Click here to view the embedded video.

What really caught my eye was the hotshoe.  It took some research, but I think I was able to find the right setting to “dumb down” this flash to work on this camera.  It’s really funny to see a Nikon flash on a Vivitar camera.  It’s usually the other way around.

Stay tuned. I’ll post a sample from my test roll soon.

Shown here is a photo from my very first roll.  For this image, the shutter was open for 30 minutes.  Not bad for a old roll of Kodak TMAX 100 that was over a decade past its expiration date.  Waste not, want not.

Saturday Afternoon Nap

Lotus Fields, Toledo Beach, Michigan

A friend of mine recently loaned me a stack of old picture postcards from local areas of interest in South East Michigan. The entire collection dated from a century ago, all printed between 1910 and 1914 from the postmarks.  These two especially caught my attention. At first glance, I though they were the same except the text, but on closer inspection, I noticed the that the two children were in the same location, but the flowers were in a different state of bloom.  I suspect, the top image shows the scene as it was, and the bottom scene was artistically manipulated to show the flowers in full bloom. It just goes to show you that even a hundred years before Adobe Photoshop, you still can’t believe all that you see.

I was intrigued by the text and did a little research on lotus plants.  The text on the second card is a bit of a stretch.  The American Lotus, Nelumbo lutea, grows throughout North America and in some states, even considered an invasive species.  The lotus field shown here took a bit of a hit in the 1960s and 1970s when Lake Erie was suffering from excessive pollution, but in recent years, they have been thriving.

It’s dark, cold and snowy outside.  It got me dreaming of summertime and working in the garden. Here is a 360X180 virtual tour of our garden as it looked in late June.  Click on the image and use your mouse to have a look around. You can also zoom in for a closer look, don’t forget to look up and down.

Here is my homage to the famous Christmas fireplace video.  Pour yourself a hot toddy, put on your favorite seasonal music, sit back and enjoy.

Click on the image to start a slideshow.

Merrivale Stone Rows - Dartmoor National Park - Devon - England

This panoramic image shows the Merrivale Stone Rows, a prehistoric double stone row of unknown origin or purpose. The Merrivale  site, that contains two double stone rows, a stone circle and menhir, stands protected within the boundries of Dartmoor National Park in Devon, England. Click on the image to open a new window that allows you to browse the image full-size in high resolution.

Magazine Cover

Mardi Gras Reveler

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Recently a classmate gave me his copy of the November 2009 issue of “Black + White Photography” magazine.  He knew I liked HDR photography and this issue had an article on how to make a faux HDR portrait using Photomatix Pro and Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro plugin for Adobe Lightroom.  The cover photo reminded me of an image I made while visiting New Orleans for Mardi Gras earlier this year.  I challenged myself to see how close I could come to replicating the magazine cover shot.  How did I do?