‘Lone Tree’ | New Bern, NC
This is the tree that you may recognize from my Lawson Creek Park time lapse. I couldn’t help grabbing a few stills before I left. The lighting was really neat on the foreground and tree. In addition, water usually surrounds the tree but heavy wind had blown the tide out toward the sea leaving this shelly river floor exposed.
The shot: Nikon D90, Rokinon 8mm lens. 3 bracketed exposures. Middle and brightest exposures manually masked together in Photoshop using a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet. Darkest exposure discarded.
©2012 Zach Frailey
‘Marsh Rays’ | New Bern, North Carolina
Yesterday was pretty much cloudy, dreary and rainy all day long- or tous photographers, the perfect day to be on the lookout for a sunset. I’ve grown to dread cloudless, sunny days. I’m always on the lookout for clouds in the forecast. Particularly lately, as cold fronts have moved into the area with the arrival of fall, we’ve had some pretty neat sunsets. There’s nothing better than the light that is created during those brief moments when the setting sun pokes through those clouds.
I don’t typically shoot landscapes in a portrait orientation, mainly because I don’t think they look as good on a widescreen or in print. However, I found that the best way to portray this scene was to shoot that way. I was right at the edge of the marsh and the only way to get the reflection in the water was to turn my camera. I really like the way the tops of the marsh grass are illuminated by the warm light of the sun’s rays here; they’re actually the reason I shot this scene. I scouted it out a few evenings earlier and knew the next time we had this kind of sunset, I’d be there!
The Shot: Nikon D90, tripod mounted and remote fired. 3 exposures, tonemapped in Photomatix and masked back with original layers in Photoshop. Tweaked the image a bit with Nik Color Efex and Viveza. I then used the sharpening method I’ve described before (still need a name for it) in which I’ll convert the image to black and white using Nik Silver Efex with a yellow filter. Then change the blend mode of that layer to ‘Luminosity’ and mask as needed. Finsihed with a very slight Glamour Glow and exported.
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Sunset Jet | New Bern, NC
This Grumman F-11A Tiger jet was recently restored with a Blue Angels paint job and raised up on a pedestal at Lawson Creek Park in New Bern. The jet flew in military operations from 1959-1961 and then became a member of the Blue Angels. In the 1970’s it was dedicated to the City of New Bern and rested along the road since then, slowly deteriorating. Recently, it was sent to MCAS Cherry Point to undergo restoration and to be returned to it’s Blue Angels paint job. The folks over there did an amazing job!
I’ve been driving past the jet for weeks as crews continued to landscape the area. The way that it’s positioned in the sky makes it hard to photograph, but on this evening I noticed the setting sun and clouds and thought that it would be the perfect backdrop for the old plane.
The shot: 3 exposure HDR (-2.0, 0, +2.0). Tonemapped in Photomatix Pro, finished in Photoshop CS4 with Nik Color Efex & Nik Viveza.
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©2011 Zach Frailey
