I took this image a couple of weekends ago. We were walking along the lake not far from our home. We wanted to take some photographs of small waterfalls where the lake meets another reservoir, but it was frozen and not impressive at all. In the meantime, it was getting close to sunset, and I saw not only the amazing clouds on the sky, but also the sunset colors showing through the trees. I snapped several images, I loved what I saw, but it turned out to be a challenge to achieve the same effect on the photograph.

One thing I realized taking all those pictures with my iPhone for last several months is that it performs awfully in low light situations. I follow thebestcamera.com feed, and it doesn’t seem to be a deal breaker for all those pictures, but it bothers me nevertheless. Anyway, I decided to post something far less grainy this time, I took this picture one of freezing days this winter, freshly after snow fall. I have been trying to picture the newly arrived winter, an that detail shot did it for me.

Last week, just about time everybody and their mother was doing Christmas shopping, we got ice storm. I just love photographing trees covered with ice. I only took few snaps with iPhone, planning on going out next morning with “big brother” camera, but before I got up, the warmer front came and it all melted.

I took an urban photowalk, having time and not ideas what to do with myself in the City. It was an interesting experience, because I rather do not take pictures of urban areas, architecture and details. A lot of learning experience, also in post-processing (yes, this PhotowalkPro tutorial came in handy few times). But 4 hours of image taking resulted in small gallery, which you can see here.

This image was taken here.

A long, 4 day weekend is a lot of time to waste. We decided to spend some of it outdoors, geocaching in Hawkeye Wildlife Management Area, close to our home. It is already that time of the year, when it is cold, but not freezing, the difference between the actual temperature and wind chill is discouraging to go out, and the whole landscape is just… well, brownish. But this view was somehowe interesting, and it made for nice HDR. The only thing bothers me are the trees on the left, which I couldn’t decide if I prefer them left-most cut out or not. I decided to leave it as it is.

Last Saturday it was snowing in Iowa. The leaves just started to turn yellow and red, and already got covered in snow. We have been running some errands just before our trip for a family wedding, and I grabbed this photo on the street.

This place is not far from my house. On the beautiful lake. The spot with a bench where you can sit down, relax and enjoy the view. So calm, and although there is a lot of hikers, especially on the evenings and weekends, you can still have some solitude.
I really enjoy this image, I took one evening with my Fisheye. I wanted to use this particular lens to show what is around the bench, the trees, as well as the sunset and the colors of the sky.

I am coming back to this image. I cannot pinpoint what it is that draws me to it. I would wish the boat was closer, bigger, more in focus. But as it is, you still know it is there, and your eye goes there. And I like how the trees frame the part of the lake around the boat. And all this lush green- it was wet, thus really green summer on Midwest this year! Bye, bye summer. I am up for some autumn photographs.

Looking for a photo for today’s post, I came across this image. It had 3 colors on it- blue, a bit of green, and white. It looked to me like it is a perfect candidate for some split tone effect. Which turned out much more interesting then I envisioned, starting to work on it. There are bright highlights, dramatic shadows, and simple shapes. I took this photo in Mesa Verde National Park, at Park Point Overlook.

For photo location, click here.

Another Tomasz’s Saturday guest blog posts. I think it is his/our first fully successful infrared image. Two stack filters- B&W 099 and cokin P007. Middle of the sunny day. Tripod. Then, some but not too extensive, job in Photoshop and final touches in Lightroom. Hmmmm.