Yellowstone 2013 Visit—#6

While we were eating our lunch in a small park, this mother deer and fawn moved through the eating area.  Both of them watched us for some time from the safety of the woods; but then, mom decided that we were not too much danger so they moved through the area. 

Even though only the fawn’s head is in the photo, this is my favorite image that I took because of how both mom and baby are looking straight at me. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D4 on a tripod, 80-400mm f/2.8 at 350mm, ISO 280, f/5.6 at 1/7500^th of a second. 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Standard preset, set white and black points, added vibrance and clarity.

Yellowstone 2013 Visit—#4

There are about 2,000,000 acres in Yellowstone National Park, yet, the only place this guy found to walk was down the middle of the road.  Go figure! 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 80-400mm f/3.5~5.6 at 400mm, ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/180^th of a second (supported by hood of auto). 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Standard preset, set white and black points, added clarity, sharpness and vibrance and did some dodging and burning.

Yellowstone 2013 Visit—#3

As far as I am concerned, today’s photo is totally about the water blur—if it is not, I spent a lot of time and frames trying to get exactly what I wanted!  I wanted the water to look very soft so that it would contrast with the hard, jagged edges of the rocks. 

I forgot my neutral density filter, so I had to reduce my ISO to 50 and my f-stop to 22 in order to get the shutter speed down to ½ of a second.  

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-70mm f/2.8 at 70mm, ISO 50 (Lo1), f/22 at 1/2^th of a second on a tripod. 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Standard preset, set white and black points, added clarity, sharpness and vibrance and did some dodging and burning.

Yellowstone 2013 Visit—#2

Today’s photographs are not about Yellowstone National Park, but, rather something that I found funny. 

We stayed in West Yellowstone, which is just outside the park.  Every morning, we would get a cup of tea (JD) and coffee (me) and head into the park.  We would then sit at one of the parking areas, watch the animals and eat our peanut butter sandwiches and drink our tea and coffee.  To us, this was much better than eating an over-priced, poorly prepared breakfast in a restaurant.  The Woodside Bakery had good tea and coffee, so that was our spot to pick-up our drinks. 

One of things that really surprised us about the park this year was the number of Asians visiting the park.  I would estimate that Asians represented about 40-50% of the people that we saw within the park.  As a result, the most popular restaurant in West Yellowstone for dinner was the Red Lotus, which served mainly Chinese food.   

As proof that capitalism is alive in West Yellowstone, look at the signs of the gun shop two doors down.  The signs advertise services for what people want to do—shoot a machine gun—and accommodate its customer base (note the Chinese characters on the small sign) which according to an employee says the same thing. 

In talking to the owner of the gun shop, he said that his business had almost tripled after he hung the sign in Chinese—which, I guess proves that if you offer a product that people want, tell them that you offer it, they will come. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-70mm f/2.8 at 50mm, ISO 110, f/6.7 at 1/30^th of a second. 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Standard preset, set white and black points, added clarity, sharpness and vibrance.

Yellowstone 2013 Visit—#1

 

JD and I just got back from our trip to photograph my nephew’s wedding and our visit to Yellowstone National Park. 

Our visit to Yellowstone did not match our last visit.  Why?  Too many people, and too few animals.  Although the temperatures were generally in the 70’s, the animals were just not moving much except in the very early morning and very late afternoon.  We do not like driving in the dark in the park due to all the animals on the road—just too dangerous for us wimps!  So, I had to settle for shooting other things. 

We spent a lot of time hiking through the various geothermal features—geysers, hot springs, mud pots and fumaroles. 

The color in the hot springs shown in today’s photograph is caused by heat loving organisms that live in and around the hot springs.  The different colors are caused by the varying temperatures of the water as it flows from the hot springs. 

For this photograph, I pre-focused my camera about three feet into the scene and then lowered my camera just above the water.  I wanted a very expansive look to the image so I used f/22 and 24mm focal length.

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-70mm f/2.8 at 50mm, ISO 400, f/22 at 1/125^th of a second. 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Vivid preset, set white and black points, added clarity, sharpness and vibrance.

Yellowstone—Revisited #7

 

The last time that we visited Yellowstone, it was in mid-September.  All the trees had their fall color on full display.  Something that we really do not see much in Houston, Texas.  In today’s photo, I thought that the yellow in the trees worked extremely well with the blue sky. 

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D200, 28-70mm f/2.8 at 50mm, ISO 200, f/13 at 1/500^th of a second on a tripod 

Post Processing

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Vivid preset, set white and black points, added clarity, sharpness and vibrance.

Yellowstone—Revisited #6

Almost everyone who goes to Yellowstone visits Old Faithful.  I must admit, the fact that it goes off on such a regular schedule is impressive, but I found that many of the smaller geysers to be much more interesting because of what is around them.  Here, I like the small stream that ran beside the geyser. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D200, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 120mm, ISO 200, f/16 at 1/250^th of a second on a tripod 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Vivid preset, set white and black points, added clarity, sharpness and vibrance.

Yellowstone—Revisited #5

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We had just finished a hike and were approaching our car when I saw this bus driving towards us.  It looked much like the buses that traveled throughout Arkansas when I was growing-up.  Because of the age of the bus, I decided that I should convert the photo to sepia. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D200, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 90mm, ISO 400, f/11 at 1/125^th of a second on a tripod 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Standard preset, set white and black points, added clarity, sharpness and vibrance and converted to sepia using a preset within LR5.

Yellowstone—Revisited #4

We were hiking one day when we came across this deer.  We decided to take a break, ate a snack and sat and watched her for some time.  When we got to leave, she started following us.  I cannot say how far she followed us, but it was at least 20 minutes. 

Just liked how she looks so natural in the woods. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D200, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 90mm, ISO 400, f/8 at 1/90^th of a second on a tripod 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Standard preset, set white and black points, added clarity, sharpness and vibrance.

Spring Break—No. 7

Before I leave my “Spring Break” photos, I thought I would show one more photograph of the Library of Congress. In this photograph, I wanted to show off the detail work in the marble staircase along with all the different lines formed by the staircase, pillars and ceiling.
If you go to Washington, D.C. make sure you put the Library of Congress on your “to see list.”
Enjoy 
Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 28mm, ISO 2000, f/11 at 1/15^th of a second with my camera supported by pillar in the lobby. 
Post Processing: 
Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added clarity, sharpness and vibrance and used adjustment brush to increase exposure and decrease shadows on staircase.

Spring Break—No. 6

 

Before I get into today’s photo, I would like to address two questions that I had regarding my last post—is the Nikon 28-300 mm f/3.5~5.6 my favorite lens.  No.  I am not sure I have a favorite lens.  However, for travel, street photography and candid family shots, it is my lens of choice.  Why?  It is remarkable sharp (even thought the lens specs might suggest otherwise).  Next, it is extremely versatile which fits into travel, street photography and candid family shots very well.  On vacation I now travel with only two lenses—this one and Nikon 50mm f/1.8 (for extreme low light shots).  I do not think I have ever used this lens for any of my professional work.  Even though I do not use it for my professional work, Jay Maisel and Scott Kelby do and I do not think you can argue with their abilities as photographers.

Most everyone has seen photographs of the Library of Congress, but almost all of those photographs are of the main reading room.  As a result, most people have never seen photographs of the main entrance—which is a shame since it is very impressive.

The building was opened in 1897 and cost about $6.5 million (no idea as to what that would be in 2013 dollars).  Today the library contains more that 145 million items that fill the equivalent of 745 miles of shelves—most impressive!  Today, the library acquires new holdings at rate of 10,000 items per day.  Not sure that there are 10,000 items a day that need to be acquired, but then I am sure that the Library of Congress believes that it must do its part to help spend $3.7 trillion each year.

I wanted this photoraph to be totally about the details of the main lobby. 

Enjoy

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 44mm, ISO 900, f/11 at 1/15^th of a second with my camera supported by pillar in the lobby.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added clarity, sharpness and vibrance.

Spring Break—No. 5

 

I believe that if you are a photographer and go to Washington, D.C., you must photograph a subway station.  I think the boys in D.C. did a good job designing the subway stations.  However, I do not like the subway system in D.C. because it is not  nearly as user-friendly as the New York or Paris systems.

Here, I wanted to show the station and put some movement into the shot so I used a shutter speed of ½ of a second.  I waited until a train was entering the station.  It is my understanding that you cannot use a tripod so I braced my elbows on my knees to help stabilize the camera.

I like the movement of the train, the details of the station and how the light plays on different parts of the station.

Enjoy

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 44mm, ISO 1400, f/11 at 1/2 of a second with my camera supported on my knees.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance.

Spring Break—No. 4

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is unlike any other museum in the world.  It contains probably the greatest collection of air and space vehicles in the world.  To me, there are two things that make it special:  (1) the range of air craft, from the beginning of man flight to outer space; and, (2) large planes hanging light models throughout the museum.

Today’s photos demonstrate the range of aircraft within the museum.  The Sprit of St. Louis that was the first airplane with a single pilot to go from New York to Paris.  As I was looking at the plane, I thought about JD’s and my trip to Paris last November—flight time 10 hours, large comfortable seats, movies (too many), decent movies and lots of wine!   Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight from New York to Paris—31 hours, cramped seats, no restroom, cold sandwiches, no movies and NO wine!

Within 30 feet of the Spirit of St. Louis is one of NASA’s experimental jet that travels at about 2.5 times the speed of sound.  This plane would have allowed Lindberg to make the flight in about two hours.  I could do without the movies, food and even the wine for two hours!

Enjoy

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 28mm, ISO 1600, f/8 at 1/30^th of a second with my camera supported by the railing.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance and cropped the second photo.

Spring Break—No. 3

The Smithsonian includes eleven museums on the Mall and another six off the Mall.  It is probably the greatest collections of museums in the world.  And, they are all free admission.

My two favorite museums are:  the National Museum of Natural History and the National Air and Space Museum.  But, I must admit, the American History Museum and the American Indian Museum are also high on my list.

When Monte and I took our “guys-only” trip to Washington, D.C., we visited the National Museum of Natural History every day.  It was Monte’s favorite museum.  At the time, I was also in complete amazement of what was within its walls.  Today, I am not nearly as amazed.  Why?  Because of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, which is not as large, but presents its paleontology and gems & minerals so much better than the Smithsonian presents it.  For anyone who has not been to the Houston Museum of Natural Science, I encourage you to go, especially to the Hall of Paleontology.

Today, photo is of the museums rotunda.  I wanted to capture the size, the general architecture and the crowds within the museum.

Enjoy

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 28mm, ISO 1000, f/8 at two 1/30^th with my camera supported by the railing.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance and used lens correction and cropping to minimize distortion in second photo.

Spring Break—No. 2

Our hotel was a block east and two blocks south of the east side of the capitol.  So, each morning we passed the capitol on our way to other sites on the Mall.

I took this photo on one of those mornings.  The photo is of the east side of the capitol (which, although it faces away from the Mall, is the front of the capitol).  I wanted the photo to show the Capitol’s classical lines.  Some people will be bothered by the distortion of the building—especially the left side.  The distortion does bother me some but not enough to purchase a tilt-shift lens and then learn how to use it.  I think the tools in Lightroom 4 allow you to correction the distortion sufficient for my purposes.  I used these tools (plus cropping) in the second photo to minimize the effect.

Distort or not distort?  Which do you prefer?

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 32mm, ISO 100, f/11 at two 1/180^th.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance and used lens correction and cropping to minimize distortion in second photo.

Spring Break—No. 1

Can you guess where the Patricks went on spring break?

Many moons ago, I took Monte (my son, age 7) to Washington D.C.  It was a total “guy trip.”  We had a blast.  We were on the go from sunrise to well past sunset.  We tried to do everything.

I thought that JD and I would do the same with our grandchildren.  A little inside info, a 60+ body just does not have the energy that a 25+ body has.  Yet, a 10- body has the same.  The three little ones wore grandma and me out—and that was despite having Monte and Ana with us!  But, despite being completely exhausted every night and doing virtually nothing for three days after we returned, we loved our trip.  I do not believe there is a greater pleasure in the world than watching your grandchildren have fun learning about the United States of America, the greatest country in the world.

My photographs from the trip were mostly “family” shots, so they will not be shown.  My shots of D.C. are mostly grab shots—I did not go out to take any shots on my own.

I think everyone will recognize today’s photo of the capitol.  The photo was taken from a slightly different location than most photographs of the capitol are taken.

Enjoy

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 42mm, ISO 800, f/11 at two 1/250^th.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance and cropped image.

Paris—No 9

 

This is my last photo from our Paris trip—JD in front of Versailles Palace.  I am posting this photo for two reasons:  (1) to show off my lovely bride of 47 years; and, (2) to show that you can take a pretty darn good photo using the pop-up flash on your camera.
Enjoy. 
Camera settings:  Nikon D800, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 65mm, ISO 100, f/8 at 1/60^th of a second using pop-up flash on camera 
Post Processing: 
Lightroom 4—applied Portrait preset during import, set white and black points, increased shadows and decreased highlights and added vibrance and clarity.

Paris—No 8

 

I have strong political opinions, however, I try to keep any of them out of this blog.  Why?  Because this blog is about photography, not politics.

Today, I make an exception. 

I got up at my usual time (around 4:30), went to the “Y” to work out, read a number of articles and editorials in the Wall Street Journal and mailed my estimated income taxes.  In short, I am ripe to discuss politics, but since this is a photography blog and I am doing photos from Paris, how do I bridge the gap.

No matter what country you live, no matter whether you are on the right or left, or no matter what your age or sex, I think this statue, more-or-less, captures most peoples views of politicians today.

Enough said!

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D800, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 65mm, ISO 1,600, f/11 at 1/125^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Vivid preset during import, cropped image, set white and black points, increased shadows and decreased highlights and added vibrance and clarity.

Paris—No 7a

So many people commented on how the cars and the blue tarp over the building was a real distraction that I decided to have a mulligan on the color version. 
In today’s version, I de-saturated the blue tarp, removed the cars and darkened by burning the area where the cars were.  This was a quick and dirty, so please do not comment on my poor Photoshop work.
Does the B&W version still rule?
Enjoy.

Paris—No 7

Notre Dame is probably my second favorite cathedral in the world.  I have visited it every time I have been in Paris.  There is just something about it that I find amazing.  Yet, even though I have visited it so many times, I had never taken the tour to the top.  If you have never done this and are planning a trip to Paris, I highly recommend it.  But, be prepared to do a little climbing!

One of my very favorite films of all times is the Hunchback of Notre Dame (it’s the 193? Edition).  The story is the same in all the versions but the 193? version has some great scenes at the top of the cathedral that show close-ups of the statues and the Paris cityscape in the background.  The film is in high-contrast, back and white.

Here I tried to duplicate that look.  I wanted a lot of detail in the statues, a little less in the cityscape and then virtually none in the sky. After making basic adjustments in Lightroom 4, I used nik Detail Extractor and Tonal Contrast filters on the image.  I then masked off the effect—50% grey on the cityscape portion and black on the sky—thus, decreasing the effect on those two areas of the photo.

In the black and white version, I increased the contrast and darkened the black point.

Naturally, I prefer the black and white version, but which one do you prefer?

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D800, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 32mm, ISO 800, f/16 at 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Vivid preset during import, set white and black points, increased shadows and decreased highlights and added vibrance and clarity.

Photoshop CS5—see above.