Trying to get "The" Shot.....

Ok, as all of you know I am fascinated with my local LDS Temple, because it is close, convenient to shoot and beautiful (and with special religious meaning to me too!). There is a shot I have long wanted to get, which is the full moon behind the temple. Great in concept, hard to execute, because you have to be up early in the morning and find just the right location for that month. This is hard, very hard!!

Well on Saturday on my way to the University of Utah to work an extra shift I noticed that the moon was just right for the shot I have been envisioning. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending of your point of view, I woke up at 6:30 Sunday morning, and in my delusional half sleep I thought I could try to get the shot if the clouds were treating me well. So I peeked out and saw that I might have a shot, though with some haze in the sky. So I quickly dressed and hopped in the van and sallied forth.

I found a decent vantage point in a neighborhood under construction and took a few shots, hurriedly because I was just waking up and it was breezy and quite cold!! Utilizing my typical temple technique I shot three shots of each composition (-2EV, 0, and +2EV) plus a fourth that exposed just for the moon. The three main shots went together well, but trying to add in the moon exposure shot just didn't work, the haze in the air caused a fair amount of flare around the moon and made it beyond the computers, or my, capacity to compensate. I am not sure that I can capture both the Temple and Moon in the same shot just because of the brightness differential. If I expose for the moon I literally get a black temple, and when you expose for the temple the moon is FAR too bright.... sigh.... One day I may do some photoshop magic putting a moon in just for grins but certain people of my acquaintance might object! (You know who you are.)

Anyway, this is what I produced, each three shot composition was processed twice, once with the "Tone Compressor" setting in Photomatix, and then again with the "Details Enhancer" setting. I liked the sky of the Details Enhancer better, but the Temple didn't look as good. I was even tempted to use a third feature of Photomatix called "Exposure Blending" to get a brighter temple and then mask that out and layer it in on top of the darker temple, but just feel that there was enough potential with the shot to make the work worthwhile...

So back to my original envisioning of the shot, I don't think I will be able to get a shot with the moon properly exposed and the temple properly exposed in the same shot without doing some sleight of hand, will have to decide how to proceed in the future. Mind you I like these shots, but the blown out disc of the moon is NOT what I had in mind!

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Jan 22 07:19 AM

On my way to work I noticed some interesting clouds to the east just as I was leaving my house. As is my usual wont I had my camera with me, so I sallied forth to see if I could get something nice of the Temple as I passed. I am getting a little tired of not having a lot of color in the skies this year, but I liked the contrast of warmly lit temple and cool landscape. These are pretty much straight out of camera. Except the first got a tiny bit of perspective distortion correction, and cropping. And the second mostly cropping and straightening.

Test shots

I have been wanting to try to shoot from this vantage point for awhile, when commuting on my Mountain Bike to/from work I often ride across this bridge over the freeway. I actually picked th worst day I could have, it was raining, but I think it helped to have a little more reflections on the road. What do you think?

Another Frosty Morning

On my way to work on Friday, it was quite foggy and I was thinking it was a good opportunity to take some shots on a path by the river that I have been wanting to try for. Well, there was a freshening breeze that was starting to thin the fog by the time I got there, but I still tried for a few shots and behold this is what I got!

Looking down the path, this is the basis for another "Lonely Bench" Thread on DPReview maybe. Those are kind of fun threads.

I really liked the frosted dead flowers, with the breeze and exposure times in the 1-1.5second range sharp shots were hard to come by, but I got a couple. I processed them differently to enhance what I saw. I think the first one is my favorite.

Final Mash-UP

OK, so I combined the dark background and the light hand to get this. I did a flip and crop of this for my wallpaper at home. REALLY COOL!!!

Metal Man Redux (And a little Crazy!)

So, I am breaking out of my funk a little bit, and thinking creatively. Kinda like it! I went out to take a few demo pictures for a fellow forum member who had some questions about sharpness in the corners and across the frame in the Sigma 10-20, as I was wandering looking for shots I remembered I wanted to re-visit this guy and make a regular effort to be creative with such an interesting subject. So I stopped and played for a few. The sky was not as dramatic as I had wanted but I think that with some outlandish processing I could get something worthwhile.

This is a fairly straight up shot, minimal processing except to bring up the shadows and up the sharpness and contrast a little bit.
This one is more crazy, same shot but with the levels adjustments pushed to the right, some wide radius and high percentage USM, and some diffuse glow. Hardly looks the same huh?

Liked this one as it was, with similar processing to the first one. I may play with it later tonight and I will post it if I do.

Yeah, this one was pushed to the max.

This one was similar to #2, really liked the metallic feel of the hand.

Same shot, taken to the other dark extreme. Put the Halo there cuz I wanted to, I am tempted to combine the two versions of this and get something really extreme.... hmmmm

Ok, Here are the larger Versions of the Photo's in the Slide Show

As always clicking on the photo will give you a larger version to view. Please do not use them for anything other than wallpaper for your computer. I finance my Lens Buying Addiction by selling prints, please help me with that by not printing my photo's. I would be more than happy to print you a photo for a very reasonable price. My lab does a great job too!

As a side note, all the photo's in this set were taken with my new Sigma 10-20 DC EX f4-5.6 Ultra Wideangle lens. The last was taken with my Sigma 17-70 DC f2.8-4.5. Both mounted on my Trusty Pentax K200d. All at ISO 100, f11 on a tripod and IIRRC with mirror pre-lock. It was snowing heavily for most of the night which caused some of the reddish cast in the sky, that is light reflecting on the falling snow. I also enjoyed having a weather sealed camera, I simply kept the lens pointed down when not shooting, and occasionally brushed off the lens and camera with a glove. It was cold enough that nothing melted and lens and camera were fine! Thanks PENTAX for making such a durable camera! Also Kudo's to Sigma, that 10-20 is an amazingly sharp lens.

Last Shots of 2009

Ran outside right after getting home from work, due to the fun cloud formations and light. Because it was a little hazy I ended up going B&W so I could up the contrast a bit. All taken with my K200d and Cosmicar 70-200 at f8 and 200mm.

Temple Square Dec. 30, 2009

All shots taken with my Pentax K200d and Sigma 10-20 EX DG f4-5.6 on a Tripod.

More shots with my Sigma 10-20

Took these just a few days before Christmas with my new Sigma 10-20, there is NO other lens that would get me that level of width and perspective. Maybe not the best shots ever, but it was simply too cold to play more....

One quick note about processing. Both of these necessitated some serious processing. About 2 hours worth. I took 6 exposures of each, 3 for the statues in the foreground and 3 for the temple all from the same spot, just different shutter speeds. I then did HDR/Tone Mapping for the sets of 3 for the front and 3 for the background, then brought in the foreground on top of the background and masked/trimmed the edges of the statues. A LOT of work!!!! But I like what it looks like!

A Hoar Frost Morning: Brrrrr.......

Awoke to a cold and foggy morning, I first thought it had unexpectedly snowed, but I soon realized that it was in fact just a heavy frost. As soon as I decently could (i.e. got the kids off to school) I ran out to play before the fog burned off and the frost went away, pyjamas and all. Bet a few people got a giggle out of somebody running around with a camera in flannel pyjama bottoms and a coat lying on the ground taking pictures....

Anyway, these were taken with a combination of my Sigma 10-20 and my Sigma 17-70. It was freezing but fun, the freezing part leads into some of the more interesting compositions. When you are really cold it tends to focus your thoughts... and make your hands shake!