Larry Patrick Photography

An Evening at the Beach #4

2012-01-27T11:12:00.005-06:00

Here Sarah is not posing for me;rather, she is talking to Doug about how he wants her to look. To me this photo is totally about thelight—the golden light on Sarah’s face and the cool blue light on the water.

I only took one shot of thisscene. I should have definitelyworked it. I think the photo wouldhave been much better if I had moved about four feet to my right and thus shother almost looking at me. I thinkthat I would have also liked the shot even more if I had shot somewhat down on Sarah. Shooting down on her would have broughtout more blue in the background and probably would have isolated here moreagainst the background.

Enjoy

Camera settings: Nikon D3, ISO 200, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 75mm, f/6.7 and1/350^th of a second

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3: Set black point, added contrast with amild curve and increased the saturation of blues and cyans.

An Evening at the Beach #3

2012-01-24T10:18:00.004-06:00

Not a lot to say about this photoexcept that I used some of the same techniques that used in last Friday’s post—although,I did not have an orange gel on my flash which made Lauren’s face look morenatural. Rather than incorporatingthe sun in the frame, I used Lauren to hide it. I wanted to maximize the edge lighting on her hair andshoulders.
Enjoy.
Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm, f/4.8 and 1/750^thof a second.
Post Processing:
Lightroom 3: Set black point, added contrast with amild curve and cropped image to 4:5 ratio.

An Evening at the Beach #2

2012-01-20T12:08:00.001-06:00

In this photo of Sarah, I wanted toinclude the setting sun, the fast falloff of light from right to left and yetget some light on Sarah’s face.
I underexposed the ambient light readingby about four stops and then just splashed some light on Sarah’s face by using aNikon SB800 with a snoot and an orange gel (to simulate the light of thesunset). I should have changed mywhite balance to K3500 to bring out more of the blues in the sky and to reduce the orange on Sarah's face.
Because of the bright light fromthe setting sun, I was using such a fast shutter speed that my SB800 was forcedto be in high-speed synch mode, which greatly reduces the range of theflash. The flash was on my cameraand I set it to TTL mode. I must admit, I really do not understand all the decisions my camera and flash make when the flash is set to TTL mode so, for me, it's a hit or miss proposition every time I use TTL.
Enjoy.
Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm, f/3.3 and 1/750^thof a second with Nikon SB800 with orange gel attached shot in high-speed synch mode.
Post Processing:
Lightroom 3: Set black point, added contrast with amild curve and cropped to 4:5 ratio.
Photoshop CS5: Dodged and burned various parts of photo,added curves adjustment for contrast and used various nik Colorefex Pro filters.

An Evening at the Beach

2012-01-17T16:51:00.000-06:00

Over the holidays, a groupphotographed Lauren (pictured here) and Sarah down at Galveston beach. As always, both ladies werebeautiful and a joy to photograph.

At sunset, the light wasgreat. Here, I tried tounderexpose the ambient light by about two stops and then just splash somelight on Lauren’s face by using a Nikon SB800 with a snoot and an orange gel(to simulate the light of the sunset). I also made sure that my flash was dialed down by about a stop.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm, f/4 and 1/125^thof a second

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3: Set black point, added contrast with amild curve.

Photoshop CS5: Dodged and burned various parts ofphoto and saturated background color.

Jay Maisel Workshop #16—Lessons Learned

2012-01-03T10:50:00.001-06:00

A lot of people have asked me whatlessons I learned in Jay’s workshop. I learned many, but to me, the most important oneswere:

1. Ultimately photographs areabout: light, color andgesture. As the artist, I mustdecide which one is the most important and then work the scene to produce aphoto that extracts the element(s) that are important.

2. Gesture is not limited to just people. Everything has gesture. Gesture, in essence, is what makessomething unique. Something worthphotographing—texture, smoothness, position within its surroundings, etc. And gesture always trumps light andcolor. If I get the gesture right,light and color will just be supporting actors within the photo.

3. I am responsible for every pixelwithin my frame. It is up to me toselect what will be within the photo and what will be outside the photo. I must take care to make sure that thephoto is framed as I want it.

4. You must work the scene. I was standing in front of one of Jay’sphotos that I really like when Jay walked up.
Jay: “I remember that one. I tookthree shots and this one is my final shot.”
Me: In three shots, you got that.
Jay: Yes. I went there and fired off three shotsand that is what I got. Of courseI had been to that location fifty different times, tried for what you see hereand I got NOTHING!

5. You must be your own severestcritic. If you are your ownseverest critic you will always be looking for that next “portfolio shot”, thatnext “totally different look”, etc.

Today’s shot is about twothings: the gesture of the beamsunder the FDR Expressway and working the situation. The photo was taken early one morning while I was outwalking. I loved the way that theearly morning light showed-off the texture, the rhythm and the complexity ofthe beams. Because of the dynamicrange of the scene I knew that I would have to resort to HDR, so I shot threeshots (-2, 0 and +2 EV). I tookfour different sets of shots and then moved on. In hindsight, I realize that there was much more to thisscene than I appreciated at the time. I should have worked the scene much longer and harder. The photograph is nice but it is not agame changer. I should have notsettled for anything less than a game changer.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Not important

Post Processing: Not important

Jay Maisel Workshop #15

2011-12-20T11:08:00.001-06:00

Jay did not officially critic this photo. He did, however, look at it on my computer while I was reviewing my shots from the day. Jay wanted to know why I did not include this one in my selection for the day. I told him that I was not sure that people would see what I saw in the image. At which, he said “%@#*! them” ! Jay liked how the image raised questions: what is going-on? why so much white? who are these guys?
Anybody have any answers to his question?
Enjoy.
Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 170mm, ISO 1,600, f/8 and 1/90^th of a second.
Post Processing: None!

Jay Maisel Workshop #14

2011-12-17T10:19:00.000-06:00

Jay: OK, what’s the story here?

Me: Again, this is at Bryant Park. I saw this man sitting there lost in his thoughts. He looked so dignified that I wanted to have a portrait of him lost in his thoughts. So, I asked if I could take his photo. I took a couple shots but was not happy with what I was getting. The background was very distracting. I moved to my left in order to minimize the distractions. His expression did not change throughout my ventures.

Jay: That’s what you did but you did not answer the question “what’s the story here?”

Me: His name is Lucas. He has three grown daughters that he reared by himself—his wife died in childbirth with the youngest. He has worked two to three jobs most of his life. He is 77 years old and his daughters have told him that he has to stop working and start living. He said that he thought that he had been living for 77 years. He did not know what to do.

Jay: Even though you do not know what the story is, you know that there is a story. You also want to know the story. Did you offer him any of your thoughts?

Me: No. I think he knows what to do. He just needed someone to listen to him for a few minutes.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 150mm, ISO 2,200, f/5.6 and 1/350^th of a second.

Post Processing: None!

Jay Maisel Workshop #13

2011-12-09T08:56:00.000-06:00

Jay: Where did you find this much green in New York City?

Me: Bryant Park

Jay: Three things make this photo successful. One, the harmony of the colors. Two, the soft lighting on her. And, three, her very pleasant and warm look. Her eyes are engaging the viewer. Nice, but I am not sure that I would consider this to be street photography.

Me: I refer to this type of shot as street portraits because I often move the subject and do some directing. She was setting in a chair and I just moved the chair to face another direction so that I would have the ivy as my background.

Jay: I like the term. But, I am not sure what criteria I would use to judge it.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 120mm, ISO 1,600, f/5.6 and 1/500^th of a second.

Post Processing: None!

Jay Maisel Workshop #12

2011-12-06T06:24:00.003-06:00

Jay: Really good concept, but you did not hit it out-of-the-park. If the subject is man crawling out of a hole, then the man must be tack-sharp (which this one is not) and the background elements should be slightly out-of-focus—thus making the man the SUBJECT! Great perspective—street level. What the hell were you doing lying on the sidewalk.
Me: Yes.
Jay: If you are going to go to that trouble, then bring me back a real winner, not this want-to-be idea on paper!

At this point, Jay talked at some length about working the subject. He said that a great concept poorly executed produces another bad photo. You must constantly refine your idea so that you distill it down to only the elements that you consider “the story.” That may mean that you give up on it today and go back tomorrow—but, you go back until you get what you are seeing in your mind.

While Jay was talking about refining your photo, my mind wondered to a Joe McNally seminar that I attended with Steve Schuencke. Joe was working with a female model and the images that were flashing up on the screen were good, but, he keep working it, and finally, a photo flashed up and you hear a collective “wow” from the attendees. On the way home from the seminar, the only think that Steve and I talked about was Joe working the image.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 300mm, ISO 1,600, f/11 and 1/180^th of a second.

Post Processing: None!

Jay Maisel Workshop #11

2011-12-01T09:45:00.001-06:00

Jay like this photo because it zeroed into what was important—her suspicious eying me—yet still provided adequate context as to what was going-on. Jay did say that this might have been a time where he would have opened-up the lens to f/5.6 to blur as much as possible around her eye. The lady’s name is Juda and she is an camera-woman who works with independent film makers in New York. We talked before I took any photos of her. She gave me permission to photograph her, but did not want me to interrupt the filming that she was doing. So, I tried to stay as far away from her as possible during my shots.

I wanted the photo to be totally about how she was eying me.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 180mm, ISO 1,000, f/8 and 1/180^th of a second.

Post Processing: None!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T05:14:00.000-06:00

As always, the Patrick’s have a lot to be thankful for—our wonderful son and special daughter, our three great grandchildren, Cole, Chloe and Cameron, our many friends and our good health.

Janice and I are also thankful this year for our newest members of our family—Blaze and Pepper. They have been with us a little over a week but they have firmly cemented themselves as members of the family—all 2 pounds 3 ounces of Pepper and all 2 pounds 5 ounces of Blaze.

All three of our grandchildren have played at the base of our kitchen table so it is only fitting that Blaze and Pepper also do so. Da’Girls are a real joy. Although we have papers saying that Pepper is 100% toy poodle, I know that she is really 50% toy poodle and 50% turkey. She is everywhere and into everything. Blaze on the other hand is Miss Sweetie, most of the time. Of course there are times that Blaze thinks that she has to act like her sister. Janice and I have spent many hours playing with them and watching them run around our house.

In the photo, Pepper is on the left and Blaze, who has a little white on her chest and the tips of both of her back feet, is on the right.

Enjoy and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 at 50mm, ISO 1,600, f/6.7 and 1/30^th of a second with a Nikon SB800 using a LumQuest 20/80 attached.

Post Processing:

Lightroom: Set black and white point, added contrast.

Jay Maisel Workshop #10

2011-11-18T05:59:00.004-06:00

Jay: Welcome to New York. This photo is totally about gesture. Look at his expression. Look at how he has forcefully positioned his arm. Look at how he is separated from everyone else—by focus, by the lighting, by being the only male, by not being engaged with everyone else at the table. He is a New Yorker. How did you get this one, yell look like New York?

Me: Just saw it and shot it. Didn’t think about it.

Jay: Good, leave the thinking home more.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 250mm, ISO 1,600, f/5.6 and 1/350^th of a second.

Post Processing: NONE!

Jay Maisel Workshop #9

2011-11-15T07:54:00.002-06:00

Jay liked this photo because it did such a good job of isolating the subject and showing gesture—which brings me to how Jay thinks about photographs.

According to Jay, photographs are usually about three elements—light, color (or lack of color) and gesture. It is the job of the photographer to determine which element is most important to the photograph and then select the angle, cropping and composition that supports the selected element. Before I went to the workshop, I believed that my most successful (i.e., the photographs that I liked best) were ones that I saw something within a scene and then successfully showcased that element within my image. The workshop did two things for me—it confirmed this fuzzy idea that I had haphazardly followed and it made me really focus on asking and answering a very basic question about a shot before I took it—what am I trying to project in this photo.

By making us (the workshop participants) shoot in jpeg and show “right out of the camera”, he forced us to make the decision about what the photo is about before we took the shot and he made us eliminate all distracting elements in order to distill what we wanted the photo to represent.

This photo was taken of a woman buying some ice cream at an out-door vendor. To me, the subject is not the transaction (her face and the money in her hand), but it is the intensity of her face. The money merely supports and gives context to that intensity. I originally took the photo at f/11 which made both her face and the money in focus, but as I looked at it on the back of my camera I thought that I did not get what I wanted—there seemed to be some confusion about what was the subject, the woman, the money or the transaction. I quickly changed my f-stop to f/5.6, focused on her right eye and retook the photo.

Whether anyone likes the photo is not important. To me, what is important is that I saw something—the intensity of her look—and was able to capture it as I saw it in my mind.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 300mm, ISO 1,400, f/5.6 and 1/180^th of a second.

Post Processing: NONE!

Jay Maisel Workshop #8

2011-11-11T07:06:00.002-06:00

Jay did not critic this photo.

I saw this guy giving directions to two girls but could not get the shot because the girls were in my way. After he finished, I told him that I thought his bag was really cool. He immediately told me that it was not his but was his niche’s bag and he was taking it over to her house.

I asked if I could take a photo of him pointing like he did when he gave the girls directions. He was a little reluctant, but then he agreed. After a few minutes, he really got into the scene. I had a couple shots that I liked but it seemed that something was missing. I saw the guy on the bike coming up the street and so I suggested that we take another shot with the bike in the background. I think the bike helps sell the shot as street photography and helps add depth to the overall photo.

I know that some people might be concerned by the pole behind him looking like it was growing out of his head. It does not bother me because of its size and because this is a street photo, not a portrait. The thing that I do not like is the red sign and alarm on the pole. To me, red is a very hard color to control in your images and I think that they take the viewer's eye away from the main subject—the bright pink bag.

One thing that I forgot to mention earlier is that I h ave presented a few photos that were in 4x5 format rather than 2x3 format. The Nikon D3 has an option to change the format from 2x3 to 4x5. So, this was done in camera with Jay’s permission.

Jay and I got into a big discussion as to why I wanted to do this. I told him it was simple: I had less real estate (i.e., distracting background) to worry about in a 4x5 format and I thought that the 4x5 format was better suited to photographing people. Jay listened, but I do not think I made a sale.

Jay said that he thought that all photographers look at things from a specific perspective—a wide or telephoto perspective. He told me that he had a telephoto-perspective which meant that he zeroed-in on slices of a scene thus eliminating a lot of distracting elements. He told me that he never thought about how people might look at scene from different aspect ratios.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 62mm, ISO 400, f/8 and 1/180^th of a second.

Post Processing: NONE!

Jay Maisel Workshop #7

2011-11-09T07:50:00.001-06:00

Jay did like this photo. No, he did not like it because of the girl.

Jay: How did you get this shot?

Me: I took this this early this morning on my way to the workshop. I was photographing some details on a building when this lady yelled from across the street: “Whatsa doing?” I replied that I was photographing the building behind her. She replied: “I’ll give you something better to take.” At which she began to strike various poses.

Jay: You are s@#%#*&! me.

Me: No.

Jay: Something like that has never happened to me in the sixty years that I have walked these streets. You lucky son-of-a-@#%#*&. What makes this photo so good is the fact that the subject is completely separated from the background. It is separated by color, sharpness, focus and gesture. As you look at the photo, there is no doubt what the subject matter is. Even though there is the separation, all the elements of the photograph work together. Nice job.

Me: Thanks.

Jay: Your skill as a photographer is definitely enhanced by your luck. I hope you never get unlucky. (shy smile on his face)

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 300mm, ISO 1,600, f/5.6 and 1/250^th of a second.

Post Processing: NONE!

Jay Maisel Workshop #6

2011-11-04T10:53:00.003-05:00

Jay did like this photo. I liked it, but have some reservations about it.

Jay: Did you ask this guy to pose for you?

Me: No. I saw this neat background and then waited for people to walk in front of it. I liked this guy because he looked at me and because his shirt was a solid, bright color that seemed to go with the background.

Jay: Although his work is not really an inviting look, it still draws the viewer into the scene.

Me: I am not real happy with how I have him placed in the center of the frame.

Jay: You talking about the rule of thirds?

Me: Yes.

Jay: @#%#*&! the rules! Does the photo have impact? Yes. Does it draw you into it? Yes. So, @#%#*&! the rules!

My thought: Not sure about that!

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 300mm, ISO 1,600, f/11 and 1/250^th of a second.

Post Processing: NONE!

Jay Maisel Workshop #5

2011-11-01T08:26:00.002-05:00

Jay did not like this photo. I liked it.

Jay: What is this photo about? I have no idea what you are trying to convey here. There is nice light and an interesting shadow on the Brooklyn Bridge and then there are two homeless people. What am I suppose to look at? What am I suppose to think? Did you trip your shutter by mistake?

Me: It’s all about opposites—the largeness of the bridge versus the smallness of the men; the beautiful golden light on the top of the bridge versus the murky shadows on the bottom of the bridge; the cleanliness of the top of the bridge versus the dirt of the bottom of the bridge; and finally the dejected look of one man versus the smiling of the other man.

Jay: Yea, right.

You: ?

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 300mm, ISO 1,600, f/8 and 1/180^th of second.

Post Processing: NONE!

Interruption of Jay Maisel Workshop

2011-10-29T09:27:00.002-05:00

I interrupt my posts about Jay Maisel workshop for an important message: today is JD’s birthday. She is 29. Not sure how the math works: she is 29, we have been married 45 years and her son is 43 years old. But, then again, she is our mathematician in the family.

For her birthday, she got Blaze and Pepper. Two black, female toy puddles—actually one of them is mine, but I thought that I would get a few bonus point here claiming that she got two.

Blaze and Pepper are a continuation of our long line of great black toy poodles: Marble who was with us for 14 years, and then Elvis (16 years) and Sam (18 years). Blaze and Pepper have some big shoes to fill, but just look at them, you know they are capable of fulfilling those shoes.
Actually, we currently do not have them. They are only five weeks old and we will not get them until they are eight weeks old, sometime around November 15th. The breeder expects Blaze to be about 5 1/2 to 6 pounds and Pepper to be about 4 1/2 to 5 pounds. A couple of doggie sumo wrestlers, for sure.
After seeing the photograph, Chloe, our granddaughter, named Pepper and JD decided on Blaze because of the white on her throat (the same as Marble).
We look forward to bringing our new family members home.

Enjoy.

Jay Maisel Workshop #4

2011-10-25T09:34:00.002-05:00

I have had several people ask me: “What exactly did Jay teach you about street photography?” “Could we have more details about your process in taking these shots?”

I guess the biggest thing that I learned from Jay was “slow-down”. Walk slowly; take-in everything around you. When you see something interesting, study it to determine what you want to do. Then slowly raise your camera to your eye (“don’t scare your prey with sudden movement”). Slowly and carefully frame your subject. Remember to look around the edges to make sure that you have no distracting elements. Forget: “I will fix it in Photoshop”.

Jay liked today’s photo. He liked that I was down at the little girls level—we were looking eye to eye. He liked that she was looking straight at me—that generated a feeling of connection between me (and ultimately the viewer) and the little girl. He liked how the stroller’s lines added a dynamic element to the photo and how the balloon acted as an anchor and also eliminated a lot of bright pink that would have taken the viewer's eye away from the little girl's face. He did not like that I shot the photo at f/5.6. He believes that for ultimate sharpness, you need to shoot every lens about one to two f-stops up from its maximum f-stop, which would be f/8 to f/11 for this lens. He also did not like that I shot this in landscape orientation. It showed too much uninteresting space to the left of the little girl.

I agreed with all of his comments. For my blog, I have committed the mortal sin of cropping today’s photo to illustrate Jay’s point about landscape vs. portrait orientation.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 200mm, ISO 1,600, f/5.6 and with shutter speeds 1/250^th of second.

Post Processing: NONE!

Jay Maisel Workshop #3

2011-10-18T15:17:00.002-05:00

What did Jay say about this one? Well, it went something like this.

Jay: Larry, what were you thinking when you took this? Better yet, were you thinking when you took this image?

Larry: I liked the way the little girl was looking at me.

Jay: Did you notice the eyes of the doll?

Larry: No, not really. I only saw them when the photo came-up on my computer.

Jay: So, you openly admit before me and your fellow students that what helps make this photo a really good street photo was just a lucky accident?

Larry: Well, yes, I guess it was.

Jay: In street photography, accidents happen. Sometimes the accident helps your photos, and sometimes it &%$#*! your photo. Accept both and just move on. What helps make this photo is contrast: the little girl’s look is so intense and the mother’s look is so passive; the dark little girl with her almost black eye and the lily-white doll with bright blue eyes. The contrast draws you into the photo. It makes you wonder. I like this one.

Larry: Thanks.

Jay: You thanking me? You should be on your knees thanking the photo gods for the blessings they bestowed on you.

Enjoy.

Jay Maisel Workshop #2

2011-10-14T08:06:00.002-05:00

Before delving into today’s photograph, I need to provide you with the ground rules of Jay’s workshop. The basic rule is: what you shoot is what you present. There is no Lightroom or Photoshop work that is allowed on anything that you print. No cropping, no setting white and black points, no sharpening. NOTHING can be done to your images other than downloading them and resizing (maximum length and/or width) them for proper presentation. You shoot and present your images as JPEGs.

I try to know how my camera works, but since I never shoot in JPEG, I knew very little about how the various JPEG setting worked within my Nikon D3. As a result of this, I was forced to quickly learn about the various sharpening, color saturation and contrast setting available within my camera. I must admit, it took me a couple of tries before I got the camera setting the way that I wanted them. The final setting that I settled on were: sharpening at 7, contrast +1, brightness at 0, color saturation at +1, and hue at 0. With these settings I felt that my images had just enough pop to catch the viewer’s eye, but not that “over the top” look that you often get when the sharpness and color saturation are pushed to the limit.

In the spirit of the workshop, all photos presented as Jay Maisel Workshop photos are JPEG images without any adjusting or retouching in Lightrooom or Photoshop.

Both of the photos that I am presenting today were taken in New York City's Chinatown. I had asked permission to photograph both of the subjects before I took the photos but I waited a little time to allow them to go back to their “normal” activity before taking the shots. I wanted the images to be about normal life in the big city.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 200mm, ISO 2,200, f/8 and with a shutter speed of 1/500^th of a second.

Post Processing: NONE!

Jay Maisel Workshop #1

2011-10-07T10:20:00.003-05:00

Meet Jay Maisel.

Last week, as part of his workshop in New York City, I spent 8:30 AM to 10:00 PM from Monday through Friday with Jay. The workshop in a word was mind-boggling!

Every day I was completely challenged by Jay’s instructions, words, works and of course, that special Jay-look that said: “Have you lost your #@!*& mind?” Jay’s instruction seems so simple when he explains them and then demonstrates them through his own work. But then, you hit the streets of New York City and you feel like someone who has lost his “#@!*& mind.”

Did I learn anything? Probably more than I will ever know.

Did I enjoy myself? Unquestionably.

Will I be a better photographer? Time will tell.

Today’s photo of Jay was taken in his studio giving one of my fellow students one of his special looks.

Enjoy.

What I Did on My Vacation #17

2011-10-04T05:41:00.007-05:00

Here is my final photo from Machu Picchu. It is of JD walking up one of the many stairs that you will experience if you got there. If you plan on going, a little advice before you go: Stairmaster!

Enjoy.

What I Did on My Vacation #16

2011-09-30T05:47:00.000-05:00

As you look past Machu Picchu to Huayan Picchu, you see a mountain covered with plants. Yet at the top of the mountain there are many Inca ruins. No one seems to know exactly why the buildings are there. The most common believe is that the buildings were used as an outpost to survey the surroundings for possible enemy movements. But again, because the Incas had no written language, there exact purpose will never be known.

Looking at the people in these photos, I think you can get some idea as to how hard the climbing is.

Enjoy

What I Did on My Vacation #15

2011-09-27T05:30:00.004-05:00

You might ask: what does a well maintained trail look like? It looks like this.

Enjoy

What I Did on My Vacation #14

2011-09-23T04:31:00.000-05:00

Today’s photo was taken from the top of Huayna Picchu (the mountain directly behind Machu Picchu). According to the Lonely Plant tour book on Peru: “at first glance, it would appear that Huayna Picchu is a difficult climb, but there is a well maintained trail; although the ascent is steep, it’s not technically difficult.” Not sure what that means. What I do know is that almost everyone that we encountered on the trail was gasping for air and making frequent stops to rest. Access to the mountain is limited and you have to obtain a separate ticket to climb Huayna Picchu, but I think it is worth the effort.

Today’s photo is not one of my favorite shots from Machu Picchu. I am presenting it because you do not often see photos of Machu Picchu from Huayna Picchu. I think this angle gives you a much better perspective of how large Machu Picchu is, its overall design and its relationship to the surroundings.

Enjoy

What I Did on My Vacation #13

2011-09-21T07:37:00.000-05:00

Well, we have finally arrived at what I really wanted to photograph—Machu Picchu. Before I go into how and why I took the photograph that I took, I would like to provide you with a little background. Photographing Machu Picchu is hard. Why? Basically, three reason: (1) it has been photographed so many times and as a result, the bar is quite high for any photograph to be judged as good; (2) the orientation of the sun from left to right which cast hard shadows on many parts of the ruins and the harsh light because of the altitude makes taking a pleasing photograph very difficult; and, (3) the limited access (open at 7:00 AM and closing at 5:00 PM) makes for rather large crowds and poor lighting.

Before I discuss today’s photo, I want to say that I got lucky. We stayed at the hotel at the top of the mountain and as a result I did not have to worry about catching the last bus (at 5:00 PM) down the mountain. I got to stay to the very last minute of the park’s opening. Second, clouds moved-in late in the afternoon and softened the light and provided some great rays-of-light that added to the photo.

I tried two compositions of Machu Picchu: one showing almost all of the ruins and the one presented here which shows only a small portion of the ruins. I shoot seven shots (+3 EV to -3EV) with the camera on a tripod, so that I could use HDR, if I wanted. In the image presented I used four of the shots (-3 EV to 0 EV) and combined them using nik HDR Pro (which is becoming my favorite program for HDR). Because I wanted to soften the HDR effect, I then used nik Color Efex Pro’s glamour glow filter. I think the result is details with a soft feel. Finally, I dodged and burn various elements within the photo.

Enjoy

What I Did on My Vacation #12

2011-09-16T09:59:00.001-05:00

One of the things that I immediately noticed as I walked around Cuzco is the bright colors. Almost everyone seems to be dressed in bright colors with lots of geometric designs —especially, the children. In today’s photo, I simply liked the colors and how they seemed to be amplified by the dull brown and grey of the road and the ruins in the background.

Enjoy

What I Did on My Vacation #11

2011-09-13T09:22:00.002-05:00

After returning from Sacsayhuman, we treated to a fabulous sunset. Looking at the dynamic range, I knew that I would need to use HDR to adequately capture what I was seeing. My tripod was back in the hotel (resting from the travel, I guess), so I had to employ one of Barry Armer’s techniques—hand-held bracketed exposures. I braced myself against a lamp post and shot five exposures at one-stop increments (+2 to -2 EV).

Last week, I watched an interesting video by Kevin Kubota on [FRAMED] about post-processing HDR shots when you do not have a steady tripod. Essentially, he exports all of the exposures from Lightroom or Bridge into Photoshop as layers. He then aligns the layers within Photoshop and then exports the various layers back as individual files. He then runs his normal HDR program to convert all the exposures into an HDR image. I tried this on a couple HDR wanta-bes and found that it does seem to reduce the ghosting that you get with out-of-register images. If you are interested in watching the entire video you can find it here. (As a side note, Kevin Kubota has presented some good post-production techniques for Lightroom and Photoshop—you might want to check them out at [FRAMED]).

Today’s image is of La Catedral on the Plaza de Amas in Cuzco. The Plaza is the main gathering point for many tourist and residents throughout the day, and as a result, many people are moving always around in front of La Catedral—not the best conditions for using HDR. Solution: crop the people out! I just felt that trying to fix all the blur of people and cars would take too much times, especially since they are really not the main subjects of the photo.

Enjoy.

What I Did on My Vacation #10

2011-09-09T08:08:00.001-05:00

You have now left the Galapagos Islands and you are in Peru—Cuzco, Peru to be exact. Cuzco was the capital of the Incas. On a hilltop overlooking Cuzco is Sacsayhuman, which is an outstanding representation of Inca engineering and building skills. Stones for the ruins were quarried over four miles from the ruins. The Incas did not have any metal tools to quarry the stones or wheels to move them. Just image the effort that was required to put these stones in place. Complicating the planning and building even more was the fact that the Incas did not have a written language. With all of this in mind, I must admit my mind was blown.

The first things that struck me as I walked around the ruins was the precision of the stone work and the shear size of the stones. Today, I present three photos that hopefully will communicate this: the first photo is of JD’s hand and a seam between two of the stones; the second photo is of JD standing in front of the largest stone (estimated to be 350 tons) in the ruins; and, the final photo is of a key that was used to join the stones.

Enjoy.

What I Did on My Vacation #9

2011-09-06T08:09:00.002-05:00

Before leaving my photographic tour of the Galapagos Islands, I would like to answer a few questions that I have gotten regarding visiting there.

First, yes, access to the islands is controlled however you still have quite a lot of freedom to explore most of the islands. The reason that I say “most of the islands” is because they periodically put certain islands “off limits” so that the vegetation and wildlife can recover. The government appears to be doing a very good job striking a balance between tourism and the environment—even though I am sure that both sides (tourism business and environmentalists would argue that point with me.

Second, why the photographic restrictions, like “no flash”? Don’t know and really do not care. My attitude on the “no flash” rule is that: (1) it’s there country and they can make the rule; and (2) it does not seem to be an unreasonable rule consider how fragile the environment is. Personally, I get a lot more upset when I encounter “authority” figures in the United States that tell me that I cannot photograph in this or that public place. I recently watched a video on Fstoppers ( http://fstoppers.com/page/4) that dealt with this very issue. You might want to check it out.

Finally, would I go back to the Galapagos Islands? The straightforward answer is “no.” But, that is not because the Galapagos Islands are not a great place to visit and photograph, because they are. Rather, it is because there are still lots of places in the world that I want to see, and of course, photograph.

Today, I present a few random shots.

Enjoy.

What I Did on My Vacation #8

2011-09-03T10:33:00.000-05:00

Last week one of my friends asked me why I did not include tortoises in my list of animals in the Galapagos Islands. Well, I guess because I have never gotten a good photograph of any tortoise. Like the last trip, all my tortoise photographs look more like big rocks in a field rather than extremely long-necked reptiles from a different era.

All of the tortoises that I have seen in the Galapagos Islands are in the highlands of the islands. As a result, they are generally in tall grass with misty rain falling on them—not exactly the shot normally seen in the travel brochures.

Here are my best photos of the tortoises and their environment.

Enjoy.

What I Did on My Vacation #7

2011-08-30T09:43:00.001-05:00

Before I get into today’s post, I want to answer a question that Ellen posed in her comment abut Friday’s post—do I consider these (my posting) print ready? The short answer is no. All of them would require sharpening and probably some additional dodging and burning. As to specifics for each picture: I would remove a lot of the specular highlights in the classical crab shot because I think they take your attention away from the subject; I would probably not print the crab in the ice plant because the ice plant leaves (?) directly front of the crab take away from the subject and I am too lazy to spend the time required to remove them from the photo; and the final shot is probably the one closest to “print ready”.

In my What-I-Did-on-My-Vacation-#3, I said: “As to the Galapagos Islands, I would have to say that the landscape is nice but not spectacular.” Well, several of my co-travels on boat to issue with me in emails. They completely disagree with me; they thought the landscapes and seascapes were spectacular.

The first photo is our group exploring one of the islands. The plant life you see is quite common to many of the islands. The reds, greens and yellows go well with the blue, overcast skies. The second photo (taken with the Canon G-12 from a Zodiac) shows a granite island take through an opening in another island. Here, I liked the framing of the island and the contrast of the warm colors of the rock and the cool colors of the sky and ocean. The final photo is more-or-less a typical shot of the wet side of most islands. I think that our guide said that the wet sides of the islands were generally characterized by cliffs.

Enjoy.

What I Did on My Vacation #6

2011-08-26T10:46:00.003-05:00

Today, I plan to finish-up photos of the Big Four—sea lions, iguanas, birds and crabs—with Crabs.

Before we went on vacation, I was sitting down with my grandchildren, viewing photographs of the Galapagos Islands and Machu Picchu. As I always do, I asked them what photo they would like me to take for them. Cole wanted a shark eating a sea lion (not likely), and of course, Cam added a “me, too.” Chloe wanted a photo of “bright-colored crab”, to which, Cam added another “me, too.”

The traditional shot of crabs is against the black volcanic rock. And, why should it be the classic? Brightly colored red, yellow and blue crabs set off beautifully against the black rock. I is almost like setting-up a black backdrop to take a portrait of a beautiful light skinned, blond woman. The black backdrop just makes the colors and the light features more dominate. The only trick to this type of photo is to realize that your in-camera meter will want to turn the black rock into 18% grey, so you must set your EV compensation to at least -2 EV. You can try to do a post-processing adjustment, but I have found that trying to save washed-out, over exposed colors is almost impossible.

After getting my traditional shot in the bag, I started looking for shots that you normally do not see. I found crab in my second shot about 400 feet from the water, laying in an ice plant. Here, you have color on color, which, to me, just seems to help illustrate just how colorful the crabs are.

My final crab photo was a challenge to get. Why? First, because the crabs in water are very fast and they tend to move away from you as soon as you get close; and, second, because overall scene is very bright with a lot of specular highlights which again fools your in-camera meeting. So, how did I solve these problems? As I wrote earlier, I used a polarizing filter to eliminate many of the specular highlights. In addition, I generally waited until a cloud was in front of the sun and then I would start firing away. In the final photo, I like how the three primary colors—red, yellow and blue—stick out and how the rock covered-in green algae seems to point directly out the subject.

Enjoy.

What I Did on My Vacation #5

2011-08-23T10:24:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, I had lunch with a friend. During the course of our lunch, my Galapagos Islands photos became a topic. He wanted to know why I was not putting in technical data on my photos so he was curious about how the photos were taken and what post processing was done on most of the photos that I have posted.

As to how all the photos were taken, they were taken with my Nikon D3, set at variable ISO (up to ISO 1,600 with a minimum shutter speed of 1/180^th of a second), a Nikon 28-300mm, f/3.5-5.6 lens and NO flash (not allowed in the Galapagos Islands). I also often resorted to using automatic bracketing (three shots at one-stop increments) to make sure that I got the photo was properly exposed.

Because there are so many animals that have almost no fear of humans, you can more-or-less shop for your shot. As an example for the first photo of the iguana posted last Friday, I walked up and down a row of four iguanas that were perched on rocks. I was looking for a simple, pleasing background and light falling on the iguana’s face. After “shopping” for several minutes, I selected the one that you saw. Normally, in wild live photography, you just cannot do that and that is one reason that I really admire wildlife photographers, especially bird photographers.

As to post-processing, it has been done totally in Lightroom 3 (Camera RAW). The processing generally includes making sure that I have a good white and black point set, tweaking color hue, saturation and luminosity, adjusting clarity and vibrance, using various tone curves, cropping, using post-crop vignetting and occasionally using the adjustment brush to lighten or darken various parts of a photo. The overall adjustment time would probably be less that two minutes on all the photographs presented.

Today’s topic: BIRDS. Following is my usual disclaimer: I AM NOT A BIRID PHOTOGRAPHER; I TAKE BAD BIRD PHOTOGRAPHS. But, I felt that I had to include birds because they are such an important part of the Galapagos Islands experience.

I chose the first photo of a Blue-Footed Booby because it illustrates the lack of fear that the birds have of humans and shows how hard the light was during many of our hikes on the islands. These birds have a tendency to stand (and nest) on the designated paths and will generally not move when you walk by them. In this photo, I am about four feet in front of the bird and the legs are about two feet behind the bird.

Second photo is one of the blue feet of the Blue-Footed Booby. I really wanted a photo of a Blue-Footed Booby doing its dance (we saw it several times on our first visit to the Galapagos Islands) but I never saw any dance. In the photo, I wanted to show-off what makes the bird unique.

The final photo is of a duck (forgot the name) taken in the highlands on an overcast day. I really liked how the bold, vivid colors of the duck contrasted with the soft, muted colors of the reflection in the water.

Enjoy.

What I Did on My Vacation #4

2011-08-19T05:38:00.005-05:00

Before getting to today’s photos, an answer to a question that I got on the last post: how do I get such rich, saturated colors? Two things contribute to the saturated colors: (1) almost all of the photos that I took on vacation were taken with a polarizing filter; and, (2) I generally underexpose my photos by ½ to 1½ stops. Underexposing the photo will keep you from washing-out the colors.

Today’s subject is iguana. Little doubt about it, iguanas are not exactly pretty, but they do have character—like an old, wrinkled man. I have no idea how many different species of iguanas there are but it seems like every island in the Galapagos had at least three or four different ones.

In photographing the iguanas, I tried to emphasize their textured skin and their bright distinct colors. To me, the real trick of getting a decent iguana photos was isolating them from the background. Of course, that means getting ground-level and looking at the iguana eyeball to eyeball.

Enjoy.

What I Did on My Vacation #3

2011-08-16T11:32:00.000-05:00

Before getting into today’s photo, I want to provide a little background. First, camera equipment: I went light—Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6, Nikon 50mm f/1.4, three filters, cable release, two Nikon SB800s, tripod, Canon G12 and of course, lots of memory cards. Second, shooting during the “golden hours” was very limited both in the Galapagos Islands and at Machu Picchu. Both places put access restrictions on visitors. As a result, almost all photos that I will be presenting were taken during the hours from 9:00 AM until 5:30 PM. Third, you are not allowed to use flash in the Galapagos Islands. Finally, you cannot disturb the animals resting place or get within six feet of animal (if they come to you, there is no limit to how close they get to you—sounds a little like a double standard!).

As to the Galapagos Islands, I would have to say that the landscape is nice but not spectacular. Yes, there is clear blue water and some interesting plant life, but it is the animals and their interaction with humans that gets your attention. All the islands have the big four animals—sea lions, crabs, iguanas and birds.

Today, I present three photos of sea lions. I like the first because of the graceful lines that the sea lion is forming and how the light sets him/her off from the background. As to the second one, how could you not like a photo of a baby sea lion begging for a little attention. And, as to the final photo, I just like it.

Enjoy.

What I Did on My Vacation #2

2011-08-14T08:32:00.002-05:00

It seems that I have forgotten how to post my blog. I prepared my blog as normal and I thought that I set it to post on Friday morning, but alas, when I looked today, no blog posting. It seems that I had merely saved the posting as a draft. So, here is Friday’s post on Sunday.

Our vacation consisted of visits to Quito and Otavalo, Ecuador (3 days), Galapagos Islands (9 days on the Mary Anne, a 216-foot, 3-masked barquentine sailing ship), Cusco (3 days), Urubamba Valley, the sacred valley of the Incas (1 day) and Machu Picchu (3 days). Our transportation consisted of seven airplanes, one sailing vessel, eighteen Zodiac rides, five buses, two ferry-boats, six automobiles and lots of walking. In short, it was not a “laying around the pool, sipping wine and eating cheese” vacation.

JD and I went to Galapagos Islands in 1992 and both of us, consider that trip to be one of our best vacations.

The Galapagos is a very special place. Why? Because humans expect animals to fear them and that is not the case in the Galapagos Islands.

There is something very special about sitting somewhere and having a baby sea lion crawl over to you (first photo) and then start to play with your boot (second photo). The little guy played with my boot for about five minutes and then wondered off to investigate a lizard laying on a rock.

Hopefully, the photos that I present over the next few weeks will give you a sampling of what JD and I experienced. Today’s photos are more about my experience than trying to present excellent photographs or “works of art.”

What I Did on My Vacation #1

2011-08-09T10:12:00.004-05:00

Looking at today’s photo, I am sure that no one has any idea of where JD and I went on our vacation. A few of you probably guessed: Disney World. Nope, that’s where the grandchildren went.

Machu Picchu is a place that I have wanted to visit ever since I first saw a photo of it in National Geographic when I was about twelve years old—it has taken me 53 years to get there, but the wait was worth it! For the most part, I am disappointed when I finally get to see the great wonders of the world. Machu Picchu was not a disappointment. It was everything that I thought it would be and more.

Over the next few weeks, I will show various photos that I took both at Machu Picchu and the Galapagos Islands where we also went on our vacation.Today’s photo is JD in front of Machu Picchu. Not a lot of fancy camera work here—exposure compensation dialed back one f-stop, flash pointed a little above and to the right of JD’s face, and the sun used as a hair light.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 36mm, ISO 900, f/8 and with shutter speeds 1/180^th of second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3—set white and black points, added clarity and vibrance, and adjusted hue and saturation of various colors.

Photoshop CS5—used nik Color Efex Pro glamour glow filter to add

Words of Light

2011-07-15T05:52:00.002-05:00

Last Tuesday the assignment for Bay Area Photography Club was a photo taken at night. I have not done much night photography so I was very interested in seeing what I could do. I had tons of ideas of what would be neat, but because of laziness and lack of skill, I did none of my great ideas. Take me at my word, all fifty of my great ideas were definitely world class photos.

Today’s photo is of the “a, a” sculpture at the University of Houston. I had seen the sculpture while taking some portraits of outstanding students for the university. I wanted to capture all the details so I took nine shots at one-stop increments. I custom set the white balance in my camera so that the lights would take on a warmer glow.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3x, Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8 at 20mm, ISO 200, f/8 and with shutter speeds (nine exposures in one-stop increments) from 1/4^th of a second to 30 seconds on a tripod.

Post Processing:

Nik HDR Pro—combined and tone mapped six images.

Photoshop CS5—removed a crane and a couple red flowers that were distracting, used lens correction filter to straighten building’s distortion and sharpened image using the high pass filter method.

Using HDR to Show Texture

2011-07-08T09:42:00.001-05:00

I was visiting a friend’s range over the Fourth of July. The range is between Luling and Lockhart—two places that have great barbeque. Before I left, I wanted to try some night photography. I did, but have little to show for my efforts. I need a lot more practice before I can take a photograph that does justice to what I imagine in my mind.

I went over to Gonzales one day and shot this photo through an open window of the old jail. I wanted to show texture, so I used three shots and combined the various exposures in nik HDR Pro.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 at 30mm, ISO 200, f/4.8 and 1/10^th, 1/6^th, and 1/3^rd of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, adjusted exposure, added clarity and removed slight red cast.

Nik HDR Pro—combined and tone mapped three images using one of the presets in the plug-in.

The Expression Says It All

2011-07-01T05:41:00.002-05:00

“Why is that damn fool taking a picture of me?” That’s what I imagine this man was thinking as I fired a few shots off.

Here, I loved his expression—which he had on his face even before I raised my camera to my eye—and the contrast of his expression with the tag line on the sign, “A-List”. To me, those two items make this photo.

Of course, the photo would be greatly improved if the newspaper stands were not blocking part of the subject, but in street photography, you get what’s there. Nothing more.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 300mm, ISO 450, f/5.6 and 1/180^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, adjusted exposure, added clarity and removed slight red cast.

In a Hurry

2011-06-28T05:24:00.004-05:00

Saw this young lady moving towards me at speed of sound. As she drew closer, I could hear her talking into the phone at the same speed. I quickly pulled my camera to my eye and began firing. I wanted a photo to capture her rapid pace and focus and show the backlighting that set her off from her sorroundings. Hopefully, this photo does that.

I do wish that I knew what she was saying but I do not speed listen very well. Too old for that!

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 at 155mm, ISO 360, f/4.8 and 1/180^th of a second.

Post Processing:

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

Patrick Is Going Canon

2011-06-24T11:36:00.001-05:00

Now I am sure that several friends of mine will immediately hit the comment button after reading my title, but wait a minute. Canon just made me too good of an offer. All the gear I wanted up to a maximum of twice what I currently have invested in Nikon equipment plus an annual allowance which will more than pay for all my equipment needs and finally preference of the delivery of new equipment. No more waiting six to nine months for newly announced equipment. So, I sold my soul.

Just kidding.

But, this photo was taken with a Canon G12. The boss told me that I was to purchase a little camera that: (a) she could use; and (b) I was to use for casual family outing. The two cameras that I tried out were the Canon G12 and the Nikon P7000. Both are excellent point and shoot cameras however the Canon seemed to deliver slightly better photo—a little more contrast and a tack sharper. Not enough to completely blow away the Nikon P7000 but enough to give the Canon the edge.

Overall, I am happy enough with the Canon to place my order. But there are a few things that I will need to get accustom to: (1) the delay that you get between the time you press the shutter and when the photo is actually taken; (2) noise at what I consider low ISO (say starting at ISO 400); (3) how many of the controls are buried in the menus rather than on buttons on the camera body; and, (4) the on camera flash—really not sure what is going to do or how the photo will look.

Still, with all these things, plus a few more, I am happy. Why? Because the BOSS is happy.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Canon G12 with a 6.1-30.5mm lens at 30.5, ISO 80, f/4.5 and 1/320^th of a second.

Post Processing:

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

Playing Around

2011-06-21T04:50:00.000-05:00

Saw this reflection of two ladies and their bikes in window. Tried all sorts of things—multiple exposures, long shutter speeds, out-of-focus, and so on. Really did not like any of the photos that I took, but learned something valuable—I need to play around more with my camera.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 at 110mm, ISO 200, f/8 and 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:

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

Taking a Rest

2011-06-17T09:33:00.000-05:00

When it hot and muggy, even shoes need a little rest and Gatorade. Got these shoes resting after some hard skateboarding.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 at 110mm, ISO 200, f/4.5 and 1/1500^th of a second.

Post Processing:

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

Out for a Walk

2011-06-14T05:38:00.003-05:00

How can you tell when a woman’s jeans are not tight enough? Easy. When you cannot determine the make and model of her cell phone in her back pocket.

In this photo, I like the contrast between the vivid colors and details of the boy and girl walking with the blown-out, muted colors of the background.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 at 270mm, ISO 360, f/5.6 and 1/125^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, adjusted exposure, added clarity and mid-tone contrast and sharpened image.

All’s Fine in the World

2011-06-10T08:42:00.000-05:00

As I watched this couple with their little girl, I could not help but marvel out how safe and secure she seemed to be. Just holding mom’s and dad’s hands was enough. Wish we all could have a secure place like that!

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 ISO 200, f/5.6 and 1/180^th of a sescond.

Post Processing:

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

Street Scene

2011-06-07T10:18:00.001-05:00

I admire street performers. They lay it on the line. No retakes, no Photoshop adjustments, nothing but what they have at that moment. They just go out there and perform. That takes courage.

I sat and listened to this folk singer for some time before I took any photos of him. Why? Because I was not really sure what I wanted the photo to represent. Finally, I decided to try and show his passion while he was singing.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 ISO 200, f/5.6 and 1/350^th of a sescond.

Post Processing:

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

Spring Means JD’s Garden #7

2011-06-03T10:00:00.002-05:00

I like two things about this photo: the strong contrast in colors and the very narrow shallow depth of field. Both make the subject come forward in the photo.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4 with a 1.7x teleconverter (effectively a 500mm lens), ISO 1,600, f/6.7 and 1/180^th of a second on a tripod.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, added clarity and mid-tone contrast, adjusted hue and saturation of green, yellows and orange and added vignette and cropped image into a square.

Spring Means JD’s Garden #6A

2011-05-31T10:50:00.000-05:00

As usual, the professor was right. Here I did a little dodging and burning to bring Herb's face forward in the photo.
Enjoy.

Spring Means JD’s Garden #6

2011-05-28T09:01:00.001-05:00

Met Herb (that’s what JD calls this lizard). Herb climbs out on this flower every evening and surveys his kingdom. Actually, he sits there and waits for flying bugs to get close—after all, a guy has to eat!

To me, this photo is more about the complementary colors of green and orange than it is about Herb and his perch. So, I chose an aperture that would only allow Herb’s face to be in focus. I wanted the rest of the photo to be about muted shades of orange and green.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4 with a 1.7x teleconverter (effectively 500mm), ISO 800, f/8 and 1/60^th of a second on a tripod.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, added clarity and mid-tone contrast and adjusted hue and saturation of green and orange.

Photoshop CS5—sharpened Herb’s face using the high pass filter method.

Spring Means JD’s Garden #5

2011-05-24T05:47:00.005-05:00

This photo is totally about the lines—both those in focus and those that are not in focus. I wanted the image to show the different greens within the frame.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6, ISO 200, f/8 and 1/15^th of a second on a tripod with an SB800 with a snoot and triggered by PocketWizard Flex.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, added clarity and mid-tone contrast and adjusted hue of green.

Photoshop CS5—sharpened leaf using the high pass filter method.

Spring Means JD’s Garden #4

2011-05-20T11:47:00.001-05:00

In this photo, I was not doing much besides trying to see what the Nikon 28-300 f/3.5.6 could do more-or-less as a macro lens. I wanted to capture all the details of the flower and yet make the background to be slightly soft.

Overall, I liked the results and was surprised that I could get the background as soft as it is at f/38.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6, ISO 200, f/38 and two second on a tripod with an SB800 with a snoot and triggered by PocketWizard Flex.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, added clarity and mid-tone contrast and adjusted hue of green.

Photoshop CS5—sharpened flower using the high pass filter method.

Spring Means JD’s Garden #3

2011-05-17T05:38:00.003-05:00

I found this little guy when I was trying to adjust my flash for a photo of a flower. I immediately turned and tried to get as close as possible to him. As it turned out, the photo is cropped version (about one third of the entire frame). I really like the contrast in colors.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6, ISO 200, f/22 and one second on a tripod with an SB800 with a snoot and triggered by PocketWizard Flex.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, added clarity and mid-tone contrast and adjusted hue of green.

Photoshop CS5—sharpened bug using high pass filter method.

Spring Means JD’s Garden #2

2011-05-13T12:15:00.001-05:00

Here I was captivated by the way the light was falling on the two leaves. I tried to figure out what was causing it but never could. I really like how much contrast there was between the two leaves in the front compared to the rest of the photo.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4, ISO 800, f/22 and 1/20^th of a second on a tripod.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, added clarity and mid-tone contrast and adjusted hue and saturation of certain colors.

Photoshop CS5—dodged and burned areas of the photo.

Spring Means JD’s Garden #1

2011-05-10T14:47:00.002-05:00

It’s spring so that means I spend many hours walking about JD’s plants looking for something that catches my eye. I was photographing the leaves a plant when I looked across the driveway and noticed how the water from the sprinkler system spayed across the leaves of the plant that was backlit.

I tried various shutter speeds and finally settled on 1/90^th of second. I thought that gave the best streaking effect.

Enjoy.
Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4, ISO 800, f/13 and 1/90^th of a second.
Post Processing:
Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, added clarity and mid-tone contrast and vignetting.

Walking around Downtown Houston #5

2011-05-06T05:35:00.002-05:00

Today’s photo is different from most street photos that I present—it is in color. I must admit when I think of street photography, I think black and white.

This man was cleaning the rails downtown for the train. I have no idea as to why they need to clean the rails, but they evidently do. Here I was attracted by the colors reflecting off the buildings.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8, shot at 200mm, ISO 200, f/2.8 and 1/180^th of a second.

Post Processing:

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

Walking around Downtown Houston #4

2011-05-04T05:41:00.005-05:00

Vacation is over. No, I have not really been on vacation, but I did take a little sabbatical from my blog. Yes, I had lots of work however I could have found time to do a few posting during the month. Just lazy, I guess.

To me, today’s photo is a classical street photo—it depicts a classical human topic: husband and wife “debating” over something with each doing his/her thing without regard to the other.

I kept the composition simple. I wanted the two people be the focal point of the image.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6, shot at 300mm, ISO 800, f/8 and 1/180^th of a second.

Post Processing:

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

nik Silver Efex Pro 2—converted image to black and white, added orange filter and vignetting.

Walking around Downtown Houston #3

2011-04-01T05:35:00.003-05:00

I was studying the columns and thinking about what sort of photo I wanted to take when this guy starts walking into my frame. I was immediately struck by the way he was holding his hands. I thought that the rhythm of the light colored columns contrast nicely with the dark clothing of my star.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6 shot at 170mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/250^thof 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 #2

2011-03-29T09:10:00.000-05:00

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^thof 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

2011-03-25T09:11:00.002-05:00

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^thof 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

2011-03-22T05:38:00.005-05:00

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

2011-03-19T05:38:00.011-05:00

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

2011-03-15T10:22:00.001-05:00

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

2011-03-11T05:43:00.003-06:00

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

2011-03-08T14:31:00.000-06:00

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

2011-03-04T05:52:00.005-06:00

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

2011-03-01T05:38:00.004-06:00

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.

My First Girl’s Softball Game

2011-02-22T05:43:00.002-06:00

On Saturday, I attended my first girl’s softball game. My granddaughter is playing softball this year, which, of course means that grandma and grandpa is about to get a lesson in girls’ softball.

My first lesson is one of style—the boys have none and the girls are all about style (at least six year-old are). Note the socks. You got to admit these socks have a lot more style than the standard red, blue, etc socks that the boys wear.

Enjoy.

Model Shoot #5A

2011-02-18T05:07:00.004-06:00

Anne’s comment about a sepia tone got me thinking—maybe, just maybe. So, I deleted the photo that I intended to show today and substituted this sepia toned image of the last posting.

The conversion to sepia was made using nik Silver Efex Pro. I used a strong curves adjustment, burned the edges of both the left and bottom of the photo and used a yellow filter to even the tones.

No matter how many years I do this, I will never stop being amazed at how black and white seems to simplify and increase the emotional impact of a photo.

Enjoy.

Model Shoot #5

2011-02-15T09:43:00.002-06:00

Not too much to this photo. Model is very close to a door so that the light can fill her face. Shot the photo tight to emphasize her eyes and lips.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 shot at 200mm, ISO 1,800, f/4 and 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set black and white points, increased mid-tone contrast and applied some noise reduction.

Photoshop CS5—used nik Color Efex Pro glamour glow filter to add some pop to her face and greater contrast with background.

Model Shoot #4

2011-02-11T07:22:00.001-06:00

For those of you who think modeling is easy, I have a simple question: could you look this good while leaning against a wall in a warehouse with temperatures around 50 degrees dressed in this outfit? Jay wanted her to lean against the wall but was concerned about how cold the wall was. She felt the wall and said: no problem. That is professionalism.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 shot at 200mm, ISO 2,200, f/6.7 and 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set black and white points, increased mid-tone contrast, applied some noise reduction and vignettting.

Photoshop CS5—used nik Color Efex Pro skin softer filter.

Model Shoot #3

2011-02-08T05:52:00.007-06:00

Big hair + frilly dresses + wild make-up + albino Texas Rat + cold warehouse = HIGH FASHION.

Yep, that’s the exact formula for high fashion that I learned in college and it seemed to be the one employed at my model shoot.

I was quite surprised at how all the models seemed to think nothing of having the snake draped over them. The snake, on the other hand, had a different idea. She (I was told the snake was a “she”) was in constant motion and often got completely tangled in the model’s hair—which made for some interesting moments.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 shot at ISO 1,600, f/2.8 and 1/45^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, increased mid-tone contrast and applied some noise reduction.

Photoshop CS5—converted the photo to black and white using nik Silver Efex Pro.

Model Shoot #2

2011-02-05T07:55:00.001-06:00

Although I normally have some idea as to what my final image will be in my mind as I take the photo, I must admit, this one emerged almost exactly like I imagined it. I wanted one sharp eye and almost everything else softly focused. I thought the darkness of her eyes versus the light colors of everything else would draw the viewers’ eyes directly to the eyes.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 shot at 50mm, ISO 900, f/2.8 and 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set black and white points and increased mid-tone contrast.

Photoshop CS5—removed a few distracting elements within the photo and used nik Color Efex Pro skin softener filter.

Model Shoot #1

2011-02-01T10:25:00.001-06:00

A couple weeks ago, I fell into a model shoot with photographer Jay Marroquin and designer Lizzi London—both were great being around! The reason I said that I “fell into” the shoot is because I went by a friend’s warehouse to show him my D3 and D3x and discuss what I thought were the advantages of the D3 over the D2x (which he has). Well, Jay was using his warehouse for a shoot of Lizzi’s clothing that morning. The three photographers (Jay, a Canon guy, Greg and I) discussed all sorts of geek camera stuff and how Jay was planning on shooting the models.

Jay planned to use a two Canon flash setup in e-TTL mode and triggered by the PocketWizard FlexTT5. After seeing the results using the PocketWizard, I was sold—sold to the tune of buying Nikon compatible ones (more on them in a later post). Jay asked if I wanted to shoot. The FlexTT5’s were not compatible with my Nikon camera so all my shots were natural light only—usually at ISO of 800 to 2,200 and f-stops of 2.8 to 5.6.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at shot at 200mm ISO 1,100, f/5.6 and 1/45^th of a second.

Post Processing:

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

Photoshop CS5—removed a few distracting elements within the photo and used nik Color Efex Pro skin softener filter.

Old Grungie Look

2011-01-28T05:41:00.012-06:00

After a senior portrait session in Galveston last week, I decided to roam around a while and photograph anything of interest that I found. I really liked this old building, which, I believe was a brewery at one time.

I wanted to push the grunge look so I produced a HDR image and then further enhanced the look by using nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast filter.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 at shot at 35mm ISO 200, f/11 and various shutter speeds.

Post Processing:

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

Photomatix Pro—Combined three photos to create and tone map the HDR photo.

Photoshop CS5—used nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast filter.

Product Composite

2011-01-25T05:41:00.009-06:00

Originally, I prepared today’s photo for Bay Area Photo Club’s January assignment of “product shot.” When I first saw the assignment I was not very excited. My initial reaction was to put some product in front of two strobes and a white seamless background and then fire away until I got something I liked.

But then, I was watching some ads during a football game and saw some really cool stuff. So I decided to do more than just a product shot—a full ad mock-up.

Enjoy.

Street Photography No. 4

2011-01-21T05:46:00.006-06:00

Today’s post is the last in my discussion of street photography. It comes from Dickens on the Strand and to me demonstrates the last element that I think is needs to produce good street photography—expression. In this photo, I believe the expression makes the viewer want to understand what she is thinking about.

The simple background sets her off and allows the viewer to concentrate on her expression.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 shot at 200mm, ISO 200, f/2.8 and 1/500^thof a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3—Adjusted white balance, added mid tone contrast and saturation of various colors.

Photoshop CS5—used spot healing to clean-up various spots, softened her skin slightly and then did some dodging and burning.

Street Photography No. 3

2011-01-18T09:09:00.003-06:00

This is rare. I have a photo that I would have normally disregarded on my first pass of reviewing what I shot I think this demonstrates, vividly, why you need to move when doing street photography.

This is one of the first photos that I took in the series. The background is cluttered and does not help support or set-off the subject. It gets in the way of what I want to convey and what I thought was important in the scene. Definitely not a very good photograph!

Think about how much Photoshop work it would take to make this photo be on par with the original photo I posted of the Mad Hatter. I have neither the time nor the patience to do it. I prefer moving the five steps it took to get the original one.

Enjoy, if you can.

Street Photography No. 2

2011-01-14T05:46:00.007-06:00

Before I discuss what I consider the most important aspect of street photography, I would like to discuss a couple of basic technical items. I generally set my camera to aperture priority, automatic white balance, continuous focus, 51 points (3D tracking) and auto ISO sensitivity control (which varies my ISO as needed to keep the shutter speed at a certain minimum). If the lighting has a lot of variability, I will also set auto backeting (usually three shots—0EV, +1 EV and -1EV). I set my camera to these settings before I start shooting. I think these setting help me get the best exposure automatically so that I can concentrate on the subject. If your camera does not have these exact setting (either because your Nikon model does not have them or you use a different camera manufacture), I suggest that you read your camera manual (this is the strange paper booklet that the manufacturer included with the camera) to determine which settings are best for this type of shooting.

Now the real secret of street photography, you must move. Unfortunately, zoom lenses has taken out (or at least, reduced) the aerobic aspects of street photography. Since I generally like shooting most subjects at focal lengths of 60mm or more, I generally rely on my zoom when I have limited space in which to move.

Dickens on the Strand #4 and #6 were part of 18 shots taken over four minutes and 22 seconds. Below is how I moved around the subjects to get the two photos previously posted (starting at position 1 and moving to position 4), plus the photo shown above. Posting #4 was taken from a low vantage point at position #3 and posting #6 was also taken from a low vantage point at position #4. As I moved around, I notice that I still had a lot of clutter in the background if I photographed the subject from my normal height, so I lowered my shooting position until I got a nice clean background. Being aware of the background is essential when photographing people.

Although today's posting does not have a clean background, I like it because it adds additional context to the photo of the Mad Hatter. I should have taken a little more care in framing the shot to include all of the tube running from the Mad Hatter's mouth.

Street Photography No. 1

2011-01-11T05:41:00.013-06:00

Recently, I got a request from that famous singing group, Tina, Tyler & Ellen, to explain how I go about my street photography.

I love street photography because you never know what you are going to get (if anything) and you constantly have to adapt to changing lighting conditions, subjects and backgrounds. If you look at the labels on my blog, you will see that street photography has 86 different posts which ties it with environmental portraits as the most posts on my blog. If I was consistent with my labeling, I believe that street photography would have considerably more.

To me, there two essential elements to a successful street photography image: interesting subject and separation of the subject from the background. Interesting subjects come in all sizes, shapes, colors and ages but what I try to do with all of them is to emphasize what attracted me to them in the first place.

A great example of how I did not do this is my December 21, 2009 post. In the full frame version of the photo, I did not hone-in on the glasses; consequently, the photo is very ordinary. Even the cropped version is lacking because it does not fully capture the unusual nature of the spectacles. So, my first rule of street photography is to find a subject that interest you and make your photo about exactly what attracted you to the subject.

Separating the subject from the background can be done several different ways: shooting subject against a simple background, using shallow depth-of-field, under or over exposing the background while properly exposing the subject, shooting subject from an usual angle, etc. This is one of the parts of street photography that makes you continually adapt. Unfortunately, I cannot give you a formula as to which approach will work best in different situations.

The photo posted today is a revision of the one I posted on December 21, 2009. If I had shot this as I should have, I would have used an f-stop of f/2.8 (rather than f/9.5) which would have completely burred the background and slightly blurred his face. Additionally, I would used a shutter speed of 1/60^th of second which would have overexposed the background by about 1 ½ f-stops. I tried to simulate these differences using Photoshop CS5, but I must admit, the result is a very poor substitution to shooting it right to begin with. But, I think you can better understand what I should have done.

Next post, I will describe how I try to get this result in the camera.

Enjoy.

Dickens on the Strand #8

2011-01-07T05:46:00.004-06:00

Today’s photo is the last one that I will present from this year’s Dickens on the Strand. Brock noticed this young lady while the parade was going past us. She was on the opposite side of the street, so, I approached her immediately after the parade was completed.

She was great to photograph. She went into many different poses and displayed a great deal of personality without saying a word. This is my favorite because it is not one that you will normally see.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 shot at 200mm, ISO 200, f/4 and 1/500^thof a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3—Adjusted white balance, added mid tone contrast and saturation of various colors.

Photoshop CS5—used spot healing to clean-up various spots, softened her skin slightly and then did some dodging and burning.

Dickens on the Strand #7

2011-01-04T05:41:00.008-06:00

For some reason, the combination of cigar and the Steampunk goggles just seemed odd to me. Naturally, I had to record it.

I wanted the image to showcase the goggles so I focused on the left three small lenses and then added a little sharpness and contrast to them in Lightroom 3. As a result, his face is a little soft which will bother some people, but my intent was to focus the viewer's attention on what I found unusual and interesting and that was not his face.

Upon seeing the image on the computer, I felt that the soft background really set the subject off.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 shot at 200mm, ISO 200, f/2.8 and 1/350^thof a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3—Adjusted white balance, added mid tone contrast and sharpness and contrast to the goggles.