Weekend HDR Workshop with John Barclay & friends

Eastern State Penitentiary - Abstract, originally uploaded by Nadia McIlhany.

Last weekend I went on an HDR photography workshop with John Barclay and my photo gal pals to the Philadelphia area. We started out at Eastern State Penitentiary. We had the opportunity to go into areas of the prison that were not open to the public. One cell block was a drippy, watery mess - COOL. Another was drier but long past its prime. It is hard to imagine what life was like in the prison - to spend day after day - week after week - month after month - year after year - in these concrete cells.

This image - an abstract - was the wall in one of the old cells. What you can't see is that this wall had pretty much detached from the other walls and light was streaming in around it.

After the prison we went to a graffiti area near the Delaware River. I'm not sure that I could get there again. And the second day of our workshop was spent at a place called Fonthill. I will be processing images for a while.

Click on this image to see others in my Flickr Photostream.

Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery, originally uploaded by Nadia McIlhany.

My friend Cathy and I went to Arlington National Cemetery yesterday to do some photography.

This is a special place. It is impossible to capture the significance of the the orderly rows of headstones that mark the graves of our nation's heroes. Some died in battle. All served our country and deserve our respect and gratitude.

On Memorial Day weekend, a flag is placed at every grave. This is a monumental task and I can not begin to know how the men and women that undertake this task feel as they set every flag. I was moved.

Click on the photo to see some of the other shots that I took yesterday.

Spring and Mother's Day

Today my boys - Charles, Joe, Ivan and Harvey - and I took a trip to Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia. There were lots of lovely flowers there. I will have to go back.

Green Spring Gardens, originally uploaded by Nadia McIlhany.

Mother's Day seemed like a good day for a family portrait.


And a good day for this week's self-portrait.

Some days just don't work the way you hope ...

Battery Weed, originally uploaded by Nadia McIlhany.

This past weekend, I drove to NY with my parents. I was hoping that I would find some time to do some cool photography and even located what seemed like a promising location on the way - the Gateway National Recreation Area contains Fort Wadsworth, a fort located underneath the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on Staten Island. Unfortunately we missed the one daily tour inside the fort by about an hour. And the weather was a little on the gloomy side. The Battery Weed (pictured) here, nonetheless looked pretty cool. Not exactly what I had hoped to shoot but ... some days are just like that.

Not Exactly Open to the Public ...

This past Sunday several of my photography friends (the daring ones), my son Joe, and I went on an Urban Decay photo adventure to the Henryton Center (aka Henryton Sanatorium, Henryton State Hospital, Henryton Asylum, etc...), an abandoned sanatorium just southwest of Baltimore near Patapsco Valley State Park. The Center was built in the 1920's and closed in the mid-1980's. It is now a ghost hunters' and photographers' playground. Well, it is not exactly a safe playground. A visit to Henryton requires you to take some serious safety precautions, including an asbestos rated (P100) dust mask, strong boots, a flashlight, ... Plus when you get home, you do not pass Go, do not collect $200 until you put your boots outside and your clothes in the wash. Needless to say, this is a cool place and I will probably go back one of these days - soon. I know that I missed a lot.

Click on the photo below and you will be magically transported to my Flickr photostream where more pictures live. Click on the photostream link and then click on the slideshow link in the upper right corner of the page. These are my first real ventures into HDR Grunge style photography - I've tried a little before but I think that I may be getting the hang of it ... or so I hop. Henryton was the perfect place to use this technique.

MAR_0462_1_0_tonemapped, originally uploaded by Nadia McIlhany.

Many thanks to Tony Sweet for alerting me to this place.

New Ways to Post my Images

My parents., originally uploaded by Nadia McIlhany.

I've been spending a lot of time on Flickr lately. I've been working on several self-portrait projects. The main project is "fiftytwo" - one self-portrait a week for a year. I have completed 4 weeks now. Once a week is not such a big time commitment - although I was scrambling this week - mostly my own fault. I also have joined the Flickr Group Roulette group. This is also a self-portrait group and the theme changes daily. Luckily you only need to participate when you want to. I've done a few.

While playing on Flickr, I noticed that I can link to my blog and facebook pages directly from Flickr. I'm experimenting with this interface. If it works out well, I may start posting all my blog entries this way.

We'll see.

This is a shot of my folks at my sister's house. We went there for dinner last night to celebrate my niece's 16th birthday. I'm not sure when she got to be 16. I remember just the other day ... but that is a story for another time.

If you want to take a look at my Flickr photostream, click on the photo of my parents above.

Forgot to Mention Montreal

I went to Montreal for work from February 11th to 13th. Yes, we flew home on Friday, the 13th - and that has its own story (I almost lost my passport - which you now need to go in and out of Canada from the US). I was excited to have a day after the work was done to see the city. Since I had my camera there for work it was a double bonus - and our expert even volunteered to show us around. He had lived in and around Montreal all of his life and knew lots about the city. But it was sooooooooooo cold that all I wanted to do was stay inside. We saw a lot of the city - but by car. And since I was the driver, it was not ideal for seeing stuff. The only opportunity I took to break the DSLR out of my camera bag was from an overlook on top of Mount Royal. We also went into the underground city for a bit and while the food court type place that we explored was quite colorful, I didn't really feel like taking any pictures there. So here is what I got.

You can't miss the "Big O" in this image. The Big O is the Olympic Stadium from the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Our guide told us that they have finally finished paying for the stadium. We had the chance to drive by the Big O. Yes, it is BIG!!!

Montreal is on an island so there are many bridges and tunnels. I think that we also drove under this bridge - maybe even over it. My normally good sense of direction got totally twisted on this trip. I was driving but just following the directions of our guide.

There are a few more shots on my Flickr photostream. Feel free to take a look.

I guess that I will have to go back to Montreal when it is warmer - summer looks to be an exciting time there.

Before I Call It A Day

Today, I went to the National Arboretum in Washington, DC for the purpose of shooting a self-portrait for my Flickr Fifty Two project - 1 year of weekly self-portraits. This was the end of week 3 and while I had shot a few things earlier in the week, I was hoping for something better since I would have more time to concentrate.

I got several shots which are posted here. This is a link to my main Flickr Photostream. I only chose one for this week. To see my entire Fifty Two project, click on the set that will appear to the right of my main photostream.

Here is one that I liked but didn't make it to my Fifty Two Set:



G'nite.

A little warm weather and ...

The other day I suggested (to my photo moms photography group) that we take portraits of each other - and to make it more interesting, we should take portraits of someone in the group that we didn't know very well. Michelle volunteered to be my guinea pig so today we met up at a local park to play at photography. It was at least 60 degrees after what seemed like cold that would never end. We weren't the only ones out there. The park was teeming with hikers, kids, dogs, etc. enjoying the sunshine. If I hadn't planned on the photography, I would have taken our dog, Ivan, out to play too. But it is probably good that he didn't join us, since I'm sure that he would have ended up in the creek or the pond. And what a mess that would have been!

I always have trouble finding things to shoot this time of year. While the weather was fantastic, the landscape was barren and mostly brown. There was still some ice on Walney Pond. And the ice and snow that had melted on the paths made the ground muddy - which I found out first hand when I slipped on a bank of the creek and ended up with a muddy backside.

Despite it all, I am pretty pleased with my shots today. Here are some of my favorites (click on any image to see it BIGGER):



There were some interesting dried seed pods and some interesting textures in the remaining ice so this is a combination of the two. I was inspired to try this image overlay technique after reading a John Barclay blog entry. John is one of my photography friends (and teachers). He really pushes his students to be creative with their photography - to try new things. So I did.



The idea was to take portraits so here is a shot of Michelle shooting me shooting her.




I always like shooting reflections in water. The sheets of melted ice on the pond made for some interesting images.



I really liked this seed and its wispy wings. There was a slight breeze and the shape of the wings changed in every image I shot. This one was my favorite.



Yes, I know, I said that the landscape was devoid of color ... not quite. These red berries caught out attention. Unfortunately these were across the pond from the parking lot which didn't make for such a great background. But as John and my other photography mentors have told me time and time again ... you have to work a subject. If the first shot doesn't work, try it from another angle.



Self Portrait in the pond today.

I will be posting more of today's shotes to my website:
Beyond Mere Words soon.

I'm heading to Montreal next week with my camera (I am actually going to Montreal to take pictures for work so, of course, I will have my camera) so my next post (unless I am inspired to shoot again tomorrow) should be images from my trip where it will be much colder than 60 degrees!!!

Another Wedding

On Saturday night I shot the wedding of my friends, Jed and Michelle. They were married at the Evergreen House in Baltimore, Maryland. It was a beautiful wedding. The venue was a lighting challenge - black ceilings and mirrored walls. I've been processing the pictures today. I only got pictures of myself in the mirrors a few times. Here are a few of the many pictures that I shot. Watch for more in the coming days.