Sunset over Cambridge, Massachusetts, that is.

A panoramic shot that also includes the Longfellow Bridge & Charles River — plus a couple of sailboats heading back to the MIT marina.

I struggled mightily to get the exposure correct on this one, as the sun is generally known to be really quite bright, even when it’s setting. This is one of dozens of shots I took, but this one seemed to be fairly close to capturing the experience of what I was seeing.

Taken from the Longfellow Bridge in that wonderful, warm late afternoon sunlight just before dusk, this photo shows the banks of the Charles River in Boston at pretty much the peak time of the autumnal colors here in New England. The green skyscraper on the right-hand side of the photo is the John Hancock Tower.

I merged this shot together from 9 different portrait (vertical), hand-held exposures using the ever-handy Photoshop, and then brought the new panorama back into Lightroom for cropping and further processing. I really wanted those Fall colors to jump out at the viewer.

I took a number of different panorama shots that day, after having spent the day in the Scott Kelby Photoshop workshop for digital photographers and being inspired by some of the techniques Scott talked about for capturing good panoramas. As I said in my previous post, I really recommend Scott’s workshops for anyone interested in the craft of digital photo processing.

(Also available in poster format at gallery.brianburtphoto.com.)

A Red Line MBTA train reflects the sunset as it crosses the Longfellow Bridge from Boston into Cambridge.

This was merged together as a panorama in Photoshop from 5 different overlapping portrait exposures. I’m completely astounded at the fantastic job Photoshop does of blending together the different shots.

I was inspired to do the panorama (and to process it like this) after a day well-spent in the Scott Kelby Photoshop workshop over at the Convention & Exhibition center. He is the Photoshop ninja-master, and I bow down to both the truly awesome things he can do in Photoshop and to his gift for presenting these complex techniques in a humorous and clear manner. I highly recommend you attend one of his Photoshop or Lightroom seminars, or at least purchase one of his many great Photoshop, Lightroom, and digital photography books. My hat’s off to you, Scott, and thanks!

This is another photo from my stroll earlier this week around Walden Pond in Concord, MA.

Besides being a serene and peaceful place all year round for hikers, Walden is tremendously popular among local swimmers (and fisherman as well) because of its calm, relatively warm waters and because only non-motorized watercraft are allowed.

I was just sitting next to the water watching the swimmers go by in the falling light, and this swimmer just seemed to have a such a smooth, non-hurried stroke that I just started snapping away. I especially liked the V-shaped ripples in the water left in the swimmer’s trail combined with the autumn colors of the trees in the background.

Autumn Sunset at Walden Pond, originally uploaded by briburt.

If the phrase “Walden Pond” sounds familiar: yes, this is the same Walden Pond made famous in the book Walden, or, Life in the Woods by Concord’s own Henry David Thoreau.

I’m fortunate in that I live just a few miles down the road from Walden Pond in Concord, MA, so I bike by there regularly as well as go over there for a stroll every now and then. The area is wildly popular both with tourists (who make a pilgrimage to Walden to pay respect to Thoreau and his work) and with local folks who just want a peaceful place to hang out, go jogging, take a peaceful walk, or just sit and be. It’s particularly popular with local swimmers as only rowboats are allowed on the water (so there’s no chance that, say, obnoxious watercraft such as jet-skis, will ever be used there).

In any case, I decided to go out to Walden yesterday evening to stroll around the pond around sunset to see what I could see, and maybe take a few photos. This is one of those photos.

(Taken with a fabulous Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 lens rented from the fabulous folks at LensProToGo across town in Concord — highly recommended to try these guys out if you want to use or try out an expensive lens for a limited time, btw. I’ve been to their new digs, and they definitely have their act together.)

OK. I was up before dawn this morning, photographing the sunrise, and it was 10 degrees Fahrenheit. So what did I do when I got home? Started processing photos of Cape Cod from last summer. Makes sense, I suppose. This is one of those photos.

Had a lot of fun with this one, deliberately breaking the "rule of thirds." To me, "rules" like this exist more as handy guidelines to get me going than hard-and-fast rules.

This is a shot of the famous CITGO sign that sits near Fenway Park, the home of Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox. The sign has a very interesting history and is considered one of the iconic landmarks of the Boston skyline.

That is the Harvard Bridge in the foreground with the red streaks from the moving traffic on top of it.

Went out to Gloucester, Massachusetts, on Cape Ann last weekend and headed straight for the water. It is one of the great fishing ports on the Eastern seaboard of North America.

Found the Inner Harbor area and managed to get some shots at dusk. This is one of them. That building is the "Gloucester Manufactory," which, from the writing on the side of the building, looks like it is (or was) a place that makes and/or sells maritime clothing.

Sunlight and Clouds on Beach 4, originally uploaded by briburt.

Now that I’m out here in New England, I thought it might be time to revisit some shots I took when we were out on the Pacific Coast last fall.

Going through my Lightroom library revealed a number of shots with potential, and this was one I decided to go ahead and process and see what came out of it.

Overall, I like how it turned out, though the blown out areas behind the trees are less than optimal in my opinion. I tried to use Lightroom to recover some of these areas, but they are still overexposed. What saves the picture in my view are the sun rays streaming through the trees and hitting the beach, contrasted with the blue sky and dramatic clouds.

Not bad, I guess, but there are others from the same shoot that I prefer over this one.

Dreamscape, Ruby Beach

Originally uploaded by briburt

Well, this one now seems to be gaining some popularity out on Flickr. When I took it, I didn’t think the light was right, but thanks to some (subtle) HDR processing, I managed to bring the light out of the foreground and get the clouds and mist just right.

I hope I can keep using HDR to get the colors just right in my eyes.