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I thought it might be a neat exercise to hone my black-and-white conversion skills on some of my favorite older color photos that haven’t aged well (due to being shot with low-quality digital cameras). This is my first attempt, a photo taken during my foggy hike up to the top of Clingmans Dome in the North Carolina Smoky Mountains back in 2004.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
This is a shot of the Pyramid of the Magician rising above the jungle in Uxmal, Mexico. This was my favorite of the pyramid sites I visited: more remote, less crowded, and less touristy than the more famous sites of Chichen Itza and Teotihuacan. When you walk around here you can really feel like you’re in the middle of an Indiana Jones film.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
This photo taken in Kensington Gardens near Hyde Park in London reminded me of a level you might see in a Mario Kart game. Can you picture the little cars racing around either side of the water?
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
I don’t often get to take long exposure shots while on vacation because it involves lugging around a tripod, but this beach was located just outside my cabin on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada, so it was a perfect opportunity to set up the tripod and try out the neutral density filter I bought last year. These types of filters enable you to take long exposures during the day without blowing the highlights. I’m still getting the hang of it, but I like the effect here of smoothing the ocean and blurring the clouds while keeping the rocks in focus, almost like a painting.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
The night skies over the Canadian maritime provinces are spectacular, particularly in the remote areas where these two photos were shot–the skies are packed with far more stars than most of us are used to seeing on a regular basis. Although my astrophotography remains a work in progress, I feel like these are definitely an improvement over some of my earlier efforts.
The first photo was taken outside of the inn where I stayed on Prince Edward Island. In setting the building against the night sky I tried to capture the remoteness of the inn, which is located by itself out on a cliff overlooking the sea. I always feel weird going outside for night photography, setting up the tripod and everything while people are wondering what I’m doing out there. The women in one of the downstairs rooms kept looking out the window–I think they thought I was up to something nefarious. 🙂
The second photo of the Milky Way was taken outside my cabin on Cape Breton Island.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
This was taken during my hike of the Skyline Trail in Cape Breton, Canada. It’s not a very vibrant photo due to the rainy conditions, but I like the imagery of a solitary figure standing at the top of a mountain gazing over the sea and the Cabot Trail. I didn’t have time to complete the entire trail myself, but had I done so, I would have been standing in the same spot as the person in this photo.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
This lighthouse in Souris on Prince Edward Island was built in 1880. We visited after hours, so I didn’t get a chance to climb to the top, but I snapped this photo, capturing the lighthouse partially silhouetted against the setting sun peeking out to the right.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
The Bay of Fundy in Canada has the highest tidal range in the world. To get a glimpse of this natural wonder in action, I visited the famous Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick on two consecutive days. The first photo below was shot at low tide, while the second was shot at high tide. The visual comparison would have worked better if I had shot both photos from the same angle, but you can still see that all of the people in the first photo would be underwater in the second photo.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
As I was walking along the waterfront boardwalk in Nova Scotia’s capital city of Halifax, I spotted this ship that appeared to emerge from an endless sea of fog (the camera picked up land in the distance that had been invisible to the naked eye).
I can’t decide which photo I like more, so I’m including both. The first photo is softer, reflecting the enveloping fogginess I recall from that day. The second photo, with ship further removed from the fog, is sharper, and I like the juxtaposition of the tiny duck next to it.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
When hiking to the top of Franey Mountain in the Cape Breton Highlands, you will encounter this picturesque lookout about 1/3 of the way up (or 2/3 of the way down, depending on which of the two trails you chose to go up). It’s a beautiful hike, especially as you get closer to the top, where you are rewarded with spectacular views of the mountains and coast. The 1,100-foot ascent is not too challenging (especially if an out-of-shape schlub like me can make it to the top)–I think it took us between 2 1/2 and 3 hours to get to the top, though it can be done more quickly if you’re in better shape and not stopping for photos. Going down was much faster as we took the second trail down, which was much less interesting from a scenery perspective, and also less challenging.
I made one alteration to this photo–I used the content-aware touchup tool in Camera Raw to remove my hiking pole that was leaning against the rock–it turned out really well, not even noticeable. Bonus points if you can tell me where the pole was. 🙂
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
Michael Rappa 