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The weather has been amazing lately.  The trees in our yard have finally blossomed, the tulips have burst out of the ground, and I'm seeing rabbits every morning and evening as they feast on the dandelions that make up the majority of our yard.  With the springtime beauty and wonderment comes the pollen and my sneezing & itchy eyes, but I'll take it.  I'm glad the warmer weather is here and I'm enjoying the metamorphosis unfolding before my eyes.  The other day I cam home from work and grabbed my camera to snap some pictures of how pretty things are looking.  I captured a chickadee (My favorite little bird) building a nest in the tree out front. In the side yard I stalked and captured shots of a young rabbit who looks like he had a tussle with a neighborhood cat.  Poor guy.  

Lately, I've missed a lot of opportunities for what's known among photographers as golden photography.  I'm not talking about bling.  I'm talking about shooting during those golden hours that occur twice each day.  When the sun is low on the horizon, and the sky is full of reds and oranges the rising/setting sun pelts the sides of buildings, trees and everything in it's path with a beautiful, surreal, golden light.  The term, golden hour is misleading because it really only lasts for a few minutes, but if you're lucky enough to catch it, it's a wonderful experience.  Experiencing it always makes me feel good.  Experiencing it with a camera in my hands, in an interesting environment, is just the best.

Well, I did not make it out of the house early enough to catch it this morning, but IT got me out of bed and motivated me to go out and shoot.   I've been trying to push myself to shoot more often because I've fallen into a photographic rut lately.  I just don't have the motivation to get out there and be creative like I used to.  The golden hour, enjoyed from my kitchen window while brewing a cup of coffee, motivated me to grab my camera bag and get out there.  I hopped in the Tacoma and drove over to the old fence post yard on Route 140.  There is not a lot inside of these old structures.  A lot of the brush around them has been cleared and it looks as if someone is preparing to demolish them.  I did, however, encounter an owl living in the rafters and found an old Coke bottle among the ruins.  None of these photos are amazing, but it was good to get out there and enjoy myself on a sunny, cold morning.

Westminster got hammered with snow today.  "Hammered" means getting 7" of the white stuff.  Typically, we don't get a lot of snow here in Maryland.  When we do, I always enjoy it.  As my Steelers lost to Miami, and the Ravens beat out the Vikings, I sat on the couch sipping a couple of Saranac's Caramel Porters and snapped shots of the winter birds out the window.  I do a pretty good job of keeping the feeders full, although the birds usually drain a full feeder in 2 days.  Even faster when the squirrels get in on the action.  But, I enjoyed kicking back, snapping images of the Nuthatches, Titmouses (mice?), chickadees & cardinals that flittered about the feeders.  I used my Nikon D800 and 300mm Tamron lens, mounted on a tripod with my remote shutter release to capture the images in this post.

Nature using synthesized nature as a habitatual asset?

As I mentioned yesterday, I am working nights this week. Yesterday I got a little stir crazy and decided to grab my camera and head over to the old farmhouse I had walked through, back in July of last summer. I didn't stay long but I was challenged with a particular scene for quite a while. On the second story of this house, at the staircase landing, is a window that illuminates the 2nd story hallway. Its window pane has been broken out, but the curtain still hangs neatly, with no idea that its intended job is no longer needed. Quietly; mute, it sails with each intruding breeze and mimes congenially, in eerie oblivion. I like how the stationary red curtain top contrasts boldly against the dingy interior of the house. This scene just begs to be photographed but I grew frustrated trying to best capture it. If you were to shoot this window, straight on, the extreme difference in exposure (bright outside & dark inside) would produce what I call an "exorcist style" image where the window is completely overexposed and white, and the interior would be underexposed and dark. The technical way around this issue is to create an HDR image (a combination of multiple exposures taken at extreme EV stops). Not a huge one for HDR, I opted not to shoot it head on. I played around with different wide angle perspectives up close, from the floor and from the ceiling, as well as some long shots of the window, set up at the other end of the hallway. I walked away feeling like there was something I was missing; not in terms of the exposure, but in the composition. I'll just have to go back and give it another shot sometime!

These guys keep popping up all over the yard. Yesterday, while weed-whacking around the back porch, I noticed this terrified little guy who was pretty much hyperventilating and trapped between the confines of our timber-framed back deck and my monstrous self wielding a loud and angry brush-destroyer. I must have scared the hell out of him while whacking down his ideal habitat: the lazy man's ill-kept yard. I put the weed-whacking on hold and ran in for my camera. Poor little guy! Later in the evening I saw him and another tiny bunny hugging the wall of the house as they made their way to a big bush at the corner of the yard; most likely where momma bunny lives.

I took this photo last weekend while camping in Hartsville, NY. I cannot remember what this piece of machinery is called, though I really liked it's texture and menacingly prominent appearance in the foreground, while an empty and innocent swing set stands in the background.  The theme song from Jaws ran through my mind while I framed this shot.

My yard is teaming with wildlife. I really enjoy watching all the critters; their behavior and routines while I sit by the window or on the deck outside. Its not uncommon for there to be four rabbits in the back yard at one time. As such, I spend a lot of time behind the binoculars. Hanging a couple of bird feeders a few months ago, has upped the enjoyment quite a bit. I've created a neat little ecosystem just a few feet from the front windows of the house. We've got birds, for whom the feeders were intended. We've also got squirrels who ravage the feeders and hang upside down gobbling down (up?) seed. And then we have a chipmunk who collects all the spillage from the ground and runs it all the way to his home in our neighbor's backyard. I say "a chipmunk" because I truly believe we have only one who hangs out at the feeders regularly. He hops over from our neighbors yard, through our side yard, to the feeders and loads his cheeks with seed. It takes him about 20 minutes before his cheeks are ridiculously full and he retreats back to his hole. Yesterday, I set the Nikon on a tripod and sat just a few feet from the feeders. After about 20 minutes scared birds started darting in for a quick bite. Then they started staying. Then the squirrels came. Then Mr. Chipmunk came. I sat very still, for about 40 minutes capturing footage and watching the animals; it was great. When the chipmunk's cheeks had reached maximum capacity, and he started back to his home, I slipped around the other side of the house and met him at his hole. He hopped down in, unloaded, and then sat just below the surface, peering out at me from the shadows. While I stood there waiting for him to come out, I actually felt a bit rude. When you watch these animals so much, you start to understand their personalities. When he finally emerged, he sat there staring up at me with this expression: "What the hell are you doing? Leave!"

A couple of  weekends ago, Debbie and I met some of her family for a vacation on Little GasparillaIsland off the southwest coast of Florida.  The island is only accessible by water taxi which made for a truly secluded and peaceful trip.  We spent 5 days laying in the sun, fishing, barbequing, walking the beach, swimming and enjoying some much needed relaxation.  The house we rented had a fabulous hammock on the screened-in porch, which is where I spent a majority of my time, though I took a lot of photos and attempted some time-lapse photography with my D800.  The time lapse photos didn’t amount to much, but I did enjoy sitting on the beach while my camera snapped frames of the setting sun, waves broke and the ocean breeze blew a brackish wind over me. As Hawaiian music played from my phone I sipped cold beer and the stress from the hectic world of work melted away.  Perhaps the highlight of the trip, for me anyway, was catching a few ghost crabs which scurry across the beach at night, and steaming them. People don’t usually eat these crabs because they are so small and don’t amount to much of a meal, but the crab-lover in me couldn’t resist trying them.  I steamed and ate three of them.  To be quite honest, they were delicious, albeit small.  The meat in the body was difficult to get out, but the legs and claws did have an appreciable and delicious quantity of very sweet meat!  Here are a few photos from the trip.

I hung two bird feeders this spring, purchased at my favorite local business, the Tractor Supply Company. These feeders suspended from the pine and lilac trees in the front yard, are really enjoyable. As someone who loves nature; critters especially (both watching and eating them) I get a lot of enjoyment out of spying on the little birds as they come and go. In observing them, there is a clearly defined a hierarchy/pecking order amongst my little avian friends.

 1. The Grackles, rule the roost. They’re not the prettiest, with those big yellow eyes and iridescent feathers around their neck and head, liken to the common garbage fly. I attribute their dominant aggressive behavior to an unhappy self-hatred. They completely take over the bird feeders, flapping wildly while they latch to the feeder with one foot and kick seed to the ground with the other. Hey, Grackles: that feeder is for little birds; no fatties allowed. Plus you’re breaking the bank. They routinely clean out my feeders in a single day.

2. Cardinals come in second. They’re awesome. They’ve got a great song, and the males, with their bright red plumage make it pretty much impossible to look away. They’re just a really cool looking bird. I have respect for Cardinals; they tough out the winter. No sissy migrating for these guys. A little reading told me that they only exist in seven states.

 3. Nuthatches and Chickadees make up the bottom tier. These little guys don’t have much weight to throw around, so they usually flit in and out when they can. When they’re the only ones at the feeder, they’ll perch  happily and munch away. Of all the birds, the Chickadee is my favorite. I just think they’re a pretty little bird with a neat song (Chickadee-dee-dee). When I’m hunting, these guys get very close to me and I just really like seeing them.

The birds are great, but I also really enjoy watching the squirrels hang upside down to eat the seed.  I took a little video of a squirrel the other day.  Pardon the whirring noise of the vibration-reduction motor in my lens.

Yesterday, was a rainy one. At times coming down quite hard. As I worked in the office I listened to the rain beating down hard on the roof of the building. But the rain broke when I was about 10 minutes away from home. The evening sun lit up the tops of trees with a peach hue and the thick clouds produced some really pretty colors; shades of plum, rose and deep purple; all lined in gold. I keep my four thirds camera in my truck, but raced home to grab my DSLR and head back out. I was able to capture a couple of scenes but it was a race against the setting sun by that time and I just barely got the photos you see here.

I was a bit ancy today.  I get that way often.  I'm never really comfy just sitting around, especially when the sun is shining.  I always need to be doing something.  Although, a lot of times, I don't know exactly what that something is.  So yesterday, after wiping down my rifles, taking inventory of my ammunition, straightening up the "bike room" and stacking wood by the stove I decided to just take off.  I grabbed my camera gear and set off for who-knows-where.  I wound up in Littlestown, PA, just south of Gettysburg.  I had passed by the abandoned Littlestown Brick Company buildings many times.  Once inside, it appeared to be used by the municipalities for storage. There wasn't a whole lot of interesting things inside, but there was one room (shown above) that appeared to have been set up by workers or local kids.  

Work has been extremely hectic this week. So much so, that I haven’t had a moment to process the photos I took this past weekend while I was camping. Last Friday, my friend Keith and I met at Mauch Chunk Lake Park right outside of Jim Thorpe, PA and spent the weekend at the campground. We ventured in to town a bit on Saturday morning but otherwise spent a lot of time reminiscing and catching up on things. Saturday afternoon a major storm rolled through and it rained on and off for the rest of the day and night. However, we didn’t retire to the tent immediately. Instead, we spent a lot of time outside in the drizzle, wearing rain coats taking mini hikes around the lake and trying to keep the fire going. Keith was wearing a yellow rain suit which gave off a great glow by the light of his head lamp. I shot a few different scenes with him as the subject. This one in particular I like quite a bit. His headlamp really lights up the inside of the cooler and is hidden enough that it looks as if the cooler may be the light source itself.

I also shot a few sunrise photos on both mornings. I had my camera mounted on the tripod on the shore of the lake by 6:45 both mornings. Saturday morning was overcast but Sunday morning was glorious.

Yes, it’s another HDR image. Every night, on the way home, I pass by this water tower in Scaggsville (I feel sorry for the women who live there). Unfortunately, I usually pass it while shifting into 4th gear, cruising down the on-ramp to Route 95. So last night, I drove around until I found the neighborhood in which this monster lives and took a few exposures.

I have a thing for water towers. They’re quite literally “outstanding” and loom like quiet giants, high above populated areas. In my eyes, the beacon at the top of this tower and the dirt and rust streaking down the underbelly, give it a very sci-fi appearance. The pillars supporting the circumference of the tank, mimic tractor beams, and I suppose you could view the center column as a massive beam itself. The Trekkies out there, know what I mean. Of course hippies and college kids may just see it as a giant ‘shroom. Far out man!

I've really been on an HDR kick lately. This is primarily because the latest version of Photomatix makes merging multiple exposures incredibly simple. The D800 is a real thrill to shoot with and I'm taking it with me everywhere I go. I've been using my Tamron 28-300mm lens with it for the last week and they make a great team.

Last night while leaving the office, I bracketed 3 stops above and 3 stops below proper exposure for a couple of scenes in the shop. This is a 1000 series car, WMATA's oldest series of rail car, built in 1973 by Rohr Industries. They came out great in my humble opinion. I really love that hyper saturated, hyper detailed, surreal, look of this HDR image. It's also kind of neat to note that this particular car, Car 1002, is the third car delivered to WMATA's rail system (After cars 1000, 1001 & 1002).

On the drive home from work today, I stopped to explore a medical complex that caught my interest while shooting a nearby water tower the other morning. As I drove down into the complex I got really excited at the site of the decrepit clump of old buildings right next door. Big beautiful buildings sat situated on a campus connected by sidewalks. Doors were boarded and locked and dense vines wrapped around the deteriorating porch beams and railings. My experience in these kind of places had me on the look out for a roving security guard so I parked, checked my camera settings and hustled into the complex and out of sight. While roaming around with my camera down at my side, playing the part of an innocent yet curious passerby (not a far stretch right?), I bumped into a young lady and her daughter coming from a nearby gym. I asked if she knew anything about the place and she gave me a great run down. It's known as the Springfield State Hospital and it closed in the mid 80's. Then she gave me some really good information and saved me a few hours of scouring urban decay message boards and Flickr discussions - thanks lady! While I was there I quickly snapped a few bracketed photos and created the HDR images you see in this blog entry. I'm busy the next weekend with a camping trip to Jim Thorpe, PA, but I'll work out the details of my visit to this place next week. Stay tuned...

Today has been really dreary with small storm cells passing through the area all day. I kicked off my morning with a trip out to an old site where my friend Seinberg and I used to shoot urban decay photos all the time; Henryton State Hospital, which was once a tuberculosis sanatorium. The complex is made up of several buildings which served as treatment and housing for tubercular patients and later, the severely mentally handicapped. As cases of tuberculosis dwindled, so did the need for this facility and eventually in the fall of 1985 its doors were closed. Now, all that remains are the shells of buildings and just barely. Today was the first day I've been back to Henryton since February 28, 2009. When Seinberg and I used to crawl through this place in 2008 & 2009, there were always a few interesting scenes to capture depending on the weather. Sunny days at Henryton were always fruitful because of the great grid-work shadows the sun would cast through the broken windows and holes in the roofs. Brightly painted rooms always had fantastic murals of cracked and peeling paint. And as I walked through the halls, breathing sweatily through my asbestos mask I couldn't help but remember awesome times when my friend and I snapped away in amazement. It was such a rush back then. Turning the corner, or opening a door and exclaiming "Oh man!" as a dilapidated scene lay covered in dust, basking in sunlight and rife with irony. But, as it stands today, kids have gone crazy with spray paint inside, and apparently kicking down walls is all the craze. A couple of buildings have even been burned down. I ran into three teenage kids 30 minutes after I had arrived. Not one for small talk, I left the place frustrated and with only 12 exposures to my name. Of those 12 exposures, I created the 3 HDR images in this blog entry. Still, it was fun to walk the halls once again and though I won't return, it's stirred up thoughts about other sites I used to frequent.

Here is a gallery of images I took at Henryton back in 2008. It's not as nice now, as it was back then!