Thursday, August 20, 2009

Secret Caverns in Cobleskill, New York

On my recent commercial trip to upstate New York, I came across this funky little joint called The Secret Caverns. They have hand painted all of their billboards in the region, and I just fell in love with the throwback style. It makes me think of what road side attractions used to look like before the interstate system was created. More to come, I think I shot about fifteen or so of these. Sphere: Related Content

Calligraphy Burning

Image copyright 2009 Byron O'Neal Sphere: Related Content

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Friday, August 14, 2009

Birch Tree Abstract

Image copyright 2009 Byron O'Neal

I didn't need any specialized software to create this image, just a bunch of trial and error shaking the camera a little with a longer shutter speed. 
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Thursday, August 13, 2009

Otter Point in Acadia National Park at night

Image copyright 2009 Byron O'Neal

This shot was taken at Otter Point in Acadia National Park just after moonrise. The cloud streaks were illuminated by the moon that was just over the horizon. 
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Otter Point HDR Black and White

Image copyright 2009 Byron O'Neal

Flip through any photography magazine about this time of year and you will likely see a version of this classic landscape. I took this shot, or shots as it were, at Otter Point in Acadia National Park. It is an HDR composite of five different images taken at different shutter speeds. I converted it using Photomatrix software after becoming increasingly frustrated trying to use Photoshop's HDR conversion automation. It's an easy piece of software to learn and their site has links to free tutorial pages to get you started. In this case, I took the closest to properly exposed shot from the original five and added it as a layer in Photoshop over the HDR composite. Adding a mask to the top layer, I selected for the HRD version of the sky and fine tuned smaller portions of the rest of the image. The black and white conversion was done in Silver Efex Pro. You might be thinking,"Geez, that is a bunch of different software." You'd be right. Most of them offer free trials so my advice is plan on trying the HDR capture techniques on your next vacation and wait until you have a little time to play with it after getting home. 
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