Fort Christmas Still Life Practice

I went back out to the Fort Christmas Historical Park recently with fellow Photography Interest Group member Tom M. I’ve written about this place before (here, here. and here). There are 7 restored cabins, each with several rooms arranged to show life in the 1870s through the 1930s. It’s a wonderful place to practice still life photography.

Let's go fishing – how I made the image

The boat ramp at this little park where SR 520 crosses the St. Johns River is pretty busy around dawn. It seems to be a popular place for fishermen to put in. I’d had to wait several times while they cleared my frame and the water calmed down before I could make my next exposure. So I decided to make an image that included a boat.

Topaz ReStyle Mini Review

Topaz released a new plug in recently, called ReStyle. You can download any of their products for a free thirty day trial, so I thought I’d give it a go. This isn’t a full review or tutorial (I haven’t used it long enough to do either of those). But I have used it a bit so I’ll try to introduce you to some possibilities with three examples I’ve played with. If you want to see the “before” versions of these, I’ve included them towards the end of the post.

A Panorama Workflow Example

I was up on Mount Evans near Denver, Colorado with an Olympus E-PL5 camera and a 24-100mm equivalent lens. This is a 16MP camera and the mountains and valley were just too large to fit through that lens and onto that sensor. I really wanted to capture something that would give viewers a sense of the scene. So how did I make the 46MP (9608×4804) wide angle panorama below with the gear I had?

Long exposure at Lake Eola

Deborah Sandidge and Jason Odell led a sunset photo walk around Lake Eola in downtown Orland on Friday evening. I’ve followed their work online and wanted to meet them, so I signed up. Conditions weren’t the best for sunset photography, but I had a good time. I used my neutral density filter to make several long exposure photos and I thought I’d walk you through my process.