John Murphy Photography

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All photo's on this site are copyright by JMJ Studios, John Murphy. If I can be of any service or you wish to buy some pictures I can be reached at jmjstudios@verizon.net

Most Popular Photos

July 6: Mr Spidey
Yes I know, ooohhh youck a bug :). I was out looking for a pod, had my 18-200 on and was prowling the neighborhood. I found nothing spectacular, just a few shot. Most of the flowers are dead now due to the excessive heat and the lack of water we have had. I had found a whole 4 shots which were not much when I spotted this guy on the weeping cherry in my front yard. I went in the house and got the 105 macro and the R1 flash rig. I set the flash units on the ring at 0 EV and -1.3 EV and went out. He was still there so I fired away. I took about 30 shots to get a few good ones. He was a fast moving little guy and I chased him around the tree while he was spinning his web. In the end he stopped and was doing some furious work with the front legs and then disappeared. When I looked he was on the ISO knob of the camera checking me out. He is only the size of the thumbnail on my little finger so he is small. I did crop the shot for less leave and better view. I added +5 black and +16 clarity in Lightroom.

Oct 23: Morning on the Bay
I captured this shot on the way into work. The picture caught my eye and I turned around and drove back to this location to capture the shot. I was not dressed for the weather but I stood there anyway and took shots for 20 min. This is a 30 sec exposure shot on the bay with my remote trigger. Temps had dropped from the 60's to 48 with the wind blowing off the water at 15-20. I could hear the wind howling through the masts. A couple of masts on the left side you can see the blur hence movement in these masts. The line in background is the interstate that is leading to the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. Tunnel over to Norfolk. Have a great day

May 2: Leaf:
It was windy here last evening when I was doing the POD and we found this bunch of leaves on the back deck when we out to get something. THought I could make something of this so I brought it in to try. Very late last night I had an idea when taking shots and this the result.
This is not a crop, but a full shot with my macro. I lit the leave with one SB200 flash (small) from the rear at a 45 degree angle to the leave to get this effect. The veining on the rear popped with this lighting.
EXIF:
D200 on a tripod
ISO 125
1/160 sec, f/9.0
+1/3 EV
single R1 SB200 flash

Jan 10: Pelican in flight
I caught this pelican in flight over the moat today at lunch. They are rear in this area and i was very surprised to see them flying around and looking for food. I really liked this one when I did the crop as I could tell he was looking right at me on the fly by. I really liked the look in the eye on this one.

Thanks for all the well wishes! The pain is reduced, still sore but way more manageable.

The Coffee Challenge...01/12/09
The Challenge: Show us your interpretation of the word, "Coffee."
The Participants: Kre8ive, Bill Pador, Karina Boese, The Curious Camel, Creative Deviance, Johnloguk, Lady Kate, MyKey, Trevlan, Fotoeffects, Hillary, and myself.
The Result:Coffee my way with a touch of sugar and cinnamon made in my Keurig machine using K-cups.

August 13: Warning Sunrise
I saw the beginnings of this sunrise on my way into work so I had to stop and catch what I could as the sunrise really looked promising. I drove out to the seawall and got my camera and took a few shots while I waited for the sun to come up. This was one of the shot I took while I was waiting. Good thing as the sun never came up at all here yesterday. The darker area you see in the center is the clouds moving in an the fog. The sky went from this red to orange to lt orange fade to white in like 3 min. All before sunrise. I was all set for the sunrise too. Another day as I was really happy with this shot and the colors. This is straight from the camera with .35 added to the exposure. I originally shot the scene -1/3 under so this is how I saw the sky. I did not bracket as this was the peak of when the colors started fading my next shot was orange and the last a faded orange. Have a great day

Bridge Reflections
I captured this while my wife & I were out for a walk. I loved the reflections on the water and the serenity of feeling this shot gave me. I really liked the feel of this shot. We were on one of the overlooks on the lake taking this shot.
I am on the road for the next 2 day so I will be late getting comments till I return. I hope to catch some when I get to the office today, but tomorrow we leave at 4AM so I expect it will be late Friday when I catchup with folks.

Have a great day, hope you are not getting soaked like we are. Not looking forward to my 3 hr road trip

Jan 13: Time to Fly!
I have been rebuilding my Smug Mug galleries today when I got home. After a year of not really filing things It has come to a head :) I found this shot when building my portfolio and I wanted to share. Enjoy

August 28: Roanoke Island Lighthouse
I shot this in the rain as I was determined to get the shot. I did this as a 5 shot HDR as the weather was bad. As you can see it was raining and I was standing holding my coat over the camera to keep it dry while I took the shot. Straight from the basic settings in Photomatix no LR adjustments.

August 6: Creamsicle
I did my usual walk at lunch yesterday, but ran into an old coworker and we walk and chatted. I ended up only taking a few shots. I saw this one just before I went back into the gym to shower. They had a sprinkler out side adding water at noon to plants. I looked funny running to grab a shot and run out between the oscillations of the sprinkler. I added a filter to this and like the effect so I left this and you see my POD. The effect is Indian Summer and it fit the hot swelter day I took the shot in.

Nov 9: Before the rain
I went to my favorite spot yesterday morning early with the intent of capturing a early fall morning on the water here. However mother nature had other ideas as it started to drizzle when I got there. I setup anyway and took some shots as I had drove 30 miles to get this shot. By the time I finished it was raining and I was getting wet. I was determined to get a few shots and this one shows the light leaving and the storm over the trees. The sun was behind me in this shot and I think that is the only reason I go this shot, Enjoy the weekend

Dec 12: Expression
I am still fighting something so I did not go out in the rain yesterday for a shot. I was processing some of my Disney shots and came across this shot I wanted to share. Happy Friday. My wife is having a procedure in the hosp today so it will be late before I can comment.

Last Catch
Captured a fisherman coming in at sunset on the James River. 14-24mm ultra wide lens This was the last in the series I took with the rented lens before I shipped it back to BorrowLens.com The sun was out for a day and I was making the best of it. Just love the way the sky looks with an Ultrawide lens. Really impressed with this lens as there is little pincushion effect.

April 23: Lilly of the Valley.
I took a big group of shots today, but with overhauling our fish tank. New rocks, pump, plants and recycling 35 gals of water I have not had a chance to look at most of the 80 picture I have in LR. I did run Helicon focus on 3 different stacks in between cleaning the tank. This and the bug I caught on the rosemary turned out well. This shot is straight from the camera no PP sans focus stacking 4 shots. This lilly had opened fully between yesterday and today so I thought I had better get my shot before the bloom fades. I was real happy with this shot to the point that I have not even looked at the remainder that I took today.
EXIF: The same for all 5 shots in the series
D200 on a tripod
105mm macro
1/60 sec
f/13
- 1/3 EV
ISO 160
Nikon R1 lighting system, used both flashes one on the ring one hand held

The Tuner (Tooner) Challenge...11/03/08
The Challenge: Create a photo with your interpretation of the word, "Tuner (Tooner)."
The Participants: Kre8ive, Bill Pador, Karina Boese, jawsnap, Creative Deviance, Lady Kate, and myself.
The Result: Sperzel Tuners
For my shot I took this picture of my Carvin CC275 guitar with the Sperzel tuners. The shot shows off the abalone inlay in the headstock with the gold tuners on the mahogany wood. I use the tuners to tune the strings so I can play in key.

Nov 20: Lines
I took this shot while walking and I liked what I saw. I was captivated by the lines in the shot. I converted this to B&W in PS to get the look I wanted and that was it. I just liked this shot and the way it looked. Happy Thursday

Dec 14: Holiday Greetings:
I worked on this late last night as I started doing the christmas decorations for the house and the tree last night. I got everything down and I organized the outside lights, just need to finished them today. I did the same with the inside decorations. I just need to bring the tree in for the kittens to play with. I remembered about I had no POD so I also setup my Holiday Card shot shooting from the hip. I used the candy cane plate I bought at breakfast to setup the shot. Hope you all like the picture and enjoy the remainder of the weekend

August 10: Knock Knock
We went to Newport News Park yesterday to checkout the work the beavers had done on some trees and to go for a walk. We had a nice walk and enjoyed the trip, my daughter was a real ham :). I caught this woodpecker when I was leaving the park. He was on the tree check us out. Shot handheld leaning against the walkway. I just added the vignetting blur in PS.

Nov 23: Toxic Cocktail
Mystery drink. Can you guess what I did here. I was talking with Hillary yesterday and she told me to post this and see if folks can guess this. OK Hillary here is the shot, can you guess? I know one person knows as they gave me the base idea :) Happy Sunday. I will post the original to my contenders gallery tomorrow

My THANKS to everyone who guessed. Peptp Bismol inverted in PS. The original shot is in my DP contenders gallery Pepto Thanks for the comments and guesses!

June 14: Damselfly
I was out today looking for some shots for my POD when I saw the cone flower in bloom. I went back in to get my tripod and flash as the sky was heavily overcast and gloomy. When I came back out with the gear in my hand I saw this damselfly on the flower. I photo, the fly in various poses while holding the flashes in one hand and the tripod leaning against me. So much for the gear. The on camera flash was up but at -2 EV as I had indented to hand hold the lighting for the flower. When I moved close he flew away. I cropped this shot to show the detail of the fly and the flower. Look for these cone flowers in the future.
Happy Fathers Day folks.
EXIF
D200
105mm in manual.
ISO 125
1/60
f/13
0EV
flash -2.0 EV
Off to get a flat fixed as my front tire is flat. I will get comments later when I get the car fixed.

Fall Colors
Really wet fall colors. Another shot I captured in the rain. These were in my back yard. This one was a bit harder as I has the 70-200mm ED on the camera and that is a heavy lens. I balanced the umbrella on my shoulders and took the shot as the rain ran down my back and pants. I was a bit wet as I took ~ 10 shots till I was happy as the sun was trying to come out. So I had rain and sun & a wet camera and photographer. But I got the shot :) Thanks everyone for yesterdays comments! Super busy yesterday. What I thought would be a quiet slow day turned out to be busy and I got no shots, never got my planned picture and the few I took last night ......yuck Have to d better tonight. Good part is my daughter 13, cleaned her room! Those with teenagers will understand. 14 bags of stuff went out! I can see the floor and even the closet is clean. We wonder what she wants???? We bought her christmas gifts yesterday, she did not know so that is not it.......

Have a great week

June 2: Butterfly's are free tonight, fly away bye bye Elton John
Butterfly that I chased on my walk for at least 10 min. He was flitting from dandelion to dandelion feeding on the flowers. I took about 10 shots before I got a good one to use for the DP. I had my D200 today so I was happy to chase him around the moat walk. Nothing special here, natural light and an 18-200 VR lens to capture the shot.
EXIF
D200
ISO 125
1/250
f/8.0
+1/3 EV
200mm

Jan 3: Old House
I captured this old house yesterday in the rain. Something about the house pulled at me and I had to go back and capture this shot even though it was a light rain. My camera spent the day drying after this. The others are here. Old House Have a good Day. I will catch up later today

Jan 6: Pink Rose
I bought my wife a flower arrangement yesterday and this is one of the roses out of the arrangement. I liked the veins and the softness of the flower. As it is pouring rain here today there may be more shots later tonight. Thanks for all the nice comments on the reflections shot. I had fun doing that.
Alt Shot that Lady Kates will like Sleigh Enjoy!

July 9: Out of my comfort zone.
Well I did it today, fully out of my comfort zone and in front of the camera. It was raining today and between that and the tasker I was working I did not get my lunchtime walk in today. I have had this SP shot in the back of my head for the last month so I figured that if John could get in front of the camera then I could. I did the setup in my "office" here at home with two SB800's. One is mounted on a stand at 90 degrees to the camera with the diffusion dome on and set for 14mm lens The second was on the camera with the diffusion dome and set for 17mm lens. I was using my 17-35mm lens at 24mm for the shot. Flashes were controlled by the master on the camera set at full and the off camera a -.3EV. Triggering was done with the Nikon electronic trigger set for multi exposure. This forces the camera to focus at every shot so I could trash the 1st shot and use the rest :) I was actually working on a shot in Lightroom in the picture. The sunrise is here. Sunrise This was my alt choice in case I lost my nerve to post my mug shot.

Nov 18: Water Droplets
I found this leaf in the yard and I really liked the play of light on the leaf. The interplay with the features looked good and I was impressed with the shot. I had been walking around with my 70-200 on and the min distance with that lens is 5' so I was about 6' away from the leaf and still captured this shot. I did the conversion to B&W in PS and adjusted the setting till I found a point for the shot I liked. Enjoy and have a great day

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