Door County

Mama Kisses [Photos]

A little peck on the cheek from Mama and Christian is all smiles.

Back Story

These photos were actually “forgotten” until recently when I was going through photos from our Door County trip in June. Once I saw them, I knew I wanted to share them. Taken only one week after the Naperville Riverwalk portraits on his six month birthday, so it’s amazing to see how he looks now compared to back then.

Silly Face

Smile

Door County Prints

Remember I said I rediscovered these when going through photos from past Door County trips? Well, those are being edited and added to the Door County print gallery over at my online print store.

Visit Print Gallery

 

Take a look around if you visited “The Door” before or even if you haven’t and wanted to see what it’s like through my lens. And check back often – more images are being posted throughout the week.

– Kris

Autumn Sister Bay [Photo]

Sister Bay, WI on a cloudy autumn afternoon in between rain showers.

Back Story

This photo is actually a remake from a series of shots I took in Door County back in October, 2009. It was a raining just about the entire weekend, but I did manage to get a few shots in between showers.

Order Prints

 

This has been one of my favorite images in my Door County portfolio, so why did I decide to remake it? Well, here’s the original version that I published in 2009:

Sister Bay – Original Version

Your Take?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so what do you think? The original – more monochromatic version – has it’s own autumn feel to it, while the remake captures more of the colorful beauty that is Door County in autumn.

Leave your comments below and let me know what you think.

– Kris

Photo: Cheerful

Christian enjoying some down time on the ground in between car rides.

Back Story

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a month already, but this photo was from our weekend in Door County, WI at the end of October. It was our third road trip with Christian, and now that he’s getting bigger and more mobile, staying buckled into his car seat while on the road makes him a little impatient at times.

That just means once he’s out and roaming around, he’s that much happier. As you can see here.

Too see more photos from this weekend, visit the Door County, Oct. 2011 gallery, or click on the photo below.

Photo: Door County Star Trails

Star trails from a 12 minute exposure taken on a perfectly dark night at Peninsula State Park in Door County, WI.

Back Story

It’s fairly easy for me to say that this is new crown jewel in my night sky portfolio, no question.

The family and I were up in Door County, WI last weekend as kind of the last peaceful moment before the holidays kick into high gear. Joining us were my wife’s aunt and uncle, who were responsible for us exploring Door County in the first place.

For the last weekend in October, the weather was extremely nice and the skies were incredibly clear for most of our time there. While exploring the state park in Fish Creek during the day, I made a comment on how nice it would be to come back at night and shoot the stars. Well, that’s what we did.

The Setup

After shooting individual 30 second exposures for about a half hour, I decided to break out of that and go a little longer. So I found the north star (which was a little tricky since the sky was just littered with stars, mind you) and shot a 4 minute exposure at ISO 1600.

Liking what I saw after the 4 minute exposure, I decided to expand on that to get what you see here. I dropped down my ISO to 100 (4 stops) and then tripled my exposure time to 12 minutes, shooting wide open at f/4 on my 24-105mm lens.

Even on the LCD screen afterwards, and showing my wife and her family while zooming in, it looked pretty nice. I would have tried going for a 24 minute exposure, but with everyone with me, that would have been too much for me to ask of them. Maybe next time.

Tweaks in Post

It would have been interesting to see how the 24 minute exposure would have came out, since I ended up increasing the exposure in post by 2 stops. I also cooled down the WB a bit to get back to more of a black sky, an the noise reduction in Lightroom helped quite a bit, too. After bumping up the Clarity slider to 100, you have what you see above.

I also had a quick 4×6 print ran off yesterday, and was very happy with how it transferred from my screen to print. Next, I’ll probably try to blow it up more and see how it looks on a grander scale.

Until Next Time…

Even though much of my previous night sky shooting was done in Maui, the conditions there were never as great as I had seen them this past weekend. And who knows when I’ll get to be back with conditions like that again. I may have to wait an entire year, but if that’s what it takes, I’ll do it. I’ll be prepared to be there all night (or at least until the park closes at 11pm).

In any case, this was my first attempt as shooting star trails like this, and I have to say it’s pretty fun.

Photo: Cindy and Christian

Out for a few photos at the end of a scorcher in northeastern Wisconsin.

Really wanted to shoot more portraits during this session, but our little guy was getting hungry – thus not cooperating. I guess I need to get on his schedule instead if the other way around.