ISO 200, f/8.0, 1/160 sec, Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XSi, EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

When I was in Washington DC at the beginning of June, I snapped several photos but none of them really impressed me. Today I took some time to bring this photo from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial into Topaz Adjust. I gave it bit of an oil painting look with a bit of HDR. What do you think?

Wallpapers: iPad iPhone

ISO 100, f/22, 1/6 sec

Here is another shot from the Smoky Mountains. I did a small amount of HDR from a single exposure using Topaz Adjust, and then faded it a bit in Photoshop.

I know I've been bad about posting lately. I'll try to be better about it.

ISO 200, f/4.5, 1/200sec

Still haven't gotten a chance to get out and shoot this week, so here is an old one you'll actually find in the Photo Gallery. This was taken when I first got my Canon XSi, and I recently took it into Topaz Adjust to give it an HDR look.

Happy Easter!

ISO 200, f/3.5, 1/2sec

This is the 1904 Dare County Courthouse in Manteo, NC. I took this photo while we were waiting for our walking ghost tour to start. Ironically, this was the first stop on our tour! This building is allegedly haunted, but i don't remember the details behind the haunting.

I was surprised to see that this photo was shot with a 1/2sec shutter speed. I know I didn't have a tripod on me, so I imagine I shot this with the camera resting on a stationary object nearby. I can't imagine I shot this handheld with such a longer shutter speed.

My memory about the details of this photo are escaping me because the most memorable event that took place the night this photo was taken was when we almost got arrested because our ghost tour guide took us on private property they did not have permission to take us on!

I added the HDR affect in Topaz Adjust. I'd imagine you're sick of hearing about Topaz Adjust by now. Trust me, they don't sponsor me or anything like that. In fact, I doubt they even know I exist.

ISO 800, f/6.3, 1/250sec

Last week I posted a photo of a Coast Guard boat which I converted into an HDR. In that post, I indicated that I wasn't happy that the photo was a bit blurry, and that the available light prevented me from getting a sharp picture.

I actually got some very positive feedback on that photo on my Google Buzz feed which suggested ways to correct the problem in the future, and also pointed out something I hadn't noticed in my picture -- that the foam near the boat had a magenta tinge to it. The commenter was right, and I hadn't even noticed it!

Well, as it turns out, I had another shot of the boat which had many of the suggestions that were made (increase the ISO and a wider aperture to get a faster shutter speed).

So, consider this my second attempt at the same photo. I know it isn't the exact same photo as the original one, but I think it addresses many of the concerns that viewers and ultimately I had with the first photo. It just doesn't have the same sense of action as the original photo does though.

Thanks for the positive feedback!

ISO 200, f/4.5, 1/400sec

It is cold and rainy outside, so I haven't been able to get out and shoot this weekend. That's okay though, because I still have a large collection of photos I can share. I need to get out and shoot soon though, because I don't necessarily think I have a large collection of photos people would want to look at!

This photo is one of the very first photos I shot when I got my new Canon XSi DSLR. I did a bit of sharpening in Lightroom and then took it over to Topaz Adjust to give the image a little bit of pop.

I promise I have some unaltered images coming later this week!

ISO 200, f/11, 1/250/sec

In the previous post, I mentioned that two Coast Guard boats went speeding past our ferry boat. Well, this is the silhouette of the second boat against the sunset.

I had to hang off the side of our ferry boat to get this shot, but I knew I would be able to do it handheld as I was shooting into the sun.

The photo out of the camera looked great, but I still couldn't resist taking this photo into Topaz Adjust. Topaz is like a new toy that I can't quit playing with!

This photo is on my Flickr page and has gotten several positive comments. It has also been added to several HDR and sunset groups. I'm big time now! :)