50/52...

well i only have a couple weeks left on this project. this year has flown by, and i am still deciding if i will continue with the same project, or do something new... only time will tell.

Jon

scarred land....

this was shot on a short vacation to the Black Hills of South Dakota. i took a trip out there with my girlfriend for the 4th of July in 2012. this was out by Jewel Cave.

i shot SO MANY photos out there and i am just now finally getting around to taking a peek at some. pretty sure i over shot. this was back when i was on my HDR kick and everything was bracketed. this is not and HDR shot, just a single exposure.

shot at F22 1/8th of a second ISO 250 using my Sigma 17-35mm lens.

first snowfall... part 4

now for my final post on the first snowfall at Falls Park in Sioux Falls, SD.

the whole shebang.... this is a panorama of the whole park, with our city's skyline in the background.

Jon

@thejonseaton - twitter @jonseaton - instagram

first snowfall... part 3

this is the waterfall in the background of the previous post. nothing exciting happened during the capture of this image. it was a pretty straight forward shot. i wish i had a good story to go along with the shot, but i don't. it was just pretty.

Jon

@thejonseaton - twitter @jonseaton - instagram

first snowfall... part 2

here is my second shot from my snow day at Falls Park in Sioux Falls, SD. this one is a little more mellow. this one is using the same Cokin filter system that i used in the first shot and i had to get a little wet for this one... not by choice.

as i was setting up for this shot i realized a low angle would be the most dramatic, and i would be able to capture the waterfall in the background as well. unfortunately i was in a bit of a hurry, you see it was friggin cold outside! being next to the water falls when it was only about 25 degrees out really made it hard to stay too long. as i was setting up this shot i stood up to move around and get warm and my foot slipped. i almost went butt first into that stream you see rushing by. in the process i managed to bump my tripod and watched in horror as it slid off the rock it was so precariously sitting on. both hands in the water and not being faster than the effects of gravity i watched my camera slide back and land. i was lucky enough to watch it land with the handle of the tripod pointing down and my camera about 2 inches above the rocks and water. so lucky.

i took a few more minuets and set the shot back up and made sure to pay attention to every movement i did. i managed to get a couple decent shots and moved to the next image i wanted to capture.

i have included the non cropped version and one for the Facebook cover photo.if you enjoy the image feel free to use the cover photo provided. please leve comments and share the posts as well if you wish.

Facebook cover photo:

Jon

@thejonseaton - twitter @jonseaton - instagram

first snowfall....

this week i plan on sharing some photos that were shot on Sunday morning. we were getting our first real snowfall of the season and i decided to take a walk around our famous Falls Park in Sioux Falls, SD. i recently purchased a Cokin filter kit, and was extremely impressed with how easy it is to use.

all of these shots are with my Sigma 17-35mm and the Cokin filter kit. i was using the ND filters 8 and 4 to get some long exposure shots of the water. as you can see there is only a light snowfall. it gives a beautiful clean look to the shots.

i will also include a shot that is cropped, and can be used for a Facebook cover photo. if you enjoy the shot you are more than welcome to use the cover photo.

jon

@thejonseaton - twitter @jonseaton - instagram

city lights....

and here is the view from my hotel. this was a pain to shoot due the the fact i did not have a tripod. this was a 15 second exposure, handheld, with my fisheye lens. i literally had to push the lens against the window and just hold it.

the more i bumped up the ISO and took shorter shots, the more gunk on the window would show up. so an ISO 100 at 15 seconds was about the only way i could get the shot and the light trails helped too.

thanks again for looking.

@jonseaton-instagram @thejonseaton-twitter

44/52...

41/52...

here is a panorama i shot this week while i was in Jacksonville, Florida for work. it turned out surprisingly well due to the fact that when it was shot i was slightly inebriated, and had no tripod with me. this was had held with my canon 28-135 at F3.5 and ISO 3200!!!

i think i got lucky on this one.

Jon

@jonseaton -instagram @thejonseaton -twitter.

single file please...

here is a shot i did on the same day as 40/52...

literally a short walk on my local bike path, led to many beautiful photos. this one is not HDR, the wind was too high for me to get a decent bracketed exposure. so i shot to the left and really underexposed the sky. the sun was shining directly on the trees so that helped a ton. all post was done with lightroom. i added a graduated filter to the bottom to lighten it up a bit, and boosted the vibrancy and saturation a little. probably one of the most simple photos i have taken in a while, but it turned out amazing.

thanks again for reading.

jon

@jonseaton-instagram @thejonseaton-twitter

40/52...

beautiful autumn evening.

39/52...

oh man, how i love HDR. i am still very addicted to HDR, and my fisheye lens. for some reason i just love the perspective that it is capable of delivering.

jon

instagram-@jonseaton twitter-@thejonseaton

37/52...

this week i did a sunset silhouette. i went east of Sioux Falls to Arrowhead Park and shot towards Sioux Falls. nothing too special about the shot technical wise. i just waded for the sun to set below the horizon and snapped away.

i chose a tight/narrow crop on this, because i am debating on getting it printed on either Fuji high gloss, or a metallic paper, and encapsulated in plexiglass. this is very similar, ok its actually the same thing Peter Lik does for his prints. over the weekend i met a local photographer that does the same thing and was able to look at a few of his encapsulated prints. they were AMAZING. the look and reflection are so awesome. it gives a different dimension to the print. the other thing is the fact the prints last longer and can not be damaged as easy!

as always, thanks for looking/reading.

Jon

@jonseaton-instagram @thejonseaton-twitter jonseaton@outlook.com-email

36/52...

i decided to play with the Brenizer method again today. i used this bench under a bridge in Sioux Falls to create a pretty neat panorama.

i also shot one from a little different perspective.

34/52...

shutter speed: 30 sec aperture: f2.8 ISO: 6400 focal length: 17mm

decided to revisit an old spot. this spot has been featured on my blog twice. i took my first panorama photo here, and my first star shot. the star shot was the most memorable. i have included the link to both posts below.

i went back because the last time i was here was October of 2011, since then i have gotten a WAY better camera, and have learned a ton of new tricks to composition and editing. thankfully my camera has a bit higher ISO speed, granted its not as nice as i wish but it does the job. this will be a favorite spot of mine for a long time. its in the middle of nowhere and super peaceful.... well except that one night... read Stars to see what i'm talking about.

Stars: http://jonseaton.wordpress.com/2011/10/21/stars/

country evening: http://jonseaton.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/country-evening/

Waterfall...

This is a photo from my recent trip to the Black Hills, of South Dakota. This is Roughlock Falls. This is a 3shot HDR, using my sigma 17-35 f2.8-4. I used a ND8 filter and my tripod to get 1, 3 and 5 second exposures. This was difficult due to the natural movement of everything in the photo.

Luckily I didn't get too much ghosting! I did try to compose an HDR image from a single RAW file, but the colors were so off, and very noisy. I hope to try some more single shot HDR images soon.

Jon

@jonseaton - instagram @thejonseaon - twitter

28/52... Part 2.

ok, so i had the chance to edit a few photos from my trip.... so i decided to make today a double post day.

this was on the way back from Devils Tower, WY. the whole day was overcast and spitting. there was literally no good shots all day. i spent a better part of a 4GB CF card trying to catch something. needless to say i was upset. i had never been to the Devils Tower, it has always been something i wanted to see. i wanted to take some amazing photos, but i had such crappy weather.

on the way home the clouds broke, and the most amazing landscapes started popping up. i was just in awe! i saw this and pulled over. i had been looking for a safe place to stop for about 10 miles. i have about 40 photos all AEB for HDR to go through. this was the fist batch i decided to look at. i didn't have much time, the sun was already behind a large hill behind me. i did what i could to compose about five different angles, and spots. hopefully the rest turn out as good as this one!!

thanks again for looking.

jon

@jonseaton- instagram @thejonseaton- twitter

Drive to nowhere....

Here is the photo I set out to take, when I also took 24/52... I literally just took off in my car, and drove until I found something beautiful. I knew it would be a sunset photo, and that I would probably try an HDR shot. What I don't know is how many fun shots, and experiences would come of this drive.

The skull on the fence in 24/52... Was what got me to stop, and the field with the beautiful view, and power lines got me to stay. I sat in the ditch takin photos for over 2 hours. In that time I spoke with the owner of the farm, got attacked by some ants, and had a deer jump the fence 15ft from where I was standing.

I watched that deer run through the field for a good half hour. I tried my best to get a photo of him, but I was too slow changing lenses. I got a few shots with him about 100 yards out. I was not prepared for something that far away, but couldn't resist trying.

I don't care how long you have lived somewhere, or of you know every nook and cranny of a place. Go shoot anyway! Think of a different angle, drive an extra 10 minuets, or go without a plan. Those have always helped me with any block of creativity, or in my case, helped me think through things.

Thanks again for looking.

24/52...

Random drive in the county, leads to this shot. Went out on a drive earlier this week to try an HDR sunset photo, and came across this skull on a fence. The farmer that owns the land stopped by to talk while I was setting up. Turns out his son put it there a while back.

I will be posting the sunset I shot as well. That will be posted tomorrow.

Jon

@jonseaton-instagram @thejonseaton-twitter

20/52...

here is another sunrise photo at the Indialantic beach in, Florida. for this i used my sigma 17-35mm at 17mm with a ND8 filter. i believe this was a 10 second exposure at f22. i set the timer on the camera then watched the waves for a bit.

i was hoping for a more dramatic sunrise, and was pretty disappointed with what i had in camera. i was originally trying some HDR shots but the noise was just too high.

after i got home i realized the colors that were present and decided to process them in lightroom 3. there was very little post done on these, just some of my "stock" adjustment. overall i was super please with my morning.

throughout the next week or so i will be posting some more shots form this morning.

Thanks again for looking.

Jon

@jonseaton – instagram @thejonseaton – twitter Facebook.com/seaton.jon – Facebook.