Gulf Fritillary

Yesterday, I was at a camera store talking with one of the sales people and he mentioned the difference of using a regular UV filter vs. a digital UV filter on the front of my lens.

After some experimenting and actually seeing for myself how the light was refracted on the regular UV filters, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the difference between the two.

When I left the camera store, I went to my favorite spot to shoot butterflies in Safety Harbor to prove it to myself. I had only 1 digital UV filter on my wide-angle lens and I switched it to my 75-300mm zoom to shoot the above photo. Prior to exchanging the filter, I was in the habit of not using this lens at its full zoom because it wasn't the sharpest lens. I was always wishing I could afford better lenses. What a difference in sharpness. It's like light and day.

The above photo (on the bottom) was taken hand-held in the wind with the digital UV filter on this lens, while the photo on the top was taken with a regular UV filter on my lens under the same conditions.

Even an untrained eye can readily see the difference.

If you like my work, please comment. If you'd like to see more, visit my website by clicking here.

Loyce

Ybor City Walk

I've been playing around trying to get the "photojournalist" out of me by trying to be more creative. I'm not sure how this is going to work out, but this is one of my latest experiments.

This is a study in lines and textures. It's a portion of the Movico 20 sign/marque for the theater at Ybor Centro in Ybor City, Tampa, FL.

I like the various curves of the marque, balanced with just a bit of the siding on the building, showing a little brick and a partial palm tree. I believe the round-looking this is supposed to be a movie reel. This is gorgeous lit up and I'll have to try it once more at night to show the lights.

I've also been experimenting with different processing techniques, mainly the grunge look which seems so popular these days. Here is an example of the look. I really need your opinion about this. The original version is the lighter version. The man is a homeless man and he's creating flowers from palm fronds. He charges for them. I need to give him credit, since he's not panhandling. He's giving you something for a donation.

I think since he's homeless, he looks too clean. So, I gave the image a grunge look to make it appear more realistic.



Which version do you prefer?

If you like my work, please leave a comment. If you would like to see more of it, please visit my website here.

Thanks for looking.

Loyce

A Little Bit of Yesterday

On Saturday, August 23rd, 2008, I participated in Scott Kelby's (Photoshop User TV personality) World Photo Walk. There were 44 countries and 260 American Cities represented in this photo walk. Each group was limited to 50 participants, and each location conducted a 2-hour walk.

I walked with Dave Cross, another Photoshop User TV personality) in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida. Our group had 51 walkers including Dave Cross. We were instructed to split up and walk around the city for 2 hours, but since we were having a tropical storm, we had to be prepared to duck into someplace to stay out of the rain should we get a sudden downpour.

We were lucky, since the rain pretty much held out for the rest of the day. There were a few sprinkles, but not enough to keep us from walking. I covered my camera with a plastic Zip Lock bag when it started to rain.

My main objective was to shoot something that said Ybor City, without shooting what everyone else was shooting.

This photo was taken from outside an antique clothing shop. I framed it to show the turn-of-the century shoes along with a few accessories. It was difficult dealing with reflections, but by holding the camera very close to the glass, I was able to get rid of the reflections while still maintaining sharpness and my chosen composition. I shot just a bit over 1 Gb of photos and this one is one of my favorites. The lighting, since it was overcast, was perfect for showing detail and had very good saturation. You can see more of the photos from this walk by clicking here.

Ybor City is an historical section of Tampa built around the cigar industry. It is also a popular night spot among the youth culture of Tampa Bay. At one time, it was pretty dangerous to go into Ybor at night due to the high crime rate and car thefts.

Mayor Pam Iorio's pet project is to clean up Ybor City and make it a safe place to go at night. To date, she's got the crime rate down by 70%. There are street security cameras on nearly every corner that are monitored, as well as walking security. The parking garage has cameras on every floor and walking security as well. People are finally coming back into this part of the city.

If you like my work, please leave a comment. If you'd like to see more, please visit my website by clicking here.

Thanks for looking,

Loyce

Gulf Fritillary

Gulf Fritillary butterflies are, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful butterflies around. Lucky for me, they're very common in Florida and can be seen year 'round.

This one was captured while on my regular Monday evening meetup in Safety Harbor, FL. This meetup is about 80% social with a little bit of shooting here and there.

I try to get there early so I have some time to shoot before the crowd arrives. We started this meetup in April with 5 of our group members attending. It has grown to maybe 30 members on an average showing up every Monday evening. It's a great way to get to know one another better and to exchange tips and techniques with each other. I've learned a lot from these members--some complete novices and some of them pros.

We always end the meetup with a large group of us going over to the Taste Cafe for a bite to eat or something to drink. Robin, the owner of the Taste, has had to add more help on Monday evenings, but always makes us feel welcome. The food is great, too.

If you like my work, please leave a comment, and if you'd like to see more, visit my website by clicking here. If you live in the Tampa Bay area, and would like to join our Meetup Group, you can find the group here.

Loyce

Ybor Centro

Wednesday night, my friends from my club and I went to a class given by my friend, Jim Sykes, who is an accomplished photographer with a studio in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida.

Just before the class, I was walking around enjoying the city and the old architecture. This building marks the center of the city. Ybor City is not really a city but an older section of Tampa. The city of Tampa was founded by Cuban immigrants who brought the cigar making industry to Tampa.

As you can see by the sign on this building, there are 20 theaters in this center as well as many quaint shops. It doesn't really come alive until nighttime when there are literally hundreds of people walking around enjoying the night life. It's a completely different atmosphere during the day.

If you like my work, I'd love to hear from you. Please leave a comment. To see more of my work, visit my website by clicking here. Thanks for viewing.

Loyce

Guess What's on the Dinner Menu

I've seen Herons and Egrets eat a lot of things, but this dinner takes the cake!

This Great Blue Heron caught a Sting Ray for dinner. It was a great time watching him try to swallow it. I just kept watching that tail and wondering how he could avoid getting stung. It didn't seem to bother him however, because he managed to eat the whole thing in one gulp.

This one was photographed in Safety Harbor, FL at the Safety Harbor Marina. The tide was out, so there were a lot of birds feeding. Low tide is the best time to catch these magnificent birds out doing what they do best and at close enough proximity to create a good shot.

If you like my work and would like to see more of it, please check out my website by clicking here. Don't forget to let me know what you think.

Loyce

Grapes and Palms

Just another experiment with HDR. This one was taken at sunset during our regular Monday Walk-Around Meetup in Safety Harbor, FL. The sky was actually this color and the clouds were just amazing.

I made several shots of these clouds and at one point there was a very faint rainbow shooting out just above these clouds. Unfortunately, it was very faint and although I tried, I just couldn't capture it.

It was really strange to see a rainbow, since there was no rain. I'm still trying to figure that out. I've never seen a rainbow appear without being precluded by rain.

The magenta sky this evening was magnificent. Florida has the most amazing clouds.

If you enjoy my work and would like to see more of it, visit my website here.

Safety Harbor Marina

I'm still experimenting with HDR processing of my photos and I thought I'd compare them side-by-side to see which I like better. The photo on the left of Safety Harbor Marina at sunset is HDR, while the one on the right was processed normally in PhotoShop.

Both were from the same shot, both exposed in RAW format. The difference is with the HDR photo, I put the camera on a tripod and created 3 shots: 1 normal exposure, 1 underexposed by 2 stops and the other 1 overexposed by 2 stops. The normally processed photo was the middle shot with no over or under exposure.

I'm still trying to decide which way I prefer. I guess HDR has its place, maybe for architecture and interior work. I'll just have to keep playing with it until I can make up my mind.

Any comments?

If you like my work, and would like to see more of it, visit my website by clicking here.

Loyce

Fountain at the Safety Harbor Marina

Safety Harbor, Florida has some of the most amazing fountains in so many areas of the city. This one is at the entrance to the Safety Harbor Marina and it's my attempt at HDR photography.

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. It is used mainly for contrasty scenes to be able to produce more range. A normally exposed photo would either blow out the highlights (turn them white with no detail) or burn the shadows (turn them black with no detail). In this case, detail is shown in both the highlights and in the shadows.

HDR is created by taking 3 or more photos of the same subject using different exposures. The first photo is exposed normally, the next photo is exposed to show detail in the highlights while letting the shadows burn out and another photo is exposed for the shadows allowing the highlights to loose all detail. The result is what you see here.

This particular photo was processed using Photomatix, a software used solely to create HDR images during post processing.

If you like my work and would like to see more, please visit my website by clicking here.

I also appreciate any and all comments about either my blog and/or my website.

Thanks for looking,
Loyce

Willow

Every Monday evening, my meetup groups has a social meeting at the Safety Harbor Marina in Safety Harbor, FL.

Safety Harbor is one of the most pet friendly towns I've ever been in. The owner of this cute little dog walks her dog in the park nearly every Monday evening.

I had the pleasure of photographing her a couple Mondays ago, and her owner graciously let me post her photo. Isn't she the cutest little pooch?

If you enjoy my work and would like to see more of it, please visit my website by clicking here.

Magnolia Blossom

If you have never smelled the sweet fragrance of a Southern Magnolia tree, then you've been missing out on something very special.

I found this tree growing in a church yard right next to the dumpster. In the summer in Florida, a dumpster can get pretty rancid smelling within a day or two. The Magnolia blossoms completely hid the smell of the rotting trash in the dumpster. It's the closest I've ever been to a dumpster in the summer.

Besides not having a sickening odor, the dumpster was painted beautifully. This church is not only beautiful, but the grounds around it were kept nice and trim and it was magnificently landscaped. Check out the photo of the dumpster! I've seen a few painted trash cans in my day, but never anything as well done as this.

If you like my work and would like to see more, please visit my website by clicking here.

Cumulominbus Cloudscape

Florida has some of the most amazing clouds. This one was shot a few weeks ago in Safety Harbor, FL at the marina.

Cloudscapes are pretty easy to capture. All you do is meter for the sky, watch your histogram to be sure you don't overexpose, and there you have it. Sunsets and sunrises are captured the same way.

Sometimes I might underexposed by 1 stop for sunsets and sunrises to get more saturation in the colors.

I also shoot just clouds to use to sandwich with another photo when it's overcast with gray skies. Blending the images, if done right creates a beautiful photo from a dull gray day. The added benefit is that the overcast sky has a softer, more diffused light and saturates the colors, so by blending, I get the best of both worlds.

If you like my work and would like to see more, visit my website here.

Until next time,
Loyce

Eastern Black Swallowtail

Eastern Black Swallowtail captured at the Safety Harbor Marina park in Safety Harbor, FL.

Eastern Black Swallowtails (Papilio polyxenes asterius) can be found in open meadows east of the Rocky Mountains from Canada to the Gulf, southwest to Arizona from Spring to Fall. The Caterpillar eats foliage of plants in the carrot family, including wild and cultivated carrot, celery, and parsley. This common eastern swallowtail flies low, alighting on clover and cultivated flowers. Its caterpillars are sometimes garden pests.

The Bowling Ball House

Late Monday afternoon, I had the pleasure of visiting the Whimsey House, or as it's known among the citizens of Safety Harbor, FL as the "Bowling Ball House".

The Bowling Ball House, featured in Home and Garden Magazine and the book, Weird Florida, is owned by 2 artists, Todd Ramquist and Kiaralinda.

"Safety Harbor, Florida - Bowling Ball Art Museum. There is a multi-colored house with more than 300 bowling balls lining the flower beds and bordering the house -- there is a bottle wall around the cactus garden, gardens of blue bottles on stakes, a zoo of funny sculpture animals called the Whimzoo. Several artcars often park in the parkingpit. There is a a colorful and ornately decorated gazebo and crabtrap buoy ornaments hanging from the gingerbread eaves. There's also a Bowling ball Art Museum that has 80 artistically manipulated bowling balls -- everything from corked, beaded and feathered ones to larger sculptures incorporating the ball somehow -- created and donated from artists from all over the country. Also a favorite golden ball was photographed with a bunch of celebrities -- Roy Rogers, Muhammed Ali, Bob Dole, John Denver. Overall, it's a fun and magical place that makes everybody who visits smile. [Whimz1, 03/04/1999]"

This is one of the strangest homes I can honestly say that I've ever seen. It's something that has to be seen to be believed. If you ever travel to the Tampa Bay area, be sure to visit this house. You won't regret it.

If you like my work, and would like to see more, please visit my website at: http://LoyceHoodPhoto.com.

Lightning

I've been trying forever to catch a great lightning shot. Finally, last evening, just after sunset, I was able to catch this one.

While it's not great, it sure is a lot more than I expected. It's fairly easy to catch lightning photos at night, since all you need to do is leave the shutter open on Bulb and close it once you catch the shot, but this one was beyond my greatest expectations.

I guessed at the settings, and while this one was a little underexposed, I was able to pull it out by shooting in RAW mode. Lucky for me, it hadn't started to rain, yet. As a matter of fact, it never did rain. All we got was an excellent light show.

Let me know what you think of this one.

If you enjoy my photos and would like to see more, check out my website at: Loyce Hood Photo.
All you need to do is click on the link.

Mexican Sunflower

This plant was started by a small, bare stick from my friend's plant. I put it in the ground about a year ago. Today, it stands about 15 ft high and 8 ft wide. The blossoms grow on the ends of the branches, so the outside of the tree is covered with these beautiful sunflower-like flora. Each blossom is about 4-5 inches in diameter.

Mexican Sunflowers are very attractive to butterflies, so I have an added benefit that I can also photograph many species of butterflies when they light on the blooms.

There are many varieties, some are bright orange, some reddish and all the colors in between.

Loyce

Frank and his Red-Neck Spatula

My friends from my photo group (Florida State Photography Meetup Group) went on a picnic today to say goodbye to Frank (pictured) and Bill for a little while.

(Frank comes to Florida from upstate NY and stays 8 months then goes back to NY, and Bill just bought property in Mexico, and will be gone 2 months or so.)

As usual, being human, we all forgot some key essentials, like a cooler, ice, condiments and a spatula. We couldn't figure out what to do to turn the chicken and burgers, so Frank came up with an idea to use the Styrofoam plate that the burgers came in. He had to be quick so it didn't catch on fire, but it worked.

We had a lot of fun with that. Since we're in the south, (Florida) I dubbed it a red-neck spatula.

Oh yes, by the way, we had a great time; as usual when we're all together. We didn't take many photos, but still had a great time.

If you like my photos and would like to see more, check out my website at http://LoyceHoodPhoto.com.

Loyce

Tricolored Heron

This Tricolored Heron was created on my trip to Gatorland last Saturday. She was perched on her nest. I like the beautiful blue on her lores (the area from her eyes to her beak).

I also like the way her crest stands out and that alarmed look on her face. Her chicks were below screaming for her attention. If you've never watched chicks when they're hungry, you'd know how mean they are to their mothers. It's a wonder they stay and taken care of their young. All they do is peck at her (really hard) and pull at her for something to eat. The mother just sits patiently, ignoring them. A few minutes after this shot, she flew away to get them some food. It was amazing how fast they shut up as soon as she left. They're just like our babies who shut up the minute we pick them up.

If you like my photos, you can see more by visiting my web site at: http://LoyceHoodPhoto.com.

You are welcome to comment and/or critique my photo.

Loyce

Emu

I know it's been more than a week since I've posted anything new, but I've been busy shooting and editing.

This photo was made at Gatorland in Orlando last Saturday. I got really lucky on this shot. These birds are constantly on the move, so it took a lot of patience just to get him to cooperate long enough for me to capture him.

Gatorland is a place I hadn't visited in years, but I'm glad I did this time. It's amazing how much can change over time. We spent a lot of time in the marsh checking out all the roosting birds and of course, the gators. We opted for the photographers tour, which for an extra $7, we were allowed to stay after hours and had a park guide show us the best spots to photograph the gators and the birds. He even fed the gators while we shot photos. I came away with many keepers, some of which I could never have gotten on my own, since it's against the law to feed Alligators in Florida.

While all the editing is very time consuming, I'm happy with the amount of "keepers". It was definitely a trip worth taking.

If you like my photos and would like to see more, visit my website. It changes on a monthly basis, so be sure to come back often.

Loyce

Tampa Skyline

Saturday night, I went out with a group of photographers from my meetup group to photograph the Tampa skyline. You can find the group here.

There were 21 photographers in the group and we were all trying to capture the same photo. I wanted mine to be different, but it was the only view we had because we were all photographing from a narrow dock across the Hillsborough River; so I set my White Balance on my camera to tungsten. In my opinion, it worked out great.

Let me know what you think by posting your comment.

If you like my photos and would like to see more, please visit my website.

Loyce