Taking Time The Only Way He Knows...

In case you are wondering, the title of this blog post comes from a Jethro Tull Song I was listening to the other day. I felt at the time it was speaking about me in a way, taking the time to relax in the only way I know. Taking pictures. 

I was host of a continuing education course last weekend, where we had time to take our lunches on our own. I chose to take mine with camera in hand while walking around Memory Grove and downtown Salt Lake. Both days I took my Pentax K5, day one with my DA 55-300 and the second day with my Sigma 17-70. The days were warm and dry, and perfect to walk off the stiffness of sitting for several hours at a time.

I have an affinity for this building, the Utah State Capitol, you get a different view of it from across the ravine to the east. (DA 55-300 @ 300mm)

This was zoomed wide to 55mm. I love the detail of old school craftsmanship.

I had never seen this spot before, looking over the ravine that contains memory grove. I really want to shoot this as a sunset shot someday.

The trees are blooming early due to the dry and warm winter, I hope they all survive. This is the type of shot that the Sigma 17-70 excels at.

This was my wallpaper for several days. At full resolution it is spectacular.

Dogwood blossom in the Avenues area of SLC. Didn't know they grew here...

This is the same monument as in the second shot. Just shot at 17mm and from a totally different angle. Like them both.

One Fine Day!

So... one of my best friends has a daughter who asked me to take some photos of her, her date and 3 more couples at a local high school dance being held at the State Capitol Building. Never one to turn down a chance to make a quick buck I agreed. You will however not see those photos here, I haven't asked if I can use them for publicity purposes and that could get me in trouble. What you get here is the photos I took before and after, why because that is more fun. I really don't like people photography that much, I am far too critical to feel relaxed doing that kind of stuff.

Yeah a flower photo, I don't really post that many so you can no roll your eyes and label me an amateur just because I took a pic of a flower... just to kinda get warmed up.

I had about an hour after I got off work and before the paying customers arrived. So I took off my shoes and socks and waded into the pool to play with my favorite perspective and see if I could come up with something interesting. I had to stitch two photos together to get it all in. I think I may have gotten a little too close. This is still my best shot I think. 

During the shoot the light became, more than somewhat awesome, so I snapped off a quick shot, this was taken with my 28mm f3.5, which was a perfect lens for the work of taking group pictures without wide angle distortion. 

After it was all said and shot I just HAD to try to capture the light. I really do like this building. A. Lot.

Mixed Lighting is a CHALLENGE!!!

One of the hardest things to deal with when photographing temples, or other buildings at night, is the color of the light. Which is why I always, ALWAYS use RAW files, that way I can adjust the appearance of the colors to more closely match what my (and your) eye sees. When there are two or more light sources that have different colors things get really really REALLY tough. Which setting will give me the best mix and look to the photo? This temple has stymied me, I always end up with too much green when everything else looks decent. I have started doing multiple layers and desaturating the green/aqua and masking/blending to finally get something that looks semi decent. I don't think I have it perfect yet, but I am getting closer!

Technical notes: All these are HDR composites, with exposures up to 30 seconds. The clouds are real. As always, shot on a tripod with cable release and in RAW, using either my Sigma 17-70 or 10-20 lenses.

Stopping on my way home from the Temple gave me an opportunity to try a shot I have WANTED for years. I think I am getting closer. Both of these with my SMC 200mm f2.5 lens.

Downtown after work!

I made a trip to the State Capitol Gift shop to drop off some cards, turns out that the store is closed and I never heard about it! Grumble whine.

To make up for my disappointment I figured some camera therapy was in order. The clouds obliged, and I got not a spectacular shot but just a fun one. No perspective correction etc... just sharpen and adjust the color.

I had a slightly different color balance here still trying to decide which I like better.

This turned out to be one of those moments where you just see a situation and grab a quick shot, not expecting much and when you get home and play with it, you get blown away. This was a 3 shot bracket, and walk away to catch the train deal. My first rough processing looked good and has had 60+ likes on Facebook in a very short period, so I went back this morning to try to optimize the shot for sharpness so I could print it at 16x24. That shot is the one below. I took the RAW files, and processed them in ACR to TIFF files, mostly for WB correction and sharpening.

I then imported the three files into Photomatix, selected a pre-set that got me the closest to what I wanted then continued to tweak it until it looked right. Saving that file I opened it in Photoshop and adjusted the curves, levels, brightness and contrast. Then I upsized it so it could be printed larger, partially corrected the perspective, watermarked it and then saved it.

I'm excited to see it in print!

Self Portraits and Black Glass

I make it a rule to only follow the rules when I feel like it. Take portraits for example, usually you are supposed to choose a medium focal length lens and give the subject some distance so as not to distort their features. I decided to try one with my 8mm fisheye lens. Lets say it didn't make me any prettier. Which is a tall order by any stretch of the imagination. But I kind of like the perspective. I'm just waiting for a continuing education class to begin and playing on my Kindle Fire. (I do that a lot.)

Now... you may be wondering what I mean by the words "Black Glass" in the title of this post. What I mean is a very dark neutral density filter. It allows for long exposures even during daylight. Allowing for smoothing of water and cloud and people movement during the exposure. I got one a while back and finally got to play with it. Once I learn to use it, I hope it will be a powerful tool.

These next three shots were all taken with my new filter mounted to my Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6 lens. My favorite for adding drama to shots. I am learning that I need to set my white balance prior to taking the shot rather than the Auto WB doing it's thing. It simply cannot get enough light to determine what to choose due to how dark the filter is. I also learned I need to cover the viewfinder when shooting to prevent light from coming around the mirror during the shot.

 I think they are interesting but not quite there yet...