Go See Do Explore

#igtravelchallenge April (Snow) Showers

On April 15, 2016

Towards the end of the #igtravelchallenge for March I was given the prompt “Its still winter here”. I was very happy to announce that it was spring in the lower peninsula. Well, just a few days after that post, I was celebrating spring break in West Michigan. One morning, towards the end of the week I woke up to this. It was beautiful so I had to go out and take some shots, but it was also freezing and I was not happy about that. Especially because The Weather Channel recently announced that March, April, and May were supposed to be unseasonably warm. Does this look unseasonably warm to you? I am happy to announce, that Mother Nature has realized her mistake and we are back to the beautiful spring weather I was expecting!

About the Photo:
This was a single RAW exposure with basic edits done in Lightroom.

Camera Gear:
Nikon D3100 with 18.0-55.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens, handheld.

Date Taken:
April 2, 2016

Thanks for stopping by! If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr!

Wordless Wednesday: Bobcat Behind Bars

By Ashleigh

On April 13, 2016

In Michigan, Wordless Wednesday

Butterflies & Sculptures

By Ashleigh

On April 11, 2016

In Michigan

Every spring, butterflies abound at the Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids! I’ve always wanted to visit during Butterflies are Blooming! In the caterpillar room, you can see caterpillars crawling and forming their chrysalides. Then, walk into the tropical greenhouse where 50 different species of butterflies soar high and stop on the flowers for a quick drink. You could see Monarchs, Golden Birdwings, and Common Morpho who is tan on the outside and bright blue on the inside. In the gardens, the flowers weren’t yet blooming, but it was a good time to explore the sculptures without the heat and the crowds.

About the Photo:
Shooting butterflies is a great learning experience for photographers. If you want to learn to shoot in manual, small, fast moving subjects are a great way to learn! A zoom lens with fast shutter speeds and high ISO are needed to freeze the motion and capture the tiniest details. This was a single RAW exposure, with basic edits done in Lightroom. This was shot at ISO 3200, which with my entry-level DSLR is quite noisy, so I did a lot of noise reduction as well.

Camera Gear:
Nikon D3100 with 55-200mm f/4-5.6 lens handheld.

Date Taken:
March 28, 2016

Thanks for stopping by! If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr!

Chris Corner #8: Silver Lake Dunes

By Chris

On April 9, 2016

In Michigan

Dune Texture by Christopher Mowers on 500px.com

The Nik Collection is Free! The Nik Collection is Free! I’m so glad that I didn’t buy it.

For those of you who do not know what I am talking about, the Nik Collection is a suite of half a dozen plugins/applications that specialize in making various aspects of photo editing easier or faster. Most people use them as a plugin in Lightroom or Photoshop, but they can also be used as standalone programs.

Initially, the cost to own the full suite was $499. Google aquired the Nik Collection as part of a larger software acquisition and the price went to $149. A few weeks ago, they made it completely free, and issued refunds to everyone who had purchased the product in 2016.

If you are just getting into photography and are not ready to put up the cash for Adobe Creative Cloud, I would consider starting with the Nik collection; do your basic adjustments in Viveza and then move into the other applications for more specialized tasks. It is no replacement for the Adobe products, but it would be a fun way to get into editing your photos.

You can download the Nik Collection for free here: https://www.google.com/nikcollection/

About the Photo:
Ashleigh and I were off work last week and took several little day drips. This picture comes from our visit to Silver Lake State Park. Silver Lake is a big Michigan destination for ORV and dune buggies, and is really quite a fascinating site to see.

I used Color Efex Pro 4 (Nik Collection) to get the detail in the sand. I applied radial blur into some of the cloud highlights to emphasize the beaming down of light that was already somewhat present in my initial capture. I combined these layers and my edited raw file in photoshop using layer masking.

Camera Gear:
Nikon D3100 with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens.

Date Taken:
April 1, 2016

Thank you for reading. You can see my best work on 500px and can also find pictures of the “trying my hardest to be good at this” type on Flickr or Pixoto.

Also, be sure to like the Go See Do Facebook Page, and follow Ashleigh on Instagram and Flickr! Check out our Gear page to see inside our camera bag!

Wordless Wednesday: Bluffs in Color

By Ashleigh

On April 6, 2016

In Michigan, Wordless Wednesday

Empire Bluffs

By Ashleigh

On April 4, 2016

In Hiking, Michigan, National Parks & Places

The Empire Bluffs Trail at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is considered a moderate trail and after our hike, I totally see why. The trail has several steep ups and downs that definitely got my heart pounding. We saw a couple of families hiking it and the kids had a lot of fun running up and down them! But, the view at the end made all of that worth it! It was a kind of dreary day, luckily the clouds were interesting enough, but the water was a beautiful teal-blue that I have never seen outside of the Caribbean! Don’t worry, I’ll post a color shot later!

They say cloudy days are good for photography, and overcast does lend itself to more even lighting than you would normally get going out and shooting in the early afternoon. The bad thing about a cloudy day is that dreary skies don’t usually make for good landscapes. A solution? Turn it black and white. It deemphasizes the drab sky and puts the focus on your subject matter.

About this photo:
This was a single RAW exposure with basic edits and B&W conversion done in Lightroom.

Camera Gear:
Nikon D3100 with 18.0-55.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens handheld

Date Taken:
March 30, 2016

Thanks for stopping by! If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr! I have to give a shout-out to Instagram user @wanderingz for the inspiration to check out this trail! To plan your trip to Sleeping Bear, visit the National Park Service website!

Chris Corner #7: Eagle Profile

By Chris

On April 1, 2016

In Chris' Corner, Michigan

Eagle Profile by Christopher Mowers on 500px.com

I like this one.

Ashleigh and I walked around Howell Nature Center a few weeks ago because we were interested in doing some wildlife photography. I should be clear in saying that these animals are living in captivity, so maybe not wildlife photography in the traditional sense, more like zoo photography.

Most of my photos for the day were pretty blah, but I did get a few great shots of an eagle. This may be the best one.

About the Photo:
I was shooting in shutter priority. What?!? I never shoot in shutter priority. The thing is, this guy was moving so fast it was all I really cared about. The picture was taken at 200mm, f/5.6, ISO 3200, 1/1000 of a second. That shutter speed was not necessary for this frame, but I got a few others that only turned out because I was shooting so quickly.

Camera Gear:
Nikon D3100 with 55-200mm f/4-5.6 lens.

Date Taken:
March 6, 2016

Thank you for reading. You can see my best work on 500px and can also find pictures of the “trying my hardest to be good at this” type on Flickr or Pixoto.

Also, be sure to like the Go See Do Facebook Page, and follow Ashleigh on Instagram and Flickr! Check out our Gear page to see inside our camera bag!

Wordless Wednesday: Hawk

By Ashleigh

On March 30, 2016

In Michigan, Wordless Wednesday

Long Walks on the Beach

By Ashleigh

On March 28, 2016

In Hiking, Travel

Recently in my Instagram Travel Challenge, I was given the prompt “Your first…”. Yes, it was a very vague prompt and I wracked my brain to think of a first ever travel memory that I have documented in pictures. I am very blessed in that I got started traveling before I was the one taking pictures so I don’t have a lot of pretty pictures of my firsts.

One of my first photo adventures was also my first backpacking trip, hiking North Carolina’s Mountains to Sea Trail. We hiked the Sea part of the trail, walking from Nags Head to Ocracoke, over 60 miles in 6 days. It was a lot of work, but a good part of the trail is undeveloped seashore with absolutely breathtaking views. I want to go back some day, but this time, bring a car.

About the Photo:
This trip was before I had my DSLR, so all of the photos were taken with a compact Samsung point & shoot. To be honest, that is kind of a blessing, because now I would want to add 20 lbs of camera gear to all the other stuff you have to carry when you go backpacking and my bag was heavy enough as it was! So, this isn’t the highest quality photo, but I love the trail of boot prints in the sand! I did basic edits to this shot using Google’s free editing software, Picassa.

Date Taken:
May 2009

Thanks for stopping by! If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr! To plan your trip to the Outer Banks, visit OuterBanks.org. For more information about the Mountains to Sea Trail, check out ncmst.org.

Chris Corner #6: From the Death of the Winter Arising

By Chris

On March 25, 2016

In Michigan

From the Death of the Winter Arising by Christopher Mowers on 500px.com

This image is a composite inspired by one of my favorite stanzas from one of my favorite Easter Hymns- “Hail Thee, Festival Day.”

All the fair beauty of earth,
from the death of the winter arising!
Every good gift of the year
now with its Master returns.

Blessed Triduum and Easter to all. For those who have kept the fast and for those who have not, for those who have labored from the first hour and for those who only arrived at the 11th, the feast is richly laden for you.

About the Photo:
A composite of many images shot in our garden.

Camera Gear:
Nikon D3100 with 55-200mm f/4-5.6 lens.

Date Taken:
March 24, 2016

Thank you for reading. You can see my best work on 500px and can also find pictures of the “trying my hardest to be good at this” type on Flickr or Pixoto.

Also, be sure to like the Go See Do Facebook Page, and follow Ashleigh on Instagram and Flickr! Check out our Gear page to see inside our camera bag!