Cut Grapefruit Still Life

Three shots, bracketed to make the most of highlights, midtones and shadows, and combined. 

Ahhh, there's nothing like a spicy, tart and somehow still sweet red grapefruit on a winter afternoon, is there?  (Or any other time, really!)  I was about to have a snack of this, and realized that it might make a nice addition to my StockFood portfolio, so I quickly set up my camera with my favorite foodtography lens, the Pentax FA 50mm f/1.4, put it on the tripod, and took a couple of High Dynamic Range compositions of it--you can read about what the technique is by clicking on the link embedded within the words if you care to know more about it!  I like the effect, which brought out so much detail and a feeling that you could reach into the picture, grab the spoon and dig in, as I did with the real grapefruit about five minutes after the images were taken!  YUM! 

Cut Figs image featured on Toque Magazine today!

Cut Fig Still Life

Toque Magazine, an online magazine devoted to food, purchased this image from me yesterday for use in a wonderful Valentines Day article.  The article, which you can read by clicking on the hyperlink to Toque Magazine above, is called A Proust Moment for Valentines Day.  Please visit this wonderful online magazine and read the article and share it with your friends and relatives! 

Happy Valentines Day everyone! 

Best wishes,

Cindy

Winter Sports in Payson Park

A skier does a flip off Payson Park's biggest jump.

In the Cloud--a snowboarder flies through a cloud of snow in Payson Park, Portland, Maine.

This one looks like it went right over my head, and some of those snow bits DID hit me, but he wasn't nearly as close as he looked.  Phew!

Winter Sailing

This is one of my favorite shots of the shoot--there's so much movement in this exciting shot.

Hands down my favorite shot of the day!

This shot is almost otherworldly to me.

I love how this guy's snowboard appears to be resting on the setting sun.

Catching Air. . .

Yesterday, near sunset, I drove to Portland's Payson Park, hoping to get some shots of kids sledding and enjoying the beautiful Winter weather we have been having.  I got a few good shots of sledders, but then I walked over to the Snowboarding area, about thirty feet away and got some great shots of a group of high school (and one college) guys on snowboards and skis, doing awesome jumps. 

I quickly decided on shooting into the sun to bring out the luminosity of the light and highlight the sprays of snow that occasionally accompanied the jumps so beautifully.  These guys very kindly jumped for me for almost half an hour before I got too c-c-c-cold to continue.  I tried to capture a lot of shots with them facing away from me so they can be used by Visit Portland.com.  The guys were all pretty excited to see the shots, so I hope they are all able to find my website and check the pictures out. 

You can see the full series in my new gallery, Snowboarding in Maine where there are 62 different shots, including the ones I've put in this post. 

Hope you're all having a great Winter--I know I am!  Cindy

One of my shots in Yankee Magazine this month

My photo of Necco Conversation Hearts in the January/February 2011 issue of Yankee Magazine!

A Few recent Shots of one of my favorite subjects

An 8-image HDR panorama taken at close range to Portland Head Light's beautiful lightkeeper's house.

A 15 image HDR panorama of Portland Head Light from a more traditional perspective.

A 10 image HDR panorama taken 45 minutes before the second panorama in the queue--I love the warm, late afternoon light, and the sight of what turned out to be an enormous oil tanker on the horizon.  The South Portland bridge was open for a looooonnnggg time while this boat went through and traffic was really backed up as I headed home, despite a stop at the grocery store in South Portland first!

A single shot HDR at close range to the Light Keeper's house and Portland Head Light. 

It was such a beautiful afternoon--I had been on the fence as to whether or not to go out to Portland Head Light for sunset.  I've taken so many pictures of it, obviously. . .  But Marilyn, one of the gallery owners at Kennedy Studios recently told me that people always want more shots of Portland Head Light, so who am I to go against what people want?  ;-) 

A new collage of my most popular images on my portfolio site in place of the rotating slideshow that I have never liked much.  Check out my website by clicking here 

I hope you'll take a moment to go see how the new collage/banner looks on my homepage.  I'd love to get some feedback on it.  If it doesn't show up in its entirety unless you scroll down a bit, I'd love to hear about it.  Thanks for looking!  Cindy

Preservation Perspectives in Old House Journal

Two of my photos of Gary's House in Old House Journal's newest issue!

Happy New Year everyone!  First news of the New Year 2011:  I have two pictures inOld House Journal's March 2011 issue!  Editor-in-Chief Demetra Aposporos did a very thoughtful and insightful interview with Gary's House Operations Manager (and my good friend) Mary Irace about this wonderful Portland charity-funded Federal Style home used as a sort of bed and breakfast for people whose family members are having extended stays in the hospital.  I hope it will be the first of many chances to work together with Old House Journal!  Cindy

'Tis the Season! (And a little learning)

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays & a safe and wonderful New Year to you and your family!

Tommy's Park at twilight last week, all lit up for the holidays.

Tommy's Park looking back toward the Trompe l'oile building.  The streaming lights in the road came not from a car but from one of the Clydesdale-drawn wagons that makes the circuit through the Old Port during the Holidays.

By the light of the silvery moon: looking down Exchange Street as the moon rises above the Old Port at twilight.  Streams of light from head and taillights are everywhere, as it was a busy evening. 

When taking photos with an ultrawide lens like the 12-24mm, one often gets the keystone effect (the buildings take on an almost triangular shape--smaller at the top than the bottom than they should be.)  I discovered the easiest tool in Photoshop to correct for this problem.  It's called the Perspective Tool.  

It was laughably simple to do.  I literally just dragged the right corner out to the amount you can see in my screenshot above.  The left side went along with it.  Within about five seconds, I had a straight-looking building.  Then you simply allow for the correction to be made by pressing the crop tool, which will ask you if you want to make the change and you click okay.  Then, you crop to the edges of the picture that you can see.  Otherwise when you try to print your picture, the edges that you dragged out using the Perspective Tool will show up around the borders.

Voila!

I hope you all have Merry Christmases, a Happy, Healthy New Year and safe journeys wherever you go. 

Best wishes, Cindy

Holiday Lights at Twilight

Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's childhood home at twilight, decorated for the holidays!

A dreamy HDR composition of Maine College of Art's (MECA) beautiful holiday decorations and streaming head and taillights of cars on Congress Street at twilight. 

Portland City Night Lights with streaming head and taillights--an HDR.

Ghosts of Christmas Present--This is an HDR composition of three images, but I love how one of the cars stopped at the light long enough during the 30 second exposure to show up as a ghostly silhouette of itself. 

Longfellow Square Holiday Trees with streaming head and taillights again due to 30 second exposure. 

Monument Square's enormous Christmas Tree with streaming head and taillights at twilight.

I went out to Portland's downtown on Saturday night before the big rainstorm we had on Sunday to capture some beautiful twilight along with the holiday decorations of Portland.  As you can see from all of the streaming head and taillights in these long exposures, there were a lot of people out, enjoying the night or heading to dinner and events for the evening.  It was crisp and cool as I strolled up and down Congress Street, enjoying these beautiful sights.  My favorite, hands down, was the Longfellow House, where our favorite son, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, grew up.  I wonder what he would make of electric lights twined around the trees and fence?  I also have a non-HDR (High Dynamic Range) version of the Longfellow House:

Single image of the Longfellow House at twilight.  I'd love to hear which image readers prefer. 

And I also processed a single image of Maine College of Art:

Maine College of Art Single Image--do you like this one or the HDR version (above) better?

I'm hoping to get out to Portland's beautiful Old Port some time this week and do a similar shoot of the holiday decorations at twilight.  Tommy's Park has particularly interesting decorations, similar to the ones in Longfellow Square, so check back to see if I've gotten down there. 

And please take a moment to do the survey at the top right hand side of the blog, regarding what you'd like to see more of, photographically from me and my blog. 

Hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season!  Best wishes, Cindy

A Very Victorian Christmas

Victoria Mansion after last year's first snowstorm.

The Grand Dining Room, decked out for Christmas.

The beautiful wood-paneled library.  Imagine reading a book in here!

The Turkish Smoking Room.

An ornate parlor complete with musical accompaniment.

Another lovely parlor, decorated for Christmas, including the ornately-carved mantlepiece with a beautiful array of Poinsettia plants as garnish.

The Grand Ballroom.  This panorama took over 50 single images to capture every detail.

A sweeping staircase in the main hall leads you to the second floor.

The top of the stairs, looking across the second floor, with a huge skylight above.

The Red Bedroom with yet another incredible mantle piece/fireplace!  I'm not sure how comfortable it would have been to sleep in this bed, but it sure would have looked good!

Another lavish bedroom on the second floor. 

This is the ceiling of the Turkish Smoking Room.  Incredible details and so much gold leaf!

Last December, I was asked by Portland Magazine to photograph the Victoria Mansion what many consider to be Portland's finest historical home that one can tour.  It is always a pleasure to visit the mansion, but at Christmas, it really comes to life, as what could be more of a Victorian holiday than Christmas?  Various designers and floral companies from the area decorate the different rooms each year in fabulously lavish ways, which makes it even more fun to tour through and discover what lifestyles of the rich and famous of the Victorian Era were like. 

The decorations are different every year, and the tour is always great and worth every penny.  According to their website, they're open daily 11-4:30 pm.  

You can click on any of these pictures (above) to see a slightly larger version, or you can visit my architectural gallery to see them even larger on a black background by hovering your cursor or pointer over each large picture until a vertical box pops up allowing you to click on the various sizes you may want to view the pictures in. 

Some of you may have seen these photos before in Portland Magazine, but I thought that since it is that time of the year again, and many of you hadn't seen them, now might be a nice time. 

I'd love to hear what you think about the pictures, so feel free to either comment at the end of the post or on my website at the bottom of the page.  Or as always, you can send me an email. 

Happy Holidays to you all!  Cindy

A Windy Sunset in Stonington, Maine

The pictures below are mostly panoramas of 9-12 images, taken handheld from the town dock in Stonington, Maine on Thanksgiving Eve after a day of 40 mph gusty winds.  To me, these panoramas make the scenes look peaceful, but it was anything but that!  Those winds were still howling and my fingers were stiff with cold by the time I'd finished taking the pictures 10 minutes after I'd gotten out of the car. 

Stonington Harbor at Sunset. . .

Stonington at sunset. . .

A single shot of the sun setting over Stonington. . .

It had been unrelentingly gray and ugly all day, in addition to the high winds, as we drove to visit my mother for Thanksgiving in Deer Isle.  I had really been hoping to get a little photography in while I was visiting, because Deer Isle is absolutely magical.  Almost every turn on every road brings a new vista or interesting sight. 

I was rewarded about 1/2 hour before sunset with the sight of the sky beginning to clear, fast moving clouds scudding across the sky rapidly turning purply and pink colors like the ones you see in these pictures. That was all the encouragement I needed.   I grabbed my coat and camera bag, jumped into the car and raced down to Stonington from my mother's house to the town dock, where I quickly took a number of panoramas from different vantage points, and a few single shots, too.  They were the best shots I got out of the entire weekend!

On the way up, we stopped at the Penobscot Narrows Bridge because there was a short period of time with breaks in the clouds, and I took this HDR composition of the bridge that I'm quite happy with.

Penobscot Narrows Bridge HDR

And this one from a single shot that I worked on with my father, to produce an interesting antique photo effect:

Penobscot Narrows Bridge with antique photo effect

I hope your Thanksgivings were good and that you had lots of fun, family times!  Best wishes, Cindy