The Potomac River and railroad bridge across from Shepherdstown WV, seen from the C&O Canal towpath.

21mm Zeiss Distagon, Canon 5D Mk II, Aperture 3, Ps CS5.

80-200mm Zeiss Vario-Sonnar CY, Canon 5D Mk II, Aperture 3, Ps CS5.

Take two.

21mm Zeiss Distagon ZE, Canon 5D Mk II, Aperture 3, Ps CS5.

Wash me down . . . .

21mm Zeiss Distagon ZE, Canon 5D Mk II, Aperture 3, Ps CS5.

To the towpath actually. And it was a good time. Stay tuned.

21mm Zeiss Distagon ZE, Canon 5D Mk II, Aperture 3, Ps CS5, HDR.

Forgive me for not knowing the species name. There are 210 species in the genus, and who knows how many hybrids and cultivars. This is a medium size multi-trunk tree growing in Cindy and Dave’s yard that Allegheny Power butchered not long ago. It was in full tilt bloom this week when I made this and other images.

On the technical side I was surprised at how difficult it was to get a proper exposure without cleaning out the gray component from these reds. The color balance there is quite delicate. It is a low to medium saturation red (or perhaps very dark pink), but it tended to over saturate as I worked with it. I am pleased with where it ended up.

100mm Zeiss Makro-Planar ZE, Canon 5D Mk II, Aperture 3, Ps CS5.

Potomac river sycamore, Plantanus occidentalis. I would have probably framed this differently but I was shooting across the river and this is as tight as I could get. At some point I might crop some of the foreground, but I don’t like to crop. Virtually everything you see on my site is the full frame. Quality pixels are expensive and not cropping is a very good discipline.

80-200mm Zeiss Vario-Sonnar CY, Canon 5D Mk II, Aperture 3, Ps CS5.

45mm Zeiss Tessar CY, Canon 5D Mk II, Aperture 3, Ps CS5.

45mm Zeiss Tessar CY, Canon 5D Mk II, Aperture 3, Ps CS5.

45mm Zeiss Tessar CY, Canon 5D Mk II, Aperture 3, Ps CS5.