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.

Walking around Downtown Houston #2

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

Enjoy.

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

Post Processing:  

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

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

Walking around Downtown Houston #1

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

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

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

Enjoy.

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

Post Processing:  

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