Welcome to the Bergen Photo Blog

Welcome to the Bergen Photo Blog, a place I’ve thought about creating for some time. Living in New Jersey, we all have to put up with the abuse and jokes – and yes, there’s more to New Jersey than the N.J. Turnpike!

I thought it would be interesting to share bits and pieces of Bergen County and the adjacent communities with you, through my lens. Since my camera goes anywhere I go, expect anything.  You may also like to check out my Flickr page where I’ve been posting for about two years.

If you read my “about” page than you already know that my photographic pixel were planted long ago in Hudson County. I can’t think of a better place to open this blog.

Jersey City sits on the Western side of the Hudson River, directly across from “Ground Zero” on the Southern tip of Manhattan. Each “9/11” the Tribute in Light is held marking the location of where the World Trade Center towers once stood. A monument was added in Jersey City to those who lost their lives. The yearly event really brings out the shutter bugs – definitely a great photo-op.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Somewhere thereafter The Great Falls in Paterson, New Jersey appeared. Though this historic site is situated in an area you might not want to be by yourself at night, it remains one of my favorite photo spots, especially in the dead of winter when everything turns to crystal ice. The bridge over the falls was also featured in an episode in the 1^st season of “The Sopranos”. I’m told, on the East coast of the U.S. it is 2^nd in size only to Niagara Falls. This was one of the lucky shots I never planned for, originally in color and converted to B&W to enhance the sky drama. Walking down to water level one has to watch not to stumble on an occasional used hypodermic syringe or spent crack bag – yes, I’m very serious!

B&W – Life in Monochrome

Just testing

Welcome to HDR Photography – Bob’s World in HDR!

For those not familiar with HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography, it’s a method to capture a scene that displays an image with greater dynamic range, closer to the way our eyes see an image. By dynamic range I mean the number of shades between black and white that can be displayed. Increasing the dynamic range increases detail in areas of a photo that would usually be in darker shadow areas or burned out highlighted areas. Multiple exposures are taken with varied exposures, lighter and darker than what your camera deems is the “proper” exposure. Picture details of each photo are combined to form what we refer to as a tone mapped image. Over the next few posts I’ll share some of my techniques and the software I use.

HDR photos need not always be about garish color or “cartoonish” looks. Here, I used 5 exposures to bring out sky detail and some color on what was a very overcast day. This shot was taken in Osaka, Japan while on a business trip in April, 2009.

This photo was shot with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1, created from 5 RAW images, processed with HDR MAX.

Welcome to the Bergen Photo Blog

This is where it all begins! So I decided to create a place where I can share bits and pieces of Bergen County, NJ.