I'm not usually big on b&w but you nailed it with the train shots. The top photo just cries out for b&w. Its so very dramatic. I think some of that would be lost in color. The other one, the one with a splash of color, has just enough. Great job, terrific photos
Tina

These are beautiful! I love the haunted feeling and the story that is hidden just behind the windows.
Have you played around with these in PS? I bet it would add to the spooky if you darkened the sky, or maybe even b&w? Just suggestions. These are great just as they are
Tina

Thanks everyone, its nice to find other photographers to share with. Apparently I'm very new to all of this and I keep doing things wrong and putting things in wrong places. Sorry if I offend, I'll try to get it right eventually.
I find it fun to get an idea of a kind of photograph I want and then try different things to make it work. The photo of the gate, backlit with the smoke, for instance is exactly that. We took several things we thought we might need with us including a couple extra tripods, a couple sheets, some extra flashes and flashlights. What we didn't think about was the smoke. Brad, my husband, smoked at the time and while setting a shot the smoke drifted across in front of the flashlight. It looked so cool that after we set the shot I made him smoke a whole bunch and blow it across the scene. I think the same could have been done with a fog machine or something but who knew until we got there. I think I nearly killed him from smoke inhalation...oops.
The ones with the ghosts in them were indeed done with layers. As the area close to us has many foundations, steps and so forth, we only needed to find some that worked. The one on the steps is Brad wrapped in a sheet. I set the camera on a tripod and shot the scene, then moved him into position and shot it again. We tried several positions and angles before we were happy with this one. Back at the computer we used layers and set the opacity so that you could barely see the ghost. The same was done with the one standing. We thought how neat it would be if the ghost actually had a face. So, we got my niece to pose in the sheet and turn her face toward the camera. Again we used layers to soften the sheet clad ghost but to bring out her face. I still think there is a lot of improvement we could do to this. I'd love to see the eyes make a statement but that's for another day.
The one in red is another niece we took to my former studio. We had her walk toward us with a large knife in her hand. I used a light to back light her coming down the hall but failed to take into consideration that when you reduced the opacity it would actually show the light, so it looks like her body has a light coming through it. It turned out pretty cool so I took it to photoshop and erased her feet and part of her hem so that it appears she's floating.
The one with the little boy looking through the door was actually my nephew looking through the door of my studio. I wanted him to be transparent but when you do that you have to pay attention to what is behind the subject. Just like the light showing through the body in the other picture, anything behind him would show through. I wanted it to look like the child was trying to come home but couldn't get in.
I would love to hear ideas that you all might have on making photos like these. I have also been working on another idea for making ghost photos.
In photoshop if you have two photos open and you use the healing brush tool and paint from one photo onto another, sometimes you get the ghosting effect. I haven't gotten very far in creating with this technique but I'm interested to see what the outcome could be.

I'm not really looking for an in depth critique of my work. I was only trying to engage other photographers in posting and discussing things we love to photograph. Perhaps I was wrong in thinking that others might like to enjoy just posting a few pictures and talking about photography. I wont make that mistake again.

I'm hoping that everyone will join me in posting interesting shots of trees. I love sharing my photos but I also love seeing others photos and getting ideas. I really feel like interaction is important. If you like a photo, take a minute and think about why you like the photo. I'm really hoping for some comments and critiques, some input. I love that we're all in one place and can learn from each other. So here we go, I'll post a couple to get us started.

A couple more.

So very cool. I see you find yourself in cemeteries some as well. Interesting places for photos.
Well done!

Its now October and attentions turn to the fall of the year, and Halloween. Just wondered if anyone had ever taken pictures of, or created pictures of, Ghosts???
Perhaps a challenge to see who has ghosts, or what techniques can be used to create ghosts.
I hope everyone will give comments and critiques as well as ideas on how to set a shot and manipulate it in photoshop to make great ghosts. These are some of our first attempts. Its great fun when you can get outside and try to create something different.

Thank you

Thank you

These are some I have in the archives

I always say 'you're only as old as you can make everyone else believe that you are'. I love the attitude!

Before digital I used slide film so several of these were actually from the 'good ol days'
Its amazing how much things have changed in the last several years. My mentor, my friend, died in 1999. He never got to see the digital revolution in photography. Its been a wild ride. I wish he could have been here.

perhaps I will, thank you.
If you're interested you can find a few of my photos on a different topic, 'not for the faint of heart'. I started that one so I posted some there.

Samples of my work