 degree angle from the passenger side front corner of the car.

That was it. We took several shots and adjusted the location and intensity of the light.

Once I got the image back and on the computer I went to work created the look I wanted. It had to have a vintagey feel to it so I altered the color a bit by desaturating and warming it up slightly.

Once that was done I removed some of the background objects that I didn't like. The rest of the work was local contrast adjustments to bring out the details.

It ended up being a pretty simple image to pull off and finish.

Here is the final image (which is different than yesterday's image.)

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

We'll fall is almost here. I got a taste of a little crispness in the air this past week and I can not wait for it to arrive. I am certain it's coming after this last week when of course I got a sinus infection. Thats one of the best ways to tell a change is on it's way! (not that I like having them)

So I have been looking back through some old images while my mind wonders to past trips to Yellowstone, the Teton's and Montana t what I think is the nest time if the year.

Today's image is from Oxbow Bend in Grand Teton National Park. I hope you enjoy it!

Take a chance to check out all the other Skywatch posts from yesterday and today by clicking here ---->SKYWATCH FRIDAY

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

Here is a great sunset that happened after a line of storms moved through our area last week.

I was at home with Cree and Tonya had just gotten back from a meeting. We were having dinner when I noticed that the house across the street was glowing a brilliant orange color.

I quickly realized one of two things was happening, either our house was on fire, which I knew it wasn't or there was a spectacular sunset brewing. I went to the deck out back and found that the whole sky was glowing orange. So as I passed through the house I said I've got to go shoot this and off I went.

I wasn't sure where I would go as we are in a pretty built up area. But one spot came to mind that I might be able to get up high enough to shoot over the city.

The light was continually changing so I shot this first image while I was on my way just to show what it looked like in case it changed before I could get to my destination.



I got out to this new development not far from us and was able to get just high enough to shoot above the city. The sky was spectacular in any direction you looked. I was really excited because this is not the type of sunset we get around here very often. So I began shooting and continued as the light continued to change. The next two images are stitched panoramas that were either 5 vertical shots or three horizontal depending on the image.





The last image was shot at a pond with a large fountain in it. I was on my way out and thought it might make a nice shot only to realize that in my rush I had forgotten my tripod so this is about as good as it could get.

I hope you enjoyed them! I haven't been this excited to go out and shoot nature in this area in a long time.

Please don't forget to check out all of the other Skywatch posts today by following the link here:----> SKYWATCH BLOG

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

Well it's Thursday and that means its time for another Skywatch post!

Today's image was shot a few years ago along Montana's Rocky Mountain Front, west of Choteau.

In October there seems to be a lot of overcast days in this area. This of course was one of them But I set out to shoot some images anyway.

As it turns out there was a bit of a storm brewing and as I headed toward the mountains it began to push over and on tho the east.

Have a great Skywatch and dont forget to check out everyone else's images by clicking the link here:---> SKYWATCH

Hi everyone-

I am rounding out the thunderstorm shoot with Savanah and Shay today with something I think they're going to like. They're big fans of the movie Twilight, which was a big influence in this shoot, so I thought I'd up the game and make their very own Twilight poster.

In today's post there are three images. The SOOC raw image, the fully edited image and then the movie poster shot. The fully edited image took me about 3 hours to complete.

Its not that hard to create just very time consuming because of all the detail work that must go into it. I have a few presets that I have created or found that I like to use in Lightroom. Basically similar to an action in Photoshop, its a quick way to make a batch of images look the same with a file that tells the program what to make it look like. Thats probably not a great explanation.

So first I crop the iamge to what I like, then I clean it up. Remove dust, dirt, objects I don't like etc. Once that is done then I retouch the main subjects. That is the easy part.

The next step is what is time consuming. I basically do a few layers (at least) of local contrast enhancement. There is a ton of detail work to be done here so it takes a while.

Once that is done I play around with color and anything else I would like to change in the image. In this case I added lightning. Once that is done then I might have to go back and revisit some of the earlier steps again to blend the added elements nicely.

Once the editing is done I'll go back and look at it again and fix anything that doesn't look right, then I might add some textures or try to create an over all look or feel to the image. That could be another big project. but in these images it was pretty simple.

I hope that racks the surface of how these images were created.

Also today is the Skywatch Friday post so be sure to click the link and visit all the blogs for more great images involving the skies! Click here:----> SKYWATCH FRIDAY

Have a great day!

This is straight out of the camera:



This is the edited version:



And finally, the movie poster:

Hi everyone-

Today's image was shot on a beautiful July morning at Swiftcurrent lake in Glacier National Park.

In any direction that you looked there was an awesome sunrise image to be had. It wasn't terribly breezy, which is good for ay sunrise in Glacier.

This image was created by merging 12 hand held vertical shots in Photoshop. Then I played around with the color and bringing out some of the details. When printed the image will be 2 feet ish by just under 6 feet. Now to find a good wall...lol

Check out all of the great Skywatch images posted today and tomorrow by clicking the link here ----> SKYWATCH

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

Thanks to all of you who emailed or commented on Facebook about my Dad. He is doing well. The hip replacement surgery went smoothly and the doctor said everything looked great. He rested fairly comforably throughout the afternoon and evening.

Today he started therapy and will continue learning to walk with the new hip today and tomorrow. He should go home on Saturday and then will continue therapy for several weeks a few days a week.

He was in good spirits and seemed to be doing quite well. Thanks again to everyone that asked about him, he was glad to hear from all of you.

Today's image was shot from a bluff south east of Fairfield, Montana called the Fairfield Bench. This was the first day of Bryan Allen's trip to Montana. He had come from some really warm weather to the low 70's and no humidity. Once we started driving toward Choteau we noticed these storms moving out of the mountains and across the prairie lands.

I figured this would be a good spot to shoot from so we headed in that direction. Well the temperature dropped to the low 60's and the wind was around 30mph gusts. It was quite a change....I said well Bryan, welcome to Montana!

There was cool images to be shot in any direction. This one was looking to the south at Square Butte, a local landmark that looked a bit ominous in the storm. I hope you enjoy...

Make sure you take the opportunity to check out all the other cool Skywatch Friday Blog posts starting at 2:30 today by clicking the link here:----> SKYWATCH FRIDAY

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

Today I am writing from the lobby of our hotel in Missoula, MT. We came down here yesterday for a fun day with the kids. Missoula is a great town and there are a ton of things to do with or without the kids.

But we hit a few kid friendly spots, had a great Mexican lunch and then after a much needed nap we hit the water slides.
They, well we all had a blast.

Today we are heading to the Elk Country Visitor Center to let them check out all the animals and displays. We secretly checked it out yesterday during nap time.

Then I am not sure where we will head after that. But we have to be at my cousin's house at 7 for a picnic.


So today's post was shot back in May while I was in Choteau, MT. In these images are my cousins Freda and Bobby. The images were shot on their property just after sunset.

They live in a very cool little spot at the mouth of a canyon leading back into the Bob Marshal Wilderness. It is surrounded by mountains and the Teton River. I am not sure it gets much better!!

Bobby owns and operates a masonry company that specializes in great (real) stone work. What they can do with stone is really amazing. Freda works in "guest services" for a local ranch.

I lit these images with a single softbox and a reflector to fill in the shadows a bit. The camera was a D700 with 70-200 2.8vr handheld. The strobe was tripped with pocket wizards.

I hope you enjoy them, have a great day!

Oh don't forgett o check out the skywatch blog by clicking here: skywatch

Hi everyone-

Today is day two for us in Yellowstone. The weather is perfect. Today it is only to be about 70. But it is very sunny and very comfortable. Yesterday we made our way into the park from Cody via the east entrance. Along the way we saw a fox, some bighorn sheep, two moose, elk and lots of bison.

Today's image was shot just east of the Blacktail Ponds area, very near the Lava Creek picnic area. I had seen three bulls in this general area a few weeks ago but a bit further east. As we traveled west I didn't think we were going to see them. But they were in their normal position, very near the road about 1/2 mile west of the ponds.

This big guy, one of the bigger ones I have seen this year in the park is tagged #10. I think that if I remember correct # 10 spent some time in Mammoth last fall.

Don't forget to check out the Skywatch blog today and tomorrow by clicking here: SKYWATCH

I know there is not a lot of sky in this image however it is pretty representative of the conditions we have had, severely clear. I am hoping to catch some great sunrises and sunsets on this trip to help with future Skywatch posts. Hopefully we'll get some weather moving in and some interesting clouds along the way.

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

Today's images were taken in eastern Wyoming last month while at about 0600 in the morning. We were on our way out for the big branding and the sky was amazing in every direction you looked. We were on a schedule so we couldn't really stop and shoot everything there was to shoot. However when we got to our destination I took the opportunity to shoot a few frames.

It has been a while since I participated in Skywatch so I thought these images might be kinda cool to start back up with. You can check out the Skywatch blog and cool images from skies around the world by clicking here ---> SKYWATCH

Have a great day!