Tag: nature

Ohio River Morning

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Orange Dawn

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This panorama was taken from the Big Four Bridge looking upriver; the river seems so calm and sleepy in the early morning hours. I really liked the way the sky was reflected in the river that morning and the minimalist feel that it imparted.

I processed this image in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 using the Deep 2 preset as my start point.

Not much more to add except that I hope all my readers here in the US have a great Thanksgiving holiday. I’ve baked three pumpkin pies and a sweet potato casserole as my contribution to our family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Now all I need to do is deliver them and then sit back and enjoy our family’s company.

Over the Top

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Over the Top

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Today’s image was taken from above the Big Four Bridge when Tim Williams took me up in the 135 foot tall man lift. We were in one of the middle spans on the bridge and as he worked the basket through the bridge super structure I saw this image. We were looking south over the top of the bridge and for the first time I saw the beauty of the elliptical  ramp that leads up onto the bridge from Waterfront Park. The ramp is a quarter mile long and is an engineering marvel. It incorporates multiple radia as it spirals up to the bridge. The engineering that went into designing and building it have led to numerous engineering and architectural awards.

I chose to process this black and white version in Aperture 3 using the Black and White adjustment panel. I tried all the various filters and ultimately opted to use the orange filter to get the level of contrast I was looking for. After that I adjusted the exposure, contrast and sharpening before exporting it as a 300 DPI JPEG file.

Magic Morning

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Magic Morning

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It’s been a while since I posted anything but I’ve been busy shooting the final days of the Big Four Bridge project. I shot this image from the Big Four Bridge a couple of weeks ago and just found time to process it last week.

Though it appears to be a HDR image this image is from a single frame and was processed entirely in Aperture 3. I chose to use this frame from the bracket set I shot because it had an excellent histogram that was not blown out in the highlights or blocked up in the shadows. It was very early in the morning and the sunlight had not begun to illuminate the shoreline but the reflections of the clouds were so dramatic I couldn’t resist the shot.

Big Four Bridge at Sunset

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Big Four Bridge at Sunset

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I’ve been taking a few days off from the blog to focus on my ongoing Big Four Bridge documentation project as the construction nears completion. I’ve been able to photograph the men as they are working and last week I was there as the first section of the final bridge deck was poured. Watching the crew at work is amazing as they go about floating the concrete, then hand finishing the edges and finally applying a broom finish to it. Tomorrow the pouring resumes and I’ll be there with my camera to capture the ballet that goes on as they place the concrete and finish it.

This image was captured last week after thunderstorms had moved through Louisville. I wanted to create an image that showed the Big Four Bridge from the eastern side. It is difficult to get a good vantage point to shoot west and include the Big Four Bridge. I have found that there is a vantage point on a small platform that is just east of the bridge that affords a pretty good view of the bridge.

I processed this image entirely in Aperture 3 without using any plugins or HDR software. I shot an entire bracket set but decided to only use one frame that showed a good histogram that didn’t indicate blown highlights and with just a little blocking up in the shadows. I’m really enjoying working with single frames as opposed to merging several frames in a HDR program as it challenges me to shoot for good exposures that have broad histograms.

Waterfront Park View #2

Posted on by Nick Roberts
We’ll Be Landing in Louisville

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This is another shot I took from high above the Big Four Bridge last month.  It was early and the sun was just rising when I captured this scene. The airplane in the sky adds interest to an otherwise empty sky. The river is so placid early in the morning almost as if it has been sleeping and is just waking to a new day. Waterfront Park is a treasure that many Louisvillians are unaware of; the park extends east of downtown for several miles and reinvigorates a former blighted area of Louisville. The park sits on land that at one time had nothing but scrap yards, asphalt terminals, barge docks and derelict structures all along the riverfront. The land has been reclaimed and decontaminated over the past twenty five years to create one of the most unique parks in America.

I processed this single frame HDR image in Aperture 3 and NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 to get just the right atmosphere.