Industrial Rainbow

A temporary job assignment had me on the road for a few trips and I passed this scene on the way back from making sales calls in Northern Louisiana. This mill was located in the Northern part of the Texas Piney Woods, but I don’t remember exactly where. I spotted the arc of water in the air from a ways down the road but decided I had to stop when I spotted the rainbow.

Tech: Panosonic Lumix Super Zoom DMC-FZ50 @ 25mm, f5.0 for 1/640 at ISO100 & -1.33, Raw, AP Post Processing:Crop>Duplicate Background>Clone out Unwanted Elements>High Pass Sharpen>Curves/Brightness Adjustment Layer>Merge Visible>Lens Distortion Vignette>Topaz Adjust “Simplify”

Desert Repose

This is a shot of the Lajitas Cemetery in Lajitas Texas taken in June of last year. Lajitas is located between Big Bend State and Big Bend National Parks in far West Texas. It was interesting to see these old graves covered with piles of loose stone. I’m sure it’s hard work digging in this mostly stone country and the rocks on top are probably a practical maneuver to avoid as much digging as possible. I thought this shot of through the entry gate created a pretty good sense of the mood of the place.

Tech: Oly E-3, 12-60 Zuiko @ 19mm, f3.5, 1/5000 & ISO 1250, Aperture Priority Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Crop Square>Topaz Adjust “Simplify”>Levels>Curves>Merge Visible in Multiply W/ Mask to Preserve Sky and Lighten Center of Shot>Selective Color Sky to Darken>Lens Distortion Vignette

Tinkering with CS3

Tech: Oly E-3, 12-60 Zuiko @ 60mm, f4.0, 1/800 & ISO 100, Aperture Priority Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Threshold Adjustment Layer in “Multiply”>Merge Visible>Levels>Merge Visible>Find Edges Darken Mode & 48% Opacity
I had this kind of flat image of a coal processing unit on the backside of the Champion Paper Plant at the Washburn Tunnel in Pasadena that I wanted to try and pep up. The subject was already mostly white vessels, and black structure and product so a B&W conversion seemed like the way to go. To boost the blacks I created a layer then selected the dark colors using a “Threshold” Adjustment Layer. I selected as much of the color range as I could, sacrificing some detail, to attain what I thought would add interest and boost contrast. I then change the mode of this layer to “Multiply” and merged the visible layer to a new layer. I also used “Find Edges” on a second layer in “Darken” layer mode at 48% to highlight detail having the effect of a quasi sharpening effect. The combination of these two techniques gave the image a moderate posterizing effect that I ended up like for the image. I’ve included the before and after shots here.

Tech: Oly E-3, 12-60 Zuiko @ 60mm, f4.0, 1/800 & ISO 100, Aperture Priority Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Threshold Adjustment Layer in “Multiply”>Merge Visible>Levels>Merge Visible>Find Edges Darken Mode & 48% Opacity

Winter Blossom

I don’t know what this bloom is but is on a plant that’s on my breezeway. I know about 3 to 5 plants by name and this isn’t one of them. My wife alerted me to the bloom earlier today and I thought I would give it shot. It’s not my favorite thing to shoot but the results at least have encouraged me to try more – we’ll maybe anyway!

Tech: Oly E-3, Zuiko 50-200 w/1” Extension Tube @ 200mm, f22 @ 3.2 Seconds and ISO 800, Aperture Priority, 24” Silver Reflector Post Processing: Duplicate Background> Curves Adjustment Layer>Merge Visible in Soft Light Mode>Topaz Adjust Simplify>Black & White Adjustment Layer>Merge Visible>Lens Distort Vignette>Add Uniform Noise @ 4.8%

Wooden Spiral Staircase

I originally entered a black & white version of this shot in the BAPC Honors Program under the assignment heading of “High Key.” It is a naturally light and airy scene so the end result came out pretty good - judged a “Silver” if I remember correctly. I thought I would rework this color version and like the way it came out.

This staircase is on a small two story antique Federalist style house in Anahuac, TX. It is on the outside of the house leading from the first to second story porch - the only access to the second story.

Tech: Oly E-3, 12-60 Zuiko @ 12mm, f2.8 @ 1/250 and ISO 100, Aperture Priority, On Camera Fill Flash Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Levels Adjustment Layer>Curves Adjustment Layer>Merge Visible>Topaz Adjust Drama>Hue Sat Layer with Mask to Pop the Light Green Paint on the Second Story Only>Lens Distort Vignette

Ropin'

From the archives – This shot is from the ’07 Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo. Taken at the exhibition arena it’s one of many that I have on my hard drive that I probably shouldn’t like, but I do. I was using my old super zoom camera, which is not low light performer, on an indoor action shot and got just about the grainy soft shot I suppose I should have. I also had to remove a lot of clutter, the roping is a team event, to provide a clear subject to the photo.

Tech: Panosonic Lumix Super Zoom @ 23mm, f2.8for 1/60 at ISO400, Raw, AP Post Processing:Crop>Duplicate Background>Clone out Unwanted Elements>Black & White Adjustment Layer

Fidling Around

Comments?

Sail Away

This shot from the Kemah Boardwalk this weekend had an old time feel to me from the start. I used sepia toning in my post processing to add to that feeling in the final shot.

Tech: Oly E-3, 12-60 Zuiko @ 60mm, f7.1 @ 1/250 and ISO 200, Stacked Warming Filter [Pops Oranges and Browns] and Circular Polarizer, Aperture Priority Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Levels Adjustment Layer>Merge Visible>B&W Conversion Layer>Lens Distort Vignette

Scenes from the Backyard

I could have called this shot “Whatever” in reference to the apparent lack of respect the squirrel is paying our two dogs. In fact my wife hand raised this squirrel after it was separated from if mom during Hurricane Ike. During this time the squirrel lost most of its natural fear of our dogs and all of its fear of us. This made it easy to get near the action on this shot.

Tech: Oly E-3, 12-60 Zuiko @ 60mm, f10 @ 1/80 and ISO 200, Stacked Warming Filter [Pops Oranges and Browns] and Circular Polarizer, Aperture Priority Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Curves Adjustment Layer>Merge Visible>Clone out Power Line and Distracting Element in Flower Bed>TA Exposure Correction>TA Simplify>Mask of Simplify Effect from Faces of the Cocker and Squirrel

Dippin' Dots

This shot is from a trip my brother and I took down to Kemah this weekend. I like the geometric patterns and colors in the scene and thought I would process the shot to exaggerate them. It’s no masterpiece but I like to process one this way occasionally.

Tech: Oly E-3, 12-60 Zuiko @ 60mm, f7.1 @ 1/60 and ISO 200, Aperture Priority Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Hue and Saturation Adjustment Layer>Merge Visible>Adobe CS2 Filter Glowing Edges in Vivid Light Mode

Roadside Wedding Dress

I spotted this scene while driving around on my lunch hour yesterday. [I do this from time to time hoping a shot will jump out at me.] I originally envisioned a high key production of the white dress against the white bricks and I’ll post that version later if it’s what I thought it might be.

Tech: Oly E-3, 12-60 Zuiko @ 60mm, f4.5, 1/000 & ISO 100, Aperture Priority Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Lens Distort – Horizontal Perspective>Crop>Levels>Curves>Merge Visible>Topaz Adjust Spicify 2 65%>Lens Distort Vignette be. For now I like this version more than I though I would.

Fallen Heros

This is a nighttime shot of the monuments at Bicentennial Park on Lee Drive in Baytown. I originally considered this for our clubs [BAPC] assignment “Mood”, but ended up going with two other pics.

Tech: Oly E-3, 12-60 Zuiko @ 12mm, f11 @ 60 seconds and ISO 400, Manual Mode Post Processing: Duplicate Background>B&W Adjustment Layer>TA “Simplify”>Gradient Mask>Sepia Tone

Wired

I took this shot while I waiting for my wife to run into Food Town to pick up a few last minute groceries. I circled the parking lot [it’s what we guys do] until I found a place where parking wasn’t allowed but looked like I might get away with loitering there for a while. It happened to be in front of this scene. I often rush shots like these and for that reason usually have to live with technical issues. This one is not tack sharp and the sprocket is hot, but I like it anyway.

Tech: Panosonic Lumix Super Zoom @ 20mm, f3.6 for 1/50 at ISO100 and 26mm, Raw, AP Post Processing:Crop to Slight Pano>Dup Background>High Pass Sharpen>TA “Pyschodelic” Preset>Levels for White Point>Curves for Contrast>Merge Visible>Select Concrete>Hue/Saturation>Distort Lens Correction Vignette

Little Purple Flower

Just a little purple flower I shot while on a BAPC field trip to the San Jacinto Battleground last year.

Tech: Panosonic Lumix Super Zoom @ 20mm, f3.6 for 1/1000 at ISO100

Willy G's Old Galveston

This Tuesdays Bay Area Photo Club assignment topic for Honors Night is “Old Galveston” and this is one of the shots I’ve eliminated from consideration. I like the shot but have two others that I think will fair better with the judges.

Redux 2

Here's a couple I retouched according to input from the blogosphere. On the church I've rotated it level, cropped it, and set a new black point for increased contrast. On the Smith Point composite I've added curves and levels adjustments and merged into a new "Lighten" layer.

LaPorte Church

My job took me down to Bayport [a Pasadena industrial district] yesterday afternoon and on my way home I drove through nearby LaPorte and took a few pictures. This historic old church is not to far from the Sylvan Beach recreation area.

Tech: Oly E-3, 50-200 Zuiko @ 200, f7.1 @ 1/5000 and ISO 1250, Aperture Priority Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Crop>TA “Simplify”>Gradient Mask Dark to Light Top to Bottom>Curves>Levels

Dirt Tornado

On a recent trip to West Texas I tried to capture one of these dust tornadoes several times. I was driving through a prairie valley somewhere between Big Bend National Park and Fort Stockton when I started seeing these things pop up. It must have been just the right combination of location, 100 degree plus heat, and arid conditions [4 inches of rain in 8 months.] It’s not the dynamic shot I was looking for but after all at some point you can’t afford to keep stopping if you want to get anywhere, right?

Tech: Oly E-3, 50-200 Zuiko @ 200, f7.1 @ 1/5000 and ISO 1250, Aperture Priority Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Crop>TA “Simplify”>Gradient Mask Dark to Light Top to Bottom>Curves>Levels

Myth Buster

I always thought there would be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Turns out it’s only a silver Chevy pickup!

Tech: Panosonic Lumix Superzoom, f6.3, 1/400 @ ISO100, Aperture Priority Post Processing: Duplicate Background>Run Topaz Denoise>Topaz Adjust “Mid-Color Pop” Preset

The "Patrick" Experiment - Final

This final Smith Point shot is a bit a fraud. I don’t really count it as part of the experiment because the location of the object(s) [yes it’s a composite] was about a mile away from the actual target location. Nonetheless I liked the way it came out and thought I would include it for your consideration.

Tech: Oly E-3 w/ 12-60 Zuiko @ ISO200, Aperture Priority, Three Handheld Exposures Post Processing: Merge to HDR with Photomatix Pro>Open Car Image Above Building>Erase Unwanted Portions>Covert Car Layer to Hard Light>Merge Visible to New Layer>Clone Some Foliage Across Original Photos for Continuity>TA “Portrait Drama”>Lens Distort Vignette

The "Patrick" Experiment 3

This shot from the Smith Point is what it is – another cows-under-a-tree shot. It’s a cliché’ but given the nature of the assignment one has to do what one can. It is a backlit scene which, when combined with the HDR processing, does produce some interesting lighting.

Tech: Oly E-3 w/ 12-60 Zuiko @ f4.5 & 60mm, 1/320th @ ISO200, Aperture Priority, Three Handheld Exposures Post Processing: Merge to HDR with Photomatix Pro>Open in CS2>Duplicate Background>TA "Color Pop">Lens Distort Vignette

The "Patrick" Experiment 2.1

Doug, here's a version with the blur layer @ 40%. What do you think about it now?

Thanks, Larry

The "Patrick" Experiment 2

This is the second installment to my Smith’s Point series. For this shot I started with a close-up section of old overgrown fencing at the edge of the property nearest my original GPS destination. I like the texture and composition as a starting point but relied heavily on post-processing to get to the photo shown here. Hope you like it.

Tech: Oly E-3 w/ 12-60 Zuiko @ f4.5 & 60mm, 1/80th @ ISO200, Aperture Priority, Three Handheld Exposures Post Processing: Merge to HDR with Photomatix Pro>Open in CS2>Duplicate Background>Converted to B&W using Virtual Photographer’s “Anvil” Preset>Copied and Floated a Portion of the Bottom of the Photo on New Layer>Free Transform and Skew to Cover Undesirable Element at Bottom>Merge Visible>Duplicated Background [Original] at 50% Opacity to Reintroduce Some Color>Levels>Merge Visible in Hue Mode>Merge Visible in Darken Mode>Gradient Fill on Mask of Upper Third>Merge Visible>Gaussian Blur with Mask>Paint out Mask to Emphasize the Subject

The "Patrick" Experiment Extrapolated

It all started with Larry Patrick’s [http://www.larrypatrickphotography.blogspot.com/] December 4th Blog entry “Making Art vs. Taking Pictures.” The idea of choosing a specific somewhat random spot or area within which a series of artistic photos would be taken, forcing the photographer to see art where it is. His self imposed boundary would be 50 feet from where he sat when the idea struck. Then Barry Armer [http://www.barrysphotoblog.blogspot.com/ ]took on the assignment with his own twist, he would limit his exercise to only his desktop at work where he was sitting when he read Patrick’s aforementioned Blog entry on the subject. Shortly afterwards Shirley Pearce [http://shirleypearce.blogspot.com/ ] joined in with her version of the exercise – “Art Around the House.”

This is when I decided to join the parade! For my version of the experiment I designed a slightly more contrived plan of operation. I decided to pick a random location rather than the one before me when I became enlightened. To precede I first determined what my home’s location was in terms of latitude and longitude. I then added a half of a degree in either direction of each and plugged that information into a random number generator on the web. I generated a table from that data on each set of numbers, a single sheet of numbers for each, onto which I dropped a push-pin. I used the number that the pin pointed to in each table as my locations latitude and longitude. This did take a couple of tries! At first I didn’t realize how much difference a single degree of latitude and longitude would make. My first attempt yielded a location that was in a neighboring state, and my second attempt ended up still fairly far away – and offshore!

My final attempt yielded a workable set of coordinates which pointed to a location in Smith Point, Texas which was about 40 miles from my house and on dry land. I cheated some and before I set off to see what I had come up with, I punched the coordinates in on Goggle Earth. I could see that it was a rural area with no visible development which I had been hoping for. I really didn’t want to end up in an urban neighborhood being ogled by yard rats while shooting pictures of someone’s Oleanders!

Although the location was rural it was also fence private property with millions of mosquitoes so there were limitations. The final photos I took from the trip over were decent photos but the process of getting them was a lot of fun. FYI – the coordinates were latitude 29.665 and longitude -94.632.

Tech: Oly E-3 w/ 12-60 Zuiko @ f4.5 & 43mm, 1/200th @ ISO200, Aperture Priority, Three Handheld Exposures Post Processing: Merge to HDR with Photomatix Pro>Open in CS2>Duplicate Background>Topaz Adjust “Spicify” Preset

Dinner at Lulu's 2

From our trip San Antonio trip in September, this photo is at the almost famous [1)Best Chicken Fried Steak in Texas according to Texas Monthly (at some point) and 2) 3 lb. cinnamon rolls] Lulus Bakery and Café. We ordered the regular chicken fried steaks because the large sizes were reported to overhang the plates on all sides. Even though our waiter told us Shaquille O’Neal came in and eaten three, we thought we would go with just the “regular.” The place was uninspiring from the road and if the hotel clerk at the Marriot hadn’t suggested it we never would have stopped. That would have been our loss - the food, atmosphere, service, and our friends made it an evening to remember.

Tech: Oly E-3 w/ 12-60 Zuiko @ f2.8 & 12mm, 1/80th @ ISO100, Aperture Priority Post Processing: Duplicate Background>High Pass Sharpen>Merge Visible to new Luminosity Layer w/ Topaz Adjust “Spicify” Preset>Merge Visible and Run CS3 “Diffuse Glow” Filter and use Gradient Filled Mask on top Third>Len Distortion Vignette