Allegheny National Forest

I captured these images during a recent trip the the Allegheny National Forest.  I loved the way the early morning light was hitting these trees.  This image was created by deliberately moving the lens while pressing the shutter to emphasize the straight form of this particular area of Cook Forest, located near the Allegheny National Forest.  Cook Forest and Allegheny National Forest are located in north west Pennsylvania.

Morning Light

 I was drawn to the contrast in size between this young pine tree and its full size parent next to it.  It reminded me of the way young animals stick close to their parent.

One day, I'll be big too

 I was surprised to see this life guard chair out in the middle of Cook Forest.  Turns out it was there for a French and Indian War reenactment the following weekend, but it just looked so out of place I had to capture it.

Where's the pool?

 I came across a tree that had been uprooted.  This particular portion reminded me of a bird about to take flight from roots of this old tree.

Swan

West Virginia Workshop

Sunrise at Dolly Sods

During Memorial Day weekend, I participated in a West Virginia Photography Workshop with Joe Rossbach and the Loudoun County Photography Club.  We had a great time focusing on our photography for the weekend.  Here are a few of my images from that weekend.

Elakala Falls, Blackwater Falls State Park, WV

Elakala Falls, Blackwater Falls State Park, WV

Blackwater Falls, Blackwater Falls State Park, WV

Fern, Blackwater Falls State Park, WV

Douglas Falls near Thomas, WV

2011 TECH Banquet

I had the privilege to photograph the 2011 TECH Homeschool Banquet last week.  I really enjoyed interacting with all the parents and students.  You can view the images by going to my webpage, www.radiantviewphotography.com, and click on "event photos" on the left hand column.  Here are a couple images and a few more after the jump.

Lines

Back in January, I did a photo walk during the early morning hours in Leesburg, VA.   One of the images I captured was of this window in Market Station off Harrison Street.  You can see the original image in my January post.  

Lines

I really like the lines and texture of the image, so I entered it into the Loudoun Photo Club's "Doors and Windows" competition in April.  To my delight, it won 1st place in the Advanced Monochrome category and Best in Show overall.  Roy Sewall, a local photographer specialize in the Great Falls and Mather Gorge area, was the competition judge.

I processed the raw image through Adobe Camera Raw to bring out the texture of the wood, then used a couple curve adjustment layers in multiply blending mode to further enhance the texture and bring out detail in the background shadows.  Finally I used a Photoshop black and white adjustment layer to covert the image to monochrome.

Garden of the Gods

Garden of the Gods Park

I recently visited Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  The park has some wonderful photographic opportunities.   I hope you enjoy a selection of the photos I captured.

Siamese Twins Rock Formation

Balanced Rock

A hard existence for this tree

Garden of the Gods Park

Garden of the Gods Park

I saw this view of Pike's Peak on my 1st day at the park while exploring the Siamese Twins Formation.  I visualized a shot with the morning's red sun lighting up Pike's Peak in the background as well as the rock's face in the foreground.  As it turns out, the sun wasn't quite as red on Pike's Peak as I hoped, but it still made a neat shot.  You can see the shadow on the lower part of the rock face that indicates how far the sun had risen.  This is a composite (focus stack) of two images, one focused on the rock face and the other on Pike's Peak.

Siamese Twin Rock window view towards Pike's Peak

Golden Gate at Sunrise

I had the opportunity to photograph the Golden Gate Bridge.  This was my first time at the bridge during sunrise.   As on my first visit, I was fortunate to have remarkably clear weather, although my shooting angle was essentially the same as the last photo in my second visit.   Since I was shooting into the sunrise, I was pretty much done by the time the sun actually rose above the horizon.   I was glad of this later when I encountered the traffic delay from an accident on the way to SFO for my late morning flight.

Golden Gate Bridge at Sunrise

This image is a merge of three images taken in portrait orientation and then combined using Photoshop CS5.  Each exposure is 30 seconds long.

Cherry Blossoms at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens

This morning I joined over twenty other photographers from the Loudoun Photo Club for a field trip to Meadowlark Botanical Gardens to capture the blooming Cherry Blossoms.  We had beautiful weather.  Here are a few of the images I captured.  I would appreciate any comments.