The Milton Artists' Guild "Photographers Anonymous" 2021 Photo Calendars are available now!

It took a bit longer this year, but the 2021 version of our photo calendar is available now for sale at the MAG (Milton Artists Guild) gallery in Milton, VT.

It features photos of 7 members of the group and showcases New England landscapes, wildlife and flora. If you are looking for a calendar to decorate your home, or a stocking stuffer for the holidays, make sure to stop by the gallery and grab one before they sell out!

Nichol's Ledge

This Fall seems to be all about new discoveries. I really should start a book or at least a list of favorite places in Vermont. I finally made it to Woodbury and Nichols Ledge today and was not disappointed. The colors are definitely past peak now (at least in the northern parts of the state), and morning light would have been better. But no complaining about a sunny, mid seventy degree day in the middle of October! Just splendid...


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Turtlehead Pond (II)

Since Saturday was an overcast day, my photos included very little or no sky at all. I just wanted to follow up and give the "big picture" (panorama incl. blue sky) from the same pond as shot today. What a difference in foliage just a few days make...


Turtlehead Pond Pano

Shortlived Foliage Season 2017

A very dry second half of Summer 2017, together with windy and rainy conditions on the Columbus Day weekend will probably shorten the Vermont Foliage Season this year. After our photo tour on Saturday under overcast skies, Sunday was partly sunny again. We decided to explore the local Preston Pond area in Bolton. It features a few beaver ponds and a beautiful outlook, called Libby's Look. Thanks to the high dynamic range sensor of my SLR and the editing capabilities of Lightroom, even the backlighting conditions in late afternoon resulted in good photos from the top. Instead of the all too common broad view of colorful trees, I played with reflections, abstracts, camera movement and sunstars. Oh what glorious colors and photographic opportunities nature provides!


Preston Pond Loop Abstract


Sunstar


Libby's Look

Preston Pond Reflections (I)


Preston Pond Reflections (II)

Barn Series

These are a few shots back from late winter/early spring of 2016. The little bit of snow we had this winter is gone, but the blue skies make photography interesting despite the drab ground colors.

The farm with the silos can be found on the Lake Champlain Islands along the West Shore Road in Alburg, while the other barn photos were taken right here in Westford during some of our local walks along Huntley Road and Cambridge Road.

Red and Blue make for a good combination, despite the missing white :-)

Moss Glen Falls and my Switch to Adobe Lightroom

Moss Glenn Falls (VT 100, Granville)
This is the Moss Glen Falls along VT100 between Warren and Granville (there is another one north of Stowe). I am not sure how often I have taken photos of this place, but this one is (a) taken with my shiny new camera (Canon 5D Mark IV) as well as (b) developed with Adobe Lightroom (and again, a pinch of Topaz Glow).

After many years of using Apple's Aperture (I was one of the first adopters), I finally made the switch to Lightroom. It took a while to convince me, still hoping for Apple to turn the corner and make their "Photos" app into something meaningful after they gave up on Aperture a while ago. I loved the Aperture interface, and had so far not warmed up to Lightroom during initial trials. But after reading Jason Bradley's book and watching Thomas' use of the tool, I gave it a serious second chance and quickly got the hang of it. Long story short: Since August 2016, all my photos are managed and developed by Lightroom. And I believe the quality of results has improved quite a bit with that move.

I still have not decided how to handle my many photos, hidden inside Aperture's database. But I will keep my old Mac Mini at the last OS version that officially supports Aperture for the time being. More on my new computer hardware in a future post.

On Tioga Road

Tenaya Lake View (Yosemite National Park, Tioga Road)
This is one of my favorite spots on Tioga Road through Yosemite National Park: The view towards Tenaya Lake. I went to California in August 2016 and took a trip to the Eastern Sierra with Thomas. This shot was taken on the way from the Bay Area to Mammoth Lake where we spent the first night.

The effect on this image has been accomplished with my go-to tool, Topaz Labs "Glow". I developed my own preset which I call "Old Postcard Look". I am sure you will see more photos developed with it...

Burlington Waterfront

OK. It is December, but winter is nowhere to be found this year. While going through my photos from the past year, I stumbled across this January scene taken next to the Burlington Fishing Pier. Now THIS is winter! It was a Sunday afternoon, so the photo was taken against the sun. I took three exposures back then and just now developed them with my new HDR tool, Aurora HDR (by macphun and Trey Ratcliff). I am getting a hang of it and will probably do most of my HDR work with this one from now on...

For this particular scene, I selected a rather dreamy preset and went from there.

Cascading Waterfall on New Haven River

Going through my 2014 photos, I discovered this little cascade photo that I took in May along the road from Bristol up to Lincoln along the New Haven River (and post processed the usual way with Topaz Adjust and Simplify). It was just a small tributary to the New Haven River. and I discovered it by chance while trying to take photos of the main river. It one was only a few feet tall and, of course, not marked in any map.

It shows that it is not just the big waterfalls that provide the most beautiful images. You have to explore, and more often than not, you discover little gems like this.

Summer Evening in Westford

August has been dry and rather warm this year. It's September as I am posting this, but the photo is from August, only a few days old. There is a barn down the road from us with haybales in front. I have been driving by every day, but last week I had to get there with my camera in the evening light to take photos.

Here is the result after some 'Topaz' post processing that brings out the hazy mood of that warm late summer day even better (you can click onto the image above to get a higher resolution one).

For those of you who do not know yet: I am using some photo editing plugins from Topaz Labs (Adjust, Simplify, DeNoise, ...). One of my favorite settings in "Adjust" is called 'faded glory'. I used this one on the barn photo and tweaked a few things here and there. Although I hardly noticed them at exposure time, I especially like the goldenrods in the foreground.