David Griffin Photography » Photography

Sudbury River Sunrise

Dave — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:04:49 +0000

Didn’t get out last Wednesday (the weather was pretty awful) and the previous week’s exploration yielded little in the way of images but I did continue my weekly attempt to photograph something new – in this case the Sudbury River in Sudbury (not far off of Route 27). Nothing special here, especially considering what I could have done yesterday with the wonderful fog we had — but unfortunately the business of having a business prevented me from getting anywhere near a camera until long after the sun burned off all of the good stuff… Sigh.

Anyways, in a rush to get out of the house I forgot to bring my graduated neutral density filters (and my hat) so when this scene began to present itself I had to go to “plan B”. Consequently these first two images are HDR composites from 3 separate exposures. I wasn’t sure if I liked the B&W version better so I posted both here. Other than the HDR, which manages to keep the dark ice and the brilliant rising sun all within the exposure range, little was done to the image beyond the usual tonal tweaking.

I’m not what you’d call an expert with the HDR tools, but I’m still trying to figure out if the halo around the trees is an optical illusion or a processing artifact. When I zoom into the image in Lightroom, I don’t see the halo… Something to ponder on a rainy day…

A rising sun doesn’t give you much time to find good photographs. The image below is the first of a few exposures I made trying to capture the warm glow of the sun rising on the ice. Unfortunately by the time I managed to get a better composition lined up the sun was too bright and lacks the warmth and evenness that this, admittedly uninspiring, version does — but it’s always a challenge to race the sun.

Ice Hats

Dave — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 15:36:26 +0000

A quick study from this morning on the relationship of rock, ice and water…

Just missed it!

Dave — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 23:21:38 +0000

Taking a break from an editing session I walked into the kitchen to get a drink and saw what is a very rare sight in our neck of the woods: a nice sunset. The only problem was the good part was probably about 5 minutes before I saw it. I grabbed a camera that had a lens attached and a tripod (taking no time to find a jacket, but the weather here is back to unseasonably mild), ran out to the river and grabbed a few exposures.

Oh to have been there a few minutes earlier with another lens or two in hand! There are so many good photographs hiding in these frames…

Anyway, as Dewitt Jones says, celebrate what nature gives you – and I do. So here’s a little “fire on the water” from our little corner of the world.

You might be asking “No sunsets?”. Nope. I live right next to a river and, for all it’s beauty when you are next to a river you are, by definition, at the bottom of a valley. To the west from where we are the land rises up, so the sun drops below the horizon a good 30 minutes before it “sets”. Only when the clouds are in the right configuration do we get anything resembling color in our sunsets — and believe me that doesn’t happen very often (like maybe a couple of times a year at the level that these photos are at). Over the past 8 or 9 years I think I only have one other set of images with similar conditions. And now you know why I wish I was thirsty a few minutes earlier!

Sudbury River – Cold Winter Morning

Dave — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:43:57 +0000

Now that I’ve begun my photography project for 2012, the temperatures suddenly drop to around 10 degrees F… Sigh!

January 2012 Wallpaper

Dave — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 21:22:15 +0000

It is becoming increasingly difficult to find a “typical” photograph of January here in Massachusetts. Today we took our grandson to a nearby playground with temperatures close to 50 degrees (F). Last year we were buried in snow and in 2009 we were in the single digits with the temperatures dropping below zero a few days later…

So here’s a mixture of water and ice of the Assabet River flowing through our backyard, “way back” in 2005. Even with all of that ice, you can see a little green below the water’s surface – a reminder that Spring is coming.

My best wishes to you and yours for a great 2012. My goal is to have a lot more photography posted here this year – perhaps not all of it that great, but I need to work on getting out more and so I’ve decided to focus on the Sudbury and Concord Rivers this year (in addition to my usual haunts). Of course the wallpapers will continue.

Happy New Year,

Dave Griffin

If you like the above image you can download it to your computer and use it as your desktop or tablet wallpaper. A few of the common screen sizes are available:

Download the 1024×768 version here. (Perfect for your iPad)

Download the 1280×1024 version here.

Download the 1680×1050 version here.

Technical stuff:

Canon 1D Mark II, 70-200mm f/2.8L at (gulp) f/25 and 90mm. 1 second exposure. ISO 100. (Almost certainly a polarizing filter — just looking at the water.)

Processed with Lightroom 3: bit of fill light and black point to bring out the subsurface details, clarity +30, vibrance +20, masked sharpening, and plenty of dust spotting.

Sachuest Point NWR

Dave — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:09:16 +0000

We thought it might be fun to get out of the house after the Christmas holiday so we decided to do a bit of planning for the coming year. We’ve always wanted to visit the Osprey nest sites in Westport and thought it would be a good idea to get a sense of the landscape before we head out with the kayaks. We also wanted to visit the Sachuest Point NWR to check out their visitor center and perhaps snag some shots of harlequin ducks or gannets that frequent the area. We were a bit surprised to arrive there to a packed parking lot. Later we learned that a Snowy Owl was in the vicinity and that’s what was attracting the crowds. Once again, some of the best photographs happen after the sun goes down.

No related posts.

December 2011 Wallpaper

Dave — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:56:30 +0000

It is a crazy time of year and I apologize for not posting this month’s wallpaper anywhere near on time… This is a sun pillar that I happened upon last December while driving home from a filming gig. It was much more pronounced earlier and I was hoping that it would hold together long enough for me to reach a spot where I could get a camera set up to capture the image. Not fantastic, but still a great sight to see.

If you like the above image you can download it to your computer and use it as your desktop or tablet wallpaper. A few of the common screen sizes are available:

Download the 1024×768 version here. (Perfect for your iPad)

Download the 1280×1024 version here.

Download the 1680×1050 version here.

Technical stuff:

Canon 5D Mark 2, 24-70mm f/2.8L at 50mm, 1/200 second at f/7.1, ISO 400.
Lightroom processing: Working to compress the dynamic range of the scene into something the screen can show. Tweaked the black point, bit of fill to bring out the clouds, some recovery to tame the sun, some clarity, smidge of vibrance, default sharpening.

November 2011 Wallpaper

Dave — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 21:59:08 +0000

Caught this scene a day or so before the very unusual October snowstorm slammed into New England. I was hoping for some great color and snow photos, but nothing about how the snow came and destroyed a lot of trees was particularly photogenic in my area. One side of our Japanese maple was particularly brilliant and I was trying to capture the melting morning frost on the leaves.

If you like the above image you can download it to your computer and use it as your desktop or tablet wallpaper. A few of the common screen sizes are available:

Download the 1024×768 version here. (Perfect for your iPad)

Download the 1280×1024 version here.

Download the 1680×1050 version here.

Technical stuff:

Canon 5D Mark 2, 100mm 2.8 Macro, 1/40 second at f/5, ISO 800.
Lightroom processing: Tweaked the black point, lots of clarity, smidge of vibrance, default sharpening (in haste — I should have done some masking and slightly more edge sharpening). That’s it!

Photowalk at Danforth Brook

Dave — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:55:09 +0000

On Saturday I “led” our local meetup group, the Metrowest Photography Collaborative, on a photo walk in nearby Hudson, at the Danforth Falls conservation area. This is one of my favorite local spots to photograph year-round and I enjoyed sharing it with my fellow photographers. Here are a few selections from my short visit there. (I shot a bit of video as well and may put together something in the next few days.)

October 2011 Wallpaper

Dave — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:06:27 +0000

My favorite season is nearly upon us and I thought this backyard scene from last year would set the mood…

If you like the above image you can download it to your computer and use it as your desktop or tablet wallpaper. A few of the common screen sizes are available:

Download the 1024×768 version here. (Perfect for your iPad)

Download the 1280×1024 version here.

Download the 1680×1050 version here.

Technical stuff:

Canon 7D,500mm f/4L, 1/25 second at f/4.5, ISO 400. (the branch was still but the flying insect under it was not…)
Lightroom processing: Tweaked the black point, bit of clarity, smidge of vibrance, sharpening. That’s it!