Flood Water by Moonlight

The "lake" is usually a field beside a creek. Nikon D100, ISO 400, 40mm, f/4, 1/10s.

Lafayette Park Pond - Infrared

Another angle on the Lafayette Park pond. I think I finally found the same colour tint I enjoyed with Agfa Portriga Rapid paper. Nikon D100, ISO 200, 24mm, f/11, 1/2s, Cokin A007 Infrared filter. Processed in Photoshop CS2. Some missing? Yes, I removed the bridge.

Bird at Cliff Cave Park

Not sure what type of bird this is ... let me know in the comments! Taken with a Canon Digital Rebel and Canon's 300 mm lens (handheld).

Indigo Bunting

This little blue bird, an Indigo Bunting, was all over Cliff Cave Park this Sunday. Very hard to photograph ... I was hand-holding a 300 mm lens, but he wouldn't stay still very long at all.

Cliff Cave Park Flooding

The Mississippi River rose even further today in Cliff Cave Park. The water covered some of the trails, but as you can see that didn't stop this intrepid hiker. More shots coming soon - the water made the park a fascinating wetlands photo opportunity.

Lafayette Park Pond

This is one of my favourite spots in St. Louis. I remember swimming in the pond with friends maybe 50 years ago. A different time and different place. Processed in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop CS2. Nikon D100, 24mm, f/11, 1/45s.

Rust Never Sleeps

A prime example of the never ending paint job, this is a detail of the chain of rocks bridge. I think maybe the peek of blue sky needs to go because it ruins the strong duo tone; maybe not. Nikon D100, 105mm Micro, f/16, 1/180s.

Manipulation Example

This post was sparked by a conversation I had recently about post capture manipulation. Transformations in Photoshop and other tools open an infinite range of possibility, but I'm most confortable with limiting myself for the most part to the digital versions of film darkroom printing control. Several people have asked me about how much manipulation I'm doing, so I thought I'd share the process for a few posts.

The image is straight out of the camera. The light was very flat and combined with water spraying on a waxy surface, the colors look pale and washed out. I also found the background very distracting.


To "save" the picture, I used Lightroom to lower the color temp, bring up the black and improve the contrast and color saturation. Then I used the clone tool in Photoshop to kill the background. Finally, back in Lightroom, I used the lens vignette control to burn the edges by about 40%.

All of these changes could easily have been done in a film darkroom - but not as easily as with the digital tools. I can't say that I miss the smell of Cibachrome bleach at 2:00 AM :)

The first shot is straight out of the camera,