Imagine That, A Car at Car Parade Showing

This may sound silly, but getting a reasonably good photo of a car at the park was the most difficult task.  Lots of people meant little room to take the photos plus very crowded blackouts.  Both, made the photography more difficult than I expected before I went.

In this shot, I did not have to complete with all the people, since the owner did not let anyone set inside his car.  I consider the autos in the Art Car Parade to be more akin to cartoons than real automobiles, hence, my treatment of the photo.  I wanted the photo to remind the viewer of something that they might see in their favorite super hero cartoon.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 50mm f/1.4 shot at  ISO 360, f/11 and 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom—Set black and white points, added clarity and increased contrast, and adjusted saturation of various colors.

Photoshop—Used Topaz Adjust to bring out details in the car’s interior (masked-off background portions of photo) and high-pass filter method to sharpen the automobiles interior.

Two Different Approaches

Let’s see, children, water and lots of space.  What does that add up to?  Da, FUN!

These two little girls had completely different approach to life.  The first girl was in constant motion.  She ran from here to there and back again—smiling all the time.

Our second young lady was much more cautious.  She was very curious about what the other young girl.  She watched her very carefully, but, when Girl #1 would come around, she would become super shy.  Although she was most interested in her newly found friend, she also kept looking over at dad for his reassurances. 

In both photos, I wanted to capture the essence of the girls.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 50mm f/1.4 shot at ISO 800, f/5.6 and 1/125^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom—Set black and white points, adjusted hue and saturation of various colors and added clarity and mid-tone contrast.

Photoshop—used Topaz Adjust Pop filter to add detail to most of the photos.

An Unusual Instrument

I have no idea what the name of this instrument is.  I do know that the sounds coming from it was quite soothing.  I sat and listened to the man playing it for some time.  Finally, I decided to photograph just the instrument and its player’s hands.

I wanted both hands to be in-focus, however, I miscalculated the f-stop I needed to do so.  Even though I did not get what I wanted, I still think that the photograph does what I wanted it to do.

As I was taking the photograph, I knew that I wanted to present it in black and white.  I felt that black and white would really emphasize the hands and instrument.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 50mm f/1.4 shot at ISO 900, f/5.6 and 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom—Set black and white points, added clarity and mid-tone contrast.

Photoshop—used nik Silver Efex Pro to convert the photo to a black and white.

 

Not the Image That I Saw

You must admit, this guy’s hair would get your attention.  And, that is exactly what it did for me.   I saw the hair and I was in pursuit.  He was moving rather quickly through the crowd and I was quickly following him.  He finally slowed enough so that I could get close enough to get a few shots off.

It was only when the images appeared on my computer monitor that I saw the real image in the photo—the reaction the man and boy are having to THE HAIR.  Looking at the dad, you just know he is thinking:  “please, not my son.”  The boy, in turn, is just thinking:  “That’s pretty weird.”

I wished that I had seen their reaction when I took the photo.  I might have been able to get a few frames with the father and son in focus so that I could have blended the two frames.  I think that was the photo; but, at last, I missed it.  Maybe next time.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 50mm f/1.4 shot at ISO 900, f/9.5 and various 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom—Set black and white points, cropped photos, and changed and added saturation of certain colors.

Photoshop—performed various cloning to remove small, unwanted elements and used nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast to enhance the details in the hair of the subject.

You Go Girl

Meet the “You Go Girls.”  According to one of the members: “the girls are dedicated to trying new things and having fun doing it.”  Not a bad mission statement, so I asked for a membership application, but only got “that look.”

The first photo is of the group performing to one of their favorite songs—don’t know what it was, but it did seem to fit with their mood.  It was a lot of fun watching the ladies perform.  They drew a rather large crowd and had the place rocking. 

The second photo is a grab shot.  I happened to see her reflections in the mirrors.  I took a quick shot of just the two mirrors and then reframed the image to include the guy in the background.  I tried to get both mirrors in focus, but could not—not really sure why I could not do it.  I think the guy adds another element to the photo that helps put perspective to the mirrors.

The final image is of a You-Go Girl seemly not living up to the mission statement.  Not quite sure what caused the frown, but I do know that Ms. Six-Shooter and some lady were having a few words about the volume of the music.  For a moment, I thought I might get a few action shots of women’s wrestling.  Maybe next time.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 50mm f/1.4 shot at ISO 200, f/5.6 and various shutter speeds (1/750^th, 1/180^th and 1/90^th of a second, respectively).

Post Processing:  

Lightroom—Set black and white points, cropped photos, and changed and added saturation of certain colors.

Photoshop—performed various cloning to remove small unwanted elements and used Topaz Adjust Photo Pop to enhance the detail in the parts of the photos.

Street Photography—Old School

Last week JD and Angela (her close friend) went over to Louisiana to visit some nurseries.  I would have gone, but my schedule was just too full to work it in; and besides, they didn’t ask me—something about wanting to have fun looking at dumb flowers, plants and stuff.  So, Friday evening, I ventured down to Discovery Green Park in downtown Houston to see the Art Cars on display.

 Before I went, I decided that I wanted to do some old school street photography—one camera, one lens, no flash, no tripod, no directing anyone, catch-what-you-can photography.  I armed myself with my Nikon D3 and Nikon 50mm f/1.4.  That was it.

I must admit, at first, I was completely off my game.  I discovered that Nikon forgot the zoom button on the lens.  To make objects bigger in the frame, I had to walk closer, and vice versa.  Photography and an exercise program in a single package—what a novel idea.

My first photo from the evening is a classical 50’s street photo—mother and child walking away presented in black and white.  In the photo, I wanted the photo to be about only mother and daughter and their relationship so I used a shallow depth of field to isolate them from the rest of the scene.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 50mm f/1.4 shot at ISO 200, f/2 and 1/2,000^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom—Set black and white points and cropped image.

Photoshop—used nik Silver Efex Pro to convert photo to black and white and added some vignette to the corners.

Big Eyes

The dragonflies were out in force yesterday.  There were lots of subjects, but most of them were just a little too skittish to get a good photo.  Finally, this guy landed and was most cooperative.

I took a few “safe” shots to make sure that had something in the bag.  I then kept creeping closer to see how close this guy would let me get.  The photo is slightly cropped.  I wanted to show off his big baby greens.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3x, Nikon 300mm f/4 with a 1.7x teleconverter and extension rings at ISO 400, f/13 and 1/60^th of a second on a tripod.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom—Set black and white points, changed hue of certain colors and added clarity and vibrance.

Looking at It Differently

As I have written many times, street photography is one of my favorite forms of photography.  One of the reason I like it so much is because I do not know what to expect.  It forces me to carefully look at the scene and find something that interest me and then translate that interest into an image.

While out walking around downtown, I thought that there had to be a photo in the crane with the buildings in the background.  While thinking about it, I tuned slightly and caught the reflection of the buildings in the side windows of a big, black SUV.  I immediately thought:  “that’s it.” 

As I was framing my shot, various people walked-by and so I waited until everyone passed.  I took a couple of shots and thought it lacked something—like maybe people in the foreground.  So, now, I waited for some people to get into the shot.  This one is my favorite.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 at 45mm shot at ISO 200, f/8 and 1/90^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom—Set black and white points, adjusted hue and saturation of various colors and added some mid-tone contrast to photo.

Photoshop—used Topaz Adjust to bring out the details in the reflection.