A few weeks back (I know - it has taken me this long to finally get around to posting these!), we took a trip down to Virginia. Anya was going to some antique market, so I took the camera and visited nearby Sugarloaf Mountain Park in Maryland.

Besides not being signed very well, the park was a nice little visit. I didn't find too much to photograph, but after the short hike to the summit (1282 ft), I figured I should at least take a few landscapes of the view provided of the surrounding lowlands. It was a fairly cloudless and hot and hazy day, so the sky is pretty drab. Instead I saw this dead tree and thought it might make a nice foreground feature.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 37mm, 1/320th second at f/11.0. ISO 400. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

- Bill

Well, the Horseshoe Falls never really freeze (well, neither set of falls at Niagara Falls freeze completely, but there is much less ice build-up on the larger Horseshow Falls.

That doesn't mean it is any less impressive...

This first view I liked because of the ominous feel to it. The heavy mist, the hint of that huge boulder of ice at the bottom peaking through...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 27mm, 1/250th second at f/11.0. ISO 100. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

And this one shows off a nice contrast of the fast rushing water and the ice coated cliff-side next to it.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 42mm, 1/500th second at f/11.0. ISO 100. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

These next two show off some weird igloo shaped mount of snow and ice sitting off to the one side of the main pool under the Horseshoe Falls. I have no clue how or why it formed like that, or if it is a typical formation. I was extra curious about the "tunnel" that seemed to be burrowed into it, and the enormous cracks running down its sides. Of course, there's no point of reference for size here, but it was massive. You can also see the churning ice down in the water... most of those pieces looked to be about the size of cars.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 21mm, 1/250th second at f/11.0. ISO 100. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 37mm, 1/250th second at f/11.0. ISO 100. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

And lastly, another overall shot just showing that absolutely impressive waterfall...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 18mm, 1/500th second at f/11.0. ISO 100. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

- Bill

Ok, I usually don't go in for panoramic photographs, but Niagara Falls was really a subject that begged for the treatment. I was amazed with how simple Photoshop CS5 made stitching the images together. I'd tried panoramic images in the past and the results were always less than stellar, but these turned out nice... and literally all I had to do was point PS:CS5 at the set of images and it did the rest. All I had to do was decide how I wanted to crop the image after it was stitched together. I then had the challenge of getting my gallery website software to accept some pretty large photos (the biggest of which is over 70MP!).

I also don't know what the best way to display these is, but here goes...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM AF at 10mm, 1/200th sec at f/16. ISO 100. Raw conversion Adobe Camera Raw, Composite image built in Photoshop CS5.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 53mm, 1/250th second at f/11.0. ISO 100. RAW processing Adobe Camera Raw, Composite image built in Photoshop CS5.

I'll see if I can come up with a better way to display these as they really are much more impressive if you can see them larger where the panoramic effects are really illustrated.

- Bill

Well, as I sit here I look out the window and I am quite literally in a cloud. The weather is warming up and everything is starting to melt, but the combination of warmer air and the foot of melting snow everywhere is combining to make everything a thick soup of fog. I can barely see the stand of trees across the way, but I can definitely see spring coming.

However, the other day, Anya and I played hookey from work to take a day trip up to Niagara Falls to see it while it was still frozen. Reports say they expect the ice to last into May, but we figured we didn't want to risk waiting that long, so with decent weather (no snow, and warmer temperatures) we took the drive up. We were rewarded with 35F temperatures and a blazing bright sun that made it feel even warmer. The sun did end up producing a challenge with the exposure (very harsh whites and drastic shadows), but I still enjoyed the day.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 30mm, 1/250th second at f/11.0. ISO 100. RAW processing Adobe Camera Raw.

I've still got a ton more photos to process, so definitely stay tuned and I'll try getting more up as soon as possible!

- Bill

So for a recent assignment on a photography forum that I post to regularly, one of the members picked "Time and Motion" as the theme. That instantly got me thinking time lapse! I've been wanting to try my hand at time lapse for a long time, and as things usually go, procrastination got the better of me.

Anyway, this apparently was the right motivation!

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 31mm, 1 second at f/5.0. ISO 2500. 695 frames taken every 5 seconds. RAW processing Adobe Camera Raw, video rendered in Adobe Premiere Elements 11.

As you can see, it isn't the best attempt, but I definitely learned a few things to keep in mind for next time.

Thanks for stopping by.

- Bill

We made a trip up to Presque Isle State Park this past weekend to look for Snowy Owls. Apparently we were too late for the owls as they are much harder to find in January, so we'll be trying again in December this year. However, seeing the lake frozen and everything looking like an arctic wasteland was kind of impressive (even if I am 100% sick of winter at this point and ready for spring).

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 49mm, 1/1000 sec at f/11. ISO 320. RAW processing Adobe Camera Raw.

- Bill

Ok - I know I promised this literally months ago, but I finally got around to creating a composite image from the New Castle 2014 Balloon Quest. I've included the four images I used to create the composite below - I'm bummed that I never got any shots of that fifth balloon lit up, but it really never did!

Composite	Image 1	Image 2	Image 3	Image 4

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM AF at 11mm, 1/25 sec at f/5. ISO 800. Raw conversion Adobe Camera Raw, Composite image built in Photoshop CS5.

This technique is really useful. It can be tricky - especially when your subjects are moving (as these balloons were). I'm sure if you started looking really closely as a fullsize version of this composite, you could find the lines where I blended things together, but for a smaller view like this, it works well enough. I may have to see what I can do about taking some screenshots and writing up a bit of a tutorial on how I do this kind of composite.

- Bill

Here's a few more photos from Friday's hike...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 22mm, 1/25 sec at f/11. ISO 100. RAW processing Adobe Camera Raw.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM AF at 10mm, 1/60 sec at f/11. ISO 100. Raw conversion Adobe Camera Raw.

Thanks for stopping by.

- Bill

Anya and I took the day off work on Friday and decided to go on a little hike for Valentine's Day. I figured that if I have to continue to suffer through this winter weather, I might as well make use of it and see if I could get some good photos from it. We headed to McConnell's Mills to find some frozen waterfalls and see how Slippery Rock Creek looked. Then we stumbled upon this beautiful waterfall.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM AF at 12mm, 10mm, and 10mm, 1/8th, 1/8th, and 1/4th sec at f/11. ISO 100. Raw conversion Adobe Camera Raw.

Exposure on these shots was pretty difficult with the extremely bright white snow outside and the dark insides of the cavern. I tried using some flash, but really wasn't able to get things just right. Additionally, and probably most impressive was that you could see and hear water still flowing inside that pillar of ice; unfortunately, there simply was no way to capture that with a photo.

I've got as couple more from this trip that I'll share soon.

- Bill

Ok - here's a fun shot to wish you all a Happy New Year!

Technical Data: Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 35mm, 1/40 sec at f/11. ISO 320. RAW processing Adobe Camera Raw

- Bill