Japanese garden

I decided to return to one of my favorite place in Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn botanic garden. In the middle of the garden there is a beautiful Japanese garden and pond. It has some hidden jewel - a waterfall.
I already did a photo of this place a few years ago https://www.photoaleks.com/blog/2016/6/29/brooklyn-botanical-garden with my Nikon D3200 camera but since I have my new Sony A 7 II I decided to take the photo again Enjoy.

A cold winter day in Prospect park, Brooklyn, NY

This is a panorama made from 6 frames stitched in LR. I was walking on unexpectedly warm day, about 60 F, near this lake in the Prospect park in Brooklyn, NY. I just purchased my new camera Sony A7 II with 28-70 mil lens and wanted to test it.

So, I took six frames and stitched them in LR. My idea behind this photo was to show a beautiful winter day (not the one I took this photo), but a real winter day with temperature well below 32F. The little unfrozen area is where air pumps into the lake, so it wasn't covered with ice. I think it adds some contrast to the picture. The sun is real so does shadows on the ice. It was about 2 PM.

I used some Serge Ramelli tonal presets to create this winter atmosphere, used gradient local adjustments to make sky more dramatic, also used curves to add shadows to the ice.

I also added a little fog to the picture by using negative dehaze and negative clarity. It always some haze or a fog in the air if the mercury drops well below 32 F due to ice crystals. Know it from my own experience when I used to live in Ukraine where -32 C (-26 F) winters are common thing.

Winter Park.jpg

Mandarin duck in the Central park

I just purchased my new Sony a7 ii camera and was waiting for a good place to test it.
So I decided to go to the Central park to catch something interesting. I was right, more than that - who knew that in the middle of New York we can found a duck from the Asia - a Mandarin duck.

Nobody knows how she end up in the lake, where she came from. She is tagged but it’s not a zoo tag.

Before and after

In this post I want to show how Serge Ramelli presets and profiles can completely change the whole image with just one click.

As you might know in LR v.7 Adobe has introduced Profiles. It’s a very cool feature that allows completely change the whole image with just one click. Of course it’s doesn’t mean that you have to completely rely on it - it’s just a starting point. But it’s rather changes a mood of the image that can be emphasize by using LR post processing.

So here it is

Brooklyn Bridge

Before

After
Used Natural Every Day presets - Sunset Linear Circle Light

Central Park Waterfall

Before

Central Park waterfall - before-5.jpg

After - used Natural Every Day presets, Snow Linear Circle Light

Central Park waterfall - after-5.jpg

Central park lake panorama

Before

DSC_5064-Pano-2.jpg

After - used Natural Every Day presets - Sunset Linear Circle Light

DSC_5064-Pano.jpg

Now let’s try to remember one of the best movie Once Upon a Time in America.

Do you remember this iconic place?

Before

Once Upon a Time - before color-5.jpg

Next. let’s convert it into B/W. I used Nik Collection for it.

Once Upon a Time - before-5.jpg

And finally - I applied Shades: White & Tan Dark preset to add movie look.

DSC_4537-Edit.jpg

Once upon a time in America

Finally I took this shot. Do you remember this scene from the movie?

It was pretty hard because of hundreds of people around and to make it even harder - you need to be in the middle of the street which means in the middle of the road. So you need to catch the moment where there is no car and there is no people around.

Post processing was in LR with Serge Ramelli Signature presets and Nik Collection Silver Efex Pro filters.

The last light of the summer

Tried to catch the the last light of the summer.

Post processing in LR.

Lightroom profiles for landscape photography

I want to show some landscape photos taken in New York Prospect park and Central parks with using Lightroom profiles.

As you might know in LR v.7 Adobe has introduced Profiles. It’s a very cool feature that allows completely change the whole image with just one click. Of course it’s doesn’t mean that you have to completely rely on it - it’s just a starting point. But it’s rather changes a mood of the image that can be emphasize by using LR post processing.

In these images I used Serge Ramelli LUT

So here it is

Prospect park waterfall
Central park waterfall
Central park waterfall

Sunsets

Sunset - the most beautiful event that mother nature has created. These golden hours are essential for any photographer. 

Sunsets over the ocean - yet another gift form the Nature.

Sunset over the ocean

Sunset over the Battery park, NY.

It was very rainy day of July, 16, 2016. We decided to walk to Manhattan, maybe take a ferry to the Exchange Place, NJ to take few black and white pictures of the NY Downtown. I like bad weather days because they add more drama to the composition. 

So we were walking down the Battery park and to our surprise  rain has stopped and this beautiful sunset has changed our plan.

Enjoy.

Sunset over the NY harbor

Sunset over the Battery Park, New York.