Niagara Falls

An unexpected trip to Niagara Falls in November offered me the best part of a very breezy day for a photography outing.
Courtesy of one of my wife's clients, we had a spectacular view of the falls from our room at the Niagara Falls Marriott Fallsview Hotel and Spa.
In this post I've selected three more photos to illustrate several tools included with the Develop module of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom® 5.4.
To take full advantage of Lightroom's editing capabilities, I always save files in the NEF (Nikon Electronic Format) RAW file format. (For a discussion of the benefits of shooting RAW, see my Top Five Reasons People Don't Shoot RAW.)
NOTE: To view a larger version, click the image once or twice. To return to the post, use your browser's back button.
Here's the first original that was taken from our room:

and here's the edit:

1. To straighten the image, I used Perspective Rotate (+0.9) and then the Crop Overlay to crop it for more of a panoramic feel.
2. Then to darken the sky, I applied a Graduated Filter to reduce the exposure and highlights in the top half of the image, followed by a bit of Sharpening and Noise Reduction.
3. The water and mist of the Horseshoe Falls were already a bit blown out, but I wanted to boost the highlights elsewhere in the image. The Radial Filter is designed for just this type of situation. You select a round/oval area of the desired size and location, in this case the Horseshoe Falls. Next you make your adjustments that are applied everywhere except the filtered area. In this case I intentionally increased highlights more than I ultimately wanted, and then after closing the filter, reduced the highlights everywhere, including the Horseshoe Falls.

Here's the second original showing the hotels vying for the best view of the falls:

and here's the edit:

1. I started with the Spot Removal tool to get rid of some dust bunnies that had glommed onto my sensor in the course of changing lenses - the worst one was above the tower third from the left. It's a great work around for actually cleaning the sensor which I finally did a few days ago. For a good article of how to do this, read Cleaning your Sensor by Thom Hogan.
2. Next I made some minor adjustments to the highlights and dark tones, and to add a bit more colour, increased the yellow saturation and luminance.
3. Finally, having already applied the profile adjustment for the my lens (Tamron SP AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di II VC LD Aspherical [IF]) when I imported the photos into Ligthroom, for the most important adjustment, in the Lens Corrections panel I selected Upright, Auto which magically straightened the buildings!

Here's the final original which I took simply because of the double rainbow:

and here's the edit:

1. To add some colour to the sky, I again used a Graduated Filter.
2. To remove some of the blowing leaves and dust bunnies, the Spot Removal tool provided an easy fix.
3. Once again, to stretch the image, I used the Crop Overlay tool.
4. And finally, to give the image a bit more punch, I added a bit of saturation and vibrance.

Sandbanks Provincial Park

For this post I selected three shots from a mid-November walk on the beach at Sandbanks Provincial Park. For each photograph I'll show the original image shot with my D7000 and Tamron SP AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di II VC LD lens, followed by a version edited with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom® 5.4.
NOTE: For a larger version, click any image; then to go back, use your browser's back button.
Here's the first original:
For this image I used Lightroom's radial filter to select just the leaf, then desaturated the rest of the image.

This is the second original:
Here I adjusted the light, shadow and dark tones, then reduced the clarity by 100% and finally applied a Post-Crop Vignette (-44).

And here's the last original:
Starting with a Post-Crop Vignette (-18), I then increased the light tones (+30) and decreased the dark tones (-20). Next I increased the Yellow Saturation by +93, then the Highlights (+100), Sharpening (+125) and finally Luminance Smoothing (+100).

Needless to say, a few other people (and species) beat us to the beach.

Day of the Day: November 8, 2008 - Punta Arenas, Chile

After six days on Easter Island and a day in Santiago to reset and swap out our warm-weather gear in our packs for the cooler temperatures in Patagonia, we flew 2200 kilometers to Punta Arenas, picked up our Ford Ecosport and checked into Hotel Carpa Manzano.
With a half day to do some exploring, we decided on a visit to the Seno Otway Penguin Colony.

Magellanic Penguins (For a larger version, click any image.)
The weather was what we soon learned to be fairly “seasonal”, i.e., cool, overcast and very windy, which didn’t seem to phase some of the other indigenous species, including Darwin’s rhea:

and the ubiquitous sheep:
We ended the day with an unexpectedly, wonderful meal at Damiana Elena Restaurant. Here’s my Tripadvisor review.
The next day we drove to Puerto Natales, from which we would venture to Parque Nacional Torres del Paine.
Related posts:

• Puerto Natales - November 9, 2008
• Parque Nacional Torres del Paine - November 10, 2008
• Parque Nacional Torres del Paine - November 10, 2008

June 11 Photo of the Day: Ottawa, Ontario

Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Ontario © 2015 Peter Marble
May 9, 2015 – Having opted to leave my DSLR in the hotel, I grabbed this shot looking up Metcalfe Street with my iPhone from inside the Queens' Lantern. The glass tower, named in honour of both Victoria and Elizabeth II, was completed as part of the 2010 restoration. For more information about the history of the museum, see the Historical Timeline.
(For a larger version, click the image.)
I spent several enjoyable hours wandering through the museum's exhibits and would happily go back the next time we are in Ottawa. For information about the tentacles hanging from the ceiling, see Guy Romain's blog post Creating Light in the Lantern.

March 4 Photo of the Day: Wilderness, South Africa

Indian Ocean Surf, Wilderness, South Africa © 2015 Peter Marble
(For a larger version, click the image.)

February 15, 2012 – On the second day of our Garden Route tour, after a very pleasant stay at the 88 Baron van Reede Guesthouse in Oudtshoorn, we visited Cango Caves and then drove our rental Honda Jazz across the Swartzberg pass on the unpaved Route 328 to Prince Albert. Lunch at the Prickly Pear was "okay", after which took the "long cut" via R407 through De Rust back to Oudtshoorn and then on to the The Dune Guest Lodge in Wilderness.

This was by far the most "lux" accommodation of our month in Africa. Our room overlooked the Indian Ocean, with a walkway down to the beach. We enjoyed the sound of the pounding surf both nights. Next stop: Knysna.

February 25 Video of the Day: Chao Phraya Ferries

River traffic on Chao Phraya - Bangkok, Thailand © 2015 Peter Marble

December 8, 2004 – Okay, so I'm digging deep here folks, but one of the best things we found to do in Bangkok was hopping on and off the Chao Phraya ferries. This video shows the long tail boats, Wat Arun and the general river mayhem, which we thoroughly enjoyed.

February 22 Photo of the Day: Humber Bay, Lake Ontario

Frozen morning - Toronto, Ontario © 2015 Peter Marble

February 20, 2015 – On the way into work Friday morning I pulled over for this grab shot with my phone.

At -18 degrees Celcius, the "smoke" rising from the water and ice surface of the lake was beautiful. I got as far as the other side of the car, but couldn't summon the willpower to walk out to the boardwalk for a closer look.

February 11 Photo of the Day: Cambodia

Key Maker and Cyclists - Siem Reap, Cambodia © 2015 Peter Marble

December 14, 2004 – Early on our last day in Siem Reap, our adopted Tuk-Tuk driver, Mr. Tan, drove us into town for a final walk-about:

Traffic into the city centre was busy:

We passed numerous construction sites for new 5-star hotels where most work was done by hand.

Before heading to the airport, Lesa made one last attempt at sending/receiving email:

February 9 Photo of the Day: Chilean Patagonia

Vapor Amadeo at San Gregorio in Magellanes, Chilean Patagonia © 2015 Peter Marble

November 15, 2008 – On our way back to Punta Arenas from El Calafate via Rio Gallegos (affectionately known as the ugliest city in Argentina:

• Ginger Sees The World
• Google Books
• Lonely Planet Thorn Tree forum
• Tripadvisor

... a moniker with which we wholeheartedly agree), we spotted the lonely wreck of the steamship Amadeo.

Apparently she was built in Liverpool in 1884, sold to J. Menéndez of Punta Arenas in 1892 and finally beached here in 1932.

November 27 Photo of the Day: South Africa

Cape Buffalo at Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park – KwaZulu Natal, South Africa © 2014 Peter Marble

February 3, 2012 – As I mentioned in an earlier post, Hluhluwe-Imfolozi is the oldest game park in Africa and the only one in KwaZulu Natal with Africa's Big 5 (lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, rhinoceros and leopard).

According to Wikipedia, the African Buffalo, or Cape buffalo, is "highly dangerous to humans" because of its "unpredictable nature". (Apparently birds don't have the same concerns.)

However, Ernest Hemingway apparently figured quite correctly that carrying and using a honking hunting rifle more than evens the playing field. Way to go Ernie!

November 25 Photo of the Day: Sugar Beach, Toronto

Sugar Beach, Queens Quay Revitalization – Toronto © 2014 Peter Marble
September 25, 2012 – Exactly two years and two months ago, the view of Toronto harbour from Sugar Beach was decidedly more appealing than it was yesterday with 100 km/hour winds.
For more information about the Queens Quay Revitalization, visit Harbourfront Centre.

October 30 Photo of the Day: Chilean Patagonia

Parque Nacional Torres del Paine – Chile © 2014 Peter Marble
November 10, 2008 – Here's another shot from our 2008 trip to Chile and Argentina.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, it was a wild day with +100 km/hour winds. Getting a good exposure, much less a reasonably sharp image, was certainly a challenge.
In this particular case, although the highlights are definitely blown out, I love the overall effect of the lone guanaco with the torres (towers) in the background.

October 22 Photo of the Day: Ontario

McGowan Lake – Near Perth, Ontario © 2014 Peter Marble

October 13, 2014 – This is one of several images captured just after 8:00 a.m. on a glorious Thanksgiving Monday morning while driving west on Highway 7 from Perth.

August 28 Photo of the Day: Easter Island

15 Moai at Ahu Tongariki on Easter Island (Rapa Nui) Chile © 2014 Peter Marble

Today marks my 1,000th microstock sale!

For information on how to purchase images, visit PeterMarble.com.

August 15 Photo of the Day: Hungary

Wood wagon – Tokaj, Hungary © 2014 Peter Marble

September 19, 2013 – This was a true "grab shot". As we wandered into the village from our pension for lunch, these friendly fellows passed by.

We had just the one day in Tokaj (a few hours from Budapest by train). Unfortunately the day was a rainy one, but no matter. We were here on the recommendation of a Hungarian friend to find the source of and taste Tokaji Aszú. It is a dessert wine she claimed is otherwise known as "Nectar of the Gods". (Louis XIV apparently called it the "Wine of Kings; King of Wines".

We have since found it in at our local LCBO Toronto and have been known to enjoy a taste now and then on special occasions.

May 22 Photo of the Day: Argentina

Lago Argentino – Santa Cruz Province, Argentina © 2014 Peter Marble

November 13, 2008 – The sightseeing boats at Los Glaciares National Park offer spectacular views of not only Perito Moreno glacier, but also Lago Argentino and the surrounding mountains.

For more about our second day in Argentina, see my April 3 post.

May 21 Photo of the Day: Prague

Hradčany at night – Prague, Czech Republic © 2014 Peter Marble

September 15, 2013 – During our 23-day trip we travelled about every other day, so I opted not to pack a tripod.

On the evening of our third day in Prague I was determined to get a night shot of the Castle District from Most Legií (Bridge of the Legions).

By resting my camera on the concrete bridge railing and using the self-timer on my D7000, I managed to get a few acceptable shots.

I set the timer to activate the shutter five seconds after I pressed the shutter release. This allowed the vibration produced by pressing the shutter to settle down before exposing the first shot. I also set the timer to expose three shots in a row, with a two-second delay between each.

May 20 Photo of the Day: Osprey

Osprey – Beaverton, Ontario © 2014 Peter Marble

May 18, 2014 – This osprey is nesting on a telephone pole along the railway tracks just outside of Beaverton.

Here's the same “fish hawk” landing on its nest.

May 15 Photo of the Day: Romania

Tinsmiths' Tower and Musketeers' Passage – Sighișoara, Romania © 2014 Peter Marble

September 25, 2013 – Our second day in Romania was spent wandering around the ancient citadel of Sighișoara.

The Tinsmiths' Tower has a rectangular base, pentagonal bastion, octagonal facade and hexagonal roof.

The Musketeers' Passage, or Gallery, is a corridor with a wooden roof resting on stone arches that enabled musketeers to travel safely between the Tower and the Tinsmiths' and Tanners' bastions.

May 14 Photo of the Day: Hungary

Shoes on the Danube – Budapest, Hungary © 2014 Peter Marble

September 23, 2013 – Shoes on the Danube Promenade honors Jews who were killed by the Arrow Cross Party in 1944 during World War II. They were ordered to take off their shoes and then shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river.