What I Did on My Vacation #6

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

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

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