Grapek Photograpy Online

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Lower Suwannee NWF, Florida, USA. A severe thunderstorm rumbles under the Milky Way several miles in the distance beyond Shell Mound near Cedar Key. The lightning creatively illuminated the clouds, the horizon and the foreground with cool reflections in the water This square panoramic composition is made up of 30 individual exposures, each taken horizontally at ISO6400, 16mm, F2.8, 20 seconds - then stitched together using Lightroom CC.

Jolene had this idea of "wrecking the dress" so we decided to go to the beach for a shoot near San Diego a few days after her big event. After a little scouting for the "wreck" shoot, with gear in hand, we header over to Point Lume and climbed down the rocky shore to this spot. The back story is this - As I was setting up my camera gear, I glanced over to Jolene and she was just standing there on a rock in deep thought. Later, she told me she was just thinking about the future, and how happy she was. I couldn't have composed a more eloquent scene. I found this pose to be so moving, I shot over 200 images from different angles. This is my favorite. Note, she never actually made it into the water with the dress.

Wedding Photography

Delray Beach, Florida, USA. This path is on the north side of the town, heading down to the beach. It goes through the grape leaves, and winds up at the lifeguard stand (seen far away on the right). The ocean is in the background.
Three image exposure (Bracketed) and brought together using Photomatix Pro - cleaned up in Lightroom.

Artistic, Creative, and High Dynamic Range (HDR)

Joan Rivers performs just a few weeks before she passed away. In this skit, she was stating that she has had so many botox injections, that she can't feel her face. Her quote "Am I smiling?" was a huge hit! Sad to see this creative genius gone.

Diving in Jupiter Florida during the annual Lemon Shark Aggregation, we came across this guy who reminded me of Mr. Magoo - His eyes were off to the side and he kept bumping into all of the divers. He was curious, but harmless. About 2 seconds after I snapped the shutter here, he bumped me and knocked the strobes back off of my camera kit. Shot at 85 deep.

This is always a hard kind of photo to take. For underwater photography, the trick is not to get the flash to light up all the particles in the water and obscure the subject, but instead, light the subject alone. In this photo, there were two high power flashes... each strobe on my camera was pointing about 45 degrees away from this lemon shark. The column of light was overlapping on this sharks face/mouth/teeth. Exactly where I wanted it to be. Of course, to do this properly, you must be very close to the subject (as I was). That is kind of scary sometimes.

As for Sports, I'm a master diver and try to scuba dive as often as possible. In some cases, it takes enormous amounts of stamina (and I don't mean swimming away from sharks) and although not typically considered a "sport", every dive exercises each sense and muscle in my body.

Jupiter, Florida, USA

Twin Falls, Kauai, Hawaii, USA - a hiker peeks over the falls to the rainbow below. Three images, HDR composition with Photomatix Pro and Lightroom. Horizontal Pano - 1x2

Landscapes and Travel

These little gators sure look cute, but even at just less than 1 year old, they can be very dangerous. These three were caught in the wild by the Florida FWC in the Everglades, South Florida, USA. They are now part of a study of climate change and wildlife.

Wildlife and Nature

The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge as seen from the ferry - as we head from the National Harbor to Alexandria, I took this from below. The Wilson Bridge is a bascule bridge that spans the Potomac River between the independent city of Alexandria, Virginia, and Oxon Hill in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The bridge is one of only a handful of drawbridges in the U.S. Interstate Highway System.

Black and White

Spring comes early in Colorado, and very often there are snowstorms which blanket the new blossoms. 5 image exposure - +/- .5ev. ISO 200, 70mm, F3.5. Composed in Photomatix Pro, with cleanup in Lightroom. Boulder, Colorado, USA.

My Popular Photos

When I hike, I have to look around and of course, look up as well. These Aspens were truly amazing. This is a 7 image composition making up one HDR image. Breckenridge, Colorado, USA

My Awarded Photos

Happy 150th Anniversary Canada.

Lake Louise is a hamlet in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies. It is known for its turquoise, glacier-fed lake ringed by high peaks and overlooked by a stately chateau. Elevation is 5,249 feet above sea level. This panoramic photo was taken in late June and is made up of 5 vertical images stitched together.

These canoer’s weren't able to get very far in the morning due to the ice, but they did say that it was a magical time on the water.

The ice starts to become thinner and break up during the month of May. It creates some very interesting patterns that make for great photography. The lake finally clears of ice in a rather quick action. On this day, the temperature had risen to close to 80 degrees Fahrenheit for only the second time this spring. We timed this trip perfectly to see the ice disappear. We literally watched the ice disappear as the day progressed. Locals say that it is not unusual that the lake is full of broken up ice in the morning (as seen in this photo) and totally clear that same afternoon.

Once the ice melts enough to get pushed by the glacier flow, it is quickly carried to the front end of the lake. there, it drains into the fast flowing Lake Louise Creek. Since it is so late in the season, the rock flour has had plenty of time to run down from the glaciers in the mountains. The reflection of light off these silt particles suspended in the water is what gives the lake its famous blue-green color.

5 images making up one high resolution pano - each with Nikon D500 - 16-80mm lens, Circular polarizer - ISO 250, 16mm, F/13, 1/400th