Holy shit!

The first words out of my mouth and truer words have never been said. While Baltimore does great fireworks, tonites replay of the 1814 repulse of the Brits, was without peer, at least in my experience (and I have seen a fair number of these things) and truely over the top. Five barges, from Fort Mc Henry to the Inner harbor (normally we get two) plus stuff firing off buildings downtown. Simply spectactular.

Two galleries, one with a normal focal length (45mm) from the Sony A7r and a 70-300 on the Canon 5D Mk III. Could have used more cameras, although tonite, the Canon had a mind of its own, choosing settings I didn't know it had. So I couldn't handle two much less five.

As is usual on this blog click the snaps below to see all of the rest on Smugmug.

Pow! Bam! Kaboooom!

Oh, as nice as tonite was, today was pretty non-conducive for much of an airshow. Blue Angles on again tomorrow, plus a ton of other stuff in Patterson Park (the Gov and his Irish Band, Navy Sky Divers, ...). So more posts will be forthcomming.

45mm — Ft. Mc Henry on the left70-300mm

I have heard it said...

that Baltimore is the New Brooklyn. So Mark Supik, next door, has taken upon himself to adapt the title of Betty Smith's 1943 novel.  He is "building" a new tree in what he calls the Empty Tree Pit project. Continuing with the mid-centuy theme, ala Joe Friday you can get all the facts, right here at the Empty Tree Pit BlogSpot. I got an email from the Supiks the other day annoucing the effort, along with some encouragement to take some snaps — not like a lot of encouragement was needed. So click on the snap below to see the tree from almost every available angle. BTW, it is not clear from the snap below whether the local tree experts are ready to accept it as one of thiers.

Really cool this tree.  Apparently there are nine more segments to go.  Mark says they are all finished but he is only adding one a day.  I am off on the road for a few days so I guess it will be a lot taller when next I get to shoot it. Presumably it is going to take a wider agle lens then.

Shot with the a7r with the Canon 45 TS-E and the Canon 100 Macro.  A number of the 45 TS-E snaps are using tilt to diminish the background.

Maybe next time when that guy isn't watching

Road Trip

A dose of cabin fever, coupled with the desire to fix the Carrie Furnace no batteries fiasco of several years ago - so off to Pittsburg on a last minute whim.  Hmmm, maybe a little too underplanned.  Rain in the forecast for Saturday, a Pirates game across from the hotel and a ticket for a guided tour.  

Ugh, traffic worse than Manhattan (everything in P'burg is worse than Manhattan — unfortunately), steady rain Saturday morning and a Carrie Furnace pipsqueek with a severe napolonic complex - "guided is guided". Bagged the furnaces (both short and long term - over photoed now in any case) and set off to some backup sites.

The ball game provided a closed Clemente bridge (the northernmost of three matched self-anchored suspension bridges in a short six block space over the last half mile of the Alleghany.  The others heading south are the Andy Wharhol (obviously the same evaluation of the relative merits of the two waterbound cities) and Rachel Carson (apparently from just up the Ohio). Lots of bridge shots with PNC Park (didn't it have a better name before being commercialized) in the background.  A few more around the hotel (right at the downtown side of the Clemente bridge, wrapped up by a few in the morning rain in Historic (ahem) Braddock, PA.  BTW, General Braddock has his name splashed on pretty much everything that doesn't say PNC on it in the greater P'burg region and out to very exburbs.

From there US 30, to US 119 and finally US 40 back to Cumberland, MD and the stunning I68 for the sprint back to B'more.

Lots of lenses in the bag but only the Nikkor 20 and the Canon 45 TS-E saw any use on the A7r. Pretty much trying to stay in the Friedlander mode with the 20, less sucessfully, faux Stephen Shore and Walker Evans with the 45 TS-E. One Evans knockoff in Mt. Pleasant of the WWI memorial (see below).  The towns along 119 surprisingly have very vibrant downtowns and for some unknown reason a plethora of Marriott properties. That intersection looks like a combo that will get worked, starting in the fall. Three F. L. Wright houses in the vicinity. All within in about a three hour drive of home. All good.

Four galleries, two each for P'burg and the US 119 corridor, split in B&W and color.  Color is pretty much done, B&W are just getting started. Click per the snap captions to head off to the respective gallery.

Click for P'burg Color gallery

Click for P'burg B&W gallery

Click for 119 Color gallery

Click for 119 B&W gallery

Post posting

When I posted the Ellicott City snaps earlier, I noticed I had not posted anything in almost a month and a half. Mostly due to the tendonitis outbreak I guess.  Anyway here are a few from Fort Delaware in mid-July and a door from down the street later the same day.

Fort Delaware laundry

ibid in B&W 

Fort Delaware libraryibid B&WFort Delaware hallway

Buthcher's Hill door

Mc Henry Redux

About as good technically as I manage to get.  Back to McHenry for these two shots from the tripod with focus stacking using Heliocon Focus. The 5D Mk II (no bracket yet for the Mk III) in portrait orientation with the 45 TS-E mounted and shifted as needed.

Garrison Flag replicas in color

Garrison Flag replicas in faux PlatinumThe Prison in color

The Prison in faux Platinum

Technically correct

Not so artistically intesting.  Practice again.  This on the 5D Mk II (can't do this without the grip and RRS L-Bracket which are backordered for the Mk III) and the SmallHD DP-4 for focusing.  Shot with the 45 TS-E, in portrait orientation, manual exposure at f/11.0 at 1/80 of a second, ISO 100.  In the RRS macro rail (mounted sideways) with production stops set at 11mm to the left and right of center.  Six shots taken, two each at three positions.  The two shots were focused near and far and combined in Helicon Focus to increase the DOF.  The three images rendered by Helicon Focus were then flat stiched in Photoshop CS-6 as they were shot (i) left lens and camera rail shift 11mm (ii) no camera or lens shift and (iii) right lens and camera rail shift 11 mm.

Afterwards a shot of Velvia 50 emulation with Alien Skin Exposure 4, then Pro and Tonal Contrast with Nik Color Efex 4, noise reduction with Nik Define constrainted by a surface mask and sharpened with USM constrained by an edge mask.  Resulting image is about 1.75x the width of a normal portarit orientation snap on the 5D Mk II and would "contact" print at 300ppi at 21.7 x 17.5 inches (slightly cropped from the top only to a 5x4 aspect ratio).

Etude for DOF in Flat Stitch

Is better in faux infrared from Exposure 4.

On the fly...

decision. Decided to forgo the buildings that normally show up here after a neighborhood camera walk and add some cars to the truck in the last post.  Usually, I don't like snaps with cars in them but today it is all about selective focus with the 45 TS-E and I like the results.  So here they are:

45 TS-E, Canon 5D Mk II, ISO 200, f/2.8, 1/320, tilted.

45 TS-E, Canon 5D Mk II, ISO 200, f/2.8, 1/2500, tilted.

45 TS-E, Canon 5D Mk II, ISO 200, f/2.8, 1/500, tilted.

Tilt-Shift Practice

After flying in from the Hub in the storm a few shots in its wake, in preparation for some neighborhood shooting in 80203 on Sunday.  

This one is close but not quite right as the foreground is out of focus still but looks pretty good.  45 TS-E on the 5D Mk II at f/4.0 1/320, ISO 100, MLU, atop the Gitzo.

and a couple where tilt was used to force out-of-focus.  At the time tilt was set perpendicular to shift, since been changed to parallel.

45 TS-E on the 5D Mk II at f/2.8 1/800, ISO 100, MLU, atop the Gitzo.

45 TS-E on the 5D Mk II at f/4.0 1/125, ISO 100, MLU, atop the Gitzo.

Last one as darkness fell, almost there needed some tilt to get the railing in focus.

45 TS-E on the 5D Mk II at f/8.0 1/50, ISO 2000, MLU, atop the Gitzo.