Vote Now: Martini Splashdown Tutorial on Pentax Forums

click here to vote for my article!

Hi Friends of Pentax (and of me)!  I'm excited to announce that it is now possible for you to vote for my tutorial article, "Martini Splashdown: How I Made the Shot",  on Pentax Forums.  


I posted it back in December when the $1000 Giveaway contest was announced and my article made it as one of 15 finalists.  If you would take the time to check the article out and see if you think it is worthy of your vote, you can click on either the link below the Pentax forums picture or the hyperlink in the above paragraph.  


If you know anyone who uses Pentax gear of any sort, if you could forward this on to them and ask them to give me a vote, too, that would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks for your help.  Cindy

Shaken, NOT Stirred. . .

Shaken, NOT Stirred. . . .

I had a lot of messy fun taking this shot yesterday.  After many unsatisfying splashes in which those tiny green orbs just plunked in and barely made a wave, I realized that I could POUR the liquid into the glass and have it cascade all around in a very exciting way, much like I have done with wine pours. 

HOWEVER. . . .

When I put the olives into the glass first and then poured, inevitably, thanks to the physics of the glass shape, the water ejected the olives out the right side of the glass and OUT of my composition, leaving me with some great pours, but NO olives in sight, or olives flying hastily out of the frame along with lots of water.  NOT what I was looking for obviously! 

So, then I hit on the idea of using one of the underwhelming shots where the olives showed through the water nicely, but had made a really pathetic splash.  I put the best splash shot together with the best olive shot and erased the olives into the splash shot and voila:

A Martini, shaken, NOT stirred! 

You can see this and all of my other food & restaurant work here on my website. 

Laurel Hill Daffodils & Ferry Beach Boardwalk

Laurel Hill Cemetery, Saco, ME

Do you know the way?  Ferry Beach Boardwalk

I finally took the time to drive down to Saco, Maine and visit Laurel Hill Cemetery to see the scads of daffodils blooming there.  I was blown away by how beautiful they were and the river and trees beyond made a really nice backdrop to take landscapes instead of just a bunch of flower shots.  (Although there's nothing wrong with that either!) You can see these photos in my Laurel Hill gallery.

We took a walk on Ferry Beach in Scarborough, Maine on Sunday night with a photography friend, Fred Weymouth, and this shot of the boardwalk on Ferry Beach was my favorite shot of the afternoon. You can see this shot and more in my Ferry Beach gallery.

Another trip to Scarborough Marsh

I'm loving how I can make reflections show up more prominently, using my polarizer.

My mother's dog had just chased several ducks and plunged into deep water a ways out into this peaceful vista.  But you'd never know it to look at this picture, would you?!

I don't often convert to monochrome, but I thought this shot merited doing so.  Your thoughts?

After three months of being a snowbird in New Mexico, my mother and her Standard Poodle, Max, are back in Maine!  You can see their blog, On Two Lanes: A Trip around the U.S., here.  We took a very nice walk in Scarborough Marsh yesterday when there were some extremely complex cloudscapes going on. 

You can see all of these photos and my other shoots here in my Scarborough Marsh Gallery. 

Pemaquid Point Light, Bristol, Maine

And at last, twilight, looking towards the other direction.  The sun had set about 15 minutes ago at this point. . .

Jon and I met up with Bruce Bartrug and his wife, Michele, for dinner in Mid-Coast Maine last Saturday night.  We had a lot of fun and then headed up Route 130 to Pemaquid Point Light in Bristol, Maine.  I just love the rock formations here.  Of course a couple of days later, a friend posted another view of the lighthouse that I hadn't dared to do because Pemaquid Point is famous for rogue waves that have swept people right off the rocks, but his shot was gorgeous.  Maybe someday I will be adventurous enough, but for now, I am quite happy with what I got.  

You can see all of these and many other lighthouses, land and seascapes on my website.

Thanks for looking,

Cindy

Scarborough Marsh and Old Orchard Beach at Dawn

More recent land and seascape work from March 2012

Both days of the weekend, I got out to photograph sunrise with my friend, Felice Boucher.  On Saturday, we visited Scarborough Marsh, and I was a little afraid that I'd dragged poor Felice out for nothing, as it was almost completely clouded over when I got up.  But by the time we had set up in the marsh, beautiful, soft morning color was beginning to appear and we both ended up with some great shots and had a lot of fun.  We went to The Holy Donut on Park Avenue and picked up some of their delicious doughnuts after that.  I can say that their Sweet Potato Ginger and their Chocolate Glazed doughnuts are hands-down my favorite--yum!

On Sunday, Jon, Maya and I woke up at 5:30 am to drive down to Old Orchard Beach, where Felice met up with us and we had another great morning of photographing a beautiful sunrise in a gorgeous Maine location!  We went to breakfast up the street at Beach Bagels after that.  They are so nice there and they had some awesome Bob Marley music playing while we ate our eggs, french toast and drank some well-needed coffee!

You can see the Old Orchard Beach shots in my OOB gallery and the Scarborough Marsh shots in my Scarborough Marsh Gallery.

A Recent Sunset Lifestyle shoot at Fort Williams

A couple enjoys the sunset views from the rocky coast of Fort Williams Park, Cape Elizabeth, ME.

You can see these pictures and many more on my Lifestyle Favorites gallery on my website.  I hope you'll take a moment to visit.  Spring is almost here! 

Cindy

Some Recent Landscape Work

Clockwise from top left: OOB, Pink Skies at Night, January Moonrise, Ferry Beach Dunes at Sunset, OOB Sunset, Ferry Beach Sunset, Vertical Ferry Beach Sunset and Moonrise Over the Ferry Beach Dunes.

I've been going back to my original muse lately: landscapes.  I have been trying some new things out: shooting at quite small apertures to really create a star effect with the setting sun, using a polarizing filter on my ultrawide and using an ND8 (A neutral density filter) to lengthen evening or morning exposures for interesting effects such as streaming water or moving clouds. 

You can see all of these images separately in my Maine Landscapes Gallery and my Old Orchard Beach Gallery

As I look out the skylight over my desk, I can see beautiful puffy white clouds floating by and I am wishing I were out there taking pictures even now.  Keep your eyes peeled for more work soon. 

Happy Early Spring everyone! 

Cindy

Orange Splashdown

The recipe for a whole lot of water everywhere in the studio. . .  But a lot of fun nonetheless!

I bought a 5.5 gallon aquarium yesterday to do a different type of splash photography--thinking OUTSIDE the martini glass, I guess. . .  I had a lot of fun figuring out the lighting and then trying out dropping apples and orange halves, while soaking myself and the studio in the process.  This was the only shot I really liked at the end of the shoot, but I like it quite a bit.  To be continued--I'll obviously need to do this with other fruits and vegetables. . .  Cindy

New Portland International Jetport

A view of the new terminal at sunset

Future passengers walk towards TSA

A ten image panorama of part of the new terminal.

Waiting in line for TSA check through.  I think the early plane hanging from the ceiling is a nice touch, don't you?

Portland Magazine assigned me to do an architectural shoot of the new Portland International Jetport terminal before the holidays, and Greg Hughes, their communications director, very nicely showed me around and let me take pictures of the terminal inside and out.  There is at least one of the pictures in this month's issue of the magazine, and I have a lot of other work in the issue as well.  You should check it out!

You can see more of the Portland Jetport pictures from my shoot HERE.

I'm looking forward to shooting Portland's Downtown Showdown on February 3rd next!

Thanks for looking,

Cindy