Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum

Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum, Alexandria, Virginia

Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum, Alexandria, Virginia

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Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum

The Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum is another recommended Northern Virginia stop for anyone interested in history or wanting to capture some interesting images.  To quote the Alexandria City web-site “[It] was a family business founded in 1792 and operated in this location from 1796 until 1933.  It represents one of Alexandria’s oldest continuously run businesses that combined retailing, wholesaling, and manufacturing.  The museum boasts a remarkable collection of herbal botanicals, handblown glass, and medical equipment, much still in its original location.  It also has a spectacular collection of archival materials, including journals, letters and diaries, prescription and formula books, ledgers, orders and invoices. The names of famous customers appear in these documents, including Martha Washington, Nelly Custis and Robert E. Lee.”

Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum, Alexandria, Virginia

Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum, Alexandria, Virginia

–  Click on the image to enlarge or purchase  –

Photography was allowed inside the museum, although not with a tripod.  There were many fascinating shots to be made of the exhibits within the Apothecary shop itself and in the attic area where there was a separate paint making business.

Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum, Alexandria, Virginia

Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum, Alexandria, Virginia

–  Click on the image to enlarge or purchase  –

The first two shots are almost straight out of the camera with just a little contrast and tonal adjustment in Lightroom.  The latter, although a single shot, has been tone-mapped in Photomatix pro with some additional adjustment in Photoshop.  I would like to remove the glare from the flash on the left-hand end of the sign in this last shot but have yet to manage to make this look realistic – any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have also produced a B&W using Nik Silver Efex Pro of the second image.  The crop to turn the original horizontal composition into the 8×10 vertical allowed me to remove the dark shadow caused by the edge of the shelving on the left-hand side of the original.

Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum, Alexandria, Virginia

Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum, Alexandria, Virginia

–  Click on the image to enlarge or purchase  –

 

7 Comments

  1. I have to say, I do prefer both the tone mapped version. It has more detail and tone. The cropped B&W works very well too.

  2. Great shots, Mark.
    I like that last B&W, it really fits well with the time period. The tonemapped image just above that is very nice as well. I know of no easy way to address the left side of that sign. I think it could be done but a tedious process would be required.

    Copy image, lower exposure, mask in the darker version of the left side of sign, clean up the lettering to match the existing. Seems an awful lot of work for a small area. Perhaps someone has a technique that’s far more efficient. 🙂

    • Thanks for the help. You are right, it does seem to be a lot of work but if I have nothing better to do one weekend (ha ha!) I’ll give it a try.

  3. How cool! This is a great set of images, and a nice little history lesson. I will need to check this out next time I am in VA!

    In Lightroom, you can either use the paintbrush to go over the part you want to modify, then mess with the sliders, lowering exposure, upping color, etc… if it was a larger area, say the entire left side of the image, I would recommend the ND filter tool, assuming you were using lightroom..

  4. Nice series of images Mark. I think my favorite is the B&W.

  5. nice series Mark, looks like a great place to shoot!

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