As promised in my last post, today we have some more shots of the Pittsburgh during the snow storm, specifically of the campus of the University of Pittsburgh.  Since I was there early enough in the day, before the student traffic picked up and the plow trucks came out, I was able to capture some most of my images with fresh snow on the ground.

The first stop that I made was of the statue of the Panther, the Pitt mascot, located just outside the student union building.  I took a low angle on this one to include the iconic Cathedral of Learning in the background.

As I made my way closer to the Cathedral the barren trees and wet pathway framed the Catedral nicely.

Through the Cathedral (with a quick stop to warm up!) I found myself facing Heinz Chapel with it’s lone spire piercing the grey morning sky.  I don’t think that I’d had ever really even noticed the tree standing next to it before, but I thought that they made a good pair.

This is one of my favorite shots from my trip there.  I had taken this shot in the summer a few years back and knew that if I ever made it back in the snow I wanted to try to recreate.  This is the pathway that leads from the Cathedral of Learning to Heinz Chapel.

Next up, the doors on Heinz Chapel.  This was a bit more of an impromptu shot, as the red doors really seemed to glow against the otherwise bland colors I was seeing during the day.

Turn around 180 degrees and this is the view that you see of the Cathedral, again, a shot that I’ve taken before, but just never in the snow.

Walking back towards the Cathedral, this tree seemed to be ensnaring the building with its snow covered branches.

Eventually I made my way up to the 36th floor and the Honors College, where I last was over the summer to get some shots of the city at night.  The doors were locked, but I did manage one shot out of a side window of the Carnegie Mellon campus (above) and the steps from the 35th to the 36th floors (below).

Thanks a lot for stopping by today everyone.  I’ll be catching up this evening!

Well, we finally got a lot of snow in Pittsburgh.  True, we did get that dusting around New Year’s, but it didn’t really stick around and neither is this round.  Supposed to be low 50’s this week, so it’s all going to melt again.  I did however get up very early on Saturday morning, right in the middle of the storm, to head downtown and grab some awesome pictures both during and after the snow hit.  Wandered around on the North Shore before making my way up to Oakland, where the University of Pittsburgh is located.  Those shots will be for another time though.

When I first got there, you could barely see the city, as evidenced by the first shot above.  The tops of the buildings were barely visible and the sky had this pinkish purple tint.  As I moved along the Allegheny River, the sky turned more bluish purple, as you can see in the second shot.  The water wasn’t quite as still as I would have liked for some better reflections, but hey, what are you gonna do?

I’ve take a bunch of shots of the Clemente Statue that stands outside PNC Park, but it had a whole new look to it in the snow.

After heading up to PNC Park (and starting to freeze as I had taken my hat off and put it over my camera since the snow was really coming down) I decided to take a walk over the Roberto Clemente (formally 6^th Street) Bridge (seen above).  The plow trucks were very intermittent, so there was still a decent about of snow on the road.  And given the fact that it was a Saturday, there weren’t a lot of people out and about.

I walked across the bridge and grabbed a few shots on my journey, adding some depth of field for your viewing pleasure.

The light was hitting the underside of the support at a great angle and it looked pretty awesome in HDR.

I knew there were two shots of benches that I wanted to get (sorry for the overload on them the last couple of posts).  One was right off the bridge on a pathway across from PNC Park that I had shot a couple of summers ago.  Decided to go with a B&W processing on it that might end up on my wall.

Finally I made my way down to old faithful, the Boardwalk below the North Shore.  The vintage tone gave me the exact look that I was hoping for.

So that’s Round 1 of the shots.  Stay tuned for more in the next couple of days.

Thanks for stopping by folks.

Not that anyone really has the blues on Friday, unless you have to work the weekend, in which case you might.  No, Friday blues refers to a collection of shots that I took when good friend and photog Zach Frailey of Uprooted Photographer fame was in town over Christmas.  We made our way down to the North Shore, hoping to catch some fog over the city but instead just got a great morning blue hour.  I couldn’t decide if I liked some of them better in color or B&W so I thought that I would let you all decided.  Let me know what you think!

This was actually the first image I took that morning, I loved the reflections of the chain in the little puddle.

Though I also liked it in B&W!

I love taking pictures of these benches on the little boardwalk area.  The question is color…

…or B&W?

Having some fun with bokeh

All of these shots were processed in Photomatix and onOne Perfect Effects.  The majority of them got a slight Dreamland filter as well as Blue Dawn Leonidas, Tonal Contrast and Turbo Boost filters.  The B&Ws were processed in Silver Efex 2 after receiving the same filters in Perfect Effects.

I hope that you all have a great weekend!

Well, this image is, but not what the image depicts.  This is a shot of the supreme court in New York City, whose steps you have probably seen countless times on episodes of Law and Order.  I have been called upon this week to fulfill my civil duty serving on a jury in a building like this in Pittsburgh and that’s the reason that I wasn’t around at all yesterday.  Today and tomorrow may be a bit sporadic as well, but I will catch up the best that I can!

I hope that you all have a great day!

Good morning everyone and happy Monday!  I hope that you all enjoyed your weekend!

Today’s shots will be somewhat of a hodge podge.  I am still in the process of organizing my pictures in Lightroom after making the switch from iPhoto about two months back and I keep finding pictures that I took a while back, but never posted.  These are all shots that I took over the summer with the rented fisheye I had.  I think I still have a few more still lurking on the hard drive somewhere, so we may have a part two of this series at some point!

These are all shots from around Pittsburgh (except that one that is at a bar with the Dos Equis bar mat, as that one was from Guidos Burritos restaurant on the Boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland), and primarily in Market Square, nestled in between PPG Place.  The day after I received the lens this was my first destination as I knew that I would be able to put the lens to some good use before the tripod police came.  Along with Market Square there is a view from PNC Park and the Pirates’ game as well as the dome in front of the Pennsylvanian.

Thanks for stopping by today folks see you all tomorrow.

Well, I think that winter is finally here to stay in Pittsburgh.  With temperatures plummeting last night and a very crisp chill in the air, we may actually see snow for more than just a few days before it melts!  I just have a quick post and run today as it’s been a busy Friday already (seeing as this blog post is 3 hours late!), but I just wanted to share some of my favorite winter images over the last few years.  The one above is from last year, on a path that I didn’t even know existed until I almost walked by it this night, capturing some of the snow that had fallen!

These next two are from the 30″ of snow that we got in one night two years back, which was dubbed Snowpocalypse here in Pittsburgh!  The above is the street right in front of my house while below is out my back window.

Thanks for stopping by today everyone and have a great weekend!

Yep, you read right.  I thought that the title was appropriate given the above shot, which for those of you who don’t recognize it, it is the building used for the coffee shop Monk’s in the show Seinfeld, the show about nothing.  Seeing that it is one of my favorite shows and I had been to New York three times previously and not yet been by it, I knew that I wanted to make the trip up to 112^th and Broadway to get a shot of the famous place.  I know that the inside was not the actual inside that was used for the shots in the show, but the outside is certainly recognizable!

That’s all for this morning everyone, just a quick post and run.  Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you all tomorrow.

The home of the Pirates, who have set the mark for futility in professional sports with 19 consecutive losing seasons, have called the stadium home since 2001 and it has been considered ever since its opening one of the best parks in America.  With a view of the Pittsburgh skyline visible from virtually everywhere except a few hundred seats, it’s an outstanding place to watch a baseball game.  Even if you aren’t paying full attention to the game, for the low price of a ticket, it can be a great place to relax on a warm summer night, like the first shot above.

I’ve been a bit heavy handed recently on the Pittsburgh shots lately, so I thought that I would switch it up today and head back down to Arlington with some shots from our trip there in the fall!  Also since yesterday I featured the home of the Steelers I wanted to show everyone what a real football stadium looks like!  I’m only kidding, just because I don’t like the Steelers doesn’t mean they don’t have a great stadium, because it actually is a great place to watch a game, especially with the Pittsburgh skyline in view through the open endzone!

My biggest problem with Cowboys Stadium is trying to figure out which angle to shoot it from, not because it is difficult to get a decent shot, but because it looks great from any angle!  This is one advantage it does have over Heinz Field, as you really can only get a decent shot from the one end zone.  The first one I took our first night there, after we were all settled into the hotel.  Since I didn’t have my tripod (and you can’t really get close to the stadium), I settled on propping my camera up on top of one of the railings and holding it as still as I could.  The next two were taken at opposite end of the massive stadium, looking straight on towards the end zone.  One morning I decided to venture out early, with my wife still asleep and get a few shots in and around both the Ballpark at Arlington and the stadium, which is where the sunflare picture game from.  Of course I had to get a shot from the upper deck during the tour we took as well!

All of the shots were 5 exposure, handheld/propped up HDRS processed with Photomatix, Color Efex and Perfect Effects.

Thanks for swinging by today folks, see you all tomorrow!

Oh and don’t forget that all shots of Heinz Field are 25% off this week with the discount code HEINZ over on my website!
http://hdrexposed.zenfolio.com/heinzfield