Same scene... different result! Smoky Mountains of Tennessee...

Who knows where the time goes... a little something different today... a fall scene from the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee with two images from the same location. One image was shot with my big girl camera (Nikon D7000 with 18-200mm Nikon lens; aperture priority) and one with my iPhone 4s native camera in HDR mode. Both were processed further, the big girl image post processing was done in Lightroom, Viveza 2 and Color Efex Pro 4. The iPhone image post processing is covered on my iPhone blog.

First, the "big girl" camera image: Second, the iPhone camera image:

The two images have a completely different feel to them... I like them both for different reasons. One of the most wonderful things I've discovered in taking tours with John Barclay and Dan Sniffin (marvelous tour leaders) is how much fun it is to play around with the original image to enhance the beauty of what my eye sees. Their tours always involve scouting on their part before we arrive in the area so we are assured that they will be taking us to scenes such as this one.

Washington Monument in late afternoon light... Washington, DC Spring 2011

My cousin Jane and our friends Dennis and Susie took a photography workshop with Blue Ridge Workshops this past Sunday evening... we were learning about night photography while photographing the war memorials on the Mall in Washington, DC. This image was taken just as the sun broke through the clouds near sunset... it lit up the monument beautifully. Look closely and you'll be able to see the Capitol Building through the flags to the left of the base of the Washington Monument.

Posted to share at communal global for Tuesdays around the World.

Post for Tuesday's Around the World

My cousin Jane and our friend Susie were on our way home from a day together exploring the nearby Maryland/Virginia/West Virginia countryside when we pulled the car over to see if we could find a spot from which to photograph the glorious sunset sky.

We had spent the day together, wending our way toward a visit to my favorite potter in Sharpsburg, MD with stops along the way to photograph whatever caught our eye. This was taken in Boonsboro, MD after we discovered we could wander down behind some buildings on the main street and get a mostly unobstructed view of the sky! If you want to read more of the story and see more images from our photographic adventure, check out my other blog starting with this post.

This post is for sharing on "TUESDAYS AROUND THE WORLD" at communal global. I've been writing my own blogs for awhile now and have only recently discovered a community of folks who share images based on a theme. I'm finding it interesting but am so busy that I'm also wondering if I'll be able to keep it up long term. Meantime, it's fun and a good way to meet other bloggers so you might want to give it a try yourself. (my previous post was shared too so check it out for another place to share images if you are into macro photography)

Recently resurrected roadside landscape from the Stanley, Idaho area...

A friend stopped by today to learn a few tricks from me about using Lightroom 3 software for photo management. He's more of a novice using the software than I am and although I am by no means an expert, I was able to show him a few things that will give him a good basis for learning more.

The best part about our 'training session' today is that he showed me a marvelous trick for viewing images that are buried deep in my old iPhoto library from within Lightroom. Believe me, I do not want to put EVERY image I have in iPhoto into a Lightroom catalog... but being able to browse through my iPhoto library using Lightroom to pick and choose a few of the images for future editing is marvelous!

This image from a September trip to Stanley, Idaho in September of 2009 is one that I don't believe has been seen online before today. The area around Stanley, Idaho includes lakes, rivers and the beautiful Sawtooth Mountains. Just about anywhere in the area around Stanley, one can find scenes such as this one, taken with my D90 and the 18-105mm lens I was using at that time.

The other thing I learned how to do today was download a lens correction profile for that older lens and use it in Lightroom to correct for chromatic aberration, barrel or pincushion distortion or vignetting. Although many lens correction settings are built-in to Lightroom, some are missing and it was wonderful to discover that others have worked out those missing correction profiles and made them available online.

Scenic vista along I-270 north of Washington, DC - February 18, 2011

My cousin Jane, our friend Susie and myself decided to drive up to Foxcross Pottery (home and studio of a potter friend) recently and make a day of it... stopping wherever the spirit moved us to take photographs, have lunch and explore the countryside around both Shepherdstown, WV and Sharpsburg, MD.

Not too far from Washington, DC on I-270 before getting to the town of Frederick, MD is a scenic overlook which gives an almost 360° view of the countryside. It was a fairly hazy day and I wasn't happy with most of the images I took... this one pleased me, though, so I hope you enjoy it.

If you'd like to read a bit more about Foxcross Pottery and see a collage of images from our visit there, please see my other blog.

Round Two Image for Photography Slam competition...

The previous five posts qualified me for the Final Round in the Photo Slam competition described in this post. This image, entitled Mammoth Hot Springs... surreal landscape of the travertine terraces... is the one I chose for the final round where we were judged on a single image. Some of you may recall having seen it before when I posted it over a year ago after our September, 2009 trip out west.

The top three contestants in the photo slam will be featured in a gallery show at Glen Echo Park in November, 2011. I will definitely post more about that as the time draws near.

Hudson River Panorama from October, 2009

A bit of a change-up with this post... a panoramic view of the Hudson River Valley with West Point in the distance on the far shore. This was taken from the grounds of the Boscobel Mansion on the eastern shore of the Hudson the first weekend in October. This is another one of the images that will be included in the gallery show of my photography... opening Feb 12, 2010 and running until March 4,, 2010 at a local Bethesda, MD gallery. (The complete set of images that will be included may be viewed as a slide show if you care to have a look.)

View to the southeast out my kitchen window... SNOW!

This image is from the "BIG SNOW" of December 18/19 and was taken through my kitchen window during the height of the storm. I like this image for several reasons... one of which is the TV antennae attached to the neighbor's chimney... thought everyone had cable these days but I'm in an older neighborhood and with a high enough antennae, one can still get the main channels for viewing.

Big Sky Country... Absaroka Mountains near Fishtail, Montana...

Just finished an Adobe Photoshop Elements class so have been combing through my photos to find some that need work... want to practice skills learned before I forget them all! This image is from a couple of years ago and was taken with my first digital camera... a Nikon Coolpix P1... and shot through a quite dirty car window. So I used tools to clean up the smudges... cropped the photo to get rid of the hood of the car... and wound up with this "panorama" of the Absoraka Mountains outside of Fishtail, MT.

Panorama of Pilot and Index Peaks of the Absaroka Mountains... Wyoming

Am not at all sure how well viewing a panorama in this blog format will work... but we shall see. This was assembled from several images (about 14) and then cropped down to include only the central, most interesting (to my eye) portion of the panorama. I've learned a few things since taking and assembling this first attempt at a panorama and hope that future efforts reflect what I've learned. In the meantime, I'm quite pleased with this first effort!

Stanley Idaho... Sunset from the Bridge Restaurant...

We were the only diners who chose to sit on the rooftop deck at the Bridge Restaurant in Lower Stanley, ID... we had spectacular views of the Sawtooth Mountains... and the setting sun provided lovely light for this view across the Salmon River. The food was great too!! (from September, 2009... still working on image selection for my February gallery show and finding some I'd forgotten to post here)

Reflections of beauty... Mt. McGowan reflected in Stanley Lake, Idaho...

Still working on image selection for my February, 2010 gallery show... cannot believe I haven't posted this one previously... from our September trip out west to Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. (OOPS... and now that I've posted it here, I can see it would benefit from a little straightening in post processing... LATER!)

View of Sawtooth Mountains from Redfish Lake, Idaho...

Took the shuttle from the main dock on Redfish Lake to Redfish Inlet and hiked to Lily Pond... this view is looking back toward Redfish Inlet while returning after the hike... boat spray with mountain backdrop... more photos and details of the day's adventures are available.

Somewhere in Idaho... Spectacular Colors... Lovely Scenery...

We landed in Idaho Falls, ID earlier today and drove to Stanley, ID where we will stay for three nights. We took the route that takes one through Ketchum, ID and saw this lovely view from route 75 between Ketchum and Stanley.