photoartflightBlackwater NWR Panoramas
Posted on August 23, 2019
Here are a few panoramas from the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge, Maryland. The featured Sunrise image is a panorama image made with 5 horizontal overlapping images, each shot at 24mm and assembled in Photoshop. This is an image of the Little Blackwater River along the entrance to the Wildlife Drive. The final size for the featured sunrise image is 95 inches long x 18 inches high @ 300ppi. Sunrises & Sunsets are usually very colorful at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge which is one of my favorite photo destinations.
Blackwater NWR Sunrise across from the lookout platform along the Wildlife Drive. ( 2 image Pano)
Image below is a multi-image vertical panorama. Sometimes it is fun to try different format orientations instead of ones you usually see. Most panoramas are Horizontal.
2 vertical images blended for vertical Sunrise panorama shoot @ 24mm
Single 12mm Sunrise Image
Dusk Panorama Further Down The Wildlife Drive. 10 vertical images @ 24mm combined for panorama
Dusk Panorama Along Wildlife Drive. 6 vertical images @ 12mm for panorama.
Sunset At Brigantine
Posted on December 18, 2018
A colorful sunset at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ. Image taken with a 24-105mm zoom @ 24mm along the Wildlife Drive.
Closer view of sunset color in water & ice @ 105mm
Closer Sunset Colors On Ice @ 400mm
Colorful Ice & Water At Sunset – 400mm
Bald Eagle on Snag with Red-winged Blackbirds in Background.
Blackwater NWR Sunrise
Posted on August 13, 2018
The featured Sunrise image is a series of horizontal images stacked vertically to get more of the colorful clouds and sky at sunrise. Five images shot at 12mm, aligned and blended together manually in Photoshop with soft edge masks. This view is not far from the entrance on the Wildlife Drive looking out over The Little Blackwater River.
6 images, horizontal, overlapping & combined manually in Photoshop for final image
The image below is around the corner from the featured & above image, by the Observation Platform, looking out at the Blackwater River.
Sunset On The Golf Course
Posted on July 15, 2018
It was supposed to be a nice sunset so we took a walk on the Golf Course in our community. These are a series of panoramas / image blends combined in Photoshop from 2 to 7 images each. I used a Canon 24 – 105mm zoom lens, handheld, at various focal lengths. I also tend to try to overlap images more for panoramas. We also were in different areas for the series as we were walking and moving towards the sunset. The featured Image was 2 images @ 105mm. Being in NJ, you will also see a few with jet contrails in the clouds. It is tough in New Jersey to get a sky sometimes without them and I had a limited time to shoot the series so I left them in.
7 Image Pano / blend @ 35mm, horizontal images, Pano assembled in PhotoShop.
3 Image Pano / blend @ 45mm, vertical images, Pano assembled vertically in PhotoShop
5 Image Pano / blend @ 32mm, horizontal images, Pano assembled in PhotoShop
3 Image Pano / blend @ 88mm, vertical images, Pano assembled in PhotoShop
2 Image Pano / blend @ 45mm, horizontal images, Pano assembled in PhotoShop
2 Image Pano / blend @ 32mm, horizontal images, Pano assembled in PhotoShop. Concentrating – Centered on the main cloud
2 Image Pano / blend @ 24mm, horizontal images, Pano assembled in PhotoShop
2 Image Pano / blend @ 24mm, vertical images, Pano assembled in PhotoShop
2 Image Pano / blend @ 24mm, horizontal images, Pano assembled in PhotoShop
Bird Shaped Clouds
Posted on June 12, 2018
This series of cloud images reminded me of birds in flight. They sort of looked like a bird’s body and outstretched wings floating by in the sky. I tried a few cropping and focused on a few different cloud formations.
Meeting House 4 Image Verical Panorama
Posted on May 27, 2018
This is a 4 Image vertical panorama of the Meeting House in the condo community we live in now. It is a multi-use building for the whole community and it reminds me of areas I used to like to photograph in New England when our children were small. They liked Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts among others. I tried a variety of ways to photograph this building to see which way I liked it best plus it gave me an opportunity to practice or try different effects and combinations.
For this image I shot 4 images, handheld, vertically at 24mm. I used a lot of overlap on each image because I was shooting at 24mm (vertically). It helps having a lot of overlap in the images when using a 24mm, it seems like Photoshop handles it better and you get less “distortion” in the combining of the separate images.
On this version the clouds were amazing, so I continued up to include a lot of clouds & sky.
It seems like the more you do of these panoramas the more you learn and have a higher success rate. Also if you are just walking around and traveling “light” with just one lens, it gives you more options for photo subjects.
Gull Pond Panoramas
Posted on March 14, 2018
While at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, I shot a few panoramas along the Wildlife Drive at Gull Pond. The featured image was a 2 shot panorama. Shot at 24mm, with 2 horizontal images, combined in Photoshop. With the featured image I purposely included the empty tree branches on the right to add some interest and some depth. I tried to position the larger branches where there was an open sky with few clouds.
3 horizontal stacked images, vertical panorama, @ 24mm
4 horizontal images, stacked horizontally, @ 24mm
More Firey Clouds At Sunset
Posted on February 19, 2018
These are more cloud images from the previous post. A couple are 2 shots combined, either stacked vertically or horizontally, combined in Photoshop. All shot with a 24-105mm at various focal lengths.
Trees In Winter
Posted on January 23, 2018
I was walking through a local park here in NJ looking for some photo subjects and get a walk in since it was a warmer day. Then I noticed the bare trees. Without their leaves you could really see the structures of their main branches, medium branches going off the main limbs and then the smaller twigs going off. They looked interesting seeing them this way when I had never really paid attention to them in Winter before. You see different patterns of branches, some branches look graceful going out to the smaller branches. Where others look all twisted and chaotic, reaching for the sky.
I had to add one with leaves. Interesting seeing the green on this one with the leafless trees in the background.
Screaming Tree Stump
Posted on January 22, 2018
We were taking a walk at the Davidsons Mill Pond Park to get some fresh air. It has been bitterly cold lately here in New Jersey so it was nice to able to get out and walk. It got to 50 degrees but had very strong winds. Much better than being in the minus numbers. I took a camera with me, just to see what I could find. I saw this tree stump and the little branch on it looked like an arm and the top looked like a mouth and an ear to the right. Or maybe I was just trying to find something to photograph and saw it this way. Anyway I thought it was an interesting subject.
“Feathered” Old Grayscale Version
“Older” Sepia Toned Version
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