I have been attending a conference this week at the Opryland Hotel. The conference has been keeping me busy for most of the day so getting out to do photography has been somewhat constrained. I was able to get up a couple of hours before the sessions and take some shots of the various waterfalls and gardens that are located in the huge atriums of the hotel.
These are some pictures that I took during our one day adventure to Paris last week. The subjects are famous attractions in Paris. See how many of them you can identify. I will give you the flowers in Paris shot. I took that one as we travelled down the Champs Elysees. The rest should be easy.
Some more pictures from our time in England. These ones were taken at the British Museum and the Tower of London.
As promised, here are some pictures from the trip to England last week. I am also posting pictures of the trip to my photoblog as well. In order of display: House of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, a couple of pictures of Westminster Abbey, Somerset House and the Tower Bridge.
I have trying out several thirdparty Photoshop plugins as part of my imaging workflow. The first is a plugin from Alien Skin that attempts to emulate the attributes of classic film like Velvia. The plugin is suprisingly flexible. The settings out of the box are a bit too strong for my liking but I have found myself going back to this software for enhancing certain landscapes. I also like the b/w conversion.
Nik Software produces a highly regarded sharpening plugin. I downloaded the demo version and I could not get it to work in Photoshop. And, at over $300 USD, I think I would like to at least assess its performance before I buy it. I hate it when demos do not work.
Pixel Genius, on the other hand, has a sharpener tool with a fully functional demo. A multi-stage sharpener with a great deal of user control, I really like its impact on my images. The site also offers a couple of downloads that describe workflows for digital photographers. Some good insight can be found in these examples here.
I dropped into one of Indigo‘s bookstores last week. For whatever reason, if I go into a bookstore, I come out with way too many books.
I picked up a copy of Tim Fitzharris’ National Audubon Society Guide to Landscape Photography. Partly because the jacket promised a complete guide to landscape photography and partly because the images in the book are superb. Stunning.
I have read through the book several times now. And I am still awed by the quality of his photography.
Audubon‘s mission statement is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity. Perhaps they sponsored Tim’s book.
Regardless, I think his work is amongst the best landscape photography that I have seen. You can see some of his work at his website here.
His technique has given me a number of ideas. And although a camera is still just a tool, there is no doubt that a medium format camera can help an accomplished photographer in capturing an exceptional image. Many of his photos were taken on a Pentax 645 using Fujichrome Velvia film.
Coming close to the end of the photojournal of our time in Bermuda. Here are some street shots that I took in Hamilton.
I have started a photoblog which can be found here. Just started so I only have a couple of images up right now. But I will post images daily from my various photo travels.