Winter comes to St. Louis

STLMach1

Greetings,

We just had the worst ice storm here in St. Louis (and the midwest) that I can remember. Power is still out in many areas but it's created a true "Winter Wonderland"! :clap Here are a few captures from the past couple of days. Enjoy!

C & C welcome as I'm always open to learning more.

Blessings,
Michael

CatOne

The last one is by far my favorite. Might be just a tad better if you had used a wider aperture, or if you use a blur filter in Photoshop to blur out the background branches a bit. The bokeh on your lens isn't the best so the lines are not all that pleasing when half-blurred.

The third photo (branches and snow) is underexposed by at least a stop. The snow is grey... we all know snow is white but don't always pay attention. Look at the histogram when you're working with the photo... the right edge is "white with detail" so you should have a white blip fairly close to the right side of the frame.

Also, I like the sun obscured by trees in the second photo... where you can see the diffraction caused by the aperture blades in the lens. Marc Muench gave us a bit of a primer on this in the workshops... basically half-obscure the sun and shoot at f/16 or thereabouts for best effect. Here was an attempt I made at the Zion workshop (ignore the rest of the photo, it's crap basically ;-):

STLMach1

CatOne wrote:

The last one is by far my favorite. Might be just a tad better if you had used a wider aperture, or if you use a blur filter in Photoshop to blur out the background branches a bit. The bokeh on your lens isn't the best so the lines are not all that pleasing when half-blurred.

The third photo (branches and snow) is underexposed by at least a stop. The snow is grey... we all know snow is white but don't always pay attention. Look at the histogram when you're working with the photo... the right edge is "white with detail" so you should have a white blip fairly close to the right side of the frame.

Also, I like the sun obscured by trees in the second photo... where you can see the diffraction caused by the aperture blades in the lens. Marc Muench gave us a bit of a primer on this in the workshops... basically half-obscure the sun and shoot at f/16 or thereabouts for best effect. Here was an attempt I made at the Zion workshop (ignore the rest of the photo, it's crap basically ;-):

Thanks for the feedback. Per the last shot, I'm still using the original Canon lens that came with my EOS 30D and I cannot seem to get a wider aperature than f5.0 out of it. As far as the bokeh, I'm not certain how this lens ranks compared to others. I may try a little PS work to see if I can't blur the background a bit more.

The third photo (branches and snow) was shot on a very cloudy day and I'm still struggling with exposure (still a bit of a newbie). I honestly like the darker aspect of this shot. I bumped up the higher range with some curve adjustments in PSE which did whiten the ice and snow but it changed the "feel" I think the current exposure evokes. It is a bit darker than it should be though.

I really like the sun effect in your Zion shot. Some may feel this effect to be blasé, but I've always liked it.

Thanks again for the input.

Michael

fcorin13

Hello! I love #5! It's so magical looking! I love how it looks like sparkles in the background! Completely how everything looks around good ol' STL right now! Here's to hoping the power's back on soon (we still have my in-laws at our house- since Thursday night!) At least we get along really well! Anyways- beautiful captures! I also like #6- very interesting capture!

STLMach1

fcorin13 wrote:

Hello! I love #5! It's so magical looking! I love how it looks like sparkles in the background! Completely how everything looks around good ol' STL right now! Here's to hoping the power's back on soon (we still have my in-laws at our house- since Thursday night!) At least we get along really well! Anyways- beautiful captures! I also like #6- very interesting capture!

Thanks so much! I hope you're power has been returned by now. It's certainly too cold to be without heat right now. At least you were able to find someplace warm to go.

I appreciate your comments and really enjoyed your shots as well!

Michael

Seefutlung

I enjoyed your shots ... not very happy about the loss of power. My daughter just started her freshman year at Saint Louis University .... this is her first ice storm ... I hope her Southern Californian sandals hold up under all that ice (BTW... she was lucky and didn't suffer any power loss).

Good luck to you ... and I appreciate you looking at the "disaster" with your photographic eye.

Gary

STLMach1

Seefutlung wrote:

I enjoyed your shots ...

Good luck to you ... and I appreciate you looking at the "disaster" with your photographic eye.

Gary

Many Thanks, Gary! I hope you're daughter's adjusting to the lovely St. Louis climate. I'm sure it's been quite a shock to the system when compared to California.

Michael

Seefutlung

STLMach1 wrote:

Many Thanks, Gary! I hope you're daughter's adjusting to the lovely St. Louis climate. I'm sure it's been quite a shock to the system when compared to California.

Michael

Thanks Michael. Presently, it's still an adventure ... so it's all fun. But soon ... after a couple more ice storms ... I think the adventure will start wearing thin. At least she doesn't have to worry about earthquakes or mowing the grass in winter.

Gary