At the Ole Ball Park #1

Last week, my grandson had a game on Friday and then on Monday.  I am the “official photographer” for his team, so missing either game was not an option.  Normally, I spend all my time photographing the action, or sometimes, with six-year-old boys, the lack of action and focus, i.e., the picking of daisies in the outfield.

I decided before Friday’s game that I would spend at least some of the time at the game, photographing the brothers and sisters of the players.  I wanted the shots to be candid shots using only available light and I wanted to make sure that I got down “eye-level” with my subjects—which can be a task for a 60+ year-old. 

My first shot is a little sister who is just now starting to get around—always with her trusty blanket.  She has blue eyes that some day will melt a few hearts.  Because her skin is so fair, I wanted the photograph to be a slightly “high-key” image, so I overexposed the image by about 1.0 EV.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D700, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 180mm, shot at ISO 800, f/2.8 and 1/750^th of a second.

Post Processing:  Lightroom—Set white point, added mid-tone contrast, clarity and vibrance.

Alone While Together

This is a photograph that I took last summer.  I was down in Galveston shooting portraits of some children.  After finishing with the kids, I walked around a little and saw these two girls setting on the bench across the street from me.  I sat and watched them for some time.  Although they were together, it seemed like they were both very isolated from the rest of the world and drawn totally into themselves.   Talking to some of my friends, it seems that this is almost a constant state of many of our teenagers.  I wanted this shot to reflect the isolation that I thought I was seeing. 

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm, shot at ISO 200, f/2.8 and 1/2,000^th of a second.

Post Processing:

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

Photoshop—used nik Silver Efex Pro to add a black and white layer and then set the opacity of that layer to 45% and used onOne PhotoFrame to add edge treatment.

Three Crosses

On my trip to Santa Fe, I went through Tecolotito, New Mexico a very small town that really was little more than a wide spot in the road.  Despite its size, however, I did find several interesting things to photograph.  The most interesting was this small church.  The church was very like the town—it had seen better days.  The structure was simple, but yet, appealing.  The three crosses seemed very unusual to me and added a real focus and a rhythm to the overall composition. 

I wanted my final image to have a very rustic look, so I finished it in Sepia tone and with a slight worn texture.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, 28-70mm f/2.8 at 65mm, shot at ISO 200, f/22 and 1/90^th of a second.

Post Processing:

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

Photoshop—used nik Silver Efex Pro to convert image to a sepia toned photo and then added a worn texture using onOne Photoframe.

Bluebonnets

I do not think there is a prettier sight than a field of bluebonnets.  Every year, I make a trek around Brenham to see and hopefully photograph some bluebonnets. Usually, I am not happy with my photos. For some reason, I find that bluebonnets look so much better to the naked eye than they do to the sensor in my camera.

I do like this shot. I find that the old farm house is framed nicely by the brooding sky and the field of bluebonnets. It just seems that the bluebonnets belong in the scene.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, 28-70mm f/2.8 at 45mm, shot at ISO 200, f/13 and 1/20^th of a second on a tripod.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity and vibrance, tweaked the hue and saturation of green and blue.

Photoshop—used nik Color Efex Pro Tonal Contrast filter to add local contrast to the bluebonnets and the house and used onOne Photoframe to add boarder.

You Don’t Have to Be Crazy, But It Helps

I have been doing a little “spring cleaning” on my photograph files—deleting some “not-up-to-current standards”, adding more metadata, etc.   I ran across this photo that I took a couple years back near Moab, Utah.  I was there with one of my life-long friends, Jeff.  At a local restaurant we learned of this place where a lot of the rock climbers go to practice various moves and techniques.  Our waitress told us “it’s a little climb” but you will get some good close-ups of the climbers.  The “little climb” was about 400 feet along a very narrow trail with an incline of 88.75 degrees (OK, it might have been a little less, but not much!).

Jeff and I met some really cool people, got some good photos and a complete understanding as to why being a little crazy helps if you are a rock climber. 

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D200, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm, shot at ISO 200, f/8 and 1/500^th of a second.

Post Processing:

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

Photoshop—used nik Color Efex Pro Tonal Contrast filter to add a little local contrast to highlights, mid-tones and shadows.

Salvaging a BAD Portrait

A few weeks ago, Steve Schuenke did a really great presentation to our photo club on using textures, boarders, etc.  Steve does a great job applying just the right texture and/or boarder and at just the right level.  I think that he and Brian Basinelle are about the two best that I have seen in this area.  My use of textures and boarders is quite crude compared to these guys.

After the presentation, I started thinking about a few shots that I have made during the past year or so.  These are shots that are almost a good photo, but are not quite there.  

Today’s photo is from ones that Steve and I took at Dickens on the Strand.  Looking at the “as shot” photo, I know what you are thinking:  How could you take such a terrible photo of such a beautiful subject.  It was hard, but when you have talent like mine, it is possible, as I have just proved.  Overall the lighting and her expression are good, but the background . . . Well, the best thing I can say about the background is “there is an awful lot of it!”  I have things going everywhere in the background.  To say it was distracting would be a complement to the photo.

I tried various textures, but to be honest they all seemed to be almost as distracting as the background.  So, I decided that I would take a little different approach—I would replace the background.  But, with what?  Looking over various photo, I decided that what I wanted was a subtle bokeh.  I then made several different images that were only bokeh.  I wanted the bokeh to match the colors in the base image.  So, “as Photoshoped” photo is the image with the background removed and a background of bokeh added.

Does replacing the background with the bokeh make me perfectly happy with the image?  No.  There are several things that I should have done in addition to finding a different background to shoot—having her turn slightly so that she is not facing me head-on (a driver’s license shot), having her tilt her head slightly to add some dynamic lines to the portrait and finally making sure I got all of her hat in the frame.   All of this could have been done with very little effort and a little thinking!   But, as Steve has often reminded me:  Thinking is above my pay grade.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, 28-70mm f/2.8 at 42mm, shot at ISO 200, f/6.7 and 1/90^th of a second with a Nikon SB-800 attached to a softbox and triggered by AlienBee radio triggers.

Post Processing:

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

Photoshop—Replaced background with bokeh background.

Dog Park and Miss. Chloe

West University Place has a wonderful dog park with an area for big dogs and one for small dogs.  My granddaughter, Chloe, loves to go to the dog park.  She loves dogs—all sizes and all shapes.  When the two of us go out for our day, we often end-up at the dog park.  She really likes to watch the big dogs chase sticks or whatever.  When a dog jumps into the pool, she laughs so hard, I often think she is going to split her clothes.

We watched this guy for probably an hour.  He truly loved his game of fetch—and he was quite good at it!

I wanted this photo to be all about him and his game of fetch.  By the way, according to Chloe ("Miss. Boss"), this is my best photo, even though she thinks that "he jumped higher" than my photo shows him jumping.   It is so nice having your own personal photo critic, especially a four-year-old one!

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D700, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 120mm, shot at ISO 200, f/5.6 and 1/500^th of a second.

Post Processing:

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

Water, Light, Action

While in Fort Smith last week, I went down to the Arkansas River to see if I could get a few night photos.  I tried lots of different things but nothing seemed to be working.  So, I sat down on a bench and started watching the water flow.  After watching a while, I decided to move towards the bridge where the lights were casting all sorts of patterns on the river below.

Again, I tried different things, but again, not much was happening.  Finally, I settled on isolating totally on the lights reflecting off the moving water.  I switched lens to my 70-200mm f/2.8 so that I could isolate and compress the scene.  I also put a neutral density filter on the lens so that I could slow my shutter speed.

I wanted the photo to be about the colors and the patterns.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 170mm, shot at ISO 200, f/16 and 8 second with a exposure combination of -1.0 EV and 4-stop neutral density filter on a tripod with white balance set to 7,800K to add more warmth to the lights.

Post Processing:

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

Cool Lighting on a Weathered Building

The old and weathered aspects of the windows, shutters and siding was neat, but what really drew me to this scene was the really cool lighting—and when I say “cool” I mean both how it was falling on the building and its color.  I have no idea why the lighting had a bluish tent, but it was really cool.

I wanted the photo to match the overall lighting so I set my exposure compensation to -1.5 EV and dialed my white balance to 3,400K to make the light a little bluer.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, 28-70mm f/2.8 at 70mm, shot at ISO 200, f/11 and 1/60^th of a second with a exposure combination of -1.5 EV.

Post Processing:

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

Photoshop—used nik Color Efex Pro Tonal Contrast filter to add contrast to highlights, mid-tones and shadows.

Spring Blooms

On one of the plantations near Saint Francisville is this pond with a wonderful garden that was just starting to strut its stuff.  In another week or two, I am sure a lot more flowers would be in full bloom.

I wanted this photo to be about the tree and its reflection so I selected a very low camera area, used a short telephoto lens and underexposed the photo by about 1.0 EV.  I thought that the low angle would enhance the reflection and the telephoto lens would compress the overall scene.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 100mm, shot at ISO 200, f/8 and 1/500^th of a second with a exposure combination of -1.0 EV.

Post Processing:

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

Plantation Drive

A few weeks ago, I visited one of my friends who resides in Saint Francisville, Louisiana.  As a mentioned in a previous post, I really enjoy visiting Saint Francisville because the people are so nice and there are lots of things to photograph.

This is the dirt road to one of the many plantations along the Mississippi River outside of Saint Francisville and was taken a little after sunrise.   It was a very complicate image to make:  put camera on tripod, get meter reading, compensate the meter reading by -1.0 EV and push shutter.  Yes, you now know what a shire photographic genius I happen to be for this one photograph.

My thought process was even more complicated:  “Patrick, don’t screw this up.”  I wanted the image to show-off how the live oaks look so graceful.  I wanted the road to lead the viewer’s eye deep into the image.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, 28-70 mm f/2.8 at 28mm, shot at ISO 800, f/11 and 1/125^th of a second with a exposure combination of -1.0 EV on a tripod.

Post Processing:  Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity and vibrance and changed the hue of the greens to better reflect what I remember the scene to be.

Red Tail Hawk

Ever since Hurricane Ike, we have a more Red Tail Hawks around our house.  I have no idea as to why. 

I see a Ret Tail Hawk setting on one of my neighbor’s fence almost every day when I walk out to the street to get the mail. The hawk will usually stand on the fence and not move until I start across the street.    For the past week or so, I have been carrying my camera when I go get the mail.  I tried several times to get a good shot, but until the other day, I did not get anything that I liked.  He would not be looking in the right direction or the background would be too busy.

I finally got a shot that I like.  In this image, I liked the color combinations, the soft background and the details of the Red Tail Hawk, especially his claws, which you can see are really powerful weapons.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, 300 mm f/4, shot at ISO 200, f/8 and 1/500^th of a second with a exposure combination of -1.0 EV.

Post Processing: Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity and vibrance.

Sci-Fi Fungus?

Every spring a few of our trees get a fungus like this one.  I find the fungus very interesting.  I think the color is so different than the surrounding colors and the texture makes it look like something right-out of a science fiction movie.  

I wanted this photo to be about contrast—the contrast of the colors of the fungus and the background, the contrast in the exposure of the fungus and tree bark versus the background and the contrast of the in-focus versus the out-of-focus. I tried different crops but then settled on one that showed a lot of the trees in the background.  For some reason, that crop seemed right to me.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, 300 mm f/4, shot at ISO 200, f/5.6 and 1/250^th of a second on a tripod.

Post Processing: Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity and vibrance.

Glamour Glow

Looking at these two flowers, I wanted the photograph to be about their shapes.  I really was not concerned about the details of flowers or the background.  

To help focus on the shapes rather than the details, I used a Tony Sweet technique to make this image.  In this technique you take three exposures on the same frame:  first exposure at f/2.8 with the front flower in focus; second exposure at f/2.8 with the back flower in focus; and, a third exposure at f/2.8 with everything out of focus.  This technique gives the flowers a slight glow.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, 105 mm Macro f/2.8, shot at ISO 200, f/2.8 and 1/125^th of a second on a tripod with a exposure compensation of -1.5 EV.

Post Processing: Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity and vibrance.