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Homesick Feelings | Pittsburgh, PA “There’s nothing half so pleasant as coming home again.”     -Margaret Elizabeth Sangster I was feeling a bit homesick, so I went back in the archives and decided to process one of the many, many photos I have yet to touch from my December trip home. I don’t know what brings on these homesick feelings every now and again, but it happens. It could be the excitement over Pittsburgh Pirates baseball, or the talk of Mike Wallace leaving the Steelers (heaven forbid!). It seems as if my Facebook and Twitter feeds are clogged every day with news of my beloved sports teams and that does nothing but remind me of home. Heap on top of that my little brother’s recent birthday and nice conversations I’ve had this week with my parents and grandparents on the phone and you have the perfect recipe for “homesick soup.” But then again, as you think about it, nothing makes you appreciate ‘home’ more than when you don’t live at ‘home’ anymore.  Anyway, this is a shot of ‘the burgh’ from the North Shore, on the dock below the sidewalk. To the right is the Roberto Clemente Bridge and reflecting off the Allegheny River is the beautiful skyline of downtown Pittsburgh. I captured this on a pre-dawn photo walk with Dave DiCello of HDR Exposed Photography. The shot: Nikon D90, 18-105 Nikkor VR lens. Tripod mounted, remote fired. Single exposure- f/22, 25 seconds, ISO-100. The original photo had a blue cast over it due to the sunrise, as well as a mix of bright orange and yellow light from the city. I simply desaturated it slightly by adding a Nik Silver Efex layer, setting it at 50% opacity and then masking out a few elements to bring back even more color. I like the washed out look that this scene brings with that processing method.
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Homesick Feelings | Pittsburgh, PA

“There’s nothing half so pleasant as coming home again.”

    -Margaret Elizabeth Sangster


I was feeling a bit homesick, so I went back in the archives and decided to process one of the many, many photos I have yet to touch from my December trip home. I don’t know what brings on these homesick feelings every now and again, but it happens. It could be the excitement over Pittsburgh Pirates baseball, or the talk of Mike Wallace leaving the Steelers (heaven forbid!). It seems as if my Facebook and Twitter feeds are clogged every day with news of my beloved sports teams and that does nothing but remind me of home. Heap on top of that my little brother’s recent birthday and nice conversations I’ve had this week with my parents and grandparents on the phone and you have the perfect recipe for “homesick soup.” But then again, as you think about it, nothing makes you appreciate ‘home’ more than when you don’t live at ‘home’ anymore. 

Anyway, this is a shot of ‘the burgh’ from the North Shore, on the dock below the sidewalk. To the right is the Roberto Clemente Bridge and reflecting off the Allegheny River is the beautiful skyline of downtown Pittsburgh. I captured this on a pre-dawn photo walk with Dave DiCello of HDR Exposed Photography.

The shot: Nikon D90, 18-105 Nikkor VR lens. Tripod mounted, remote fired. Single exposure- f/22, 25 seconds, ISO-100. The original photo had a blue cast over it due to the sunrise, as well as a mix of bright orange and yellow light from the city. I simply desaturated it slightly by adding a Nik Silver Efex layer, setting it at 50% opacity and then masking out a few elements to bring back even more color. I like the washed out look that this scene brings with that processing method.


A February Storm Chase

After a routine print delivery to Vanceboro, NC, I noticed some neat clouds in the sky. As I drove along, I began to see a really big billowing storm cloud that normally brings severe summer weather. Driving blindly with my eyes on the clouds, I took twists and turns until I had no idea where I was. That’s when I came down a very long, straight road, cut a u-turn, got out of my Jeep and laid down on the road to shoot. I went up and down this stretch of road and I must have been there for over half an hour and never saw another car. There was a brief period where the wind really kicked up and I thought the movie ‘Twister’ was going to play out in front of me, but luckily it blew by with nothing more than a little rain!

Big thanks to Accuweather.com and The Weather Channel for the mention and share both online and on air today!

Golden Hour Bridge Passing | New Bern, NC This shot was taken just as the sun was beginning to set to my back. A really, really great golden light was cast across the bridge, which opened to let a sailboat through at the same time!  A little back story is as follows. My buddy Brad came to town to shoot the sunset with me. We met up at the park next to the drawbridge with plans to shoot the sunset from the observation deck of the bridge. I have never shot a sunset up there, but it has a high, unobstructed view of the Trent River with the sun setting right smack-dab in the middle of it. So we made our way up on to the bridge, at least an hour and a half before the sun would actually be setting. Brad brought an extra body and was going to set up for a timelapse of the setting sun. Cool! After over an hour of shooting (it was now literally 10-15 minutes before the sun would set), the bridge operator got on the intercom. “All pedestrians need to vacate the bridge, ESPECIALLY THE TWO PHOTOGRAPHERS.” Now what was this all about? He returned to the intercom to tell us a boat was coming and no one could be on the bridge while a boat was passing. This is not true. There are cars stopped on the bridge when it’s open and I have been walking on the bridge when it is open. You just have to stop at the gate. Still, he adamantly motioned and told us to get off the bridge, “NOW.” We returned the ‘thumbs up’ sign, but he continued to gesture (to put it lightly) toward the end of the bridge. Maybe he thought we were giving him a different finger? I just figure we over stayed our welcome. We are, after all, photographers- we had to have been up to something….groan. So we gathered up our stuff, Brad’s timelapse was mere minutes away from being cinematic gold, and left the bridge. As soon as we passed the last set of gates, the alarm sounded and the deck began to raise. It was about then that a friend of my Facebook page, Jared, arrived to shoot. We passed him on the bridge and the three of us hustled around the river walk and down to the area behind the New Bern Riverfront Convention Center just in time to catch this boat passing under the open bridge.  The last bit of day light was great, as you can see here. So maybe it was a blessing in disguise that we were kicked off the bridge. There is no way we would have caught that great golden reflection from up there! The shot: Nikon D90, 8mm Rokinon lens, f/22, ISO-100. 2 exposures manually blended in Photoshop CS4. Finished with Nik Viveza and Nik Color Efex Pro.
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Golden Hour Bridge Passing | New Bern, NC

This shot was taken just as the sun was beginning to set to my back. A really, really great golden light was cast across the bridge, which opened to let a sailboat through at the same time! 

A little back story is as follows. My buddy Brad came to town to shoot the sunset with me. We met up at the park next to the drawbridge with plans to shoot the sunset from the observation deck of the bridge. I have never shot a sunset up there, but it has a high, unobstructed view of the Trent River with the sun setting right smack-dab in the middle of it. So we made our way up on to the bridge, at least an hour and a half before the sun would actually be setting. Brad brought an extra body and was going to set up for a timelapse of the setting sun. Cool!

After over an hour of shooting (it was now literally 10-15 minutes before the sun would set), the bridge operator got on the intercom. “All pedestrians need to vacate the bridge, ESPECIALLY THE TWO PHOTOGRAPHERS.” Now what was this all about? He returned to the intercom to tell us a boat was coming and no one could be on the bridge while a boat was passing. This is not true. There are cars stopped on the bridge when it’s open and I have been walking on the bridge when it is open. You just have to stop at the gate. Still, he adamantly motioned and told us to get off the bridge, “NOW.” We returned the ‘thumbs up’ sign, but he continued to gesture (to put it lightly) toward the end of the bridge. Maybe he thought we were giving him a different finger? I just figure we over stayed our welcome. We are, after all, photographers- we had to have been up to something….groan.

So we gathered up our stuff, Brad’s timelapse was mere minutes away from being cinematic gold, and left the bridge. As soon as we passed the last set of gates, the alarm sounded and the deck began to raise. It was about then that a friend of my Facebook page, Jared, arrived to shoot. We passed him on the bridge and the three of us hustled around the river walk and down to the area behind the New Bern Riverfront Convention Center just in time to catch this boat passing under the open bridge. 

The last bit of day light was great, as you can see here. So maybe it was a blessing in disguise that we were kicked off the bridge. There is no way we would have caught that great golden reflection from up there!

The shot: Nikon D90, 8mm Rokinon lens, f/22, ISO-100. 2 exposures manually blended in Photoshop CS4. Finished with Nik Viveza and Nik Color Efex Pro.

Saturday Sun Dogs | New Bern, NC On a few occasions, I’ve noticed the little rainbow spot to the side of the sun at sunset but didn’t realize this phenomenon had a name…nor did I have my camera at those times. Sun dogs, as they’re known as, can appear as a spot on one side, both sides or as a ring the whole way around the sun. This weekend I was shooting the sunset in New Bern with my friend Brad of Brad Styron Photography when the sun dogs appeared. I can remember a few instances where I’ve seen one spot, but not two. Luckily I was able to get it on camera. The shot: Nikon D90, 18-105mm Nikkor VR lens, 3 exposures, HDR. Masked back with the original exposures in Photoshop. Finished with Nik Color Efex.
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Saturday Sun Dogs | New Bern, NC

On a few occasions, I’ve noticed the little rainbow spot to the side of the sun at sunset but didn’t realize this phenomenon had a name…nor did I have my camera at those times. Sun dogs, as they’re known as, can appear as a spot on one side, both sides or as a ring the whole way around the sun.

This weekend I was shooting the sunset in New Bern with my friend Brad of Brad Styron Photography when the sun dogs appeared. I can remember a few instances where I’ve seen one spot, but not two. Luckily I was able to get it on camera.

The shot: Nikon D90, 18-105mm Nikkor VR lens, 3 exposures, HDR. Masked back with the original exposures in Photoshop. Finished with Nik Color Efex.

All in a Row | New Bern, NC Along the railing of the New Bern Grand Marina, you can usually find some bicycles lined up. Belonging to the folks who are staying on their boats, they can hop on a bike and take a quick ride to pretty much anywhere downtown. Walking along the waterfront at sunset, I thought that it would make a neat shot to get right up against the bikes with my wide angle as the sun was setting behind them. I didn’t get as big a sun flare as I wanted, but this turned out just right. The shot: Nikon D90, 8mm Rokinon lens, f/22. 3 exposures, manually masked together in Photoshop.
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All in a Row | New Bern, NC

Along the railing of the New Bern Grand Marina, you can usually find some bicycles lined up. Belonging to the folks who are staying on their boats, they can hop on a bike and take a quick ride to pretty much anywhere downtown.

Walking along the waterfront at sunset, I thought that it would make a neat shot to get right up against the bikes with my wide angle as the sun was setting behind them. I didn’t get as big a sun flare as I wanted, but this turned out just right.

The shot: Nikon D90, 8mm Rokinon lens, f/22. 3 exposures, manually masked together in Photoshop.