Just finished editing photos from our Christmas weekend in Phoenix, AZ. We stayed at the Hermosa Inn near Phoenix. We celebrated Christmas Saturday morning. And came home to a big snow storm. Which wasn't really serious at all.
Today I decided to shoot some HDR images at the Mill. When I got there, I had shot several buildings But the red barn seemed an excellent choice to work with in Nik's HDR Effects Pro software. The images take on a much more vibrant painterly punch. Which I really like using for artistic effects. For those of you that might be interested, I shot the barn with a Nikon D300s, and a Tamron 17-50 mm f2.8 lens. The photos were then edited in Aperture 3.
The other day I decided to try out the Nik Software HDR Effects Pro I recently purchased. It's a stand alone plug in that can be used in either Photoshop, Lightroom, or Aperture. Awhile back I had photographed Hallman's General Store because it's such a charming "country" general store near Chester Springs.
Lately I've been shooting a series of photographs I have found in Chester County that relate to Americana. Everywhere I have traveled I see something that says "Americana." The one thing I see the most is old farm machinery that is left out to rust and decay. It is sad to see that local farmers have been having a tough time surviving. If you would like to see more of my Americana images, please go to: http://tommckean.zenfolio.com
We haven't been to St. Croix in quite awhile. The last time we were there the condo pool was an ugly shade of green. The condo staff had neglected maintaining the pool last year when we were there. What a mess they had to clean up! I sure hope they got this fixed the next time we go to St. Croix.
Also while at Longwood Gardens, I spotted this unusual stone base. It reminded me of the Greek statues in Greece. The bias relief artwork fascinated me. It was very surreal looking.
Phoenixville has an abundance of musicians hanging out on Bridge Street. Came across Zack Orion from Charlottesville, VA kicking out a few riffs on his banjo. Violinist Ian Babcock (Also from Charlottesville) filled out the music with Zack. Zack was in town to visit his son.
I discovered a fantastic place in Phoenixville, PA called the Sunstone Studios. They feature live performances Friday and Saturday night. Caught David D. Dougherty's unusual free form music last Saturday. very interesting musician.
One of the bands I photographed was Glossary. Which featured Joey Kneiser and sister Kelly Kneiser. They were the dynamic force of this Tennessee based Southern rock band. Lighting was tricky as it cast shadows in unwanted places. But I got good photos anyway.
One of the greatest blues players I got to photograph was Taj Mahal. His music is very powerful and is a driving force in blues. If you ever get a chance to see Taj, do so. He puts on a very exciting show.
Erin McKeown lights up the stage with her vibrant electric sound and movement. Erin reminded me of Janis Ian when she was a young folk singer of the 60's. Photographing Erin was a blast. Lighting was beautiful. Auto focus was crisp and sharp as she moved around on the stage.
Jeff Tweedy was my first experience with a 3 song limit. Of course I was able to get a lot of shots within the first song. The stage lighting was very nice and soft. Exposure was at iso 3200 with very little noise to filter out. I used manual focusing to get the shutter speed up to 1/250th of a second at f2.8 - 5.6. Auto focus is set to continuous so I can concentrate of shooting the performer as he moves around.
One of the most interesting bands at the PFF was the Djarra group. They were formally from Haiti. A very unusual sounding band.
