Looking through Rudolph & Arthur Covered Bridge (1886)
I have been playing with the idea of publishing a photography book for some time, and after my experience with producing Madison’s 10th birthday gift, I decided to make a first real attempt.
So what was my first real book going to be about?
Looking back at my recent history, it only makes sense that I do something about covered bridges, and I already had the content from the presentation I did back in October 2012 for Citadel bank.
This time is going to be easier from the standpoint that I only had a limited number of pictures, and a layout with the text.
So after a couple of hours, I was able to put the following together using the simple Adobe Lightroom module, and uploading to Blurb.com.
I invite you to take a look, and let me know what you think.
With this first book done, and I’m sure that I’ll revisit at some point, I am beginning to put together some ideas on themed books.
This time, using Blurb’s SmartBook application to put together my next adventure, namely because it seems to offer far more options and controls than what is available in the built-in Adobe Lightroom module.
In the meantime, let me know what you think of the book!
Some images taken during a late Fall walk in the Natural Lands Trust’s Peacedale Preserve in Chester County, PA.
There was a weather front moving through while I was there, which allowed for some very interesting cloud and lighting conditions, and several times, I was able to see some Crepuscular rays.
Weather Clouds 024 – Peacedale Preserve
Weather Clouds hdr 01 – Peacedale Preserve
Weather Clouds 169 – Peacedale Preserve
At one point during my walk, I encountered a real old-timer.
In the middle of the Preserve, there is a huge beech tree, at is 3-4 feet in diameter, and easily several hundreds of years old!
I don’t think I have ever seen a monster like this!
Today, I got out for a GPS drive, to see what had happen after our quick little rain storm that passed through yesterday.
During the height of the storm, the larger than normal black walnuts in our back yard, where falling like small little cluster bombs, hitting the back deck with great thuds, while colorful leaves swirled in the air.
Barn view of the hills
Road through the Woods – East
Barn in the Corn fields
Corn field power
A gourd collection
Corn, Corn, Corn
Road through the Woods – West
Wild Grass in the Field
I did have concern that I would miss the fall colors because of this storm, but as I drove around, I did find that many areas in northern Chester County still had a fair amount of green leaves, but not for long.
This is my favorite time of the year for colors, and the GPS drives are just starting!
Some images taken during a recent spring time walk around Stroud Preserve.
All images were shot in ‘traditional’ HDR bracket fashion, and processed into a ‘raw’ combined HDR file.
Normally, I use Adobe Photoshop to do my B&W conversion, but since the Google/Nik Software upgrade, I now had a chance to play with Silver Efex Pro 2.
Trails 01
Trails 03
Trails 02
Hay pillows
Which way?
Fields & Clouds
A pond waterfall
Photoshop is great for doing a straight conversion via the native B&W menu, but to explore other options, quickly, and then build on them, Silver Efex Pro is the answer.
I still used Photoshop to tweak the final files, but I ended up in a different place than I originally envisioned.
It has been 10 days since I’ve been out shooting any of the new shorelines along Marsh Creek Lake, so in my planning I wanted to explore an area that I kind of already knew.
Being a Google Maps junkie, I pulled up Marsh Creek State Park from my Favorites, and then the “The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE)” application to check the lighting, to help me to decide where to go on this day.
Looking South-West (Start)
Within minutes, I had decided on taking a look at the point where the main facilities for Marsh Creek are located on Park Road. I had walked some of these trails earlier in the summer with both kids, and remembered seeing some viewpoints that I wanted to revisit.
When one first enters the park and looks out over the lake, one cannot be but astonished by all the missing water and new shorelines.
Remains of an old traffic cone
The parking lot that extends out the point, was blocked off, and I was forced to park in the main lot, which is self, was halfway closed.
No matter, I was expecting to do some walking today anyways, so I packed up my gear and headed into the parking lot towards the eastern trails.
When I got to the end of what appeared to be the Park, I noticed a trail heading down the hill, and I decided to follow it.
Clouds Midway – (North-East) 01
After a few feet, it became apparent that during hurricane Sandy, this trail had become a rushing stream.
At the bottom of the hill, I continued along some animal trails, and eventually made it to the shoreline.
I walked along the northern shore heading West, and as I walked, I was greeted with many items of visual interest.
The shoreline itself was a darker mixture of sentiment, and depending how far in you went toward the water, it became easier to sink. the shoreline around the dam consisted more of real sand, then this thick molasses of lake mud.
Clouds Midway – (South-West) 01
While walking and looking, I made the observation that there seemed to be more human trash, than what I had seen in my walks around the dam. I saw a lot of plastic bottles of various sizes, along with a couple of shoes, a folding chair, and even a deteriorated orange safety cone base.
As I continued, the clouds began to coalesce into a show of formations that I had never seen before, and I had a hard time capturing the magnificent shapes within the evolving jet stream.
Wood squid on shoreline
At one point, there was this thin series of streams, that cut through the rest of the formation, and looks like a gigantic series of cloth folds, stretching from one horizon to the other. It was definitely one of those times when I wish I had a smaller wide-angle lens.
The shoreline steepen as I headed West, and I had to scamper up to the existing trail to the tip of the point. Eventually, I emerged to see a very rocky new shoreline, which I explored for trinkets and a shot or two.
Main concrete dock
I returned to the trail, and headed north searching for a new place to start another shoreline exploration.
The shoreline in this area was much wider than areas I have been in before, and is easily accessible because of the sand rock mixture. I also noticed many more tree stumps, which made for some interesting compositions.
it is very difficult to relay to anyone that has never been to these places, what a major change has occurred with this eight-foot drawdown.
Rental building
Once familiar places, now looks so surreal and primitive.
As I stood on the deck of the restaurant, I took a series of panoramic shots, that I still need to process, in hopes to further illustrate this tremendous change.
Looking at my watch, I started back up the hill towards the parking lot and my car.
At the maintenance gate for the pool complex, I stopped to capture the final image of the day.
Swimming Park
Winter has come…
Questions
Are there any local efforts to clean up the trash and debris while so much of it is easily accessible?
