Celebrate Pittsburgh with its Skyline

Today is a perfect day to celebrate Pittsburgh and its spirited people, as the Steelers enter a playoff game where most fans have serious doubts about a positive outcome. The Steeler Nation is still behind the team — either in person or via television all over the world. Today’s game might well be the last game of the Steeler season, which is a big deal in Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh has a pretty fabulous skyline, thanks to the geography of the Three Rivers, at least two successful Renaissance transformations and a currently vibrant local economy. And Pittsburghers never get enough of that skyline.

As a gift to the ever positive people of Pittsburgh, I bring you some summer night skyline images from the North Shore on a special evening when I expected the full moon to rise over the Golden Triangle. The moon rose on cue, of course, but clouds hid the moon from me for all but about 5 minutes that evening. Patience paid off. In this first image, you can see the Fort Duquesne Bridge on the left and the Fort Pitt Bridge on the right. Lots of history here (at Fort Pitt at the Point), dating back to George Washington and the Revolutionary War.

To capture the high dynamic range, I fused three images together.

Here is a closer view of the fountain at Point State Park where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers form the Ohio River. The full moon features more prominently.

The Point at Pittsburgh, PA

Lastly, let’s take a turn with creativity. A ten-second exposure captures enough light to make the sky appear blue, and I’ve dropped in a larger moon, taken that night from another exposure when I zoomed the lens in to 200mm. The moon wasn’t this big in relation to the buildings, but the moon was the reason I waited alone on the wharf for 90 minutes, so I personally like to see it big! I think it is AOK to play with the moon size, as long as the photographer is honest about it.  Journalists can’t do this, but I am wearing my artist hat now. As an artist, I would also only play with elements captured that evening. I might be creative, but not crazy with my choices.

Artistic rendition of the moon rise with larger moon added in post processing.

Which photo do you like best? These images can be produced in high resolution  as large prints. Contact me via email at cathykellyphotography@gmail.com

 

 

Flashes of Hope

Today I’m getting ready for a full day of shooting portraits at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh for Flashes of Hope. This is a volunteer gig I do once or twice a year to benefit kids who have cancer or another serious illness. I only have about 15 minutes to capture several wonderful and different portraits of each child. The biggest challenge is to get the child to warm up and relax in front of the camera as quickly as possible. Of course, we try to make the shoot a fun experience — a special day to feel like a movie star, or just to be yourself and be loved for who you are. The children may range in age from newborn to college student, but most of my subjects have fallen into the 4 to 12 age range. I’ll bring all the Mommy charm I have inside, all the photography know-how and give it my best.

Here is one portrait from last June. Identities are confidential. Say a prayer that all these children will be blessed with a recovery to full health.

Portrait by Cathy Kelly for Flashes of Hope 6/2015

Welcome Winter

Finally, a dusting of snow! My next wish is for a good six inches to close schools and cover the landscape with a blanket of fresh whiteness. If it’s going to be cold, and we have to bundle up, would’t it be more fun to have snow?  Yes! When the trees are bare,  and the dog is muddy, let’s at least enjoy some scenic beauty!

Here’s a favorite snow photo of mine from December 8, 2009.

Snowy tree with a perfect blue sky

That morning I toured my Sewickley neighborhood (near Pittsburgh, PA) and shot lots of beautiful snowy house photos in addition to my usual landscape subjects. Then, I made them into personalized note cards for friends.

Snow day as a perfect day for a house photo.

Any of my images can be made into notecards upon request. Shoot me an email, if you’d like me to shoot your house in snow, or if you’d like some notecards of a snowy scene for your holiday thank you notes. cathykellyphotography@gmail.com.

Christmas Lights

Photographing Christmas lights at dusk presents a technical challenge: having the lights just bright enough and the unlit part of the scene visible enough to look good. The practical challenge of photographing Christmas lights is taking the time out of your busy holiday schedule to carry off the shoot, right at dusk. This year, I had just the push I needed: a challenge from one of my photography clubs to submit a photo on the theme “through the window.”

Now, I pass on the challenge to you! (Hint: this is way easier than the ice bucket challenge!) All you have to do is make time at dusk and go outside with your camera. I’ll share a few tips that guided my shooting and processing of my house photo.

My family takes an understated approach to Christmas lights by putting simple candles in the windows of our Victorian house. For my photo, I attached my Nikon D800 to a Really Right Stuff Tripod. (Any tripod will do as long it is sturdy enough for your camera. The best camera for the job is one you can set manually.) I had an overcast evening, but snow would make the scene even nicer. With the D800, ISO 400 is pretty noise free, and I set the lens for f/16, hoping for a little star effect on the lights. I began on Aperture preferred mode for one frame, and then changed the mode to manual and bracketed the exposure higher and lower, so that I could choose later the best exposure for the house, the sky and the lights. The sun was setting in front of me on the left, which was not ideal, but didn’t cause a major issue.

When I imported the exposures into Lightroom, I chose the one-second exposure. It really wasn’t necessary to tone-map multiple exposures in Photomatix or Photoshop, because I only needed to bring the exposure of the house up a little, and the sky down a little. In Lightroom, I adjusted the shadows up, clarity up, white balance toward blue and lens correction vertically (to correct the look of the house leaning back).

Exported into Photoshop, the image was ready for some dodging and burning to lighten the white trim on the house and darken the edges of the frame. Since the image would benefit from a strong darkening of the sky, I used the multiply blend mode on a duplicate layer and a mask to isolate the sky.

One more sneaky trick you may enjoy: Three windows did not have candles in them, but I was able to clone stamp candles in them for a more complete look. Here is my final image.

If you need help making a memorable photo of your home with Christmas lights, feel free to contact me. There is no place like home in any season.

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Note: Cathy Kelly is available to shoot your house, your front door and garden in the Sewickley and greater Pittsburgh PA area. She makes notecards and tiles with those images, as well as large prints. These images make wonderful gifts!  For more information, contact Cathy at  cathykellyphotography@gmail.com