to my personal blog. Here I post examples of my photography and writing. I specialize in making unique and highly detailed photographs. Notice I said making and not taking. Yes I take photos but a lot of time and work is involved in pushing and punishing the pixels in my images to achieve the look I like.
Please feel free make comments about any of my words or photos. I enjoy constructive critiques, learning about locations to shoot or photography techniques. Click on the "Share Article" link to share any of my photos via Flickr, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Want to use one of my posts in your own blog? No problem, but please make sure it links back to the original post here and do the right thing and give me credit. Don't copy my words, crop the images, remove the watermarks or claim my work as your own. This has happened more times than I can count so I've had to report copyright violations to ISP's and regrettably the violators blog is usually taken down.
Can't we all just get along?
Monday, June 4, 2012 at 9:52PM | in Fisheye, HDR, National Air and Space Museum, Panorama, Space, Spacecraft, Travel, Washington DC In the 1960's and 70's the United States and the Soviet Union were trying their best to outdo one another with feats in outer space. This hall at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, features many artifacts from this time period.
After more than a year of research and contemplation, I have replaced my previous computer with this monster for which I specified all of the parts and assembled myself. Ever since I purchased my full frame camera, my old computer had struggled to handle my typical 10 frame HDR sequences. This new computer rips through them with no hesitation whatsoever.
Featuring a water cooled i7 3930k CPU overclocked from 3.2 to 4.8Ghz, high speed solid state drives and a special fan controller to cool the VCORE chipset, I have been impressed and awed by the raw power and stability it has demonstrated.
The case which holds a the components is huge. It's as tall as my desk and weighed nearly 50 lbs empty. It is designed to allow for expansion, efficient airflow and tidy wire management. I'll be posting more images of the actual build and components soon.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 10:30PM | in Bokeh, Car Show, Lensbaby, Motorcycle Been gone a while. Glad to be back.
I've had never seen a more impressive motorcycle than this particular one. I took several 10-shot HDR sequences of it before walking away for a while to look at other cars and motorcycles at this particular show. A bit later I was sitting on a curb packing away my camera when I remembered I had my Lens Baby with me, so I put it on the camera and returned to this bike for a few more shots.
Although I've had the Lens Baby Composer for a couple of years I still struggle with getting accurate focus. Three things have helped with this process. First was the purchase of an L type focusing screen. It more readily shows the difference between in and out-of-focus areas than my camera's normal screen, second I purchased an angle viewfinder/ 2X magnifier. This allows me to magnify my optical viewfinder by 200% to confirm focus is sharp, and finally I learned a simple technique from www.lensbaby.com about bracketing focus. Once I think I have obtained a sharp focus setting I will move the manual focus ring back and forth slightly while taking images. This gives me several shots to choose from with slightly different focus settings. One of these shots is almost always sharp.
Using the LCD display on the back of my camera isn't an option since it does not have a live view function. I am hoping to purchase the Sony A77 SLT Camera which features live view with 14x magnification as well as focus peaking. So soon I may be packing two cameras to car shows and trips just like my better half does now.
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 9:58PM | in Fisheye, HDR, Martin Luther King Memorial, National Mall, Washington DC When Kathy and I visited Washington D.C. in October of last year, one of the things we wanted to see was the Dr. Martin Luther King National Memorial which at the time, had been built but not yet dedicated. The sculpture of Dr. King faces the Tidal Basin. He seems to be gazing directly at the Jefferson Memorial which is quite fitting. The black stone wall that surrounds the memorial has been etched with famous writings of the slain civil rights leader. Kathy asked one of the visitor guides if we could use our tripods - fully expecting them to say no but the answer we got was "sure, go ahead". Wow! This must be the only memorial in Washington that allows tripods.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011 at 9:13PM | in Fisheye, HDR, Museum, Smithsonian Castle, Washington DC This is the West wing of the Smithsonian Castle which is located on the national mall in Washington DC. Designed by architect James Renwick Jr. this impressive space was originally envisioned as a lecture hall. With its abundant natural light it was also considered to be ideal for use as an art gallery. Today it holds a wide variety of exhibits from the Smithsonian's vast collection.
This is a 10 shot HDR shot with my new fisheye lens. I used my gorillapod to stabilize the camera and was hoping the guard wouldn't come in and stop me. The smithonian generally does not allow tripods in their museums.
This was from the 2011 Whittier Car Show held in August. As I mentioned on a earlier post, the organizers decided not to allow low riders at this show, and will instead hold a low rider - custom car show next year. So of course since Kathy and I love photographing low riders we were bummed. After we had walked around for a while she noticed several low rider owners had parked there awesome cars just outside the show limits so of course we spent a lot of time there.
This was probably the most spectacular of all the cars I saw this day, and I took quite a few HDR sequences of it. While I usually choose low angles when shooting cars, in this case given the spectacular flamed hood, I extended my tripod nearly to it's maximum height to better capture it. The only disadvantage was I was unable to look through the viewfinder. I'm 6'-5" tall but my camera was at least 7' above the ground. I took a couple of test shots to be sure I framed this up properly before capturing this sequence.
1 Comment | tagged California, Car, Car Show, Cars, HDR, Mercury, Uptown, Uptown Whittier | Share Article Permalink Email Article Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 11:55PM | in Bokeh, California, Kathy, Whittier "...nowhere together with you is better than anywhere apart"
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 9:25PM | in Bokeh, California, Car Show, Cars, HDR, Pontiac Hood Ornament, Whittier I really have a strong attraction to vintage Pontiac hood ornaments. I've posted other examples here before and I'm sure I'll post more. When I saw this one, I called Kathy who was also at this car show, and asked if I could borrow her 100mm macro lens which is very fast and sharp. It produces beautiful bokeh as well. I really like how colorful the out of focus areas are.
Post a Comment | tagged Bokeh, California, Car, Car Show, HDR, Uptown Whittier, Whittier | Share Article Permalink Email Article Monday, August 22, 2011 at 8:35PM | in California, Car Show, Cars, HDR, Whittier
Post a Comment | tagged 1947, California, Car, Car Show, Chevy, HDR, Uptown Whittier, Whittier | Share Article Permalink Email Article Friday, August 12, 2011 at 11:21PM | in California, Embarcadero, HDR, Hyatt Regency, San Francisco, Travel In San Francisco to work on a proposal and staying at the Hyatt Regency on the Embarcadero, I had a great view of the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge. On this particular day I got up around 4:30 AM, showered and went to get some breakfast. From the street level, I could see that the sunrise was going to be spectacular. I went back to my room, grabbed my camera, tripod, ExpoDisc and off camera shutter release. From there I headed for a secret balcony that I had discovered a few years ago on another visit. There's no sign that says "hotel employees only" or anything similar so in any case, I got the shots I wanted and nobody was the wiser. It was very windy on the 19th floor so my tripod shook a little during the long exposures, but not enough to ruin the shot. 10 Exposure HDR covering 10ev. Post processed in Photomatix, Lightroom and Photoshop.
