Different upload of Ruby Falls in Mt. Rainier. Obviously this shot was taken Vertically instead of Horizontally like the previous.
This falls is a beautiful falls to shoot and see. I am glad I made the trip up in the rain to pretty much shoot this one falls before I left for home.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Ruby Tuesday
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Next Door Neighbor
This shot was taken flying from Orange County, Ca to Sea/Tac, WA. on the first day of the trip to the Pacific Northwest. This took about a gazillion, yes I said a gazillion layers to create a decent photo. Multiple Curves, Levels, Nik Color Efex pro 3.0, for contrast and color. Some small amounts of Noise Ninja for the sky and High pass sharpening.
You may ask yourself "IF it took that many layers why bother?" Well I am sure we have all been there when you like a photo and you don't want to give upee, 33w on it and I really had nothing better to do while I have been sitting and watching the World Series. So this could be titled "what the heck I got nothin better to do". But I thought that was to long of a title.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
The Path to Grace
I shot this while driving from Portland to Cannon Beach. Just tooling down the road and I saw this church along the side of the road, decided to pull over and snap a few before getting back on my way.
The HDR really brought out the sky and Silver Efex Pro 2.0 took care of the rest in Black and white. I really like the presets and then some other slight adjustments once you find a good preset and you can really bring out some definition in the right places.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
South Coast Sunset
I saw this shot the day before taking my daughter to a church event. As I drove down the freeway the blue of the sky and the sunset reflection in the buildings along with the full moon made for a great scene. So there I am driving down the freeway looking at freeway over passes wondering where there would be a good shot. How many of you know the deal...driving, looking, driving slower, looking more? This was the only overpass to get the shot and even this over pass had fencing so you had to go off to the side to get the shot.
Knowing that this shot wouldn't be here next week, next month or next year. The next day I went out at sunset and set my shot.
I did mix 2 shots, 1 for the overall scene and the other with a 70-200L lens to get the moon. Otherwise the moon comes out smaller and blown out. I did all of my photoshop work and then masked in the moon where the blown out moon was at. I did scale the moon down to size.
Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!!
Knowing that this shot wouldn't be here next week, next month or next year. The next day I went out at sunset and set my shot.
I did mix 2 shots, 1 for the overall scene and the other with a 70-200L lens to get the moon. Otherwise the moon comes out smaller and blown out. I did all of my photoshop work and then masked in the moon where the blown out moon was at. I did scale the moon down to size.
Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!!
The Shot:
Freeway:
Single Exposure-F/11, ISO 200, 5 seconds, -1EV, Tripod Mounted with cable release, 1ds Mark II, 24-105L @100mm
Moon:
Single Exposure-F/5.6, ISO 320, 1/500, Tripod Mounted with cable Release, 1ds Mark II, 70-200L with 2X extender @ 400mm
Post Processing:
>Raw- Recovery Slider, Exposure, Blacks, Remove sharpen, opened in CS5 as 16bit tiff
CS-5:
>Mode-Lab Color
>Duplicate Layer
>Curves-Adjust for Lightness, A & B Channels
>Reduced opacity until desired results
>Flattened Images
>Mode-RGB
>Topaz Adjust-Increase Color and brightness
>Topaz InFocus-Increase sharpness
>Noise Ninja-Masked for sky
>Nik Color Efex Pro
>Pro Contrast-decrease opacity until desired result
>Adjustment Layer Levels-Masked for sky only-increased and darkened blues
>Adjustment Layer Levels-Masked for mountains-darkened
>Cloned out old blown out moon (Blown out from long exposure)
>Masked in corrected exposure moon
>Transform tool on moon-decrease moon in size until desired result
>Move tool-Moved moon to desired position
>Cropped photo for better composition
>High pass sharpening
>Framed and Sized for posting
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Real Reflection
This should be my last Trillium Lake and Mt. Hood post.
This comes from the first night of the trip. I landed at Sea/Tac airport, got my rental vehicle and headed straight for this spot. Here is the way the story goes:
About a 1 1/2 years ago I was in the Portland, Or. area. It wasn't that great of day with rain and clouds but I was determined to head up to Trillium Lake and catch the shot I have seen so many photo's of.
So away I went and after fighting traffic and driving that 60 miles and 1-1/2 hours I got to the turn off for Trillium Lake. The GPS said 2 miles. The road closure sigh said "sorry about your luck". You see I didn't check road closures and the main hwy was open right up until the time you enter the park. The gate closure and 4ft of snow said I wasn't going to make it. The date was April 28th and they don't plow the roads and open the park until May 1st. So all that driving for nothing, I was rather disappointed.
Zoom forward to this day. I knew that the next few days it was going to rain and the weather report for this day said "Sun and great weather" so this shot was going to be my one and only attempt for this area for this trip.
So 220 miles and 4 hours later here I was ready to shoot. So worth the drive, so worth the view!! I would do it all over again tomorrow for the same shot and same experience of beauty!!
This comes from the first night of the trip. I landed at Sea/Tac airport, got my rental vehicle and headed straight for this spot. Here is the way the story goes:
About a 1 1/2 years ago I was in the Portland, Or. area. It wasn't that great of day with rain and clouds but I was determined to head up to Trillium Lake and catch the shot I have seen so many photo's of.
So away I went and after fighting traffic and driving that 60 miles and 1-1/2 hours I got to the turn off for Trillium Lake. The GPS said 2 miles. The road closure sigh said "sorry about your luck". You see I didn't check road closures and the main hwy was open right up until the time you enter the park. The gate closure and 4ft of snow said I wasn't going to make it. The date was April 28th and they don't plow the roads and open the park until May 1st. So all that driving for nothing, I was rather disappointed.
Zoom forward to this day. I knew that the next few days it was going to rain and the weather report for this day said "Sun and great weather" so this shot was going to be my one and only attempt for this area for this trip.
So 220 miles and 4 hours later here I was ready to shoot. So worth the drive, so worth the view!! I would do it all over again tomorrow for the same shot and same experience of beauty!!
The Shot:
>Standard 3 Shot HDR +2, 0, -2, ISO 320, F/9, 24-105L @32mm, Tripod and cable shutter release.
Post Processing:
>ACR
>Removed All Sharpening, Removed Black, Added Noise Reduction, Removed Chromatic Abberration
>Saved as Tiffs
Photomatix:
>Detail Enhancer
>Strength 90%
>Color Saturation 80%
>Smoothing (Slider @7.9)
>Luminosity 0.00
>White Point 1.055
>Black Point 0.515
>Microsmoothing 17.2
>Microcontrast 4.0
>Saved as 16 Bit Tiff
Post Processing CS-5
>Mountain came out very Orange in HDR Processing
>Masked in -2 EV for Mountain and Reflection
>Topaz InFocus-Global Sharpening
>Color efex Pro 3.0
>Pro Contrast-Lower Opacity to Taste
>Tonal Contrast-Masked for Water only-Lowered opacity to taste
>Adjustment Layer-Levels-Lowered Blue saturation in Sky>Cloning to remove dust and spots
>Adjustment Layer-Curves-Slight global contrast
>Cropped, Framed and Sized for posting
Monday, October 10, 2011
Color Coded
Well here is my shot of Bandon Beach. I got here late, sun had set and it was raining. So after a few long exposures and getting soaked I decided to give it up and pack up what I had and hoped for the best.
The original shot is very flat in color (Blue) so I did increase exposure and pulled up the Color Efex Pro 3.0 and whipped out the Bi-Color filter and added my own color to my taste. I feel I salvaged what I felt is a good composition showing the rocks of Bandon with some decent contrasts.
There wasn't a lot of photoshop here.
Single photo:
>Opened in Raw and slight increase in exposure
>Opened in CS-5 as a 16 Bit Tiff
>Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0
>Bi-Color User Defined Filter
>Pro Contrast-Lower Opacity to taste
>Adjustment Layer-Curves-add slight additional contrast
>Noise Ninja-decrease noise in sky
>Cropped, sized and Framed for posting
The original shot is very flat in color (Blue) so I did increase exposure and pulled up the Color Efex Pro 3.0 and whipped out the Bi-Color filter and added my own color to my taste. I feel I salvaged what I felt is a good composition showing the rocks of Bandon with some decent contrasts.
There wasn't a lot of photoshop here.
Single photo:
>Opened in Raw and slight increase in exposure
>Opened in CS-5 as a 16 Bit Tiff
>Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0
>Bi-Color User Defined Filter
>Pro Contrast-Lower Opacity to taste
>Adjustment Layer-Curves-add slight additional contrast
>Noise Ninja-decrease noise in sky
>Cropped, sized and Framed for posting
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Multnomah Falls
What a great place to shoot. Very popular spot in the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon. Of course I am there with all the giddy up stuff, Camera, tripod, shutter release, ND Filter. I got it working, but yes I am also surrounded by every camera small and large, Cell phones. You name it, it is being shot around me. I find it a lot of fun and all are very nice. So this is just an enjoyable and maybe a bit humous spot. I was just one of the minions shooting a very popular place.
BUT I GOT MINE!!
You can see someone standing on the bridge which gives you a good idea of scale and size.
Thor's Well
2nd day of the trip. After sleeping up at Mt. Hood and shooting sunrise I couldn't wait to get down here and shoot this area. I thought it was called "Devils Punchbowl" but after talking with Dustin Gent he let me know that this was actually "Thor's Well".
I got to the site and was very excited, packed up my gear humped down to the ocean floor with camera, tripod and shutter release in hand. Seemed like perfect conditions with not to much in the way of tides so I could get out to a good spot. There was a slight rain but still doable. I started setting up my shot and realized I forgot my ND filter...CRAP!!. Ok, back up to the car, grab the ND filter and back to finishing the shot.
I am happy with the turn out. It took some work in Photoshop because as great of a scene that it was with the stormy weather the colors were less than spectacular. Eventually got to Bandon, Or. but it was to late. Rain and darkness killed the scene. So after sunrise I Drove 7 hours, ran past Cannon Beach, it was totally rained out, stopped here at Thor's Well, good times, got to Bandon late...Crap!
Dustin and Brian were going waterfall hopping. Should have tried to tag along, oh well...maybe another time.
I got to the site and was very excited, packed up my gear humped down to the ocean floor with camera, tripod and shutter release in hand. Seemed like perfect conditions with not to much in the way of tides so I could get out to a good spot. There was a slight rain but still doable. I started setting up my shot and realized I forgot my ND filter...CRAP!!. Ok, back up to the car, grab the ND filter and back to finishing the shot.
I am happy with the turn out. It took some work in Photoshop because as great of a scene that it was with the stormy weather the colors were less than spectacular. Eventually got to Bandon, Or. but it was to late. Rain and darkness killed the scene. So after sunrise I Drove 7 hours, ran past Cannon Beach, it was totally rained out, stopped here at Thor's Well, good times, got to Bandon late...Crap!
Dustin and Brian were going waterfall hopping. Should have tried to tag along, oh well...maybe another time.
The Shot:
Single Exposure-F/7.1, ISO 400, 0.2 seconds, Tripod Mounted with cable release, 1ds Mark II, 24-105L @28mm
Post Processing:
>Raw-Fill light, Recovery Slider, Exposure, Blacks, opened in CS5 as 16bit tiff
CS-5:
>Mode-Lab Color
>Curves-Adjust for Lightness, A & B Channels
>Mode-RGB
>Topaz Adjust-Increase Color and brightness in Rocks
>Topaz InFocus-Increase sharpness in Rocks and water around hole
>Nik Color Efex Pro
>Tonal Contrast-increase definition in water
>Cropped photo for better composition
>High pass sharpening
>Framed and Sized for posting
Rush Hour
Life is anything but a rush hour up in Mt. Rainier. But this sweet little falls is rushing in every direction like the 5-57-22 interchange.
Last day of the trip I drove up to Rainier in the rain really just for this shot. Hoping for more but knew i would at least get this. Rainier was totally socked in so there were no reflections in lakes or snow capped mountain shots and with the rain there wasn't going to be any hiking. Call me lazy but if it wasn't right off the road I wasn't going after it. Besides my legs were a little sore from the 13 mile Ramona falls hike. But that is a totally different story.
On this day I did get a few other shots but they are still waiting on processing.
Today I am back home so I will try to catch up on comments and everyones photo's.
Last day of the trip I drove up to Rainier in the rain really just for this shot. Hoping for more but knew i would at least get this. Rainier was totally socked in so there were no reflections in lakes or snow capped mountain shots and with the rain there wasn't going to be any hiking. Call me lazy but if it wasn't right off the road I wasn't going after it. Besides my legs were a little sore from the 13 mile Ramona falls hike. But that is a totally different story.
On this day I did get a few other shots but they are still waiting on processing.
Today I am back home so I will try to catch up on comments and everyones photo's.
The Shot:
Single Exposure-F/9, ISO 200, 1.6 seconds, Tripod Mounted with cable release, 1ds Mark II, 16-35L @29mm
Post Processing:
>Raw-Fill light, Recovery Slider, Exposure, Blacks, opened in CS5 as 16bit tiff
CS-5:
>Mode-Lab Color
>Curves-Adjust for Lightness, A & B Channels
>Nik Color Efex Pro
>Pro Contrast-remove Color Contrasts
>Adjustment Layer- Levels-Black and white points-Added Contrasts
>Cropped photo for better composition
>High pass sharpening
>Framed and Sized for posting
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
I'm Not Home Yet
2nd shot from Trillium, I hope I don't bore you all with shots from Trillium, I haven't even started on the night time photo's I took from the night before. Probably because these are more interesting with the cloudy sky compared to the night before with totally clear skies. Maybe I should wait on those and post another day.
The title comes from being held up in a hotel in Seattle waiting for my flight tomorrow morning. It has pretty much rained all the time I was here so it was a waterfall weekend besides these shots at Trillium.
As beautiful as this scene is and as enjoyable as it was. I miss my family and can't wait to get home!!
The title comes from being held up in a hotel in Seattle waiting for my flight tomorrow morning. It has pretty much rained all the time I was here so it was a waterfall weekend besides these shots at Trillium.
As beautiful as this scene is and as enjoyable as it was. I miss my family and can't wait to get home!!
The Shot:
>Standard 3 Shot HDR +2, 0, -2, ISO 400, F/22, 16-35L @16mm, Tripod and cable shutter release.
Post Processing:
>ACR
>Removed All Sharpening, Removed Black, Added Noise Reduction, Removed Chromatic Abberration
>Saved as Tiffs
Photomatix:
>Detail Enhancer
>Strength 80%
>Color Saturation 79%
>Smoothing (Slider @8.0)
>Luminosity 3.00
>White Point 3.654
>Black Point 0.4009
>Microsmoothing 9.2
>Microcontrast -.2
>Saved as 16 Bit Tiff
Post Processing CS-5
>Adjustment Layer-Levels-Color Enhancement
>Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Increase Saturation +20
>Topaz Adjust-Color and Detail Enhancement
>Topaz InFocus-Global Sharpening
>Color efex Pro 3.0
>Pro Contrast-Lower Opacity to Taste
>Tonal Contrast-Masked for Water only-Lowered opacity to taste
>Adjustment Layer-Levels-Lowered Blue saturation in Sky>Cloning to remove dust and spots
>Adjustment Layer-Hue/Saturation-reduce reds hues around clouds and trees
>High pass sharpening
>Cropped, Framed and Sized for posting
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Trillium Sunrise
Mt. Hood, Oregon. Slept in my rental Jeep overnight up at Trillium Lake to catch the sunrise. Froze my butt off because I didn't have warm enough cloths. Was it worth it? I am thinking so but I will leave that to you and your comments.
Here is the readers digest version of the events leading up to the shot:
Flew into Seattle on Thursday and drove directly to Trillium Lake. Weather man was saying that the next week was all about rain (and he wasn't lying). So I knew I had a short window to catch this shot. Took some sunset photos on Thursday with a very clear sky but the weather was great. Decided to stay the night and catch sunrise. Pulled into a camp site and prepared the bed in the back of the jeep. Jeans, jacket, makeshift pillow out of some cloths and I thought I was good to go. About 11pm it got cold, so out of the suitcase came shirts, sweats pretty much anything I could and started covering myself up with cloths to keep myself warm. Needless to say I made it through the night with the help of cloths all over me and every once in a while starting up the Jeep for the heater.
Got out to the lake just before sunrise and started shooting for the next hour or so. What a great scene. This is an HDR but this is the actual scene. Didn't have to do to much to it besides a little contrast work. What a great reflection.
Here is the readers digest version of the events leading up to the shot:
Flew into Seattle on Thursday and drove directly to Trillium Lake. Weather man was saying that the next week was all about rain (and he wasn't lying). So I knew I had a short window to catch this shot. Took some sunset photos on Thursday with a very clear sky but the weather was great. Decided to stay the night and catch sunrise. Pulled into a camp site and prepared the bed in the back of the jeep. Jeans, jacket, makeshift pillow out of some cloths and I thought I was good to go. About 11pm it got cold, so out of the suitcase came shirts, sweats pretty much anything I could and started covering myself up with cloths to keep myself warm. Needless to say I made it through the night with the help of cloths all over me and every once in a while starting up the Jeep for the heater.
Got out to the lake just before sunrise and started shooting for the next hour or so. What a great scene. This is an HDR but this is the actual scene. Didn't have to do to much to it besides a little contrast work. What a great reflection.
The Shot:
>Standard 3 Shot HDR +2, 0, -2, ISO 250, F/11, 24-105L @24mm, Tripod and cable shutter release.
Post Processing:
>ACR
>Removed All Sharpening, Removed Black, Added Noise Reduction, Removed Chromatic Abberration
>Saved as Tiffs
Photomatix:
>Detail Enhancer
>Strength 100%
>Color Saturation 90%
>Smoothing (Slider @8.0)
>Luminosity 3.10
>White Point 1.195
>Black Point 0.335
>Microsmoothing 2.0
>Microcontrast 6.0
>Saved as 16 Bit Tiff
Post Processing CS-5
>Topaz Adjust-Color and Detail Enhancement
>Topaz InFocus-Global Sharpening
>Color efex Pro 3.0
>Tonal Contrast (Lowered Opacity to 62%)
>Cloning to remove dust and spots
>High pass sharpening
>Cropped, Framed and Sized for posting
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