Walking around Downtown Houston #2

This is the old Texaco Building.  I always liked the architecture of this building.  It has very classical lines.  It is now abandoned.  Not sure what will happen to it but I am hoping that someone will see what a great old building it is and saves it.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6 shot at 80mm, ISO 1,400, f/8, 1/180^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set white and black point and adjusted mid tone contrast.

Nik Silver Efex Pro 2—Converted image to black and white.

Walking around Downtown Houston #1

I had a job in downtown Houston last week.  After the job was over, I decided to wait and let the rush hour traffic subside (as if you can in any big city in America).  I put my lights, etc in the car, armed my camera with my Nikon 70-300 lens (one of my favorites for street photography) and started walking around downtown Houston.

For 40 years, my old firm had offices in downtown Houston and I spent a lot of hours, days, weeks, months and years in downtown Houston.  But, I must admit, I had NEVER just walked around looking at buildings, streets and the “going-on” until the other day.

The shapes and distorted reflections of these two buildings caught my eye.  I converted the image to black and white in Lightroom 3.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6 shot at 80mm, ISO 360, f/11, 1/180^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set white and black point and adjusted luminosity of orange, yellow, blue and cyan to effect contrast of black and white image, and added a strong curves adjustment.

A Little Street Photography

I know that I am getting old when I see a pair of tight blue jeans, filled with a lovely young lady walk past me and all I could think of is: "boy, I bet those blue jeans are really uncomfortable."  Yep, getting old!

Enjoy.

Assemble the Skyline #6

This is my final posting of the band.  I submitted this photo for Bay Area Photo Club’s March assignment of blur.  The blur is totally achieved in the camera.  In fact the only things done in Photoshop was sharpening all the eyes and converting the photo to black and white.

The blur was caused by the band swaying back and forth while using a slow shutter speed and two Elinchrom strobes that were fired in rear-synch mode.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3 on a tripod, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 shot at 70mm, ISO 100, f/19, 1/6^th of a second with two Elinchrom strobes with a silver umbrellas.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set white and black point and adjusted color.

Photoshop CS5—sharpened the eyes of all the band members and used nik Silver Efex Pro to convert photo to black and white.

Assemble the Skyline #5

Max is the band’s lead singer and from what Steve tells me, he is really good.  Near the end of our shoot, Max sat down in front of one of the amps.   There was light from the windows on his backside.  I feathered an SB800 on his face.  I wanted the light to be just on his face.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 shot at 70mm, ISO 800, f/6.7, 1/30^th of a second with an SB800 with a small silver umbrella and triggered by Pocketwizard Maxi.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set white and black point and adjusted color.

Photoshop CS5—use nik Silver Efex Pro 2 to convert to black and white and add frame.

Assemble the Skyline #4

Austin was really into the song that the band was playing.  I tried several different angles and finally settled on this one.  What I like about this one is:  Austin’s expression, the lighting and the angle.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 shot at 48mm, ISO 800, f/4.8, 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set white and black point and adjusted color.

Assemble the Skyline #3

Sometimes, I like a photo but do not know why I like it.  That’s the case with this photo of Luke.  It is a very simple photo, yet I find myself studying it.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 shot at 60mm, ISO 800, f/8 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—set white and black point and added mid tone contrast.

Assemble the Skyline #2

This is Nick, the drummer for Assemble the Skyline.  Of all the members of the band, he had the most definite ideas about how he wanted the photos to be.  Here he strikes a pose over his drums.  I like how relaxed he appeared and the overall contrast between the environment and him.

This photo was taken using my new PocketWizard Flex TT5s in iTTL mode.  I used two Nikon SB800 with umbrellas, positioned high right and left.  In addition, I had an Nikon SB800 mounted on the top of my PocketWizard Mini TT1, which was used as the master to control the other two flashes.  The flashes fired virtually every time.  However, I do believe there will be some learning curve on how best to use them.

Here, I think the flash add just enough light to bring Nick forward, add just enough light to the background to blend with the light outside of the window.  Overall, I think the lighting works.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8, shot at ISO 800, f/8 and 1/90^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, added clarity and mid-tone contrast and vignetting.

Assemble the Skyline

Meet the boys of the band, Assemble the Skyline.  The boys are from left to right:  Austin, Luke, Nick and Max.  Steve and I had the pleasure of shooting the band last Friday.  It was a great shoot.

Why?  Well, to begin with, the guys are really fine young men.  They were willing to do anything that Steve or I asked them to do.  So naturally, we tried all sorts of new things.  Second, I got to play with my new Pocketwizard triggers.  I was impressed with their performance, but must admit there is a learning curve with them.

This photo is all natural light.  It was behind the stage in Galveston.  I wanted the photo to have a behind the scenes look so I used the stage hangers as props to frame the band.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 shot at ISO 800, f/8 and 1/350^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, cropped photo and added a vignetting.

Photoshop CS5—used nik Silver Efex Pro to convert the photo to black and white.