More fun at A * DOCK

Saturday night I headed back down to "A Dock" to hang out with Tara & Adam, Adam's brother & fiancé and a handful of the their friends.

They bought me special pink wine coolers - LOL! I felt so special *giggle.*

It was a beautiful day weather-wise and when it gets cold at night on the water we break out the blankets and this time Adam broke out a mini heather for me & Tara's feet..... *Awwww so sweet!*

I love how Tara's eyes look in this photo - shot with the Nikon 50mm

Adam entertained us by playing some songs on the guitar.

I swear I only had 1 wine cooler! LOL!

We got pizza delivered right to us at the dock. Adam said it makes him feel special that they bring it right to you there! LOL

I had a great time and will hopefully be back here again very soon!

"A Dock"

Today I spent the day with Tara and Adam at "A Dock." It was a beautiful day with beautiful friends.

(click to view larger)

Adam was kind enough to take some of Tara and I through the day and I totally trusted him with my camera LOL!



Tara:



Adam with his wonderful Christmas present (the D40x) that I helped Tara pick out for him. Yay a budding photo enthusiast to talk cameras with! I shared some of my lenses with Adam to take them for a test spin. :)


Tara and I on "Monkey Business"




Tara checkin' out Adam's photos on the D40x and me showing them how well the sb800 bounces off the boat awning.


She's so lovely!



With a beautiful May day like this and a good time with friends what more can you ask for in life?

Oh, how bout a beautiful sky to end the day??

Today Was Going to be a Lazy Day

I'm just so tired lately. I guess I don't get enough sleep as I truly need but I can't help it. There's just so much I want to do but so little time. So as I've said in the past "I'll sleep when I'm dead."

I was going to stay in all day but I decided to drive around the neighborhood and look at houses for sale. While I was out I decided to keep on driving until I got to a great little town called Rocky Hill.

I spotted this water tower with the clouds behind it and knew it would make a great tonemapped photo. The tower was at the back of a parking lot for a tire shop so I quickly snapped a few shots off from my car so that people didn't wonder what the heck I was doing. LOL.

As I was driving through Rocky Hill I saw an open field next to a small airport where I thought I would be able to capture the clouds so I got out of my car really quick with the tripod and did some multiple exposures and then ran back to my car.

When I got back home and pulled them up on my computer I saw something that I can't quite explain. Maybe someone else can tell me what I've captured here?? It was barely there the first exposure, it was larger in the 2nd & huge in the 3rd. Mind you I took these in the super fast frame mode (well that's what I call it when I hold down the button and take 3 in a row without letting go - LOL! Yes, another "Jen-ism") Then I took another photo right after these bracketed ones and it wasn't there... What is it? A ghost? LOL! I don't believe in ghosts but WHAT IS THIS??

(CLICK ON EACH ONE TO SEE THEM VERY LARGE)

And the 4th one with NOTHING there??

Man lives in the sunlit world
of what he believes to be reality.
But, there is, unseen by most, an underworld,
a place that is just as real,
but not as brightly lit.....
A DARKSIDE.

The dark side is always there,
waiting for us to enter,
waiting to enter us.
Until next time,
try to enjoy the daylight.

-Tales from the darkside

I took this amazing sight right after the ghostly photo:

Then I headed back to my house past the D&R Canal that runs through a huge portion of NJ. The canal has become one of my favorite parts of living where I do...there is always part of this canal nearby. Whether I stay 2 hours or 5 minutes I always seem to find something interesting photographically to capture.

I met 2 fishermen while I was there. The one in this photo asked me if I was a land surveyor or was I taking photos. I laughed when he asked me that because that was one I hadn't heard yet in my photo travels. I told him I was taking photos for hobby. I asked him if there was an easy way over to this great part of this body of water they were fishing at where the water was fast moving and he showed me a spot and offered to carry my tripod across this rocky part over the water but then I decided I better not. I was afraid of trying to get across the water on rocks without an "incident" (maybe if I had some hiking boots on...but no in my sneakers). A short time later I snapped a quick on if him relaxing while he was fishing:



I chatted with his friend for a while when I headed over to another great area while I took the next shots. He asked if I was a "professional" and I said maybe "one day" and he described his love of fishing while I described my love for photography.

His fishing area was set up a distance away from where his friend was and I thought about what an idependent thing most hobbies really can be. They were together but not sitting with each other and would yell over to one another every now and then and that was good enough company for them. I guess it's like being "alone together".

I love going out photographing with my sister but then sometimes I don't mind going out alone with my photography to really be alone with my thoughts. Time alone with ourselves is sometimes necessary. But then there is always the good company and being able to discuss the mutual love of the hobby and explore new places together.

3 exposures merged to HDR in Photomatrix and tonemapped:

















I'm glad I didn't stay in the entire day. That's just too depressing to me. Getting out was helpful and I got some fresh air and some great photos!

A squirrel, a Bench, Some Land & Waterscapes, a Cemetery, and 4th of July Fireworks!

I'm getting there! I'm really trying to catch up as fast as I can and I don't have much more to for the weekend shoots I've done with my sister but after I'm finished with those I still have a huge number of flower shots to go through, edit, add to my website and then catalog the type of flower...that's going to take me a bit...

There are all from May through July 4th of 2007.

A couple shots of a furry fella:





And a bench that I am fond of - that I applied an action to - to give it a desaturated look (and then I burned and dodged it):





And a lovely landscape scene:



And a couple waterscapes:





And a few cemetery scenes:







And lastly a composite of fire work photos from July 4th, 2007:

Tonights Editing Session

I've been working on the fall foliage trip that my sister and I took for a couple days. I still have so much more to go on this series.

I also (finally) added some photos to my flickr account. I've had it for quite a while and I just never have enough time.

Their new uploader makes it really easy to add photos now so I went for it. I figure when I have time I'll upload photos to it from time to time...maybe my favorite recent pieces.

This is the direct link to my Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenweaverphotography/

New Home for Family...and More

Today we spent the day with my mother & father in law. They just moved into a retirement community and we were very excited for them. Yesterday was moving day so today we went over to help them where we could.

Before I left I went around the house taking photos of each room in various angles for to document everything before they decorate, etc.

Before we left I snapped a shot of the outside:



Spent the evening editing in Photoshop. This tool a long time to get the sky to look like this...I'm still trying to figure out layers...so this took me quite a while to get right:



I like these as well...before tonight I never thought of using actions like this on landscapes: