Behind The Shot : Photo Postcards In Your Own Backyard

Sometimes I look at images of exotic destinations, they seem to be a lot of fun and exciting spots. Unfortunately, due to financial constraints or lack of free time, the majority of my shooting is done in locations not far from home.

One example of this is my favorite hangout place, New York City. In addition to the amazing city skylines, NYC have lots of historic landmarks that offer a wide range of potential compositions.

The Big Apple is a popular choice for landscape photographers, many of whom travel from distant states and other countries to shoot there.

Often, we think great images happen by luck, or because a person have expensive equipment. The truth is many great images are taken after years of return trips to the same spots.

This year I've been spending more time shooting the same locations in Philadelphia trying to improve my photography. By returning over and over to the same spot, I’m able to explore and build upon my previous experience. Experimenting with camera settings to create new images while learning from my mistakes.

Philadelphia Boathouse Row is one of those Philly iconic locations I always have a hard time photographing. None of the images taken in the past look the way I like. In my opinion, they look so horrible I don't even bother to post them on Facebook.

I have to confess, I love my DSLR so much I always carry the camera with me everywhere, literally everywhere. So today after my doctor's appointment, I decided to try to photograph Boathouse Row one more time. What have I got to lose?

The weather experts announced a cloudy and rainy day, so I carried an umbrella along with the Nikon D7000, a 50mm prime lens, a 18-105mm zoom, a circular polarizer filter, a neutral density (ND4) filter, my trusty tripod and the Nikon DC2 remote release cord.

As always, the weather forecast got it wrong. It was mostly a sunny day, only a few clouds in the sky. Why is there no rain when the weather forecast said it's going to rain? But I digress.

For the type of photography I do, my go-to lens is the Nikon 18-105mm. It is the lens I rely on 90% of the time. This occasion I decided to try a different approach, instead of capturing all 15 boathouse club houses in one panorama shot, I figured I'd focus on the houses in the middle.

I took several shots with the Nikon 18-105mm zoom, quickly switched lenses and took more pictures using the Nikon 50mm prime lens. This time I setup the camera to take a series of bracketed images at five separate exposures from different angles.

After editing and blending the five images using Photomatix Pro, I thought something was amiss with the image. It was nice but lacked something. So instead of leaving it the way it was, I experimented adding a mirror reflection effect to it by flipping the lower layer and adding blur. After some minor retouches here and there, I am very happy with the final result. This is the best image I've taken so far at this location.

I love to capture pictures right in my own backyard. It is closer to home, cheaper, and allows me to return more regularly.