Robert Elko Photography

Weekend Photo Walk and Introduction to Lydia Elko Photography

2013-01-20T19:12:00.000-06:00

I was sent a Facebook link by a friend about the photo contest Bubolz Nature Center is holding. So I took Lydia and Nando out to the center on Saturday for a hike and to let Lydia have the camera for a while. For today's lesson I showed her how to change the picture style and change between B&W and color images, and how to change the shutter speed with a fixed aperture. I think she did quite well. Here are a few images from her day of shooting....

Queen Anne's Lace

White Cedar

Shelf Fungus on fallen log

She entered the Shelf fungus on fallen log to the photo contest, and I will be bugging you to go vote for it when it is uploaded into the contest page.

I also brought my camera and here are a few shots of mine on the day...

Twisted Trunk

Another view...

Tall Grass. This grass caught our eye as these "poms" on the top of the stalks were about 12 feet off of the ground.

Tree Roots. I love the contrast here between the snow, moss, and roots...

So, that was our day!!

Great Skies

2012-10-11T22:07:00.001-05:00

Wow, I had some time this evening to drive around and take a few shots with my phone. That will be the camera of choice until I find my charger for the T2i battery. I went to a few of my favorite haunts to see how the phone would do on some of my favorite views. I think that they turned out well. The filter effects in Instagram are helpful, but not as powerfull as my PS Elements which I use for most pf my PP work. I have found a collage maker to play with as well. I have been getting more interactions with the "grid" posts than the single shots.

It's Getting Colder

2012-10-10T20:53:00.001-05:00

We had a bit of frost this morning. Winter is fast approaching. As I went out to start the car so it would defrost, I saw this leaf covered with frost. Some pople say that they like a certain season, but I think I like the time between seasons best. There is always a conflict to observe.

Food

2012-10-02T19:53:00.001-05:00

It seems that a lot of my posts lately have been food related. And quite a few more related to liquid nutrition containing hops. Here is a little taste. Oooh it's so good! (Mr. Food)

Dabbling....

2012-10-02T19:42:00.001-05:00

So, a few weeks ago I bought a slick Samsung Galaxy Aviator. I had been wanting a phone with the power to use Instagram. So I will be posting some of them out here........

Neenah at night.

2012-01-09T22:41:00.001-06:00

I wanted to get the bridge and the moon into one shot tonight. Unfortunately, I do not have a wide enough angle lens for the shot. I will try again if it is clear later in the week, but a little earlier when the moon is on the rise. I have taken pictures of this bridge many times, and one other time at night, but I spent more time here tonight as it was relatively mild at a balmy 38° F. This is a re-purposed railroad bridge that crosses Little Lake Butte des Morts. It is now a pedestrian and cycling thoroughfare.

There is a nice power boat launch here and also a still water launch for kayaks as well. I have misplaced my tripod so of course I had to rely on the railing posts for keeping the camera steady during the 30 second exposures.

I think this one turned out a little crisper. When I saw this in the veiwfinder, I noticed the steam from the factory across the lake was getting a nice blur on it. So of course I turned to the south to the Neenah bio-mass electric plant.

I thought the plume looked pretty cool and spent quite some time shooting it. Tonight, I tried again to use RAW format imaging. I had tried it in the past with little success. I am glad that I did. I probably could have used the "remove a color cast" tool to take away the yellow in the shot, or paid attention and changed my white balance in camera, but shooting in RAW allowed me to do that out of camera. It ended up looking like this.....

These are two different images. I have this one cropped so it is a "panoramic" ratio. I think I like the blues better, But I think I may tweak out some the highlights to give a more even light. Some of the areas are still a little too bright. I hope I find my tripod soon, and am looking forward to getting my remote trigger in the mail.

A study in skies.....

2012-01-06T21:48:00.000-06:00

There must be something in the atmosphere as of late as the sunrise and sunsets have been amazing. I will start out with the Wednesday evening sunset.

I was not in a great position for these two shots, just shooting west down my street. I didn't have time after work to drive to one of my preferred shooting locations. The skies the following morning made me late for work.

This is another example of my "urban sunset/rise" series. These pictures were taken from the parking lot of the shuttered Hoffmaster plant. There is a large holding tank in the first picture, and the lightpole near an apartment complex in the second. If I had tweaked the contrast to lighten shadows instead of darken highlights in the third you would be able to see this railcar.

I actually shot "The AM FM Crew" on 12-22-2011. It was still there today when I went by. I may start a new gallery of graffiti on my website as I seem to be drawn to it (See here).

After a very long day of work, I again came home too late to get out so I shot down the street again.

I took a number of shots that I wasn't all that thrilled with as they had either 1: geese, or 2: airplanes flying through them. Of course I was focusing on the treeline and all flying objects were out of focus. I did however turn to the east to catch our nearly full moon ascending. I dropped the ISO to 100 went to f/5.6 and took a 1/1000 sec exposure. Even though these two shots are about two minutes apart, the difference is day and night.

I but you would think that this was shot about 9-10 o'clock, but no, it was 4:30. I love to manipulate the sky, using my settings to turn day to night!

Ran Into A Flock

2011-12-27T21:57:00.002-06:00

Wow! I was on my way to photograph a barn I had spotted for my 365 Project, and took a longcut to take a peek at a new road. When I came up over the hill I saw this....

Being that I am a microbiologist and some days count dots for hours at a time, I am pretty good at estimating the number of dots I see. There were at least 500 Canada Geese flying in the field and a lot more on the ground. I wish I had a wide angle to fit them all in. The noise was incredible!! I spent about 10 minutes shooting in beautiful orange/pink but fading light. I pulled out a few of the better ones for this post.

Wings set and coming in.

On the wing.

I have some solo shots of the pair top left, but nothing but an orange backdrop (kinda look lost).

At this point, most of the birds were on the ground. It took them about 10 minutes to get their OK for landing and come in. That was a fun shoot.

Sharing with ... This or That Thursday!

Little Barn PP for Barn Charm...

2011-11-08T21:52:00.001-06:00

Original....

Canvas Texture....

B&W in camera reflection detail. I like that the owner took the time to tape up the crack in the window.....

Holy barn Batman!!!

Sharing of course with Barn Charm!

Lost and found...

2011-11-01T21:43:00.001-05:00

I completely forgot about these pictures I took at Stone Mountain State Park on my last trip to Atlanta. My favorites are of this covered bridge. Here is a little history of it.

Nice note about the robbers!!

Side view of the bridge from down the shoreline.

I am amazed that this is still a working bridge. I saw a number of vehicles cross while I was there.

I do hope to bring the whole family back for a visit!!

Barn Details...

2011-10-30T21:10:00.003-05:00

Today I had the opportunity to actually get inside a barn and "get to know it". It was great to be able to walk around and shoot so many different angles....

This is the south face of the barn that I was shooting today.

These are the tasty roosters (sorry for eating your brother, the pot-pie was delicious)!

This is an interior detail of an exit door from the lower level that used to house cattle. All of the stanchions were auctioned off for scrap metal. I was told that "modern cattle" would not have even fit into them. This is an interesting barn one part was built in the 1800's and then moved onto a newly built foundation at the turn of the century (1900 not 2000). Two additions were added in 1905 and 1906. This barn has a lot of history.

I was fascinated by the windows. I must have taken 30 or 40 shots, but I am only going to share a few. The cracking foundation and lack of glass caught my eye on this window.

The striking red of the barnboards and the weathered frame make an interesting contrast.

This isn't really a window, just the chute coming from the silo. I love the algae growing on the concrete to add a splash of color.

And this is the view from the bottom of the silo.

This is a shot of the haymow. The sun coming through the holes in the wall give enough light to maybe do a portrait shoot?? I need to work out the focus though. I shot this with my 50mm at f1.8. Very shallow DOF.

Finally, a texture shot. I have been working on a series of these to possibly use as backgrounds for blog or twitter pages. And of course I need to put in a link to my share of the day Scenic Sunday!

Barn PP

2011-10-29T23:45:00.002-05:00

When I did my photo dump for the day, I noticed that the lighting and aperture settings I used would be conducive to a little photoshop work. Here is the original.

You can see that there is a little blur and a washed out sky. I used the dry brush filter in PSE 7 to create this image.

I like the way that this looks like a colored pencil sketch or lightly painted oil. I will have to try this with some other of my shots that I feel were overexposed or blurred. I think it is a good save on a not so great image.

I will be sharing this with Friday's Fences, and Barn Charm.

Couple of odd ones....

2011-10-28T20:54:00.000-05:00

I had problems uploading to Blogger last night, so I had to combine the last two days shots into one post...

Wicked Skies.

Someone had a large bonfire last night and it really played with the sky views. You can see some of the smoke swirling in the lower part of the image. The smoke led to a very nice sunset as well.

Again, yo can see the wisps of smoke in the sky.... I love it when you get the atmospheric disturbances that give you great color!

Now tonight, we were out to Cuff Farms for a hayride and pumpkin picking trip....

I found this oft repainted oil tank out behind the barn. The rust breaking through reminds me of the scutes on a turtles shell.

More architecture..

2011-10-26T22:15:00.000-05:00

I was in the same area that I found my barn yesterday and went by a house that I had passed numerous times. I always said that I would stop, but never had the time. Today I had the time. I hope to find the owner of the property so I can get some different angles on it.

Farmhouse.

Front Door Detail.

Rusted Windmill. I will be linking this to This or That Thursday. You should check it out!!

Another amazing sight for today was the stone foundation of a barn. It looks as if the barn had been torn down or destroyed some time ago, but the glass block window was still in place. I will need to come back to this site when I have better light. I did manage to get a mini sunset through the panes.

One of the problems I had with this shot is the light. I had to crank down the aperture to get a shot, but that gave me a shallow depth of field. It appears that I focused mainly on the uppermost block on the left side.

Again, a depth of field issue as I ended up focusing on the red berries in the uppermost right of the picture. At least I know where this is so I can go back and try again. That is part of the fun of photography for me, always having the ability to try over and over until you finally "get it right".

Architectural Details...

2011-10-25T20:40:00.000-05:00

Today was a bleak, dreary, and wet day. The kind of day to shoot B&W, which I did a lot of. First I have a barn door and a crop.

Then I decided to get a closer shot to enhance the details.

My next stop on such a rainy day was naturally a cemetery. This one is near my house and I drive by it on the way to work every day. About two weeks ago the family added a colorful wreath to a very dark looking vault. I decided to do a series of images to get all of the small details in the ironwork.

I was really happy to have a splash of color today.

I found these very near to the vault.

I then found myself wandering around downtown Appleton and taking some more detail pictures.

I would have to call it a pretty productive day after working eight hours, picking up the kids from school and taking them to YMCA classes. No wonder most of the photos I took today were a little off kilter. (go back and look, you will see)

Many different shots.

2011-10-24T20:29:00.001-05:00

Today I took a long ride out to find the western end of Center Valley Road. I found out that when it crosses hwy 76 it turns into Thompson Road and dead ends at the Wolf River.

Along he way I ran into some more hens.

Almost as bad as mosquitoes here in Wisconsin! Then I saw some sandhill cranes.

Now I liked this shot, in a larger format the focus is fairly clear for 100 yds. freehand, But I decided to try a different angle. I went for a "leading line" shot with a "rule of thirds" thrown in for good measure.

I think it lends more interest. Let me know what you think!

This is a random barn that did not make my 365 project today, but I like it anyway.

And after picking my son up from swimming at the YMCA, I tried my hand at a long exposure. This is the Friendship Trail Trestle. It runs across Little Lake Butte des Mortes.

Well, that is about all that I had time for today, I hope you can find something to enjoy!!

This image is being shared with Weekend Reflections.

Backlighting, refelction, and DOF.

2011-10-22T20:08:00.000-05:00

I took some time today while I was @thebrownbarn to take a walk around the pond. I have seen some nicely backlighted shots recently and wanted to give it a go. I pulled out my 1.8 50mm and found a nice milkweed pod to start.

I love the effect I get at 1.8 and the blurry halos if light.

Next, I tried a still water reflection. I was trying to recreate a shot I have done a number of times, but it is not the best image I have gotten.

I love that the sky is such a deep blue in the refection. But the water was not still enough for a great shot. I also like that you can play a little mind game with these images. Rotate 180° and you have this...

I will post a picture of my better version of this shot for an example.

Leaves in the sky!

Last shot.. Depth of Field.

Great day for yellows!! I took some more shots, but I am saving them for @thebrownbarn.

Playing

2011-10-20T17:16:00.001-05:00

I haven't posted to this blog for a while as I have been concentrating on the 365 and @thebrownbarn so I thought I would try some new effects in Photoshop Elements 7. I was bored waiting for a train and snapped a few pictures to play with.

The originals...

For the top picture, I cranked up the saturation and fiddled with the hue and temperature which got me this:

A little funky, but I liked it so I put a Neon Edges filter on it and tweaked to this:

I kind of like this one better.

For the bottom picture, I tweaked the sharpness and added a small amount of saturation. Then I hit it with the liquefy tool. I think I will be using this more often, I love the warp.

I also de-saturated one, But it is not as good as shooting B&W in-camera.

I also played quite a bit with the contrast, but still don't really like it.

I should play like this more often!!

Busy!!

2011-07-05T20:52:00.000-05:00

Well, it has been a busy week for us! We started moving some of our non essential equipment out to the new house. (Click the link below the post to see where we are moving!) I will be adding some new pictures to the site as soon as I can get onto my other computer. I have been very active with the barn 365, and I am finding that it is great to take a break in the middle of the day and get out. I have made it 18 days and I am not running out of steam yet. Check back later for some pictures from the last few days...

A Day Trip and a Great Sunset

2011-06-24T22:06:00.000-05:00

I took a half day today and our family went to Madison. We stopped by Whole Foods and got some goodies, and afterwards stopped by Ella's Deli .

The kids loved all of the fun gadgets and Rube Goldberg creations inside. They even got to ride on the carousel.

On the way back, I finally got to take a picture of this cool sculpture in Rosendale. I like the way the rock are so smooth. The plaque say 1924, but I'm sure that the rain has smoothed the rocks out even more.

We also stopped by a friends house and I saw the best thing ever!!!

It is the highly sought after but rarely seen Redneck Giant Budbag Chair. I gotta get one of these!!

After grilling up some salmon (a Whole Foods purchase) and some asparagus, I went out for a drive to find a spectacular sunset.

I am so glad that the rain stayed away today, and I got to get some fun sunset shots!

Another Soggy Day

2011-06-23T19:09:00.003-05:00

Yes, it has been raining most of the day. I'm sure my garden is loving it! I only went out for a little while to shoot my barn photo today. I did find this little guy though.

This is a young one not wise in the ways of cars. It just sat there nibbling the clover as I pulled up about five feet from it and took a pic. Now only if I could find some eagles that would let me do the same.

As I only had a limited time out today. I will post a picture from a few weeks ago that I took at the Appleton Botanical Gardens .

When I went, not a lot was in bloom, and I got attacked by a red-winged blackbird.

Angry papa!!

My favorite image of the day was this.

A living purple firework.

Blue Skies! (For a few minutes)

2011-06-22T20:54:00.000-05:00

I had just gotten back to work from getting some shots of today's barn at lunch when the clouds parted. It lasted about ten minutes, but it was great to feel the sun on my skin again. I keep hoping for a little more sun, and less rain. There are flood warnings out for the Wolf River. I am glad we are getting some rain though. Hopefully it will fill some of the Vilas county lakes that I am going to be fishing on in July. I am looking forward to some musky action!!

Cranes

2011-06-21T20:18:00.000-05:00

Another cold dreary day in NE Wisconsin. First day of summer?????? Wow! I did get out today to find my barn and saw a few cranes.

They weren't too far away from this barn.

I loved the way this barn looked in B&W. The scene would look antique if not for the Case front end loader in the background. Oh well, I may go back and try some other angles on it. This is the barn for day number 4 of my 365 project. I have started geo-tagging the images so if you want to go see them yourself, it will pop up a Google map. Just below the picture, there is a location like Harrison or Grand Chute. Just click the link to get the map!

Damsels and Spiders and Butterflies... Oh My???

2011-06-20T22:12:00.000-05:00

I was out in New London at a friends house tonight, and took a walk around my favorite pond. These are a few of the things I found.

Damsel

Spider

Butterfly

Hanuman and Ganesha

2011-06-19T21:11:00.001-05:00

I was out looking for barns today north of Appleton and found myself over by a friends house. I was telling him about the barns project and he suggested I should go check out a barn on JJ near McCarthy Road. He mentioned something about jeweled elephants and other statues near one of the barns so I drove over there and waited for the rain to let up a little. Sure enough there they were!!

Hanuman

Ganesha

I was very surprised to see such colorful statues on such a rainy day. Thanks Cam!!