Taking sometime this holiday weekend to take a look at some older images that I marked to edit but never got around to.
It is worth your time to go through your older images from time to time. As technology changes in photography software some of those images that you didn’t think would work may now be one of your better images. You never know.
Anyway, here is one of the images I worked on this weekend from a 2016 trip down to Fells Point in Baltimore with a photographer friend of mine. One of the early morning trips that I have taken. I’m not a morning person, so this took some dedication.
Two Baltimore Tug boats on the pier in Fells Point.
Although Light City Baltimore has been running for a few days now, I have not had a chance yet to go down and check out all the wonderful light art that is on display. From the pictures I’ve seen and posts I’ve read, it is much larger and even better this year.
Here’s hoping I can get some great shots like these from last year’s Light City Baltimore
On a recent Sunday, I planned on getting up early to get Sunrise pictures. This is not something that I do easily as I am not a morning person. I normally do not get up until well after the sun has risen as I work the later shift at work.
Well on this Sunday I did my best the night before to check what the forecast would be. Based on what I saw I thought it was worth getting up early and driving down to the Baltimore Inner Harbor to get the sunrise as it had the potential to be a spectacular sunrise.
I arrived early enough to find a nice cloud deck above, the water was still, and there was a small sliver of an opening on the horizon. Well, the appointed time for the sun to come up came and went and it never made an appearance on the horizon as the clouds were just too thick. So my chance of an epic sunrise was a bust.
So I made the best of disappointment and decided let’s see what else I can get photos of. I ended up driving to four different locations this day as it was one of those rare warm days in February. Here are some of the pictures I got on my 102-mile round trip.
Since the water was still in the Inner Harbor tried my best to get a few reflection shots. Here is one of them.
West side of the Inner Harbour on a still Sunday morning
It was so early I was able to get a shot of the visitors center without all the folks walking around. Sometime I’ll actually be down at the Inner Harbor when the visitors center is open so I can go in. It is supposed to be a very nice visitors center.
Baltimore Visitors Center
Next Stop, the Under Armour Corporate Headquarters and the pier nearby.
Seagulls on the Pier
I don’t have too many usable pictures from this location as I was testing out some manual lens that I had acquired. Seems I need to learn a few things about them still as things didn’t turn out as I had hoped for some images.
Off to North Point Park to meet up with a photography buddy, but along the way, I took a picture of some street art that I have been meaning to get for some time.
Unknown artist’s work only Key Highway
Last spot of the day, Fort Howard Park
Still working on editing some of the other images, but found this one dark room in one of the bunkers that had some artwork painted on the back and had some fun going a little overboard on the editing as I though it just lending itself to the wild side. So here are 2 different versions.
The first is a standard HDR shot.
BY THE LAW OF THE SISTERHOOD OF THREE AS IS DONE TO THE INNOCENTS THRICE SHALL IT BE
I didn’t like the fact that the words were covered so I’m trying my hand at some photoshop techniques. Still learning and this is my first attempt at combining 2 shots together to get the words. Not quite happy with this version yet, but still figuring things out.
Let me know what you think of this or any of the images in this post
Another year another calendar month that features my photo
Humbled again to have two of my pictures publish in the JHFCU 2017 calendar. This year I ended up as the main photo for the month of August and in October as a side photo. No matter where I am I’m always grateful for the exposure, so be sure to get your copy and look for my photos.
The image selected for the Month of August.
United States Lightship Chesapeake
The United States Lightship Chesapeake in the Inner Harbor Baltimore during the City Light Festival in 2016
A recent purchase of a 30.000″ x 13.750″ print of Balloon Glow by a buyer from Baltimore, MD reminded me that the Maryland Preakness Hot Air Balloon Festival is just around the corner.
First, I want to thank them for their purchase and I’m always grateful to anyone for purchasing my work.
The above picture is the one they selected. A wide shot of the Balloon Glow that they hold on 2 nights of the festival.
If you have never been to the Preakness Hot Air Balloon Festival I would recommend going. It is a fun event and is family-friendly. You can get Balloon rides and walk inside one of the balloons. If you can only go one day, I would go on one of the days that they do the Balloon Glow, pictured above. It is rather amazing to see all the Balloons lit up. Be aware that when they are all firing their flames to illuminate their balloon it is rather loud
Here is a small selection of photographs I’ve taken at this festival in earlier years.
Went down for the last night of the Light City Festival at the Inner Harbor yesterday to redo some shots that I was not happy with and to get a few art pieces that I had missed somehow.
Although I did like the picture I got of the “Voyage” (the floating lights), I felt getting a few more shots when it was darker of just the lights would be better. I also went back to the Peacock to get some more shots when it was darker and was hoping with less people. Alas, it was as popular as before, but I think I got a few good shots in between all the folks walking up to the work who were there to admire it as well. I will say the “Voyage” and the “Peacock” were my two favorite pieces of the show. The Laser Lotus may have been another one, but the two days I was in the area it didn’t seem to be working.
I had gone back down to also get the “The Pool” as I had somehow missed that exhibit entirely last time even though I would have had to walk right passed them to get to the metro on my way home the other night. I guess I was just too tired to notice at that point.
Here are a few unedited shots I got of each. I took a ton of photos of each as I knew it was the last chance to get them. It is going to make it tough to narrow it down to the best of each.
The Peacock
The Peacock a 20 foot tall animatronics bird with illuminated wings up to 40 feet
The Voyage
Voyage presented by Brown Advisory: Aether & Hemera (United Kingdom) 300 “paper boats” with rainbow-colored lights that were manipulated by festival-goers.
The Pool
Colorful concentric circles that changed colors as folks stepped on them
Spent another night at the Inner Harbor for the Light City Festival last night.
This time I started over at Inner Harbor East and walked back towards the Inner Harbor. This was the side that had more of the individual artists displays. Out of the two halves that I saw this is definitely the more interesting side.
I did miss getting the tall ship Stad Amsterdam as it had left the Inner Harbor and was a bit disappointed about that. That just stresses the point of, if you see something you want to take a picture of take it as it might not be there tomorrow. As in my case, I got the stern of the ship and meant to get it from the bow last night, but it had left.
The show goes on until Sunday night (4/3/16) and it is worth the visit. If you are limited on time I would start on the East side and make your way back towards the Inner Harbor.
The Big Cube
The Beacon: The Barnycz Group (Baltimore, MD) A landmark multi-story cube built from hundreds of LED panels. The Beacon will engage, inform, and entertain festival-goers with Light City images.
The Floating Lights
Voyage presented by Brown Advisory: Aether & Hemera (United Kingdom) 300 “paper boats” with rainbow-colored lights that are manipulated by festival-goers.
Spent the good part of Tuesday night in downtown Baltimore at the Light City Baltimore event. This is just one day of many I plan on being down there for this event. Most of the displays are around the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, but some are also spread around the city. See the Light City Baltimore website at lightcity.org/ for details of what is where.
This first night I started out on Federal Hill to get the wide view of downtown and then slowly made my way up towards the Light St Pavilion. This is not even 1/2 way around the event. I took my time and in many situations, as I had to be very patient to get the shot I wanted. I will say I didn’t see as many photographers as I expected, but then again I haven’t seen all the displays yet and some of the more interesting displays are in areas I will go to on Thursday.
I’ve got many pictures to go through and process, but here is just a sampling of first the two I’ve processed quickly for you.
The Ferris Wheel
The Ferris when by Rash Field and the Maryland Science Center. My first attempt at doing this kind of photo. I think it turned out pretty well.
Although I did like it, something was not quite right. I had taken it on my tripod at the lowest height setting I could use. After someone commented on my Facebook page that they thought the hands were too close to the edge of the photo I realized that was what was bugging me about the photo.
Since I do not have a super wide-angle lens what was I going to do. My widest lens is a 18mm-135mm and that is the lens I used for this photo and was already at the widest setting of 18mm. I thought about it for a few days and decided I’d go back and just set the camera on the floor.
So yesterday I went back, set the camera on the floor and got ready to take a few photos. I’ve done this kinda thing before with sheer guesswork and multiple attempts. Take the photo, pick up the camera, check the image and repeat until I got what I was looking for. This takes forever and there is no sure way to know if I got the shot until I picked up my camera and took a look at what I just shot. Not to mention that you had to remember where the camera was when you picked it up so you knew where to place it when making an adjustment.
My camera does not have a flip screen or wi-fi, so I had no way to view the image live. Also it is inside and my camera doesn’t have a high enough ISO to let me hand hold it and get a noiseless photo without using a flash, which would destroy the look. What else was I going to do.
Then I started thinking. I have a cell phone, it has a forward facing camera so you will see on the screen what it is pointing to. Can I use this to see what I would see through the viewfinder. Turns out the answer is yes. I placed the camera on the floor, slide my cell phone under the viewfinder so the lens is lined up with the viewfinder, and low and behold, I could see on the screen what the viewfinder was showing.
Here is the picture of the setup on the floor at the base of the statue.
I did have to use my lens cap to prop up the right side of my camera to make it level. So if you are going to do something like this, have a few small items that are the same thickness as your cell phone just in case you need to prop one side of you camera up like I did. I lucked out in that my lens cap was the same thickness as my cell phone
Here is of one of the photos I took with this setup. I think it turned out rather well with much more space between the hands and the edge of the frame and showing much more of the dome itself.
The Statue of Jesus in the Billings Building of Johns Hopkins Hospital
I do have a Black and White version that is colorized like the first photo on my store page so be sure to check that one out as well.
