My Kind of Town

"My Kind of Town"

This is a view of Chicago taken from the vantage point of the Adler Planetarium.  It was late summer, all the boats were moored along the lakefront, and I was lucky enough to have a lovely, big-puffy-clouds kind of day.

The photo was taken with my Nikon N80, using trusty old Tri-X film, and I originally printed it in my darkroom.  My darkroom is now defunct, but I am still printing this photograph through the magic of a scanner, a computer and Photoshop.  Although I still miss the darkroom, I tell myself that digital photography and printing is "greener" - no chemicals going down the drain!  Now, I just have to recycle all those used ink cartridges.

This 9x16" print is for sale in my Etsy shop.  To see more of my black and white photography, please visit my website, The Photo Seen.

Don't Laugh

Today is very gloomy, lots of clouds, and rain threatening but never quite reaching the ground. The view out the window changes every few minutes, and when I saw some big, puffy clouds, I grabbed my camera and took several bracketed shots. I started at -2EV and ended with +3EV. This was going to be my first try at composing an HDR photograph.

Here is the "normal" auto-exposed photo, which I tweaked in Photoshop using curves and levels. Nothing special.

When I merged six images into the HDR program, and then tweaked them using Topaz, I came up with this:

Yikes! Not what I was expecting, not at all realistic, but it is very dramatic and "artsy," which I do like. The clouds ended up with some pink highlights - I have no idea how that happened. Later, however, when I looked out the window again, I did notice some pink in the clouds and the sky. It was just a lot more real looking than the HDR photo, which seemed to harden that pink color.

I can tell I will be having a lot of fun learning how to do this properly!

In the Deep Heart's Core

Photo:  "Inisheer"

copyright Mary Lanigan Russo

Yesterday, Rick and I met Alice McMahon White at the Beverly Arts Center.  We hung 24 of my Irish images for the upcoming exhibit, "In the Deep Heart's Core: Ireland by Chicago Artists."  Although the exhibit officially opens on Friday, February 27, most of the art work is already hanging throughout the public spaces of the BAC.  

In addition to my own photography, you will see Keelan McMorrow watercolors, Mary Phelan landscapes, Robert Johnson landscapes, and pastel landscapes and photos by Alice McMahon White.

Visit the first floor hallway near the theater entrance, the Atrium (also on the first floor), and the second floor hallway outside of the gallery to see all the wonderful images of Ireland.

There is a lot happening during the month of March at the Beverly Arts Center - be sure to stop by!

Photomerge

I love the Photomerge feature in Photoshop! I took several photos of the lakefront last week, when it was 17 degrees below zero and the lake was steaming in the freezing air. (I did not go outside - this is the view from my apartment!) Using Photoshop, I stitched several images together to make this panoramic view. I started with five images, applied Photomerge, then cropped it, using probably 2.5 images altogether. The final image is approximately 19" x 5.5".

I love the lakefront, and I photograph it a lot. The steam on the lake looked like wisps of clouds, which fascinated me. It was so peaceful and beautiful - but I was so glad to be indoors that day!