Central Park - Take 2Yesterday morning was overcast and misty, exactly the type of weather I am looking for in my new project to photograph nature in New York's Central Park. So off to the park I went with Nikon D800 and an assortment of lenses. This time I covered the area around The Pond at the lower end of the park.
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My first surprise was when this heron decided to take off and pass right in front of me. Fortunately, I had the 70-200mm f/4 zoom on the camera and was able to snap off several spontaneous frames. I was lucky enough to grab a couple of nice frames of the bird in flight. This is where I wish I had the D4 with its super fast motor drive. |
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The main reason I choose overcast and misty conditions for shooting is to obtain soft backgrounds and white skies in shots like this. |
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I have been converting some of the images to a platinum monochrome tone such as this. These I am planning to use in a limited edition book. |
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I found this little waterfall at the remote end of the pond, and was able to slow the exposure down to 2 seconds by using a polarizing filter and f/22. The slow speed gave me the flowing water effect and the polarizer helped to saturate the greens by removing specular reflections. |
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If you read my previous post, you'll know that I started carrying a Tamron 90mm macro lens with me to have a longer focal length when doing close-ups. I love the bokeh background in this shot achieved with an aperture of f/5. |
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One reason I like photographing on overcast days just after a rain is for shots like this of water drops on a leaf. |
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Craggy trees and large stone outcrops are part of the natural terrain of the park. As I was taking this photo, the sun began to break through the clouds and I called it quits for the day. |
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Late May and early June is my favorite time for shooting woodland scenes. The leaves are full and a lush green and flowing water is usually at its peak. |
Tom, I am loving your Central Park images.
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