While I was sitting in the blind waiting and hoping for more ducks to show up, I kept staring at the reflections in the water. With the warm morning light shining on the pond, it made for a very nice abstract photo...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D Mark II, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at 400mm, 1/320 sec at f/5.6. ISO 640. IS Mode 1. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

- Bill

A week or so ago, our yard was covered in at least one hundred robins... this week, it is covered with a foot a snow. I've always known robins generally prefer to eat worms and insects, but what I didn't learn is that they will also eat fruit... and apparently sumac fruit is one of their favorites... and I also learned that those red clusters on the ends of our sumac trees is indeed its edible fruit.

So anyway, with snow covering any chance for worms or bugs, I managed to photograph a couple robins making due with sumac fruit until the weather gets warmer again.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D Mark II, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at 400mm, 1/1000 sec at f/8. ISO 800. IS Mode 1. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D Mark II, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at 400mm, 1/800 sec at f/8. ISO 800. IS Mode 1. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw

- Bill

While that last shot really made me look at multiple ways to convert the image to black and white, these two were much easier as these conversions really stuck out for me and worked perfectly for what I wanted to portray with the conversion...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM at 27mm, 1/120th second at f/8. ISO 800. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw, B&W conversion in Adobe Photoshop CS5 with Nik Silver Efex Pro using Preset 030 - Film Noir 1.

Mouseover the images to see the original color version.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM at 27mm, 1/120th second at f/8. ISO 800. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw, B&W conversion in Adobe Photoshop CS5 with Nik Silver Efex Pro using Preset 020 - Fine Art (high key, framed).

And as a bonus, here's a heavily cropped shot of a Peregrine Falcon sitting atop another piece of driftwood. This particular piece was probably 200 yards away, so the sharpness produced by my Canon 100-400 Mark II lens was definitely very surprising. I really expected any of the bird photos at this distance to be completely useless, but surprisingly I was able to salvage at least a couple for slightly more than identification photos.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at 400mm, 1/200 sec at f/11. ISO 800. IS Mode 1. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

We'll get back to the underwater shots here soon - I still have some gems to share from that trip (and hopefully at least one more video if I can get the motivation to put another one together).

Thanks for stopping by!

- Bill

And now for something completely different... </Monty Python>

Well, to be entirely accurate, we'll look at six rather similar things that are still pretty different in their own respect. We'll take a little break from the underwater photography and look at some photos taken just this past weekend in Presque Isle State Park. Anya and I went to the park to do some birding, and while we didn't see much in the way of birds, we did see some cool driftwood on the beach at Gull Point. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to do some black and white photography of it.

What I didn't realize was that picking which B&W conversion I liked the best would be a very big challenge.

Original Color	Preset 001 Underexposed (EV -1)	Preset 005 High Structure (harsh)
Preset 010 Low Key 2	Preset 020 Fine Art (high key)	Preset 024 Full Contrast and Structure

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM at 26mm, 1/80th second at f/8. ISO 800. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw, B&W conversion in Adobe Photoshop CS5 with Nik Silver Efex Pro.

As you can see from the original color version, it was a heavily overcast day, and even the horizon between the sky and the surface of the lake blended into each other and vanished. I wanted to either eliminate the sky or somehow draw some detail out of it. I think each of these conversions were at least partially successful in that goal, but I was amazed at how each conversion produces almost a completely new feel to the scene.

Mouseover each thumbnail to display the larger version, then cast your vote below for your favorite.

- Bill

Anya and I made another trip out to Cuyahoga Valley National Park last week in hopes of getting some good fall foliage photographs, but sadly the trees out there were still green for the most part. I did take a number of shots at the Blue Hen Falls and put together a couple HDR images. In general, I've never been a huge fan of HDR because they usually have a very clear processed look to them, but I still give it a shot from time to time.

Take a look at this attempt (mouseover the images to display the larger version) and place your vote for which version you like best.

Single Shot
HDR with PS:CS5
HDR with PS:CS5 + HDR Efex

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM at 18mm, Various exposures at f/16. ISO 100. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw, HDR processing in Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Nik HDR Efex Pro.

- 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

Still (slowly) making my way through the photos from Hocking Hills. Here's a nice assortment of vertically oriented photos...

	Cedar Falls
	Conkle's Hollow
	Cedar Falls Trailhead Sunset
	Cedar Falls

Stay tuned, the best is yet to come...

- Bill

Shot this one at the same location as the last one... Not as photogenic as the previous one, but I still like it for its gnarly looks.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 45mm, 1/400 sec at f/8. ISO 100. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

- Bill

On our trip to Latodomi Nature Center, we saw this tree out in a field all by itself. I instantly knew it would make for some great photos. I intend to visit several times and try to capture the same scene repeatedly during different seasons. Here is the first...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 25mm, 1/400 sec at f/8. ISO 100. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

It has been a while since we've had a poll, so go ahead and cast your vote for which version you like better...

- Bill

And our last stop on our California roadtrip... Yosemite National Park. This is one of those places where photographs simple can't begin to do it justice. There are hundreds of famous photographers who have dedicated their lives to shooting Yosemite (Ansel Adams for example), and even they can't begin to impart the majesty and grandeur that this park possesses. So if you have never been to Yosemite, I highly recommend it to be added to your bucket list (though I'd wait until the recent hantavirus outbreak is cleared up). As I said, I don't expect my photographs to truly impart the true feeling of wonder one gets from being in this park... so if any other photographs in the next few days worth of posts impress you, multiply that feeling by a couple thousand times to get an idea of what it is like to be there in person.

We'll start with one of my favorite shots (that I've processed so far - I still have about 100 more to go)... Yosemite Valley from the Merced River.

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

I took this shot basically laying on my belly overhanging the bank of the Merced River. I used the live-view on the back of the camera to be able to line up my shot (though I did still have to crop and rotate slightly to get the horizon level). I had the camera just inches above the water to get this perspective, and I really love the detail of the rocks under the water in the foreground juxtaposed with the massive peaks in the background.

Welcome to Yosemite.

- Bill