Cape May Visit

12Nov09

I visited Cape May last weekend with my friend Wendy and a group from her camera club with whom I’ve become friends. We stayed overnight on Friday and Saturday and photographed a good variety of subjects during our stay. I will be showing some results over the next few days. This shot was made about a half hour before sunrise. I had scouted out this pier beforehand. It’s located in Avalon which meant getting up extra early because of the drive north. The sky didn’t provide any interesting cloud formations but I am pleased with the image none the less. In the large version the light and its reflection on the water below are more evident and add a bit of an accent.

Before Sunrise

'Before Sunrise' © Denise Bush


Day Tripper

24Oct09

A necessity for me each Fall is some kind of trip to look at the colorful foliage. Without a big trip planned this year, my husband and I ventured up to Harriman and Bear Mt. State Parks in NY earlier in the week. The park entrance was just 2 hours away … quite doable for a day trip. We headed to Sloatsburg, NY where we picked up 7 Lakes Drive which connects the southern end of Harriman State Park to Bear Mt. State Park to the north. There was no fee to enter the park and the scenery was very nice. We stopped at some lakes and did some light hiking. Our little Welsh Terrier thought he was in heaven and enjoyed swimming in the lakes and hunting chipmunks. Once in Bear Mt. State Park we took the Perkins Scenic Drive to the top of the mountain. Here we took in some nice views of the Hudson River Valley. The park is so close and easy to get to, I’m sure I’ll be visiting again.

'Autumn Glow' © Denise Bush

'Autumn Glow' © Denise Bush

'Autumn Afternoon' © Denise Bush

'Autumn Afternoon' © Denise Bush

'Hudson Valley View' © Denise Bush

'Hudson Valley View' © Denise Bush

'Bear Mt. Bridge' © Denise Bush

'Bear Mt. Bridge' © Denise Bush


A New Season

17Sep09

A new season has begun at the South Jersey Camera Club after a short summer break. Our meetings are once a month and we have competitions at each meeting; Digital (A & B Group) and Prints (A & B Group). One month the prints are color and the next month they are monochrome. We have an abundance of really great shooters and the competition is tough. I was lucky to pull off a 3rd place for the photo below. My memory served me well as I remembered the judge liked flower photos in previous years. For me, flower photos need to have a uniqueness to them. (There are so many out there.) What I like about this is the very selective focus (shot at f 2.8) and its swirling, abstract quality.

'Extreme Hibiscus' © Denise Bush

'Extreme Hibiscus' © Denise Bush


And More HDR

28Aug09

OK! I gave up on a couple of the images I was struggling with and have moved on. Here is one I am pleased with. This was the last shot of the day. I saw the sun beaming through this door and set up my tripod. Of course that was when the heavens decided to deposit a cloud overhead. I waited and the sun came back after a while — not as strong — but maybe that was a good thing.

'Door to Nowhere' © Denise Bush

'Door to Nowhere' © Denise Bush


More HDR

27Aug09

Here are a couple more images from last weekend’s HDR workshop. There are a few I have been struggling with to get the look I’m after. I’m determined to keep at it and hopefully will post them at a later date. One thing I learned is that each image is different. There is a lot of trial and error involved and processing takes some time (especially on my less than speedy computer). Comments welcome!

'Behind the Bars' © Denise Bush

'Behind the Bars' © Denise Bush

'Bare Necessities'  Denise Bush

'Bare Necessities' © Denise Bush


This weekend I participated in an HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo workshop. Led by the very talented Tony Sweet, we shot at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philly. I had a great time, got to meet Tony and some other nice folks, and learned a thing or two. The highlight for me is coming away with some captures I really like and some new HDR techniques to make them even better. I will be busy processing over the next few days and will be presenting more in upcoming posts. Below is one I am most happy with so far. The others in the workshop didn’t see this room and wished they had. But then, they had a few that I wished I had noticed too. That made sharing them at the critique even more fun.

'Seating Available' © Denise Bush

'Seating Available' © Denise Bush


Here are the last of the Colorado photos I will be posting. They were taken at different times during my great vacation in Colorado this July. Scroll down through the next five posts to see all of the images I have chosen to display and read about some of the photographic highlights. (To get back to the beginning click at the top on ‘Denise Bush’s Photo Blog’.) Comments at the end of the pictures in each post welcome!

'The Dog That Lives At The Purple House' © Denise Bush

'The Dog That Lives At The Purple House' © Denise Bush

'Rocky Mountain Sunflowers' © Denise Bush

'Rocky Mountain Sunflowers' © Denise Bush

'Rocky Mountain Scenic' © Denise Bush

'Rocky Mountain Scenic' © Denise Bush

'Yellow House, Purple Trim' © Denise Bush

'Yellow House, Purple Trim' © Denise Bush

'Rocky Mountain View' © Denise Bush

'Rocky Mountain View' © Denise Bush

'Bicycle at the Red House' © Denise Bush

'Bicycle at the Red House' © Denise Bush


On my last day I set out to Crested Butte for a shoot on my own. It was drizzling a bit but I was optimistic that it would be perfect by the time I reached my spot. The sky was dark when I arrived and when the sun finally did appear, it was high enough in the sky that the scenes already seemed too harsh. I went to a spot where the wildflowers grow among the aspen trees and shot but in looking at my results think it was just too contrasty.

I was concentrating more on scenery but when I found a rare, pink lupine in the shade, I attached my macro lens and captured the detail in the flower as well as some lingering rain drops. On the way back to Gunnison I stopped to take a picture of a log barn I had been eying all week.

Later that day we enjoyed a scenic drive to Altmont and dined in Crested Butte. There was a terrible thunder storm, with huge lightning bolts and hail that accumulated in piles like snow. It lasted about 20 minutes then the sun came out again. On the way back to the Mesa RV Resort there was a beautiful, full rainbow with a faint double rainbow. The lens I had with me only went to 28mm wide and I could not fit the whole rainbow in the frame.

Once back in Gunnison, my sister Gaile and I decided to run down to Blue Mesa Lake for sunset. To the west it was uneventful with barely any color in the sky. The sky look somewhat interesting to the north so I decided it might be worth battling a few mosquitos for the shots below.

'Rare Pink Lupine" © Denise Bush

'Rare Pink Lupine" © Denise Bush

'Log Barn' © Denise Bush

'Log Barn' © Denise Bush

'Rainbow & Pine' © Denise Bush

'Rainbow & Pine' © Denise Bush

'Blue Mesa Lake & Evening Clouds' © Denise Bush

'Blue Mesa Lake & Evening Clouds' © Denise Bush

Blue Mesa Panorama © Denise Bush

'Blue Mesa Panorama' © Denise Bush


One afternoon we took a drive to Lake City, another quaint western town with shops and ice cream! We strolled along the main drag soaking in the ambiance. I stopped to take a few shots in a cool community wildflower garden. Lake City has a very small population that grows an incredible percentage in the summer. Fishing, rafting and horseback riding are popular activities of vacationers. On the way back we searched for wildlife and spotted several Mule Deer. At one spot there were 5 males laying down in a field and all we could see at first were their antlers sticking up out of the tall grass.

'Fly Fishing' © Denise Bush

'Fly Fishing' © Denise Bush

'Old West Bottles' © Denise Bush

'Old West Bottles' © Denise Bush

'Garden Seating' © Denise Bush

'Garden Seating' © Denise Bush

'Mule Deer Bucks' © Denise Bush

'Mule Deer Bucks' © Denise Bush


One afternoon my sister, Gaile, my Dad and I drove in the opposite direction of Crested Butte, past Blue Mesa Lake to the Black Canyon and then on to ‘The Swiss Alps of the US’, Ouray. The Black Canyon brought back memories of a trip my husband (then boyfriend) and I took a trip out west after college graduation. We hiked down to the bottom of the canyon through one of crevices you see pictured below. It was scary and the water was cold when we finally got there. This time we didn’t stay long since my Dad wanted to get to Ouray and back before dinner. The trip to the high elevation of Ouray took us on some very high, winding roads … with no guard rails! It was a larger small town surrounded by tall mountains. In the winter they can only get out going south on the road.

'Black Canyon View' © Denise Bush

'Black Canyon View' © Denise Bush

'Black Canyon & Gunnison River' © Denise Bush

'Black Canyon & Gunnison River' © Denise Bush

'Town of Ouray' © Denise Bush

'Town of Ouray' © Denise Bush

'Ouray View' © Denise Bush

'Ouray View' © Denise Bush