Photo of the Day

How you compose your photograph and what is in the background are key elements you have to consider if you want to make the best possible photograph. I was working off a tripod shooting a 180 mm macro lens with a 1.4 extender attached. This native wildflower is called Daisy Fleabane, a member of the Aster Family. I photographed this tiny beauty at the Watershed Nature Center located in my hometown of Edwardsville, Illinois. I used another native wildflower, a Brown-eyed Susan, as a background to add to this shot.

Photo of the Day

I photographed this Little Blue Heron early Sunday morning at the Edwardsville IL. Watershed Nature Center. It is great to see the herons and egrets returning to the nature center. It must mean warm weather is here to stay.

The Open Road

I have the itch bad! The open road calls to me and it is a very strong force. Sitting in an office or being cooped up inside just drives me absolutely crazy at times. I am happiest when I am traveling and seeing new sights and exploring new regions. I am blessed to live in a country that has such a large and diverse geography. I have said it before, and I will say it again. Two of my very favorite words are "Road Trip"  I always want to know what is around the bend, over that mountain, or through those woods. Where does this road go? What new experiences will I have? It is a truly powerful pull for me. So when I see photos of the open road I start daydreaming and planning my next trip.

Have  great weekend

Scott

Photo of the Day.

I was photographing White Pelicans along the Mississippi River near Alton IL. very early this past sunday morning.  There had been some clouds, and the morning sunrise light was very diffused. I had a 500mm lens with a 1.4 converted attached giving me 700mm of focal length to reach the pelicans as they flew along the river. Suddenly the sun came through a break in the clouds and created some beautiful light. Well my wide angle lens was back in the car so I only had a few moments to try something creative. I framed this shot using the cables of the Clark Bridge.   

Photo Of The Day

This is an HDR photograph I did recently. The scene is a wooden walkway over the water in  the Japanese Gardens located in the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis. This was a 3 bracketed exposure and then processed in the NIK HDR Pro software.

Clicking on the photo will open it much larger in a new window so you can view it better.

Photo Of The Day

This is an HDR Photo that was taken just a few minutes before sunrise this past Sunday morning after a overnight spring snow. This is the Watershed Nature Center where I live in Edwardsville IL.

Clicking on the photo will open it larger in a new window for better viewing.

Have a great weekend!

SCOTT

Watershed Nature Center

Photo Of The Day

This is a photograph I took during live fire training exercises that involved several area fire departments where I live. An old farm house out in the country had been donated for them to use and then burn down. After weeks of interior smoke and live fire training, the house was finally burned down in a controlled burn.

Photo Of The Day

This is a photo that a took inside a fully involved house fire. The house was being burned for live fire training exercises. These three fire fighters were instructors that posed for me after lighting the living room on fire so a hose team could come in and put it out.

Photo Of The Day

Ft. Jefferson is located about 70 miles west of Key West Florida in the Dry Tortugas National Park. The fort was started before the civil war and was one of the largest coastal forts ever built. Due to continued improvement in modernizing artillery, the fort was obsolete before it was even completed. A must see place if you ever go to Key West Florida.

Ft. Jefferson, Dry Tortugas National Park

Photo Of The Day

This is a Polar Bear I photographed at the St. Louis Zoo. He had just broken the surface of the water after a swim and started shaking off the excess water

Polar Bear - Urus maritimus

Photo Of The Day

This is a HDR photograph I did of an abandon and crumbling building I did in Jerome AZ. Jerome is an old mining town that sits high up in the mountains. The mine is closed and the town has serious mine subsidence problems and is literately sliding off the mountain in places. The town has become a haven for artists and there are quite a few unique shops and galleries. I was just walking the streets when I passed this building. I took a 3 exposure bracketed series hand held. I used a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon 24-105 mm f4L IS lens. Since I did not have a tripod I dialed my ISO up to 800 to have a high shutter speed on all three of the exposures to minimize camera shake. The bracketed photos were processed in the NIK HDR Pro software.

I have no idea what used to be in this building but I loved the architecture. If you click on the photo it will open larger in another widow.

Unknown Abandon Building, Jerome AZ.

Photo Of The Day

The Malachite Butterfly - Siproeta stelenes, has black and brilliant green or yellow-green colors on the uppersides and light brown and olive green on the undersides. It is named for the mineral Malachite, which is similar in color to the bright green on the butterfly's wings. The Malachite is found throughout Central and Northern South America, It's distribution reaches as far north as Southern Texas and the tip of Florida.

Malachite Butterfly - Siproeta stelenes

Photo Of The Day

Spring Tulips

Blue Morpho Butterflies

One of my favorite places to photograph is the Missouri Botanical Gardens Butterfly House located in Chesterfield, Missouri. In the winter months when it is nasty, cold, and drab outside, it is hot and humid in the tropical interior of the butterfly house. In March every year they have "March Morpho Mania" For the month they add thousands of additional Morpho Butterflies to their normal inventory.

Achilles Morpho 

Interesting Facts about the Blue Morpho Butterfly:
The Blue Morpho butterfly is a tropical butterfly found in Central and South America.

This Blue Morpho butterfly can also be considered to be one of the biggest butterflies seen, their wingspan measures 5 – 8 inches in width.

Its characteristic blue wings are extremely beautiful to look at. The brilliant blue wings are not really brightly colored for the female Blue Morpho butterflies.

Female Blue Morpho butterflies have a dull blue with brown edgings for their wings. They also have white spots in the blue area.

At birth, the caterpillars are reddish brown in color. They also have green colored patches on the back area.

The undersides of the wings of the Blue Morpho butterflies have a dull brown shade. This brown color is dotted with many eyespots.

When this butterfly is spotted flying, it is one of the most beautiful sights one can ever imagine. The flapping wings create a fine blend of the bright blue and the dull brown colors and the flashing colors create a beautiful effect. 

Common Morpho Butterfly

It is frustrating to get good open wing spread photos of the different species of the Morpho Butterflies. Their underside wings are a dull Brown color with eye spots, and this allows then to blend into the vegetation very well and hid from predators. When the Morpho lands they generally immediately close their wings up to blend in. I have very few good photos of Morphos for all the hours I have spent in the butterfly house. You have to be very quick to catch one that is opened up.  

First Impression NIK Silver Efex Pro 2.0

The other night I download a free trial for the NIK Software, Silver Efex Pro 2.0 I have been doing my conversions to B&W in Adobe Photoshop CS5 and this allows me quite a bit of flexibility and control over the final outcome. I have been wanting to try The NIK software for converting color photos to B&W. I have read many reviews on it, and it is considered by many to be the best conversion software available.

I scrolled though a couple folders of photos I had and grabbed a photo that I had never processed or used before. This is a photo I took at the state capitol grounds in Nashville TN. A statue of Stonewall Jackson that is on a side of the capitol building overlooking the city. A harsh midday light and not much though put into the shot as I was really walking around try to find a good angle to shoot the capitol building. I processed the photo in CS5 and then took it into the Silver Efex Pro conversion software.

Processed in Adobe CS5

So like most men, I did not bother to read the directions, help file, or getting started guidelines. I just started moving sliders and playing around. I am somewhat familiar with the NIK software,  and now use their HDR Pro software. They have numerous presets to give you a wide choice of looks to your photo with one click. Or they are a good starting point to then allow you to tweak it to your taste. I have a lot to learn to get a handle on this software but found it allows amazing control of the image. Numerous vignettes and edge effects allow you great creative control.

Processed in NIK Silver Efex Pro 2.0

After playing around for about 15 minutes and trying all the tools, sliders, and effects, I created this B&W image from the original color photograph. In my humble opinion, it looks much better as a B&W. It still is not all that good of a photograph, but with more knowledge and practice, I am sure I could make some further adjustments to enhance it further. The NIK website has live web training and video tutorials for all their software products. On my first try I am really impressed with this software. I am sure I will be adding this software to my toolbox. 

Clicking on the photos will open them much larger in a new window.

Have a great weekend,

Scott

Photo Of The Day

This was a photograph that I thought looked much better when it was converted to a B&W. This barn sits along a country road that was once far outside the city. The urban sprawl will soon turn this farmland into another subdivision. This was a massive summer storm that was moving about 30 miles per hour.

Photo Of The Day

The spring flowers are pushing through and will be blooming very soon. I took these Tulips that were fully developed but had not yet opened up at the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis, Missouri. I used very shallow depth of field to create the nice soft out of focus background.

Sunflowers

I love to photograph Sunflowers. A field of giant sunflowers allows you to create so many different types of photographs. When I go to a sunflower field I usually end up trying to use every lens in my bag and create various compositions and effects with the varied focal lengths. Hoping to travel to Kansas this summer where they have amazing sunflower fields. These are some of my favorite sunflower photos that I have taken so far.

Have a great weekend!

Scott

Photo of the Day

Well I had presidents day off on Monday and was going to bum around St. Louis all day and just take photos. The weather was cold and rainy so this forced me to think about going indoors. Well I stopped at one of my favorite places, the St. Louis Zoo. Due to the weather the zoo was virtually deserted and most of the animals that were suppose to be outside were inside or in hiding. The zoo has an amazing carousel that is located outside with all the animals being wild animals insread of the normal carousel horses. So I stopped and did some bracketed shots and processed them in the NIK HDR software.  I love how the HDR software can take a fairly bland set  bracketed photos and turn it into a piece of artwork.

St. Louis Zoo Carousel



Photo of the Day

It is Presidents Day, and a holiday for many people in the U.S., including me. So with a day off I planned on spending the entire day in St. Louis bumming around doing photography. There are many great attractions and locations in the St. Louis area good for photography. Many are free or very reasonably priced to get in to. So I got up this morning and it was raining with the weather predicted to only get worse as the day goes on. This cuts down my potential list of places to go to try and do some photography. On my indoor list of places is the orchid show at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. With it being a holiday and crummy weather outside I am sure it will be mobbed. To make matters worse, they have a very restrictive photography policy there and do not allow the use of tripods or even monopods. They have to do this due to the small space, narrow isles and crowds. The light is a mix of natural skylight and artificial light. A difficult challenge to get good photos. My Canon 180 mm macro is to difficult to hand hold and get sharp shots. In the past I have used my Canon 70-200 mm f2.8 L Image Stabilized lens. This generally allows me to get some decently sharp shots under the right conditions. So here are a few past photos from past orchid shows.