Just a single shot today... this is Brandywine Falls - the second tallest waterfall in Ohio and one of the more popular attractions in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM at 18mm, 1/200th second at f/8. ISO 400. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

Thanks for stopping by.

- Bill

So I made several attempts at capturing a time-lapse video of the recent Perseid meteor shower. I don't think the meteors show up in the video (the streaks you see shoot across the sky are airplanes), but you do get to see the Milky Way move across the sky...

I've posted it to both Vimeo (above) and Youtube (below) to try and figure out which rendering I like better.

- Bill

Ok - I've been really remiss in getting stuff posted, but I'm going to try and get things up more regularly (in fact, I'm going to try and write several posts tonight so I can just activate them later)... so what that means will be less words, more photos.

Enjoy.

This fort was near the summit of Sugarloaf Mountain (there's probably history behind it, but you'll have to look it up for yourself).

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 18mm, 1/200th second at f/11.0. ISO 400. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Also at the summit I found this rather formidable looking beetle...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, Various exposures. Canon Speedlight 580EX II flash in eTTL mode. Image Stabilization on. Various ISOs. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw

Stay tuned - hopefully there will be more to come over the next few days.

- Bill

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

There you go - if that post title doesn't work for a band name or some murder mystery novel, I don't know what would... ;)

Anyway, our second to last dive on our most recent trip was at a site called "The Lost Blue Hole". A blue hole is basically an underwater sinkhole, and is so named because from above they appear a deep dark blue color when compared to the shallow light blue color of the reef and sand around them.

This photo really doesn't do justice to this blue hole, but does kind of give the idea of what it is like to dive into one - to some extent, it felt like diving off a cliff.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 18mm. 1/200 sec at f/5.6. ISO 800. Ikelite Housing and Port with Ikelite 161 Strobe in eTTL mode. Raw conversion in Adobe Camera Raw.

Even at its widest zoom, my 18-55mm lens couldn't even begin to capture what the opening of this blue hole looked like.

As we went down into the hole, there were many ledges and shelves where various fish and other critters were taking up residence. On one large shelf, there was an enormous sea turtle with two incredibly large remoras attached to it...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 18mm. 1/200 sec at f/5.6. ISO 800. Ikelite Housing and Port with Ikelite 161 Strobe in eTTL mode. Raw conversion in Adobe Camera Raw.

There were also plenty of lionfish at this dive site (notice the big one in the right side of the frame).

Since the day was pretty overcast, it was fairly dark down in the blue hole, so Anya and I didn't linger for long. After a few minutes, we went back to the opening to explore the sand and small patch reefs surrounding the blue hole. As we came up, Anya pointed out a medium sized Southern Stingray swimming by us. I quickly framed my shot and rattled off some photos as I gently swam along next to it.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 18mm. 1/200 sec at f/5.6. ISO 800. Ikelite Housing and Port with Ikelite 161 Strobe in eTTL mode. Raw conversion in Adobe Camera Raw.

Look closely and see if you can spot the second, much larger stingray hiding right in front of your eyes! I honestly didn't see it the first time by, and I'm glad I wasn't swimming directly over top of it as that could have spooked it and could have been a bad situation.

We also saw a small group of Nurse Sharks, some of which were displaying flashing behavior where they give a quick tail flick while turning and rubbing their sides against the ground or some other rough surface - usually to try and rid themselves of parasites, or just to scratch an itch.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 18mm. 1/200 sec at f/8. ISO 800. Ikelite Housing and Port with Ikelite 161 Strobe in eTTL mode. Raw conversion in Adobe Camera Raw.

By this time, I did notice the extra large stingray still hiding itself in the sand. I approached it slowly from the front and managed to get a nice portrait...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 18mm. 1/200 sec at f/8. ISO 800. Ikelite Housing and Port with Ikelite 161 Strobe in eTTL mode. Raw conversion and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

While the conditions weren't great for photography because of the overcast morning, this was still an interesting dive, and a good reminder to keep my eyes open and look for hidden critters everywhere!

- Bill

Sorry - it has been a while since I have posted... I got sick last week and then have been working on a bunch of little projects around the house - I haven't even found time to process any more photos. So just stopping by real quick to share another Caribbean Reef Shark photo today.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 22mm. 1/200 sec at f/5.6. ISO 400. Ikelite Housing and Port with Ikelite 161 Strobe in eTTL mode. Raw conversion in Adobe Camera Raw.

- Bill

A nice shot of some Atlantic Spadefish (Chaetodipterus faber) in both color and black & white... take a look, then cast your vote for which version you like better!

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 38mm. 1/200 sec at f/8. ISO 400. Ikelite Housing and Port with Ikelite 161 Strobe in eTTL mode. Raw conversion in Adobe Camera Raw.

Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for voting!

- Bill