More of Historic Griggstown, NJ

I pass this spot everyday on my way home so I decided to take some photos for 20 mins on my way home.

I featured this area of Historic Griggstown, NJ back at the beginning of March in this blog entry and this time I decided to bracketed shots for HDR processing.

Below are my favorites of the day:


I love this one!!


I'm on the fence about these two. A LOT OF GREEN HERE!





While I was photographing one of the windows I snapped my reflection just to be silly:


To be even more strange I snapped a photo of my new hot pink shoes with the camera looking down my tripod. I love the shoes so I figured why not snap a shot? *LOL*

This is especially for *Bri* since I promised to show her them!



There are a number of others but this is all that I actually liked the results of. Sometimes HDR is hit or miss depending upon the lighting conditions.

Lakeside

EDIT 4/25: When I got to work today on a different monitor I see that none of photos below look how they did last night when I spent hours working on them.

Ever since I darkened the brightness on my monitor I have had trouble with how my photos on every other monitor but my own. I guess I will have to brighten my monitor back to where it was and re-doing every one of the photos below because of the terrible halos on every photo that involves the sky (which is 98% of them).

I have so much to edit and it is really upsetting that I wasted a whole night on processing all of these photos and now I have to re-do them all.

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Original post:

I took some time to go to the part after work again. Today I gave the flowers and the macro lens a break. I brought my tripod with me because I was interested in doing HDR waterscapes near the lake.

I can't even express how wonderful the weather was today. I was so glad to be outdoors even if it was only for a little under an hour.

In order to get these you have to go on a little path through a wooded area and there are little great spots in between where I was able to stick my tripod and get different views of the lake.

These are all HDR shots with 3 exposures each:

(click all photos to view larger)

Next time I'll try from the other side of the lake. I only had so much time before I had to leave and there were a lot of people out and about at the lake so I was limited on what angles I chose.




Oh the reflections, the reflections!!






I made my way over across the street to another section of the park with a lake and got some more great angles!




This place is gorgeous and the afternoon light was perfect for these photos!



These are some of my favs of the day. I love bendy tree trunks!







Oh and while I was there 2 of the geese at the park had the nerve to hiss at me! LOL! So I hissed right back at them!



I always visit this place so I'm sure you'll be seeing more of it from different perspectives soon enough!

Feel free to check out my entire HDR Gallery: http://jenweaverphotography.smugmug.com/gallery/3868580_st8qe/1/284706791_saeNW

At The Park Today

I stopped at the park for a little while on the way home today to capture the most beautiful day with a beautiful sky...full of amazing clouds!

I started with some HDR shots with my Nikon 18-200mm VR.

WHen I was here I felt like I was walking throuhg a Fairy Tale!







And then I switched to my Nikon 105mm f/2.8 AF-S Micro Lens to give it a run for it's money!

I'm trying to get the hang of shooting REALLY close with the lens to get that really abstract-y look for flower photography.

The hardest part was focusing on the flowers when the wind kept blowing (Grrrrrrrrr!) AND I was using a tripod! So many were sent to the recycle bin when I got home but these were the ones that I kept that I loved!!

The ones that appealed to me most today were the very abstract flower shots below. I just feel like they would make great abstract art pieces to hang on the wall.







A little more realistic macros for you:





What a beautiful day to be out and about! I need to go back though and keep practiing and practicing these abstract macros. The focus is the hardest part!

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!