Category Archives: Photos
Snow Covered Farm
Snow
It snowed here in the northeast today and that gave me the idea to post one my favorite snow images. I kind of have a love/hate relationship with the winter and it’s accompanying precipitation. My work commute, is bad enough on dry days, but throw a little of the slick stuff on the ground and my ride ends up like leaving Gillette Stadium on AFC Championship Sunday (bumper to bumper and a lot of disgruntled drivers!). I also have many fond memories of the snow though: Sledding as a kid, or even as an adult with my daughter; snowboarding trips to Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire; watching my dog run wildly and chomp at the pile I tossed her way while shoveling; and many others that brought an equal amount of joy even on the coldest of days.
Snow Covered Farm – Washington, CT
On those snowboarding trips up north, I remember looking at all the snow covered farm land and admiring it’s beauty. All the trips came during a long stretch where I wasn’t taking any photographs at all. That’s a story for another day, but those trips were the one time I wished I was still shooting.
So, a few years after digital imaging took off, and I let go of my grudge with photography, I took a drive out to the northwest area of Connecticut. It came after a winter storm had come through the days before. When I turned onto Painter Ridge Road in Washington, I knew I found a great spot to shoot. I loved the way the red barn contrasted with the snow and how all three main elements created a nice triangular composition. I took away a few favorites that day including a close-up I really like of the barn, but this one wins out for me.
The Four Paths
Perception
Place 5 people in a location and give each the same kind of camera. I’m willing to bet none of them produce the same image. The main reason being that we all see beauty differently. Past experiences send us down different paths that skew our perceptions. A sandy beach can mean relaxation to one person, while it can bring another to thoughts of a recent rainy vacation. Both would be looking at the same exact thing but only one would really want to highlight its beauty. A level of passion impacts all photos. Without it; I’m not sure how anyone would ever produce a great image.
The Four Paths – Project River, Seymour, CT
I’ve mentioned an image as being a top 5 or top 3 in the past, but I’m always careful not to say it’s my favorite. Unless I am talking about this one that is. This image is my all time favorite and the reasons go way beyond just how it looks.
I do love how it looks, but there is much more to it than that for me. I always think of the four separate falls as the end result for each drop of water. Starting out as a rain drop somewhere up the river with the journey taking them together at times and abruptly separating them at others. All of those misdirections eventually leading them to their ultimate fate; a wild forceful ride quickly to the bottom; a smooth gentle fall that takes some time; or a mixture of the two; smooth and quick or rough and slower.
There is one other aspect to this photo that really makes me smile when I look at it. The location. You might be asking where is this place and why isn’t it a big tourist spot, but the reality of this image is much different than the reality of the scene it sits in.
Just above the falls lay two giant cement pillars and they are holding up a highway that spans across the entire view. I almost didn’t stop when I saw it because I didn’t want to have to do all the editing work to remove the unattractive objects. The falls were just amazing to look at though so I pulled into the parking lot across the street and headed over.
I took a few wide angle shots before I decided that it wasn’t worth the editing effort. That’s when I took the camera all the way to the ground and got as close to the water as possible without getting soaked. I tried a few different angles but this was easily my favorite. Editing was relatively simple with minor exposure and color adjustments.
You can see the wide angle photo over on the Facebook page.
Sunrise from Common Road
I mentioned in the Blueberry Lake Before Sunrise post how much I love a particular drive and the lake was near the beginning of that drive. There is a fork in the road a few miles up the road that always forces me to make a choice. I can stay on East Warren Rd. or bear right onto Common Rd. Both offer amazing views and there really is no wrong choice. It usually comes down to which one I haven’t photographed in a while.
Sunrise from Common Road – Waitsfield, VT
Common Road won out on this late summer day in 2011 and as soon as I made the turn I knew I made the right choice. I had passed this spot many times prior to this day and always thought it had the potential for nice early morning image, but on this day I wouldn’t continue driving by. I pulled over quickly, hopped out of the car and was snapping off sets of photos in no time.
Kim
In the spirit of a post I have seen on Facebook, and it totally relates to what I’ve been going through this week, I am including the message at the end of this post. If you aren’t going to read anything else, please read that at least.
This week has been a difficult one for me. It had been a couple of years since a single txt message from a friend stopped me in my tracks with overwhelming sadness and grief. I’m not going to go into the details here about what happened this time. That is private to those involved, but it has brought back so many memories for me that I thought I should share the story of a true inspiration.
Kim
It was fall of 2009 when I received an out of the blue txt message from my friend Kim. This was a much different message then the one I would be getting from her a year later, but it was right after she went through a tough battle with cancer and she was taking some much needed R & R time with her family. I don’t have the old txt, but it basically said:
Hi Chris, I am at an beautiful photo gallery in Vegas right now and was thinking how cool it will be when your work is displayed like this.
It touched me that she took the time to do that, but even more, was her confidence in me. When I laughed back at her, she made sure I understood she was serious. But that was Kim. She always found a way to make the people around her feel special and I was very fortunate to be one of those who got to know her. I am definitely not alone though. She was a teacher and I always thought that to be the perfect fit for her and a real treat for those lucky enough to be in her class.
When I received her txt message many months later, telling a group of us that the cancer returned and now it was terminal, I was at a loss for words. I assumed she would go silent as well, but I was very wrong. She was on Facebook almost every day liking a post or commenting on a friend’s status. Always trying to pick up their spirits and never looking for sympathy.
Before she left us, she made me promise to have a gallery show some day. I simply nodded, but I understood she meant it, and when I feel my work is good enough, I will honor her wish and give a little wink up to the sky, like I did the night we had to say goodbye. When I did, the image below was what I saw.
Did you know the people that are the strongest are usually the most sensitive? Did you know the people who exhibit the most kindness are the first to get mistreated? Did you know the one who takes care of others all the time are usually the ones who need it the most? Did you know the 3 hardest things to say are I love you, I’m sorry, and help me. Sometimes just because a person looks happy, you have to look past their smile and see how much pain they may be in. To all my friends who are going through some issues right now–Let’s start an intention avalanche. We all need positive intentions right now. If I don’t see your name, I’ll understand. May I ask my friends wherever you might be, to kindly copy and paste this status for one hour to give a moment of support to all those who have family problems, health struggles, job issues, worries of any kind and just need to know that someone cares. Do it for all of us, for nobody is immune. I hope to see… this on the walls of all my friends just for moral support. I know some will!! I did it for a friend and you can too. You have to copy & paste this one, no share button, because kindness is a effort given from the heart not the press of a button!!!
Sesuit Harbor
Who to Follow – Scott Kelby
If you work in Photoshop at all, chances are that you already know who Scott Kelby is. I think of him first as the president of NAPP, the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, but lately he has been blowing me away with his photos of NFL football games. The reason I thought to highlight him this week was from seeing his photos of the NFC championship game this past Sunday. On Facebook, he posted the results from 4 simultaneous photos of Falcon’s Cornerback Asante Samuel as he came out of the tunnel. They all look really cool, but what I like even more is that he explains, with photos, how he set it all up. He’s always teaching and if you have an itch to learn photography, Photoshop, Lightroom, or any other Adobe Creative Suite product, Scott should be on your list to follow. His main website/blog is scottkelby.com and if you are truly serious about Photoshop, visit NAPP today.
Sesuit Harbor, East Dennis, MA
When the weather didn’t cooperate for an ocean side sunrise, I headed back towards the bay to photograph the Sesuit Harbor. I stayed around the boats for a while, getting in close and capturing different crews as they headed out for the day and then the sun started to break through the clouds. I walked a few hundred feet north and found this beautiful site before me. I took 10 to 15 photos of the scene and a few more of an old dune fence before heading back to the family. It was another fine start to the day!
Tomorrow: Setting the mood for the weekend.
Mad River Light
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. We’ve all heard that saying before, but the question is, have you listened to that advice? Sometimes I think I know better and give up, figuring it will save the wasted time. It’s a toss-up between giving it (whatever it is) another try or listening to that other phrase I’ve heard before; insanity is the repeating of something over and over again, expecting different results.
Mad River Light – Warren, VT
I learned a while ago to never expect the same results when it comes to photography. Too many changing variables make it an impossible task, although it might be a fun experiment to attempt: Try and take the exact same photo on two separate days. I doubt an exact match could happen, but it would be interesting to see how close the two could get.
By the end of my most recent trip to the Mad River Valley, I was beginning to wonder if getting mediocre results was all that I was going to get at this one particular spot that week. I had been there every day of the trip. Sunrise, sunset, cloudy, sunny, and each night when I looked through the days captures, I would be disappointed with the results. Not always bad, but just not the beautiful scenes I was seeing in person. I was missing something and made it a goal to go back on my last day and figure it out.
I sat there for about 15 minutes, just looking around while remembering the photos that had come up short. I knew I needed to showcase the light better for this scene, but until then I had missed what I was doing wrong and I concluded that it was nothing. The cloudy days simply lacked the punch that the scene needed and the photos from the previous sunny days had way too much contrast in them to ever photograph well in one exposure.
It was about an hour prior to heading home from our summer vacation before I figured this out, so I was feeling a little embarrassed, but I was also glad I hadn’t given up. There was still time to shoot and I probably had some good sets from the previous days to edit as well. They just needed some HDR and color work.
That was still unproven to me though and I wasn’t going to rely on speculation for what I knew could be a beautiful image, so I grabbed my gear, setup, and refocused on the same rock I had the previous 4 days. This time, paying close attention to the histogram on the back of my camera to make sure I captured the full range of light.
Processing was done with the following applications and in the sequence listed: Lightroom; Photomatix; Lightroom; Photoshop; Lightroom; Nik Color Efex Pro; and Lightroom. Not every image I work on is quite this involved, but you can see that Adobe Lightroom is the goto program in my workflow. After every step of the process, I look at it in LR and almost always make a tweak or two. When I’m finally happy, the image gets added to a fav collection where I can export it in just about any format I need. There are limits to everything of course and LR is no different. That’s where the other programs come in. Cloning and masking are done in Photoshop. HDR processing is done in Photomatix, and color tweaking is done with the Nik product. They are all just tools in box. If the vision is there, the results will follow. This image was one of the last from the trip, but it is very high on my list of memories from it and it proved again, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
I will add the before photos to the Facebook page soon if you want to see the transformation for yourself.
Tomorrow I’ll have a “who to follow” and an image from Cape Cod.
Fireworks!
The Fourth of July always marks a fun time of year for me. Long warm days, family picnics, and fireworks! Just about every town nearby has their own version of the day’s final celebration. I have always loved when they light up the sky and the surrounding areas giving a glimpse of those watching nearby. Back when I was growing up, my family would visit a nearby friend’s lakeside cottage on the fourth. All the kids would play in the water all day. Fishing, swimming, boating and sailing. We never slowed down! As the sky started to darken late in the day, we would gather the families together and head out on a boat or two to watch the nighttime festivities. When the sky finally did light up with the first flash, we would see for the first time just how many boats were on the lake doing the same thing we were. It was always a sight to behold and now that I am enjoying photography so much, I look forward every year to my attempts at capturing similar views in this annual showcase of pyrotechnics.
Waterbury, CT Fireworks – 4th of July, 2009
10 plus hours of driving didn’t stop me from going out to 
photograph the Waterbury Fourth of July fireworks in 2009. I was driving my family back home from Disney World when I realized we might make it home in time for the show. We had just spent the week in Disney, where I took over 2000 photos (I did eventually pair them down to 600 when all done). Some of those were of the spectacular light show at Epcot (pictured right). I actually ran all the way out to our car to get my tripod before it started. That was quite the distance, but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get the shots I wanted without it. Photographing fireworks is a lot like capturing waterfalls. Use a long exposure and let the light travel across the sensor. They are a little trickier because they go off in different locations, but are usually within some invisible border that you can rely on for most of the photos. Some will be missed, but there will be more keepers too. Be patient and watch the first few sets before deciding on the best composition. The way the fireworks light the ground below changes the scene dramatically from how it looked just before dark so be prepared to move. Once set; snap away while varying the shutter speed and timing. Each image will be completely unique. 
I added four more images from the Waterbury Fireworks on the Facebook Page. Check them out here
Tomorrow? No idea yet! Check back to see what I choose.
After the Rain
I grew up playing sports. I tried just about everything. I even spent a couple years BMX racing at one point, but my number one love was always baseball and it still is today. Since I don’t play anymore, golf has crept into the scene as a contender for the top spot, but baseball remains because of the many memories and life lessons I learned both in practice as well as games. I was blessed with some great educators for coaches (most of the time), and I learned early on how important practice was for trying out new techniques or refining old ones.
After the Rain – Middlebury, CT
When I decided to use this photo for today’s post, I wasn’t sure what to write about. I thought back to the day I captured it and remembered it was right after I had bought my first “real” camera. It was a Nikon N70 if anyone cares, but what I recalled was that it rained all morning and how much that bothered me because I wanted to be outside playing with my new toy.
That thought triggered the many memories of my youth, starring out the window on a rainy game-day, wishing for it to stop before it was too late. On this day, Mother Nature was on my side and soon after the rain stopped, the sun came out. I couldn’t get outside fast enough to go practice my craft and I remember the feeling to be just like when the rain ended on game day, early enough to still get it in!
Fireworks tomorrow!
Chapman Falls – Devil’s Hopyard State Park
Waterfalls
Ever since I first picked up a camera, I have loved photographing waterfalls. It’s easy to understand why. Who doesn’t like them? They offer up beauty, power, and for photographers, endless shooting possibilities. By adjusting the shutter speed, you can go from a high speed shot, stopping the water in its tracks, or you can slow it down to make it silky smooth, which is the way I like to shoot them most of the time.
Chapman Falls
It was a beautiful early spring afternoon back in 2010 when I took my first ever trip to Devil’s Hopyard State Park in East Haddam, CT. I took my time walking around the park along the various marked trails, noting a couple of spots that would be nice to photograph after the leaves turn in the fall. By the time I made it back to Chapman Falls, the park’s most crowd pleasing feature, it was just starting to get dark out. The lower light helped in slowing down the shutter speed but it was still faster than I wanted, so I added a circular polarizer bringing the speed down another couple of stops.
This was one of first ever HDR images I ever produced and it solidified my choice in which software to use. Photomatix Pro is still my favorite HDR software but I also use Photoshop and Nik HDR Efex Pro once in a while. I am most comfortable with Photomatix and it continues to produce the results I am looking for most of the time so it remains on top as I move forward in HDR.
Tomorrow? Another from the darkroom days.
Cardinal In The Park
Riverside Park – Hartford, CT
Every once in a while, I will grab my camera on my lunch break and take a walk along the CT River out of Riverside Park in Hartford. I’m never sure what I’ll see there and quite often, due to the high noontime sun, it isn’t very much photographically. But on some days there might be a boat passing by or a row team practicing for an upcoming regatta. Herons are sometimes perched on the trees lining the river and there is a pretty cool train bridge a short walk from the parking area so always worth bringing the camera just in case.
Cardinal In The Park
On a late November walk back in 2010 there was very little to photograph as I made my up the trail. I had switched to my long lens plus a teleconverter early on because it was clear that a wide angle shot wasn’t happening with the bright sun. As I was getting ready to turn around and head back to my car, I heard the chirp of a bird behind me. I like taking photos of birds, but I am not a “birder” so I had no clue as to what it was. I turned slowly and found this guy right in my viewfinder. I snapped off a few shots before he took off and was gone. 
One from Devil’s Hopyard State Park tomorrow.
