Here are my Top 10 Best Photographs from 2011.

All but two were photographed with my normal camera (currently a Canon 5DII). The other two were photographed with my iPhone 4 camera.

One photo was initially photographed back in 2008, yet remained silent on my hard drive until late in 2011 when I went back to that photo and processed it into what it is now. And all but three photos are HDR photographs (photos consisting of multiple exposures blended together).

I hope you enjoy my favorites!

(P.S. See the bottom of this post for a coupon code for a limited-time special offer on the purchase of a print from any of these photos.)  

"Still Standing Tall" - Utah - (Click on photo for a larger view)

“Still Standing Tall” – Utah

While this was photographed in Zion National Park in 2008, it stayed in my RAW archives until late 2011 when inspiration struck and I ended up processing this image. l used Lightroom to process the RAW file. I then used onOne’s Perfect Photo Suite 6 as well as Nik’s Viveza 2 software to perfect the image.

Equipment: Canon 5D and 24-70mm lens

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"Frontier Gas Station" - New Mexico - (Click on photo for a larger view)

“Frontier Gas Station” – New Mexico

This was photographed in Northern New Mexico. For this 8 exposure HDR photograph, I converted the original color image into a rich sepia, and allowed the red from the old gas pumps to shine through with the red from the Coca Cola sign and cooler, as well as other red objects. I love how the red turned out against that great sepia color.

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"Engine #487" - Colorado - (Click on photo for a larger view)

“Engine #487″ – Colorado

This train was photographed in Southern Colorado during a somewhat stormy summer afternoon. I was traveling in my RV heading from NM to Colorado to participate in an art festival when I noticed this trainyard. I am glad I stopped because as I was walking up to the tracks, this train just happened to be arriving.

It was photographed with my Canon 5DmkII and 17-40mm lens. It is a 3 exposure HDR processed with HDR Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, and Silver Efex Pro.

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"Weathered Daisies" - Arizona - (Click on photo for a larger view)

 ”Weathered Daisies” – Arizona

These daisies were photographed with my iPhone. The cracked texture was blended into the photo using an iPhone app.

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"Cow Canyon Trading Post" - Utah - (Click on photo for a larger view)

“Cow Canyon Trading Post” – Utah

I have driven past this location over a dozen times in the last few years with never stopping for a photo. Finally after all that time inspiration struck and this is the result, photographed in 2011.

This was photographed with my Canon 5DmkII and 17-40mm lens. It is a 3 photo HDR that was processed with the following software: Lightroom, Photoshop, HDR Efex Pro, Silver Efex Pro, and Color Efex Pro.

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"Cathedral Rock Sunset" - Sedona, Arizona - (Click on photo for a larger view)

“Cathedral Rock Sunset” – Sedona, Arizona

I have photographed in Sedona a number of times, but was never before pleased with what I had from the Red Rock Crossing area. This was photographed in the Spring of this year (2011) – a few years since I last photographed in Sedona.

A fairly boring sky was rendered interesting with the use of a photo texture that was blended into the entire photo.

Equipment: Canon 5DmkII and 17-40mm lens, tripod

Processing: 3 photo HDR. Raws were processed in Lightroom. HDR Efex Pro was used for the HDR processing. Image was also processed using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2, Color Efex Pro 4, and Viveza 2. The photo texture is from FlyPaper Textures

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"Old Betsy at Sunset" - Arizona - (Click on photo for a larger view)

“Old Betsy at Sunset” – Arizona

I spent quite a bit of time photographing this old truck for 3 months at the beginning of 2011. The fact that it was parked right near where my RV was parked made it all the easier. The cloud cover was really quite striking this particular evening.

Equipment: Canon 5DmkII and 17-40mm lens, tripod

Processing: 6 photo HDR. Raws were processed in Lightroom. HDR Efex Pro was used for the HDR processing. I had to go back to one of the original RAW files to blend in the sky because the HDR software was not able to handle the ghosting due to the clouds moving between exposures.

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"Flowers Below the Bells" - Colorado - (Click on photo for a larger view)

“Flowers Below the Bells” – Colorado

Photographed during sunrise at the ever popular and beautiful Maroon Bells in Aspen, Colorado in the summer of 2011.

This 8 exposure HDR was first processed in HDR Efex Pro. I also processed the 8 images in Photomatix Pro. I took the resulting version from each and then manually blended the two versions together in photoshop – keeping the best parts from each. I then took one of the original 8 images and used the sky in that and replaced it in the hdr version. I then used Viveza, Color Efex Pro, and ultimately Silver Efex Pro, as well as many tweaks in photoshop, to achieve the look I was after.

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"Tilting Saguaros" - Arizona - (Click on photo for a larger view)

“Tilting Saguaros” – Arizona

This is an iPhone 4 photo of the saguaros that line the entrance to the beautiful RV park I have been staying at in Florence, Arizona.

The distortion in the saguaros was done in-camera taking advantage of the iPhone’s rolling shutter. The texture layer came from post processing in Nik Software’s Snapseed app.

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"Phillips 66" - New Mexico - (Click on photo for a larger view)

“Phillips 66″ – New Mexico

This was photographed in Northern New Mexico. The interior of this building had a lot of old gas station pumps, license plates, neon lights, and other car themed antiques. It is an HDR image from a combination of a number of different exposures.

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For a Limited Time Only:

Click on your favorite photo above to see a larger view. Then click on the “Buy” link above the photo to view available prices and sizes for photographic prints, canvas giclee prints, and stunning new aluminum prints. When completing your checkout use the coupon code: Bestof2011 to save 20% off your order total, and receive free shipping!! 

Don’t delay, as this special offer ends at midnight on January 31, 2012.

This coupon code is only good towards photos in the following gallery: “My Top 10 Best Photos from 2011“.

For the better part of this week I have been testing out +SmugMug to see if it can handle most or all of my online photo gallery display and shopping cart needs. So far I am pretty impressed with smugmug.

I have been uploading images and finally have enough to start making the gallery public. Many of the photos I have uploaded have not been seen online in a number of years, and many more photos are to come.

The way I set my gallery display up is this: all of my uploaded photos go into the gallery “Everything”. All of the other galleries listed (I currently have 10) are “smart galleries.” They look for specific keywords and automatically display the correct photos in the correct galleries – such a time saver!

If you get a chance to take a peek, let me know how it looks in comments here or on my galleries or both

Here is the link:
http://mattsuess.smugmug.com/

Thanks!

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This was photographed during this past weekend’s #phxPhotoWalk

It was photographed with my iPhone 4 and processed using Nik’s Viveza 2.

#Architexture

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This was photographed during #phxPhotoWalk

I photographed it with my iPhone using the ProHDR app and my new GorrilaPod for iphone. Various iphone apps were used to complete the look.

#mobileMonday

In album Nov 27, 2011 #phxPhotoWalk (4 photos)

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Yesterday I added more photographs to my display at the Scottsdale International Auto Museum. Sizes currently on display range from 12″x18″ to 30″x44″.

If anyone is in the Phoenix area you can check out the museum daily at:
9119 East Indian Bend Road
Scottsdale, AZ 85250

I will be there this Saturday for most of the day as there is a classic car auction open to the public there this weekend.

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Has anyone ever used these mini monopods? I am thinking of getting one for my Canon 5DII and also one for my iPhone.

The timing is great as they have 20% off and free shipping right now.

http://joby.com/

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JOBY: Makers of GorillaPod, GorillaMobile, & GorillaTorch Products
Welcome to JOBY, home of the award-winning GorillaPod flexible camera tripods,
GorillaTorch flashlights, and GorillaMobile iPhone & iPad cases and stands

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How do you know when you have been spending way too much time this week doing the bookkeeping for your business? When you learn from FB that tomorrow is your birthday.

I kept getting all of these notices from FB today with people posting on my wall. Curious to find out what all the fuss is I went and took a look and learned that tomorrow is in fact my birthday.

Good thing for FB (probably the only thing). Without it I may have missed my own birthday (not that they are real exciting anymore once you leave your 20′s…and 30′s…)

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The new social network Chime.in – or “interest network” as it is being billed – has an interesting way to follow people.

Check out the photo below. When you post a photo there, instead of using tags you use interest categories. You can name them anything you like, and can add 5 interests to each photo.

Each time you add to your interests, it adds to your running total on your profile. Someone interested in following you can see how many times you post on a particular interest, and can then follow you and receive posts on all or just specific interests you post about.

Pretty cool way of following someone. If you are interested in following me at chime.in only for posts I do on say, HDR, you would just select the HDR interest category to follow me by. You won’t be bothered with any other posts I do that are not “tagged” with HDR.

What do you think of this way of following? Wonder if Google could implement something like that over here…

By the way, my profile there is: http://chime.in/user/MattSuess

In album Misc (5 photos)

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Saw a post yesterday on Mashable about yet another new social network – this one called Chime.in

It is in beta and just went live today, and I noticed +Trey Ratcliff already has 50 followers

I guess it is supposed to combine twitter, blogging, and Reddit. We shall see just how popular it gets.

Anyways you can find me over there, although I’ll probably just start out copying posts from G+ over there till I see what the new network is all about.

Here is a link to my profile there: http://chime.in/user/MattSuess

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Matt Suess | Chime.In
Fine Art Photography | Photo Workshops | HDR Photography | Webinars

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