Soda Dam, Jemez River. I often use the phrase “quiet-beauty” when referring to the charms of New Mexico. There are few dramatic flourishes in nature here. Its beauty tends to be more placid, like this scene captured on an overcast day in the Jemez Mountains. It shows the fast moving Jemez River as it courses towards Soda Dam, on the other side of this embankment. Soda Dam is a natural hot springs that heats the Jemez River water as it courses through and adds rich mineral deposits. Camera: Nikon D40, kit lens.

Cottonwoods In The Fall. To a New Yorker used to the brilliant colors of autumn, the fall season in New Mexico can seem a bit underwhelming. First of all, you can drive for long stretches without seeing trees, and the species you do find do not change color. However, the humble cottonwood is the exception. Come fall, it displays a shimmering shade of yellow that is a delight to behold, especially when a deep blue New Mexico sky is the backdrop. They are usually found in ribbons of forest area that retain moisture such as the bosque that borders the Rio Grande. This beautiful cottonwood was photographed in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico during my first fall season there seven years ago. It was a spectacular and welcoming sight to this color deprived New Yorker!

The Jemez Mountain Red Rock Buttes in New Mexico are the subject of this photo. Located on the Jemez Pueblo near the Walatowa Visitors Center (along the Jemez Mountain Trail), these handsome buttes were an unending source of fascination to this nature-starved New Yorker. During the time I lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I often visited the Jemez Mountains (less than 45 minutes drive from Albuquerque), considering it my personal mountain resort. Hiking or driving through the quietly beautiful Jemez was a source of relaxation and quiet reflection.

The Jemez Pueblo did not allow visitors to enter the red rock buttes area, but of late they have started offering tours. I must return for that. The few photos I’ve seen captured by Jemez photographers show a magnificent photographic subject just beyond that craggy entrance! This photo was captured about 6 years ago with my first DSLR camera, a Samsung GX-1S with kit lens (in camera .jpeg).

Here is a perfect example of why serious photographers should shoot in RAW mode and develop a post-processing routine. The digital camera RAW mode gives you a digital “negative” that can be converted into a final .jpeg or .tiff image. The advantage of RAW as compared to a .jpeg shot in camera is the ability to go beyond the editing that can safely be done on a jpeg image. You can do a greater range of edits to a RAW file without degredation of the image as compared to a shot-in-camera .jpeg image.

In the photo shown on this page, the light conditions included dark shadows in the foreground, and very bright sunlight in the background. While the human eye can easily discern details in this wide range of light, the digital sensor in a camera is much more limited and will either make the shadows too dark, or turn light-colored details into pure white. In the RAW image shown below, the camera properly exposed the bright sky in the background, but the foreground is far too dark due to the limited dynamic range of the camera’s sensor.

If I had shot this image as a .jpeg, it would most likely be unusable. Trying to lighten detail in the darkest areas would cause the quality to suffer and noise to appear. The final edited image would be of poor quality. However, a RAW image file typically contains much more information than a .jpeg shot in camera. We can therefore generate a higher quality final image by editing the RAW format file.

The image at the top of the page is the final edited image. I took the RAW file (as it appeared below), and edited it in Capture One 5, a high quality RAW image editing software. I was able to extract quite a bit of detail from the shadows while preserving detail in the highlights area of the photo. I also enhanced the saturation and sharpened the image. Image degradation did not occur as it would with a jpeg. Learning to master a RAW image editing program will take a bit of effort, However, there are a number of video tutorials online for all the top selling RAW image editing programs, and plenty of online forums that can guide you as well. If you want the best quality output, shooting in RAW will give you much more control over the look of the final image and better quality!

Sunset In Times Square. Summer is New York City is in its last days. For me as a photographer, that is a good thing. The sun rises lower in the sky during fall and winter, filtering more of its light through the dust and particles in the atmosphere. That creates more intense sunset colors and longer shadows, which makes for more interesting photos. This early September photo of Times Square shows a preview of the magenta hued sunsets that are soon to come!

Ballfields Cafe, Central Park. This tiny cafe is one of the most charming eateries in Central Park, New York City. This tiny brick building with outdoor cafe seating sits near the Heckscher Ballfields in Central Park. Along with serving the obligatory hot dogs, it offers sandwiches, salads, and a pleasant view of the local softball game.

Chinatown, Green Grocer. This photo shows a slice of life in Chinatown, New York City. This is probably the last truly authentic ethnic enclave in the borough of Manhattan (Harlem is rapidly going upscale). Seemingly frozen in time, Chinatown has a pace and culture that ignores the fast-paced urbanity that surrounds it. It is a delight for the senses, and not simply because of its restaurants. Chinatown has, in my opinion, the finest green grocers in all of New York. It is also one of the best places in Manhattan to buy fresh fish. This is one place I would sadly miss if the unrelenting engines of gentrification were to remake it, as it has much of New York City.

Maine Monument Central Park. This photo shows the Maine Monument, located at the Merchant’s Gate entrance to Central Park (Columbus Circle). This monument, conceived in the Beaux Arts style, is a 44-foot limestone pylon, crowned at the top with a gilded bronze sculpture. It was designed by Architect H. Van Buren Magonigle, and completed in 1913. It was commissioned by media magnate William Randolph Hearst to commemorate the controversial sinking of the battleship Maine in 1898. It is crowned at the top with a gilded bronze sculpture of Columbia Triumphant in a seashell chariot pulled by three hippocampi (not shown), sea horses that signifies the United States’ dominance of the seas. At the pylon’s base, surrounding the ship are the mythological figures, Victory, Peace, Courage, Fortitude and Justice.

The story of the battleship Maine is a fascinating one, everything from the controversial design of the vessel and its puzzling sinking (wrongfully attributed to Spanish colonialists in Cuba), to the rabid media propaganda (led by William Randolph Hearst as a way to sell newspapers) that poisoned public opinion and pulled the US into the Spanish-American War. It is a classic case of public misinformation seized upon by greedy media barons to sell newspapers colluding with the machinations of self-aggrandizing political interests.

However, I would dare say that most modern visitors to Central Park’s Maine Monument have little concern about all of that. As can be seen in this photo, it is a highly identifiable landmark where one can hang out and rendezvous with friends.

This horse & buggy was seen in front of Central Park (South) on a late summer afternoon. The Hotel Pierre, one of New York’s most distinctive luxury hotels can be seen in the background. The horse and buggy (carriage ride) is one of the most iconic New York City attractions, adding a touch of elegance to Central Park. Camera: Pentax *ist DS, Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm lens.

White Pekin Duck. As this photo of a White Pekin Duck aptly demonstrates, photography is all about capturing beautiful light! Shot in Papago Park, Phoenix, Arizona, this beautifully posed duck was framed in the light of a late winter day. The sun was casting a ray of light that illuminated the duck’s head and created a warm glow on the lagoon’s surface. What beautiful light it was!

Photo by Donald Peterson, Newark1 Web Design Portfolio, professional blog and web design services.

This photo of a cowboy and his horse was captured at the Old Tuscon Movie Studios, a western movie studio and tourist attraction in Tuscon, Arizona. What I find most appealing about this capture are the colors. The overall palette and the way the colors compliment one another is one of those happy accidents of photography. The Old Tuscon Studios is a fascinating attraction that shows the working of a western movie studio and a glimpse into cowboy life (as seen in the movies). Great fun to visit.

I like to call this scene The Matrix, 34th Street (New York City). The dictionary defines matrix as “a substance, situation, or environment in which something has its origin, takes form, or is enclosed.” Is the environment or situation that encloses us, our matrix as it were, benefitting or harming us? Has our materialistic culture with its emphasis on selfish acquisition made us better people? A recent study at Michigan University shows that college students today show 40% less empathy vs. students in the 1980s and 1990s. Claire Raines, author of The Art Of Connecting says that empathy is declining in all generations and that people may be closing themselves off from others in response to the increase in the flow of information and bad news.

As we lose our desire and ability to empathize with people whose views we disagree with or don’t understand, we become more likely to use psychological or physical violence as our prime response when disputes arise. What effect will this have on our communities, and society as a whole? Should we just “go with the flow” or resist the corrosive influence of our selfish and increasingly violent “matrix?”