Fine Art

2017 First Sunrise Over Iowa Farmland

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2017 First Sunrise Over Iowa Farmland

The Japanese have a custom of watching the first sunrise of the year.  My first year living in Japan friends took me to a Buddhist temple at midnight on New Year's Eve and then to a beach at sunrise.  I really like this custom.  So this morning shortly after 7am I took my camera and tripod out onto the frosty ground and watched the sunrise over an Iowa cornfield.  You can see five jets already streaking to far off destinations so early in the new year!

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Caloosahatchee River looking purple in long exposure at twilight

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Caloosahatchee River looking purple in long exposure at twilight

I have not made many photographs of Cape Coral in my time here for a variety of reasons.  This photo of the Caloosahatchee River at twilight is the start of a series of Cape Coral fine art photographs I will be making available for commercial license usage (on websites, in local marketing materials, etc) and also as fine art prints.  

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Just at Sunrise in St. Petersburg Florida Snell Isle Florida Panorama

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A view of Smacks Bayou in Snell Isle St. Petersburg Florida at sunrise - 4 image panoramaKiki wakes up around 6:30am each morning wanting to go out and depending on the time of year it is totally dark or already full daylight.  At this time of year, January, it usually times out so that I get a glimpse of the sunrise.  Instead of just going right back into bed as I usually do, this morning I came back inside and got my camera to go and make a few photos.  I ended up hand holding four consecutive shots that I later stitched together into a panorama in Photoshop.  

Florida Fine Art Photography - Pelican Texture Composite

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This is a composite of two images, with a texture abstract photo blended over a pelican photo.I have a folder of abstract and texture photographs I keep for when I want to make composite images like the one above.  It is fun sometimes to spice up an image by combining two (or more) photographs in a complementary way.  

A blurry photo of a bookshelf was overlayed onto the photo of the pelican in Photoshop.  I just adjusted the opacity of the book case photo down a little and set the blending mode to Overlay.  Then I layer masked a little of the bookshelf image off of the pelican to make the pelican look cleaner.  Digital Photography School has a good tutorial on how to do this if you would like to try it yourself!

Great Egret Fine Art Composite Canvas Prints St. Petersburg Florida Photography

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Now available for purchase is this unique great egret composite print.  Featuring three views of a great egret, including one in flight, all photographed in St. Petersburg, Florida.  

For a limited time only buy this print at 36"x9" on 1.5" thick canvas gallery wrap for $250 including shipping.  Larger sizes are also available.

This print will look great on any wall in your home, office or place of business.  Prints can be ordered as gifts too!

Photography Tip - fill the frame corner to corner - Florida Pelican Fine Art Photography

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Fill the frame corner to corner to make an impact with composition - brown pelican St. Petersburg Florida Fine Art Photography - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/250th

At any given moment, you can find a brown pelican to photograph in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida.  Chances are you already have numerous pelican photos in your archives.  This can be said for any number of common subject matters.  So how to make such a common subject stand out?  One way is to use a more creative composition, like having the subject fill the frame corner to corner.  Use the shape of the subject to fill the frame in the most complementary way.  For the pelican, with it's long narrow head, going diagonal corner to corner allows for filling the frame with the subject.  Also, going through the edges of the frame creates a very different impression than fitting everything inside (with any subject it also helps to have a good, clean, complementary background; in the above photo the dark water of Tampa Bay combined with the large aperture I chose creates a smooth, gray bokeh).

When you go out shooting next time look for a subject that you can frame corner to corner.