FAVORITE PICTURES of the YEAR, Part 2

Square dancing and hiking friends ponder a cave-like formation in the Hocking Hills State Park.  The photo was done at 1/5sec., f/4 at ISO 400.  I was leaning against a rock formation and carefully braced the camera to avoid any camera movement.

This Canada Lilly wildflower was photographed from a low camera angle while back lighting amplified the detail in the flower's translucency.  Careful exposure measurement for the highlight area dramatically underexposed the background woods rendering it black.

My friend and fellow photographer Dave Richardson works on his composition of the interior of a cabin at Schoenbrun Village while I work on mine.  Lighting came from the open door behind him and exposure was measured from the whitewashed walls leaving the shadows happen as they chose.  Flash was supressed to avoid damaging the pleasurable effect of the available light.

Reflections near the gun's muzzle reveal the picture was composed with the pistol laying on a piece of glass which was perching on two chair seats.  The brass color comes from 100 rounds of 9mm ammo laying on a black cloth in the lower background.  Lighting was provided by two daylight color temperature, spiral bulbs in reflectors.

There is timeless artistry in the work of this copper craftsman at the Picking Brass Company in Bucyrus.  A shutter speed of 1/25th of a second was sufficient to maintain sharpness in this hand-held image but allowed motion to be revealed in the action of the wooden hammer.  The concave wooden mold is a relic from the 20th century, or perhaps, from the century before that.

This view peeks from high atop the waterfall at Ash Cave in the Hocking Hills State Park.  Clicking on the image should enlarge it sufficiently to show the creatures in the center background actually are humans enjoying their view from a much lower angle.

The Piatt castles near Bellfontaine are in a state of slow deterioration as you can plainly see in the crumpled wall covering in front of Sue.  This photo also clearly exhibits the difference in color temperature between daylight (left) and that from the oil lantern in the right half of the image.  The camera's automatic white balance mode was used but it is impossible to color correct a variation of this magnitude. 

Square dancing friend Sue Magnet grimaces playfully for the camera as she makes exaggerated selections at an Amish-area winery near the site of our weekend of dancing over Labor Day.  Husband Homer was one of the featured callers at this delightful event.  Her spontaneity and warm memories of a marvelous weekend earned this photo a place in this year's selection. 

and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Lots of the magic of Photoshop, photo editing software, boosted this relatively routine image of a summer fireworks display into the realm of artful abstraction.  Thank you for enjoying my modest effort in this two part photo album.