I'd been saving this one, and I'm glad I did. Unlike a lot of my shots of this, the Church of the Messiah in Bethlehem NH. This one's a three exposure HDR. It was in my early handheld exploration of HDR. I'd reccomend using a tripod for HDR, but with the latest updates to Photomatix, it's clear to me now that it's not entirely necessary. EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM @ 12mm ISO 200, f/7.1 at 1/200, 1/125, and 1/60 second

Lynne and I spent the 4th of July this year in CT. My excellent friend Max was having a house party, and before all the guests finished spreading out, I snapped this HDR of a guitar in the Library. EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM @ 10mm ISO 100, f/11 at 2, 6, and 15 seconds

So here we have the Lincoln Memorial, from my trip to DC last year. I've been saving some negatives (RAWs) from the trip to process later. This is one of them. White marble really pops when you run it through Lucis/Topaz Adjust. Good ole' Abe's never looked better! EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM @ 22mm ISO 800, f/4.5 at 1/60 second

While in Washington DC, Lynne and I saw many things. Many of these things were expected, and some things were not. One of the biggest surprises I had was the Ronald Reagan Building. I had not heard of it before, and it certainly isn’t a tourist attraction. I was taken in by the architecture of it, and some of the pieces of sculpture they had around the outside. Time will tell if any of the other pictures from the Reagan building will get processed, but I knew this one would be fun. Be sure to view this one large, as the scaled version doesn’t do it justice. EF-S 10-20mm f/3.5-4.5 USM @ 10mm ISO200, f/5 at 1/320 sec exposure

When I was taking this picture, I obsessed over trying to square up all the angles, as I usually do. I was ultimately unsatisfied with my burst of shots from this position, as no matter what I did, the damn lights didn’t align nicely. I was sure this photo just wasn’t meant to be. But then, one day I was looking through my wordpress search engine terms (i.e. things that people typed into google or bing when they clicked through to this site) and I saw that if you bing “Ronald Reagan Building” I’m one of the top results. Pretty nifty. I wanted to see what else came up, and I was browsing through some photographs that others had made at this most interesting building. I guess there are a number of outside corridors that look just like this (I saw 4 I think, there’s probably more). Every photograph I saw, the lights were all over the place. I guess the architect and builders spent all their time on that crazy dome inside. Having my confidence renewed, I pulled this image into photoshop and began working it over. No matter what line I pick to straighten this from, I can’t get it right. Again, this is probably chalked up to uneven stones, so before anyone cries foul about “rotate and fix in photoshop” I challenge you to shoot this shot and get it straighter!! Geometric stymies aside, I’m actually quite happy with this image. It works well as a 4:5 ratio print as well, trimming some off some of the bottom, although I’m showing off the full image. EF-S 10-20mm f/3.5-4.5 USM @ 22mm ISO400, f/5 at 1/40 sec exposure

I had just finished putting my circular polarizer on my lens when I saw the airplane take off. I quickly snapped this shot, and luckily the CPL was in the right position. Not much fancy here, just good old fashioned equipment work, decisive timing, and some Lucis layering to show detail on the monument itself. EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM @ 28mm ISO200, f/5.6 at 1/250 sec exposure

Another image from the trip to DC. This one was taken on our first outing into DC proper. The weather was great that day, and we got to some great places right as the sun was setting, so the light had that magical twilight-ish quality to it. This image practically made itself, but I still used some Topaz Adjust on it to make the detail pop a bit. I got some great shots around this memorial, so I’d be surprised if this was the only shot I uploaded. Expect to see more of it soon. “It is evil things we shall be fighting against, brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution.” – Neville Chamberlain 1939 EF-S 10-20mm f/3.5-4.5 USM @ 16mm ISO200, f/7.1 at 1/125 sec exposure

Capitol Building, Washington DC It’s been a while since I’ve updated. but I have good news for all you photo fans out there! Lynne and I just got back from another wonderful trip. This time (in case the photograph didn’t tip you off) we visited our lovely capital, Washington DC. This means you can expect more updates from me in the coming weeks as I sort through and process the images I snapped! We stayed in Fairfax VA for a week, and took the Metro into DC. Every day we went into DC it was supposed to be humid, and rain. Thankfully it didn’t rain on us, and I never let the threat of rain deter me from bringing my camera with me! This was taken on our last day in DC, which although hot and humid, was pretty ideal photo taking weather. It was bright, and there were some nice white clouds in the sky. While many of my recent nature shots have been heavily reworked and layered, this image has had very little processing done to it. It’s only a slight HDR, but it made a big difference. Enjoy! EF-S10-20mm f/3.5-4.5 USM @ 22mm ISO200, f/8 at 1/500 sec exposure

Civil War Memorial, Washington DC Directly to the east of the White House is the Treasury Building (expect a picture). A little ways in front of the Treasury is a rather interesting Memorial to the Civil War. I got a number of pictures of the Memorial itself, so don’t be surprised if I upload a pic or two of it later. The monument had two levels to it. The upper portion had inscriptions, and the lower level had some awesome statues of soldiers in uniform. It was 5:30 (thank you camera timestamps!) and being as how the monument was technically on Pennsylvania Ave, it was time to go. A very boisterous policeman told everyone the park was closing, and as I turned to leave, I spied this shot of the Washington Monument. This is a layering job, with some slightly HDR enhanced areas, but mostly just lots of good old fashioned photoshop layering exposure goodness. I really like the depth I caught in this. Not only does the statue seem to pop out, but the Monument in the distance really gives depth to the background. EF-S10-20mm f/3.5-4.5 USM @ 13mm ISO200, f/7.1 at 1/160 sec exposure

Another image from the Summer 09 trip to Bethlehem NH. There were a few crazy old churches along the road, most of them looking like old castles. I loved the doors on this building, so expect to see more of them. This is the Church of the Messiah. The building was showing its age in a number of ways, and it was just begging to be photographed. This is about three exposures from the same RAW, lucis’d for texture and pop, then layerd and blended in photoshop. I’m really qutie pleased with how the HDR treated the stain glass windows, doors, and the lights by the door. A hassle free print here, which is always pleasant!

So here’s another view of the church from yesterday. As I said in that post, it’s in Bethlehem NH, and was taken in June, 2009. This one didnt come out as good as the other one, but it’s a great church in general, so here’s the new photo of it. While the last photo was with my 28-105, this was with my 10-22. I would also like to officially announce the opening of www.andycalnan.com, which forwards to this site. In the week that I’ve been up and runing I’ve recieved over 300 hits, more than half of them coming in yesterday. Thank you all for the views, and big thanks for those of you nice enough to comment. SwittersB of http://swittersb.wordpress.com/ was nice enough to give me a full out plug on his blog. Be sure to check him out for all things Fly Fishing! EDIT: The one bad thing about shooting old stone buildings like this… you pick a point and straighten your image around it, and because the building’s uneven, it makes it crooked everywhere else! Gr! So if you think it looks crooked, look at a different spot in the image. It might not be!

Well by now I’ve posted a few shots of the church in Bethlehem NH. The first was the front entrance, and the second was a side entrance, facing the road. This view is from behind the church. There was an entrance tucked away on the back, possibly an entrance to the rectory, possibly just a back door for Santa to slip in through come Christmas time. The HDR on this brought out some great blue colors from the stones. As I’ve stated before, I love the doors on this place. Those lantern style lights are great as well. Hope you all like this one! Thank you all for your comments on my photographs! Shot @ ISO 200 f/9 at 1/2000 Sec Rebel XTi Using EF-S10-22mm USM 17mm

We return today to the Castle-like Church of the Messiah in Bethlehem New Hampshire. Something about the doors on this place just captivated me. Maybe it was the crazy lanterns, or just the general aged look of the wood. Before I took this into CS4 and started playing with Lucis, I decided to take a trip down alternative lane and took 3 exposures of this into Photomatix. I couldn’t get anything I liked, so I stuck with my normal approach. After some layering, masking, a slight crop to remove a shadow from the very right, and some quick levels adjustments I have an image I like. Similarly to the shot of the back door, Lucis amplified the blue tones in the stones. I accented it a little further and got some great pop from the stone. I might even put up some full res detail shots from this guy, as I’m really pleased with it. EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM @ 35mm Shot @ ISO 200 f/8 at 1/160 Sec

Another early single file HDR of mine, outside of South Station in Boston MA. Shot at 10mm when I had just dropped for my wonderful 10-22mm EFs lens. This photo was a little hot to the left, but I like the contrast it ads, almost like the building’s exploding out of the bottom left corner.

This photograph was also taken near South Station, in Boston. I shot this with my wide angle. I really enjoy how abstract this one is. The little white bit along the top black line is actually a bird, although you can’t see it so well here. Anywho, this is a fun photograph for making wallpapers. I’ve made more than a few from crops and details of this one, abstracting it further.

This was one of my first single file HDRs, taken in Wrentham. The field by the State School had flooded (as it does every few years), and I had a brand new DSLR to go try out! Well, my first time out wasn’t so good for that, but I did find this awesome broken down garage. Quite some time later I revisted it with HDR and some blending. I love how buildings decay all around us, and nature slowly begins to take them over again. From abandoned gas stations by the side of the road, to old sheds like this one.