Golden Hour

When you work out in the country, every road is a new adventure.  I managed to leave a job site just before 5 one day this week, when the sun was starting to move towards the horizon, casting long shadows and a creamy hue on all it touched, appropriately known as the golden hour.  I drove past field and barns and fences and pulled over nearly every half a mile to jump out of the car and make a shot with the seemingly perfect backdrop illuminating all.  It was definitely below freezing and I hate shooting in gloves, so my fingers quickly went numb (second time this week - oh well I'll take some pain for my art) and people driving by probably wondered what in the hell this crazy girl was doing (car still running with flashers on in the road), but whatever this is rural Maryland and I'll let them wonder.  No editing needed and I'm officially in love with my new f1.8 lens. I actually really love the fixed lens aspect, aside from the great aperture and better glass, it's one less thing for me to think about and changes how I view composition. Enjoy!  I sure as hell did :)

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Green Abandonment

I love taking photos of abandoned or forgotten objects.  There's something about the natural processes taking over that reminds one of nature's constant dominance and that nothing lasts.  It's a melancholy feeling.  I tried a little something different in the editing of these photos.  The first one has minimal editing, just a bit of level adjustment, the second uses Photoshop's "auto-color" option, and the third uses Photoshop's "auto-tone" option.  The grass really was a super-vibrant green!  I'm not sure how I feel about intense editing of photos.  For me, I want to be good enough at my craft that editing isn't needed.  Thoughts?  Which one do you like best?

Black Lab Day

It's unseasonably warm here in Maryland, to the point that Garth, the office Lab, leaped head-first into the stream at our restoration site.  Just a couple shots of the crazy pup in the midst of his joy at life.

A Morning By the Stream

Long Green Creek is down the road from Boordy Vineyards, where my company recently finished a restoration project.  This is a trout stream that was suffering from bank erosion and cattle crossing. Here are a couple shots from a slightly chilly morning!