Hallowed Halls of Princeton University

This series is from the hour I spent last Saturday on the Princeton University campus. I don't see a lot of architecture that is as beautiful as the craftsmanship of these buildings too often!









In Black & White:



To view all of my HDR Photos click HERE.

The GREENHOUSE effect

Ok, this post is not about global warming (as the title might suggest) but it is about a Greenhouse!

I stumbled upon this lovely broken down greenhouse the same time I found the old barn that I posted yesterday. They were both on the same abandoned street.... I'm tellin' ya...it was creepy!

It was completely fenced in all the way around with no way to enter (darn it) but I stood in the field that was next to it because it was a bit of higher ground and I was able to get above the fence in a lot of the shots. Other ones included the fence in the photo but I didn't mind it at all (kind added to the strange abandoned place).

"Not so long ago, an evil doctor genetically engineered some plants in the greenhouse. Shortly thereafter, the evil doctor, his plants, and the entire neighborhood vanished...." (written by a fellow forum member for these pics LOL!!!)



That's a huge turkey buzzard on top of the chimney...

Photographing Snow/Photomatrix Tutorials/Abandoned New Jersey

How to Photograph Snow and Sand

Ever wonder why blizzard or snow photos made on overcast days almost always look dark gray and not snowy white like real snow? Click HERE for more information on correcting this from Ken Rockwell.

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Photomatrix Tutorials?

I was just searching the web looking for some Photomatrix Tutorials and found this (what I am really looking for is more in depth tutorials on using the sliders to my best advantage. I haven't found exactly what I'm looking for yet...and this searching and reading takes up soooooo much time!):

HDR Tutorial: How to create ‘High Dynamic Range’ images using Photomatix

If anyone knows any other good Photomatrix tutorials for free - let me know!

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Below are today's favorite works of mine...all are 3 exposures HDRs tonemapped in Photomatrix and tweaked in Photoshop.

Found these abandoned houses just by chance a couple weeks ago and I went back to shoot in this area yesterday in order to capture them. There are a handful of these abandoned houses on this one street and I can't figure out why they are all boarded up (since they look like they were in good shape).

It felt like such a ghost town...very strange being in this deserted place alone I must say. It's hard to explain...it was an eerie feeling as if they had fleed the area leaving in a hurry...parts of their world were left behind...items were still in the barn like someone was still working at the workbench.

Abandoned New Jersey
Old Barn....and a clothesline

Quick Little Photo Trip - Turned Out To Be Very Fruitful!

I spent the day indoors today working on my family portraits from Thanksgiving and decorating the house for Christmas. Around 3:30pm I decided to run out for a few minutes to get some photos in locally before the sun went down.

I stopped at an area I found on Thursday that was part of the D&R Canal. Just when I think I've seen all of the canal I keep discovering so many more great parts of it.

I went out purposely to take more RAW shots in multiple exposures (3). I've been on a kick of working on HDR's and I'm loving the results I get with a lot of them.

These are some I took today and worked on in Photomatrix.

This one was a random find. I came to the end of a street and found this sight before my eyes. I literally stopped the car, pulled out the camera and tripod, shot a number of shots, and then got back in my car to get to my next destination. I just can't pass up a great tree-lined path like this!

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This photo was take at St. Joseph's Seminary. The building pictured is the Mary Immaculate Library. I never knew this place exsisted even though I've lived close to this area all of my life. When I was done with my photo hunt on Thursday I decided to take a new way home and found it (I always suggest doing this. You can find some great photo ops you never knew existed this way). SO today I went back to photograph it. After I was done a priest came out to chat and told me I'm welcome to photograph the chapel anytime which I thought was nice because I love photographing churches and there's was a nice one (I just didn't have time).

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This was a spot right near the seminary. I love how this came out. I wished it wasn't getting dark while taking these shots but I think they worked out for the best with the dark shadows.

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And a wide view (I couldn't decide which view I liked...tall or wide?)



And another by the D&R Canal. I'm loving this one!: