Landscape – Page 30 – Decaseconds

Three Views of Downtown Seattle in the Summer

2015-Dec-30 adohertyhLeave a comment

The year has nearly come to an end, and winter has finally arrived in the North Country, but before I look to the future, I wanted to take another look back at my summer travels to the West Coast, and particularly to Seattle.

An early morning stroll brought almost-empty streets and golden hues.

The standard trappings of city life are a little surprising after a year spent in rural New York. Even this mild-mannered cab (particularly a Crown Victoria) looked like it had been placed by the crew of an about-to-begin film set.

The cheek-to-cheek connection of port and industry with everyday life surprised me the most. Ferris wheels and giant cranes share the water.

Creek Through Stowe

2015-Dec-28 adohertyh3 Comments

This winter that won’t begin has brought strange landscapes to New England. Along Little River through Stowe, VT, the environment is in a strange flux/limbo. Add the snow with imagination?

Morning Rays on Portland

2015-Dec-232015-Dec-23 adohertyhLeave a comment

Across the cityscape of Portland, rays of morning light slash down from the clouds. The reflective surfaces make a compliment for the texture of the skyscape.

The Vernon Blur

2015-Dec-21 adohertyhLeave a comment

Strange weather persisted, but living in the North Country, I always knew the truth: Winter is coming!

This photograph, from Thanksgiving 2014, looks far more like winter than anything I see out my window today.

Rainy Hotel Afternoon

2015-Dec-20 adohertyhLeave a comment

A quick Sunday bonus shot: an alternate view from my window in Columbus, where I also took this shot.

Fall Vista

2015-Dec-17 emceehammrLeave a comment

The Appalachians aren’t my favorite mountain range but they’re in the top 5. The vistas from the AT are pretty spectacular.

Target Practice

2015-Dec-162015-Dec-16 adohertyh2 Comments

A driving range isn’t complete without a car husk at 200 yards. There’s some sort of great driving/driving range pun to be made here.

Hanging out in Ski Country

2015-Dec-14 adohertyh2 Comments

Northern Vermont is a magnificent place in the winter: skiing, hot cocoa, quaint inns, etc. This warm winter has left those skiers waiting for the actual snow to arrive, however.

Last Light on a River

2015-Dec-11 adohertyh1 Comment

Continuing my exploration of the capabilities of Aurora HDR from Wednesday, I processed this image from high above central Pennsylvania after sunset using that software and the Noiseless CK package to unbelievable results—that is, I literally could not have achieved this image with an acceptable level of noise using my earlier workflow. Though it’s still not perfect, I can’t stop examining the path of that river, lit by the last few photons of the day.

Portland Pearl Aurora

2015-Dec-09 adohertyh2 Comments

This is more than a vibrant, glowing, living moment of late-night city life from the Pearl District of Portland, Oregon; this picture is the first I’ve ever processed with a new piece of software, Aurora HDR. It was processed only with Aurora, with no other fiddling in other programs. (As you may know, I’m typically a die-hard Photomatix+Photoshop workflow guy.) I’m not sure what place Aurora will have in my workflow long-term, but I have to at least say this: its noise reduction algorithms are by far the best I’ve ever seen. (Noise is the main enemy of good HDR shots.) I’ll bring you a longer report when I’ve had more seat time with it.

Columbus Nightfield

2015-Dec-02 adohertyh2 Comments

Rainy nights make for the best hotel stays; when the city is a strange mix of old brick and modern blah* (hello, Columbus!), a cloudy sky lit by unnatural light matches the alienating mood.

*Where “blah” = solid but uninspired office buildings.

Wake Up with Towers

2015-Nov-23 adohertyhLeave a comment

The longer I spend in small-town life, the more alien a view down the tree-lined streets of Seattle becomes. If the warm towers are a rare sight, the man crossing the street with his dog is a more normal image for me to concentrate on.

Escape the Suburbs

2015-Nov-20 adohertyhLeave a comment

The gradient from dense, urban (and suburban) areas to rural and natural settings is one of my favorite photographic subjects—and the subject of most of my favorite photographs. In this particular aerial shot from the in-between area over Pennsylvania, the sun has mostly set, leaving shadows and a few orange reflections in the overly ordered geometry of subdivisions. Down the winding highway, beyond the hills, in the less-dense and more agrarian land, the sun still casts a warm glow.

Autumn in the American Backyard

2015-Nov-18 adohertyh5 Comments

In most of North American, a lawn of short grass has no business being near enormous, deciduous trees; this particular image matches an afternoon of improbably sunlight with that preposterous botanical mix.

Industrial Birches

2015-Nov-13 adohertyhLeave a comment

I couldn’t resist just one more image from the foothills of the Adirondacks in this weird, gentle fall. The bright blotches of birch branches (I couldn’t help myself) and their attendant leaves stand in contrast to the mechanical, industrial aspects of the scene.