Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Only in New York…

Here is a photo I just came across while getting ready for my upcoming art show (invitations to the opening will be going out soon). Last week Eddie and I spent a day wandering around in New York City, something we really enjoy doing. We stopped at Washington Square Park to listen to a jazz combo, and on our way out of the park we came upon a wedding party posing for a unique photo. A crowd had gathered around the group, and the wedding photographers were not the only ones taking pictures. It was truely a New York moment!




As we enjoyed the music of the jazz combo playing on the west side of the park, Eddie thought the trumpeter was the same one we heard on the east side of the same park on Memorial Day weekend. Sure enough, when I check my photos from last May, there was the same musician with a different backup group.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Long Island Photo Walk — Old Westbury Garndens

Anita Welden, one of the participants in the Northport (and later in the day, Jones Beach) Photo Walk on July 18, is sponsoring another Long Island PhotoWalk next Sunday at Old Westbury Gardens. Information below:

LI Photowalk


Sunday, Aug. 23, 2009 (Aug 30, Rain date) - 2:00-5:00PM

Old Westbury Gardens

71 Old Westbury Rd, Old Westbury, NY 11568-1603

Directions: http://www.oldwestburygardens.org/directions.htm

Meet at: TBD. When I get the map of the grounds I will scan it and mark the meeting location.

Family and friends welcome.

Additional info:

- Tripods are not allowed, monopods are OK. No photography is allowed inside the Westbury House at all.

- Large bags or backpacks are not allowed inside the Westbury House.

- Bring water and food, since there's an 'iffy' source of refreshment. There is a 'Cafe in the Woods' and a picnic area. The Cafe closes down at 3:00, and is not in operation during inclement weather.

- Admission Fees:

$10.00 - General admission for House and garden

$8.00 - Seniors (62+)

$5.00 - Children 7-12 (under 7 free)

Planning to join us? Questions?
Send email to Anita (Anitahug7@aol.com) or Ann (ann@AnnParryPhotography.com) that includes "Photowalk" in subject.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

You are invited…

Today we hung my show at the Wilkes Gallery (91 Main Street, Northport). This is the second year I have had the opportunity to display my photos at the gallery, and it is alway exciting to see my canvases displayed on a gallery wall. It it wouldn't look the way it does, which I think is really good, without my husband Eddie. Beside doing the heavy lifting and hanging the peices, he has such a good eye for hanging the photos - and I literally stood by while he decided what should go where. I also want to thank my good friend Marie for coming down to help us out.



The show will be on display through August 18. I hope those of you in the area will get a chance to visit the gallery and see the show. I'll be at the Gallery on Saturday, August 15 from 1:00 to 3:00 P.M., so if you are in the area, please stop by and say hello!




Monday, August 10, 2009

I highly recommend…

Food is not a usual subject of my photography, but these shots were taken at the Northport Farmers' Market during last month's Photo Walk, and I thought they would be appropriate after seeing the movie Julie & Julia yesterday. It was wonderful. If you like a good film, or you like to cook, or eat, or all three, then see it as soon as possible. Eddie and I saw it yesterday and I just had to share my enthusiasm — and a few photographs of food.

The fish and lobster both relate to the movie…especially the lobster. A scene in the movie revolves around a lobster, and we read an article that said that the humane society had to be on the set to make sure that no lobsters were harmed in the making of the film. How weird is that!



Tuesday, August 4, 2009

How it was done…

To see how Joe Nuzzo produced his winning HDR photograph, visit the Flickr page he set up. On the page he features the five photos used to composite the image, with an explanation of what he did for each step.

And the winner is…

The selection for best photo from the Northport Photo Walk was this photo by Joseph Nuzzo. The photo uses the very popular High Dynamic Range Technique — better know has HDR. With HDR, there is strong detail in the highlights and shadow, and often the colors are intensified. True HDR photographs are made by combining a series of pictures of the same subject, each exposed with different settings. To create the effect, Joe used Photomatrix Pro (http://www.hdrsoft.com/), software designed for HDR photography, and he used Lightroom 2.4 for finishing. While he often uses Photoshop CS4 for touching up his HDR work, he did not use it for this photo.

If you would like to find out more about how Joe achieves the HDR effect you can contact him through his website, shutterspeak.net. A good source for HDR tutorials can be found at http://tutorialblog.org/hdr-tutorials-roundup/ and the National Association of Photoshop Professionals also features some HDR tutorials for members.

As the participants in the Photo Walk already know, I did not make the choice for the winner myself — I chose five finalist and put it to a vote (most of the finalists voted for themselves, so their votes did not count). I am not usually reticent to make a choice, but I did have a problem with this contest. The photo I would have chosen as the winner was taken by a good friend, and to avoid possible bad feelings, I decided to let the walk participants cast their vote. The other four finalist photographs appear below.