Hibiscus - Alien Skin SnapArt

I downloaded the Alien Skin program and gave it a whirl on my red Hibiscus on my side porch deck.

The artistic options of this software program are excellent and lots of fun to use.

Inner Harbor East

As a program night with the Baltimore Camera Club, I organized a wide angle shoot. I specified for the participants that all shots taken on this shoot must be shot with a 35mm equivalent focal lenght or wider (fisheye, ultra-wides). We arrived at pier 4 at the National Aquarium at 7 pm and shot till a half hour past sunset. It was a bit fustrating to pass by images that you could see would have been great for isolation of the telephoto lens but it was fun as well. The fun part was the surprising "fun" look of the wide lens with great distortion and great depth of field. My images were shot with my Canon 5D with two lenses, the Canon EF 16-35mm and Sigma 15mm fisheye. Images were processed with Photomatix and an occasional bit of Viveza to bring out detail.

First HDR images

Finally getting around to purchasing the program and experimenting with it. Had a few shots from Fells Point that I worked with the program.

My buddies

With great sadness, my best buddy of eight years passed away recently. His name was Lazarus. He was a Norwegian Forest Cat. Loyal, intelligent, handsome, kind and gentle, he was my friend who was always near me and brought me great joy and happiness. He was probably close to 15 years of age when he pass on to heaven. I miss the nightly sight of him guarding the top of the steps on the side porch, dutifuly watching for intruding felines and scurring voles. I loved my buddy very much.

Loch Raven Morning 2/27

A passing drive through Loch Raven I did not discover too much that caught my eye. The snow had fallen off the trees and partly melted on the ground. The reservoir was partly frozen so I caught a few of the quiet peace of the geese and winter trees.

2/22 Cromwell Valley Afternoon

With about two hours of sunlight remaining on a quiet Sunday, I just jumped into the car for a quick road trip with no destination planned. Starting first toward Loch Raven Reservoir, I realized that the reservoir is closed to auto traffic during weekends from 10-5, so I departed there and headed toward Baltimore County's Cromwell Valley Park. Upon arrival I decided to use only one lens, my 70-200mm f/2.8 for all my images. The light was a bit harsh with a bright blue sky but I tried to work with the dark shadows as a composition element. Leaving the County park, I headed north up Manor Road toward Long Green Road, stopping where there was any safe place to pull off or stop in the middle of the road and not get run over. The snow blanket from the recent blizzards really helped to simply the composition. I used a tripod when I could put off, but other times I just had to settle for a quick grab shot where there was no place to pull off the road.

Seconds on the snow

Feeling house bound, I suited up in my muck master knee boots, down vest and rain parka and headed out to see how the snowfall. I had cut a small hole in a quart sized storage bag just large enough for the lens and its filter to fit through. Then another hole was made where the viewer is located. I slipped the eyepiece over the plastic around the viewer and grabbed the camera from underneath the bag. I made my camera setting before heading out and stuffed a cleaning cloth in my pocket. The blowing snow made focusing difficult with the build up on my lenses. The cloth merely got wet over time and just smeared on the filter and eyeglass lenses. I made some quick shots before the snow gathered on the viewer and lens filter and then stuffed inside my vest. I was using a 18-55mm kit lens with image stabilization and ISO 200.