My Top Images of 2011

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My Top Images of 2011

As 2011 comes to a close, I’ve decided to keep the tradition I started last year and am posting my favorite images for 2011. This year I had a bit less time for my photographic passion as I started a new job and needed to focus there. That said, I am very pleased with the results this year.

I think I am beginning to discover some patterns in my photography. The types of images are certainly an eclectic mix of life but what I am starting to see is that my favorite images are those that shows “Man-Made” coexisting with nature. Not all the images here are of that subject but I think this might be where I am going over time.

You can get a feel of what I mean in the first three images.

You can see larger versions of these images In this gallery.

#1 Bench By The Golden Gate Bridge

This high dynamic range (HDR) photo was created in April 2011. It was a cold blustery day on the San Francisco Bay and I wanted to capture the drama of the moment. The bench and tree made a great subject with the bridge in the background. You can learn more about how I created this image here.

#2 Brookalino

Brookalino was the name given by the Italian immigrants for their adopted home in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Bridge is an excellent metaphor for this bridge of Old World to New World. It is special to me since this is where my mom and grandparents started their life in this country of opportunity. Here the beauty of the sky is strongly contrasted with the structure of the tower.  Man-made contrasting nature.

#3 Sayville Dam

Captured in October 2011, Sayville, CT. Fall was just starting as I drove by this dam and spent a few minutes studying this control tower. I love the symmetry of this image, the sky and the diagonals of the hills in the background. All of these elements give the feel that the image is three-dimensional. Also here again, it is the nature in the background that contrasts the man-made structure which I think adds so much.

#4 Blue Angel 6

Flying by at 500 miles per hour, the US Navy Blue Angel took to the skies in June 2011 at the Rhode Island National Guard Air show. The drama created by these expert pilots always entertains and impresses.


#5 Scenes from Porto, Portugal

Two images reach the #5 postilion. Downtown Porto is a beautiful place. It holds much of the Old European feel of history. Porto is one of the oldest ports in Europe. These images were captured September 2011.The first image could have been taken decades ago. You can learn more about this image here. The second image has an interesting mix of colors, shadows nature (river) and man-made (buildings).


#6 Flowers

I was on a bit of a tangent this years with flowers. The “Fancy Daffy’s” were a little late to be photographed but I think still held well for the camera. The dogwood and grass weeds were shot with my new 70-200 f2.8 lens which does a wonderful job helping manage depth of field.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#7 Fireworks

The 4th of July in New England is such a wonderful time. This year my town of Franklin, MA had one of their best Fireworks display. This image had very little post processing. and is one of my favorites of the grand finale.

#8 The Womping Oak

This oak tree dominates a country road in Connecticut. Driving by it, this was the view from my rear view mirror. It caused me to turn around to spend a few minutes admiring this tree and attempting to capture her majesty.

#9 At the Boston Library

Using a wide-angle lens, I wanted to capture the dimension of this reading room at the Boston Library. I just love the green in the lamps and how they draw the eye to the center of the far end of the room.

#10 Serendipity

Another mixture of “Man Made” and Nature. I could not plan this image. I was attempting to capture the lights outside the Boston Library and the John Hancock building when the pigeon flew into frame. Wow. Serendipity.

#11 Railway Dream

This image was captured in late morning! The moon was in the sky but not at this location. The trees were just beginning to turn to the autumn colors. I was not happy with the image. With some Photoshop steps, I created this eerie night scene.

Acratech GP Ballhead – A review

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I’ve been shopping for a new ballhead for some time. My first ballhead was the Manfrotto 488RC4.  It is a nice ballhead but heavy; weighing in at 22 3/4 oz.  I quickly replaced it with the lighter (14 7/8 oz) Manfrotto 486RC2.  I’ve used this head for several years.  This was a trade-off of weight vs functionality.  I’ve always missed the bubble level on the 488RC4 ball head and the scale for panoramas but it was good enough.

One item that always bothered me was location of the knob and the fact that it never felt like it was locking the camera in place.  So what I really wanted was the Manfrotto 488RC at the weight of the Manfrotto 486RC2.

I stumbled upon the Acratech GP ballhead through a web search and had a chance to play with it at Hunts Photo and Video [see below for information about a deal Gary Farber at Hunts is providing to camera club members].

FUNCTIONALITY

Being an engineer and photographer, I love how form follows function with this device.  It is a very nice looking unit and you can see the quality of workmanship here.  Built from aircraft quality aluminum, they’ve removed extra weight by milling out what isn’t necessary and adding where strength is required.

Even when compared to Manfrotto’s newer units, this ball head really stands up.  The laser etched scale is large and legible.  There are two knobs, not one, to set tension on the ball giving better control.  The knobs are set so the will never completely unscrew and fall off.  (A bad situation for a night photographer).

What is also interesting is that the ball is exposed.  Dirt will not accumulate inside the ball head keeping it moving freely.

BUT WAIT THERES’ MORE!

You can use this ball head upside down.  (That’s why the scale is written both ways).  You do this by removing the Acra-swiss compatible quick release clamp and mounting it on the bottom of the ball head.  Why would you do this?  Well now you have a self leveling head that allows you to do panoramas.

Two for the price of one so to say.  But there is a hitch, to do this requires removing and resetting a screw.  But if you need that function in a pinch, you have it.  Also they set the screw to work with a small coin or with the hex wrench provided with the ballhead. The same hex wrench you need to mount the plate.  Talking about the plate…

WHERE’S THE PLATE?

One annoyance is that the plate does not come with the ballhead.  Acratech provides special plates for various cameras and they need to be purchased separately.  I guess it (c) Rob DeRobertisgive them better support but after I got the ball head, I had to search out an acra-swiss compatible plate.

To learn more about how this ball head works, check out the video on their website.

SUMMARY

I  bought the ballhead.  It gives me functionality without trade-offs.  It is a great device and something I plan to use for many years.  PS I am not affiliated with Acratech in any way, I just think this is a very nice ballhead which is under marketed and wanted everyone to learn about it.

Now about Hunt’s deal.

Of the camera shops I’ve visited in the Greater Boston area, Hunts seems the most geared up for the prosumer, camera club junkies like myself.  I think Gary Farber is a sharp marketer.  He realized that us camera club junkies have special needs.  We are more knowledgable then the standard Point and Shoot photographer but not at the level of the professional (also without the budget).  I appreciate the time that Hunts is willing to put in with us where other camera shops treat us quite poorly (at least that is my experience).  Anyway, Gary Farber (who sold me this ballhead) is offering a special for a limited time to camera club members for this ballhead.  He is taking $20 off the list price and providing free shipping.  You can contact him directly at 781-462-2332 or email at digitalguygary@wbhunt.com.

 Other Photos

 

(c) Rob DeRobertis

(c) R. DeRobertis(c) Rob DeRobertis

 

 

 

Time-lapse of the Lek Yeun Bridge in Sha Tin, Hong Kong

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This week I spent a few days in Hong Kong.  Fortunately I had a wonderful view of the Lek Yeun Bridge and beyond from my hotel room.  Having my trusty tripod, Intervalometer (sponsored link) and Canon 7D, I set up the camera to photograph sunrise from my hotel room.  Unfortunately, we had mostly rainy days this week, so it is sunrise without the sun… you’ll see. Anyway, the first 3 images in the sequence are actually from 10:15PM, the rest are from 5:30AM until 6:40 AM, 1 minute apart.  The first three images may be distracting but I like seeing the city with all the lights on and seeing the river water level dropping.

(The intervalometer has a delay setting so I did not have to wake up to do this but the shutter clicking every minute was kind-of like Chinese water torture).

To learn how to create such a time-lapse sequence read this blog entry.

To see other images from my trip to Hong Kong check this gallery.

You can watch the video on Youtube here: http://youtu.be/oiCrNjV3i9c or watch embedded on the page below.

Back Story: Porto Portugal

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I had a chance to visit Porto, Portugal this week. It is a beautiful city with character. Or said another way, it was a beautiful city that has seen better days.

Photographically it is a beautiful place, given the colors, history, textures and clutter so as a photographer it was a wonderful place to see. But that underlying feeling of neglect and poverty is what made the strongest impression of my visit there.

Story

At the top of a very long outside stairway, is a small alley with a mix of abandoned and neglected apartments. At the top of the stairs sat this woman who, to me, typified the European grandma. There she was, shelling peas in her lap, as she enjoyed the view from outside her apartment. Behind her were some abandoned, mostly graffiti covered apartments.

An old world view, of an old world port, in a region that has over 2000 years of history.

Color

The colors were saturated to bring out the contrast better. There is a lot going on here. The yellow of the building contrasts nicely with the blue of the skis. The red of the door and red graffiti of the bird provide interesting items and balance from left to right. Because of the mix of colors, I hope people see the main character for this photo, the lone lady shelling peas.

Graphic / Composition

Because of the wide angle lens used, there is some warping in the buildings that I think work well for this image. The walls on both sides of the image, funnel the eye to the main character. The triangle created by the walls, creates nice depth into the image. The arched window on the right provides an additional view of the river and delivers more information about “Place”.

Technique

This image was created as a high dynamic range photo. This allowed me to combine a properly exposed sky with a properly exposed building and walkway.

ISO 400, 20mm (Canon EF-S10-22mm Lens), F10 and bracketed by speed at 1/125, 1/320, 1/800.

The images were combined using Nik HDR Pro.

You can see more photos of my visit to Porto, Portugal here.

All images are (c) R. DeRobertis 2011

 

Back story: Juno

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I thought it would be interesting to start submitting a series of posts that are the back stories to some of my favorite images.  I always find the back story one of the more interesting parts of looking at photography.

This image was captured exactly a year ago today while on a workshop with Onne van der Wal. In this workshop Onne had hired a motor boat to follow the Classic Yacht Regatta in Narragansett Bay. We were photographing two days after hurricane Edgar had come through the area and the seas were rough. I was tossed around a bit on the boat and we had to deal with the sea mist all over our lenses. When I photographed this Yacht, it was the first time I had become excited on what I was seeing in the viewfinder as I captured the image.

Story

I think this image tells the story of the sailors fighting the
elements to not only keep the boat afloat but to win a race. You see the crew all grouped together to counter weight the pull of wind on the sails. If you look closely you see one crew member holding their hat. It gives the sense of drama that I was witnessing.

Color

The blue sky really worked well as the backdrop for the yellow/orange masts. At almost opposite points on the color wheel, this contrast really helped the subject pop. The red hull popping out of the water also adds a lot to this image. The blue, greens and whites of the ocean shows the roughness of the seas. While the blues and whites in the smooth sky make a nice contrast.

Graphic / Composition

Not a lot was changed as I cropped this image. The original
image was 2592 x 3888 and was cropped down to 2342 x 3279.

The angle of the boat does so much for this image. There are so many triangles in this image and all add to the dynamics of the story. The most obvious triangle, how the Mast splits the image into two triangles, creates much of the drama. Having the mast cut the image splits the roughness of the ocean from the smoothness of the sky. The mast also draws the eye to the sailors.

Technique

Technique-wise, this was probably not my best. The exposure
triangle was ISO200, F4.0, 1/5000 sec @ 40mm. Depth of field was fine because of the distance but, I had some room with the F stop that would have sharpened the occupants on the boat.. As it was, I needed to sharpen the image using Nik
tools.