Tag Archives: sunset

Happy Labor Day!

September 3, 2012Casey Key, INSIDE FLORIDAbeach, birds, black and white, boat, infrared, jetty, landscape, people, sunset, vacation, Venice Florida, WilletEd Rosack

Like many people in the US, Lynn and I headed to the beach for Labor Day. We really like Casey Key on the Gulf Coast of Florida just north of Venice. Like always, it was very relaxing. We swam, shelled, ate, walked the beach, and got plenty of sun. I also had a little time for some photography.

The north jetty at the inlet in Casey Key Florida is full of people fishing and watching the sunset. I watched from the south jetty in Venice. The sail boat was a nice bonus.

Willet on the beach – This bird was very cooperative. When not fishing in the surf, it would occasionally come close.

On the beach – We were wandering around exploring the area near the Venice Pier. Since it was close to mid-day, I didn’t expect any good light but I took my IR camera in case something came up. I think the IR characteristics add a lot of interest to the photo.

You can see some other photos from Casey Key in this set on Flickr.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!

Memorial Day Weekend, 2012

May 28, 2012Casey Key, INSIDE FLORIDAbeach, landscape, sunsetEd Rosack

Florida and Florida beaches are a great photo-op, especially at sunrise or sunset – and Casey Key on the Gulf Coast seems to have a unique color pallet. It doesn’t hurt to have some stormy weather around to add drama to the sky and clouds. I saw the beach chairs sitting empty and pointing toward the setting sun and felt compelled to make a photo.

At the end of the day 2 – On Memorial Day Weekend 2012: The empty chairs in this scene made me think about past and present members of the military that can’t be with family to celebrate the holiday. To all those that serve or have served, thank you for your service.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now, go make some photos!

Using Selective White Balance to Fix Problem Photos

October 30, 2011INSIDE FLORIDA, Technique, Washington D.C.Potomac River, sunrise, sunset, white balanceEd Rosack

I thought about going to Orlando Wetlands Park on Saturday before it closes for the winter (in mid-November), but the weather was quite bad. This morning, I wanted to get up early in search of a sunrise but instead had to deal with a migraine headache (I need to be much more careful about restaurant MSG). So anyway, no new shots to post this weekend.

Instead, let’s go over a technique that can be quite useful in certain situations. Normally I shoot in RAW format and use Lightroom to adjust color balance globally over the whole photograph. This works well in most situations, but sometimes a photograph can be improved substantially by correcting white balance selectively.

How do you do this? The way I do it is to open the photo in Photoshop, duplicate the image in a second layer, and adjust the white balance globally in each layer, but for different areas of the photo. So in layer 1 the sky may look good, but the ground may be off – while in layer two the opposite is true. Then I blend the two layers together using a layer mask, taking the best portions of each. If you don’t already use layers and layer masks in Photoshop, you should really learn about them. They provide a very useful tool in many situations and the ability to paint in (and erase) from one layer to the other gives you a great deal of flexibility and control over the results.

In this first example, I initially used a “day light” color balance and this brought out the sunset colors in the clouds, but the clear sky and terrain are a little too warm.

: Neighborhood Sunset – before selective white balance adjustment

In Photoshop, I left the color balance as is in one layer, and in the second layer, I made it much more neutral. I then painted the clouds from the first into the second.

Neighborhood Sunset – after selective white balance adjustment

This second example is even more dramatic than the first. The scene included both the pre-dawn sky and artificial lights along the far shore of the river. No matter what I did with the global white balance adjustment, I couldn’t get it to look right.

: The pre-dawn Potomac River – initial white balance

Again, duplicating the image into a second layer and blending with layer masks allowed me to neutralize the color balance of the lighting on the far shore and still make the sky and water more natural looking.

The pre-dawn Potomac River – after selective white balance adjustment

You owe it to yourself and your photography to try this technique. It some situations it can save a photo.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

The Lake Jesup Flowers are back!

October 5, 2011INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Jesup, Lake Jesup Sunflowers, Must do listFlowers, landscape, Marl Bed Flats, Sanford Florida, Sunflowers, sunsetEd Rosack

We may not get much Autumn color on our trees in Central Florida, but we do have one wonderful sign that fall is here – the sudden appearance of huge fields of Swamp Sunflowers (Helianthus angustifolius, also called Narrow Leaf Sunflowers) covering the Marl Bed Flats in the Lake Jesup Conservation Area.

If you haven’t driven over Lake Jesup on the 417 toll road to see this year’s flower extravaganza on the north shore, now’s the time . They started blooming last weekend and the peak will probably last through this coming weekend. You can see my earlier posts for more info:

Here’s a photo I made last Sunday evening near sunset:

Marl Bed Flats Sunflowers: They bloom in late September / early October and cover a large part of the Lake Jesup Conservation area.

You can look at other photos I’ve made here in this set on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/sets/72157622430520287/

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Neighborhood Sunset

September 25, 2011INSIDE FLORIDA, TechniquesunsetEd Rosack

Beauty is all around us. You don’t have to journey thousands of miles to an exotic location with many pounds of gear to make a good photograph. Often, you can find one in or very close to your back yard. And since you know your area better than any other, you know where the beauty is. Make a photo of it.

Reeds, pond, sky

I went for a walk after dinner last night and photographed the sky reflected in this pond not very far from my home. We have an obligation to notice, capture and share the beauty all around us with others.

Technical notes: I made this photo (with a small camera and no tripod) using the technique I described in this post. Here though, I used four images instead of two. Because I had four source images, I didn’t try to blend them by hand. Once I auto-aligned the layers, I used Photoshop’s “auto-blend” layers capability. I also used one extra technique: white balance blending. When I imported the four original photos into Photoshop, I set the white balance to “daylight”. When I finished blending them and had them back into Lightroom, the clouds looked good, but the rest of the image was too warm. So I made a virtual copy, did an auto white balance adjustment on it and then blended these two versions in Photoshop using a layer mask. The resulting master file is 4668 x 6352 pixels (~30 megapixels).

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Late Afternoon at Viera Wetlands

September 4, 2011INSIDE FLORIDA, Viera Wetlandslandscape, sunset, wildlifeEd Rosack

Sunset at Viera Wetlands

I’d never been to Viera Wetlands in the late afternoon or for sunset and wanted to see if the activity at that time of day is any different from the mornings when we usually go. Also, I read yesterday on the Friends of Viera Wetlands blog that several of the winter migrant species (e.g. Belted Kinfishers and Phalaropes) are starting to arrive. I talked Lynn into going with me by promising her a dinner at the Dixie Crossroads restaurant in Titusville. We headed over in time to get into the restaurant before the huge crowd showed up (about 4:30pm) and then made our way down to Viera.

We went round the Click ponds first, but didn’t see much activity. The water levels are still low and the road on the east side is pretty grown up. Next we went into the wetlands. The new paved entry is nice and you no longer have to drive through the water treatment plant. There were some of the usual birds around, although I didn’t see any of the migrants. There was one very tame acting young deer and I was able to get a good close up photo of it. It must be used to having people around. I hope it’s more leery of other large animals.

Young deer at Viera Wetlands: Check out the eyelashes and whiskers!

An enjoyable photo-op, but it would have been nice to see a Phalarope.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Before and After, Again

July 24, 2011INSIDE FLORIDA, Ponce Inlet, Techniquebeach, landscape, lighthouse, Reprocessing, sunsetEd Rosack

This is another entry in my occasional series on reprocessing photos. You can see the other posts here, here, and here. You can also read the original blog post about this image here.

Post-processing skills as well as taste develop over time. New tools come out or get updated. Reviewing your image library for things you may want to change is a good idea. Just don’t spend too much time on post processing – leave enough to go out and make new images too!

This is one of my favorite photographs and one that I’ve even sold, but re-looking at it I saw several things I thought I could make a little better. Here’s the updated version after all my re-edits (which are described below):

After: Ponce Inlet lighthouse, sunset, bird, Final Edit

I started over from the RAW file (you do save your RAW files, don’t you?) and re-did the basic adjustments in Lightroom (color balance, initial exposure adjustments). Then I moved into Photoshop and cleaned up distracting elements (tire tracks, poles, the tip of the cloud just right of the lighthouse, …). I then added a duplicate layer and ran that through Topaz Adjust using the “Spicify” preset to bring up structure, detail, and color saturation. I don’t usually like applying this filter all over an image at 100%, so once back in Photoshop I added a hide all layer mask and partially painted in the effect, using a higher opacity brush for the sky to let more of the filter show and a lower one for the rocks and ocean to mute the filter effect. I then took the result back to Lightroom for final tweaks to color balance, sharpening and a crop to remove part of the sky. I thought that the colors of the sky and rocks were still a little off, so as one last tweak I added graduated filters to help adjust their tints.

For reference purposes, here’s the old edit of this photo:

Before: Ponce Inlet lighthouse, sunset, bird, Initial Edit

Note: you can click the two versions above to go to my Flickr account, where you can view larger versions.

And also for reference, I uploaded the original RAW file (with default development settings in Lightroom) below.

Ponce Inlet lighthouse, sunset, bird, RAW Capture

Would I go to this much effort for every image? No. But sometimes a photo really appeals to me and I want to get the absolute best I can from it. It helps that I enjoy working in Photoshop and learning about new techniques.

So what do you think? Quite a few changes, some more subtle than others – but overall I like the new version better.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

I just don’t get these. Can someone help me?

May 22, 2011Cameras and Photography, INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Eola, VARIOUSlandscape, philosophy, sunsetEd Rosack

OK first, here’s a photo.

Lake Eola at Dusk: Downtown Orlando, Florida

The photo has nothing to do with the subject of the post, but I like it and I thought we should have at least one photo today. I made this one a while ago and went back yesterday to re-process it with some new SW. I was able to bring out more highlight detail as well as adjust the brightness / curves and saturation.

Now for the main section of the post. I promise that this isn’t a rant, although it might sound like it. Also, it isn’t a normal Central Florida Photo Ops post – but there are a few photo related things I need help with. I admit, I just don’t get them. Do you get them? Can you help me?

I don’t know if you’re a Flickr member or not. If you take a look at Flickr Explore, you’ll notice that there’s a surprising (at least to me) number of doll or toy photos there each day. To each his or her own, but I just don’t get this. I don’t really see why these are interesting to everyone. What is artistic or appealing about photos of toy dolls? How do these get on Flickr Explore? What am I missing? (Note: Flickr revised their Explore algorithm in 2020 and it’s much better now!)
The Lensbaby: OK, I’ve never used one, but why would I? It’s an inexpensive, imprecise tilt lens, with not so good optics. You can sort of cause an area within the frame to be in focus while blurring the rest. Is it just fun to play around with? Why would you put this on an expensive DSLR? Can you really do something artistic and controlled with it? Can anyone point me to an outstanding photo made with a Lensbaby? If so, was the Lensbaby critical to the photo or could you make it another way (Gaussian filters anyone)?
Micro 4/3 cameras: Yes, they have interchangeable lenses and larger sensors (=better image quality) than point and shoot cameras. And a 4/3 kit is smaller and lighter than a DSLR kit. But … Is it your only camera or a secondary / backup / travel camera? If it’s a secondary camera, you have to buy a whole new kit (body, lenses, flash?). That’s pretty expensive. If you want small and light, why not go for smallest and lightest (e.g. a point and shoot) for a lot less money. If you want quality why not go for quality (e.g. your DSLR). Will you be happy with a compromise? —– 9/2/11 Update: I think I do get this now. These cameras are much smaller and lighter. The lenses are less expensive than corresponding DSLR lenses. And they can be used (with reasonably long lenses) in places that don’t allow DSLR photography – like most theaters, some sports arenas, etc. Since they are less conspicuous, many people prefer to use them instead of DSLRs for street photography. And finally, although micro 4/3 sensor quality lags a generation or more behind the best APS C size sensors, it is enormously better than compact point and shoot sensors and good enough for most applications.
Not posting EXIF data with images: Some people go to great lengths to make sure the EXIF data captured by their camera gets filtered out before they post the photo. Why? How does it hurt to have someone on-line look at this data and try to understand how the photo was made?
Paying all those $ for a DSLR kit and not using it: You’ve got to have it with you, know how to use it, and use it. If you don’t know how to use it, use it anyway, make mistakes, and learn from them.
Paying all those $ for a DSLR kit and using it like a phone camera: Don’t leave it on “A”. Learn what all those other modes are and use them. Take charge – don’t let the camera think for you.
Not post processing: Some of my friends have expensive DSLR cameras and they live with the .jpg output of their cameras. I’ve tried to explain the benefits of RAW capture and post processing, but they don’t want to listen. I just don’t get this.
All right, no one gets this: Flash in the stands at sporting events and concerts: But why do you still see this? How can anyone do this without dying of embarrassment?
Film: Film is fun, but for most serious photographers, digital is so much better. OK, maybe I do get the 8×10 view camera people, but still It’s a lot of extra work and many compromises for an improvement in a few small areas.
Comment Spam on photo blogs (OK, any blog): I think the intent of comment spam is to get links back to their oh so relevant pages. Really? How are children’s shoes related to Central Florida Photo Ops? And that’s a G-rated one. There are many that are R-rated or worse. Why would I allow these comments through on my site? Does anyone? I really don’t get this.

If you “get” any of these things, or would just like to leave a comment to tell me how crazy I am, feel free (although I do moderate comments because of #10).

In the mean time, thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

My Favorite Photos of 2010

December 19, 2010VARIOUSAlligator, beach, birds, Cormorant, Cypress, Fish, Flowers, Koi, lighthouse, panorama, star, sunrise, sunset, tree, wildlifeEd Rosack

I hope that all of you and your families and friends are having a joyful and happy holiday season!

The weather has been pretty gloomy here this weekend, so I didn’t get a chance to go out and make any new photos. I thought it would be a good time to jump the gun and put together my second annual “Favorite photos of the year” post.

One again, I’ve gone through the photos I made in the last 12 months. I use Lightroom to rate them from 0 through 5 stars. My rating system definitions are:

1 star – The photo is interesting
2 stars – The photo is worth showing to others
3 stars – The photo is the best of (or one of the best of ) any given photo shoot
4 stars – My favorite photo of a year
5 stars – My favorite photo (ever)

Photos without stars are seconds or not so good versions of other photos. I usually keep them, but they probably won’t get any more attention. I’ve used this system consistently, and it seems to work for me. Of course, this is all subjective and my opinion only. Feel free to disagree, but I hope you’ll enjoy looking at the ones I’ve chosen.

Again in 2010, I was really blessed with a huge number of photo opportunities. On my hard drive in my 2010 folder, I have about 11,700 files (not all are photos), taking up 145GB of space. Of these:

5997 of the 2010 images have been cataloged in Lightroom. Many of the rest are source images for multi-shot panoramas or HDRs, or high rate bursts that I selected from.
1139 are rated 1 star or higher
639 are 2 star or higher
88 are 3 star or higher
1 is 4 star, and
None are 5 star (I’m still not done taking photos yet!)

Of the 88 that are 3 star or higher, I’ve selected 10 images to include in a gallery of my favorite 2010 photos. You can click on each of these to go to Flickr, where you can see a larger version. One interesting difference from my 2009 Favorite Photos post is that all the ones this year were made in the Central Florida area.

So, here we go…

My #10 favorite 2010 photo is: Waving Gator. Gators always smile at you, but this one was even waving! No, I didn’t Photoshop the wave. The gator really did it all by itself. I have witnesses.

My #9 favorite 2010 photo is: Roadside Flowers. Wildflower photography is a little different in Central Florida than some other areas of the country. Some might say it’s more challenging here, and I doubt anyone comes to Central Florida specifically to photograph wildflowers. None the less, wildflower photo ops are around here too if you keep your eyes open. These are along the Florida Turnpike. I saw them while driving home from Gainesville, Florida and just had to stop and photograph them.

My #8 favorite 2010 photo is: Cattle Egret in Flight. For once, I was ready when this bird flew close by. Right lens, correct camera settings, and paying attention. I could almost feel my camera nail the shot. I wish I felt like that more often.

My #7 favorite 2010 photo is: One Second Koi or “One second, Koi” or “One second Koi?” I don’t usually make this sort of photo. On this occasion, I decided to experiment and I was very pleased with how it turned out.

My #6 favorite 2010 photo is: Sunrise, fog, palms, pond. This scene is close to the north-west shore of Lake Jessup. On this particular morning, the mist in the distance and the clouds on the horizon shaping the sunlight drew my attention.

My #5 favorite 2010 photo is: Burning waters @ Orlando Wetlands. We were at Orlando Wetlands Park back in late September before dawn. It was raining very softly, but not enough to discourage us from hiking out to Lake Searcy and capturing this scene. I like the light hitting the flowers on the left, the rain cloud in the distance, and the dawn colors in the sky.

My #4 favorite 2010 photo is: Grasshopper and Donuts perform photo-magic on the beach under the stars for an audience of three.

We have a local camera club and three of us decided to go over to the beach to try to photograph the Perseid meteor shower. My two friends went out on the beach while I stayed up on the boardwalk. At one point I looked down and could barely make out this scene in the dark. I like the way the camera’s LCD is lit up and draws the viewer’s eye to the two photographers. I also like how the three strangers (who were watching for meteors) look like they’re watching my friends.

I was using ISO 1600 and my “nifty 50” 50mm lens at f/1.8 to keep exposures as short as possible (I was trying to prevent the stars from trailing), and I had focused manually at infinity. All I had to do was switch on live-view, re-compose, and zoom in on my friend’s white shirt to manually re-focus. Fortunately no one moved very much during the 4 second exposure. It’s really amazing how modern cameras can capture scenes that are barely visible to our eyes! And yes, we did get a few meteor photos. (Grasshopper and Donuts are nicknames for the two photographers in the scene).

My #3 favorite 2010 photo is: Cyprus tree and knees. I wanted to try the Nikon D7000 on some landscape photos, but didn’t really have time to go anywhere special. This tree is very close to my home – along the shore of Lake Jessup in Central Winds Park. Cypress trees make very good photo subjects since they can provide both near and middle distance content for a scene.

My #2 favorite 2010 photo is: Cormorant at the Circle Bar B. These birds have been posing for me lately. I think it’s amazing how pretty they look in the right light.

And … my #1 favorite photo of the year 2010 is: Ponce Inlet light, sunset, bird. Imagine if you will, a perfect dusk scene with sunset colors drifting up from beyond the horizon. In the distance is a photogenic lighthouse that’s illuminated just enough to make it stand out against the bright sky. Beneath your feet, slow-moving Atlantic Ocean surf rolls up on rocks. You spot a bird in the surf and hope it will be still while your shutter remains open for the seconds necessary to record the image as your mind’s eye sees it – tack sharp from foreground rocks all the way to the distant lighthouse, with silky smooth water reflecting the dusk sky. Imagine coming home and seeing the image that you imagined right there on your computer screen in all it’s glory. That’s what happened to me last August.

I’ve uploaded these photos to this Flickr set, and you can click this link to watch a slide show. When you watch the show, you might want to click the “show info” link.

Thanks for looking.

Local Park Landscapes

November 21, 2010INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake JesupCypress, sunrise, sunset, treeEd Rosack

Just a short post today with an idea for local photo-ops: How about the parks in your own neighborhood?

I wanted to try out the D7000 on some landscape photos, but didn’t really have time to go anywhere special. Instead, I went out to three local parks and made the photos below.

You’ve seen this tree before – it’s along the shore of Lake Jesup in Central Winds Park. I like this more complete composition, since it includes the cyprus knees.

Cyprus tree and knees

This next one was made at Lake Marie in Trotwood Park. There are almost always at least a few birds in this small lake and last night was no exception.

The geese aren’t watching the sunset

And finally, here’s one from this morning at Sam Smith Park. It was very quiet – almost no wind, which helps wonderfully with reflections in water. The cyprus trees here in Florida do change colors for the winter – the one on the left is starting to turn.

Sunrise and Cyprus

Visit your local parks and make some photos.