Last year I was working on a project to make an alphabet book. Here is an example of what you can do with common objects. In the office where this project was being made there sat a nice bowl full of M & M’s. It had great color, shapes and interest. Everyone likes M & M’s. I took this photo and then in the final edit I processed it using Topaz adjust. Next time you want a new subject to photograph, but you are unable to get out of the house try taking close up photos of common objects around your house. Use a program like Topaz (download the trial version) and show your kids. It can be a fun and entertaining evening.

Thank you for visiting.

~wr~

This is one more view from the other night at Utah Lake. For this photo I would like to share the steps I took to bring this photo to the finalized product.

First I started out by transporting the 5 raw images into Photomatix Pro. I made a few adjustments and then saved the results. I then imported the original Raw Photos into Lightroom 3 beta and processed them again. I added elements of sharpening, contrast, saturation, and I added an increase of a half stop. At this point I ran the sync so that all photos had the same edits, and then exported this batch to Photomatix Pro and re-ran another HDR. Both of the images had good and bad. In the second batch the noise in the sky was dramatically increased. The rocks had much more detail and color. I took both photos into CS4. I wanted the sky and reflection from the first with the rocks of the second. Once I had taken the dark rocks out of the photo one more problem was present. On the edges of the rocks and ice where the bright orange and yellow touched there was a bright red line. At this point I again used CS4 and painted the color of the water where this line was present.

I like the dark background with the bright yellows and oranges. It offers a nice contrast to the foreground.
I like the texture of the rocks.
I like the color of the rocks and how bright they are.
I like the small patch of ice it brings interest into the photo and breaks the color of the reflection and rocks.

Let me know what you think, and thank you for visiting my site.

~wr~

We went down to Utah Lake because the setting sun and clouds looked like they may combine to make a spectacular sunset. The sunset was a bit of a dud, but the lake was smoother then I have ever seen it, and Timpanogos Mountain reflected off its surface beautifully. This is a five shot HDR. To take this type of photo you need to have your camera supported on something solid. In this case I used a tripod. I shot the photo at iso 100 with a full stop between each exposure.

I like the white of the snow and its reflection on the water.
I like the blue of the water and the clouds.
I like the colorful rocks in the foreground they add some contrast to the photo
The rocks also compete with the mountain, so I may want to crop this photo down a little.

Let me know what you think. To see this photo large just click onto the photo.

Thank you for visiting the site today.

~WR~

Tonight the clouds and the setting sun were working together to set up for a spectacular display of color. This didn’t quite happen. Right where the sun set there was a thick layer of clouds. However, with the use of HDR I was able to pull the colors out of the sky and this is the result. The “snow” in the bottom left of the photo is the remnants of the ice sheet that had covered Utah Lake for several months. During a recent storm the ice was blown into small ice mountains. This is what is left after a recent warm up.



You may remember this photo from December. This photo was taken from the same spot as the one above.
For the photo above I can’t remember a time where this large body of water was as calm and smooth as it was tonight. The only movement on the water was from my kids throwing rocks into the water. The above photo is a five exposure HDR shot at 24 mm and 200 iso.

Thank you for visiting my site today.

~wr~

This is one of my favorite photos from last fall. This was taken on the face of Timpanogos Mountain in one of the small canyons on its face. I went on a hike up this small canyon towards the end of the season and most of the color had fallen off the trees. As I was walking back to my car I noticed these few leaves with multiple color on them. I took the photo by planting the tripod in the steep dirt hill. It was not even close to being steady. It was more steady then hand held. I then started to fire away and and this was the best one of the set. I did very little post processing on these leaves.

The Specs.
iso 1600 (It was getting close to sunset and the leaves were in dark shade)
26mm
f/22 (I would have liked to lower the iso on this one and also the f/stop)
1/10 second

I like the wide variety of color.
I like the dark color around the leaves.
I would like to not have the leaf in the top left corner.

Thank you for visiting today.

~wr~

As spring comes closer to being a reality I am spending more time wanting to get out and shoot some macro photos. This one is from last summer. I was outside as the sun was setting and found this spider near our front porch. This spider was not afraid of anything and was not going anywhere so I set up my tripod and the camera and started to shoot.

The specs:
iso 500
105mm with a teleconverter
f/45
1 second exposure.

I like how sharp the focus is for the spider and rock.
I like the drop off in focus for the background.
I like the scars on the spiders back it gives this spider character.

Thank you for visiting my site today.

~wr~

This is a small section of the White Rock area of Snow Canyon in St. George. From a distance the rocks look grey and uninviting, but as you get closer the color starts to pop. This section was taken in the full shadow with about two hours of daylight left. I love all the different textures of the rocks. I like the lines of erosion that come straight down the mountain. I like the different colors that are present in the rocks. I also like the cross sections of layers of rock. While we were there we told that these layers are from an ancient sand dune that was compressed into the rocks. These rocks are now being turned back into sand by mother nature. My biggest regret of this trip was to take my back up camera and a kit lens. I wish I would have had one of my pro lenses or my macro 105 mm for this shot.

The specs:
iso 100
66mm
f/22
1/6 second hand held.

Thanks for visiting today.

~wr~