Dream Tomorrow, Live Today, Cherish Yesterday

Going Abstract

Canon 5D Mark II, 135mm F/2.0, f/11, 1/3rd, iso 100

As has been said many times here on my blog, I' love abstracts. I don't spend a lot of time making them, not as much as I would like.  A situation came up yesterday where I could give it a go, and so I did!

I'm quite happy with this one, and several others.  Can you figure out the subject matter? Technique? And anyway, how do you like this one? Comments are free today, being Friday and all.

A Caddy for Grandpa

Canon 5D Mark II, 85mm F/1.3, f/1.6, 1/50, iso 100

My Grandpa on my Mom's side was a real character. I recall him telling me how he got a ticket in Arizona for going about 80 mph.  "So Bobby, I said to this cop: 'sonny, I'm a 74 year old man, I couldn't have been driving faster than 65!'"

And what was he driving? A Caddy of course! The biggest he could get. Acres of sheet metal. As a little kid I always thought they looked like an aircraft carrier on wheels.  Grandpa could never get enough of the gadgets - electric windows were new then. Cruise control. And then there was the automatic dimmer! That's that little periscope looking thing on the dash.

Here we have a nice white convertible with red interior.  My Grandpa gave my mom an El Dorado in just these colors. She loved that old beast.  I however was somewhat embarrassed to ride in these luxury machines.

This past weekend I did something I have been saying I would do for many years. I stopped in at Specialty Sales in Benicia.  I always just drive by. "Don't have time!" This time, I made the time. And made friends with Johnny and the boys and they let me have at it with my camera gear. I got some nice shots. It's a great place, great guys, with beautiful cars on consignment.

These days, I wouldn't be embarrassed at all. I'd love to jump in this here Caddy and go for a ride. Maybe go pick up Grandpa if he was still around and treat him to a ride. And definitely hit 80.

Wordless Wednesday

On Wordless Wednesday, you tell the story...

Topaz Tuesday - Tiny Woodland Forest

Canon 20D, 60mm Macro F2.8, f/16, 1/125, iso 200

In my ongoing quest to find different subjects for Topaz, today we turn to the lowly dandelion. I shot the original way back when, but came across it recently and thought I would give it a go.

After trying several presets, as I often do I settled on Spicify.  And then I added a touch more saturation and contrast.  I like what it did, sort of made it into a forest.  As you'll see when you click on the continue link, it's amazing how "woody" Topaz made the little stalks appear.

Channeling Diane

Channeling Diane

Canon 5D Mark II, 135mm F/2.0, f/7.1, 1/4000, iso 100

My frequent visitors know that I am a huge fan of Diane Varner's work.  Her work is something I aspire to. Both her vision, her composition, and her post work. I'm generally impressed with every image she puts up on her blog.

And I was just in her home town. Although we were not able to get together, as I drove the streets and visited areas around the town, I found myself wondering what she might be doing, was she out shooting?  She had emailed me some of her favorite haunts.  But sometimes things don't go as expected and I ended up not doing much shooting there. A pity, but stuff happens, as they say.

But I did visit a lighthouse in Monterey, and her work immediately came to mind. My visit there was prompted by this post on Andre's very helpful CA Photo Scout website.  Alas, I arrived too late to go on a tour, and encountered a locked gate.  As I considered my options, I saw a composition in front of me that reminded me of something Diane might shoot. The light was very bright, as you can see by the shutter speed. I tried to think of how she might post process this one.  I chose this lens for the distance I was from the structure, and moved side to side until I had this composition which I felt did justice to both the lighthouse and the tree.

In Lightroom, a preset called "PH Surreal Moment" did most of the work for me to achieve this look. A further minor saturation adjustment, and one called "dark tones" and in about one minute I had the look I dreamed Diane would come up with.

Vines Before Wines

Canon 5D Mark II, 400mm F/5.6, f/5.6, 1/15, iso 800

My grapes are back! You'll recall I have about 80 grape vines on my property and last year I joined a little wine making group.  About 3 weeks ago the vines began to show their leaves, and grape crop.

Look at those cute little baby grapes! I have been wanting to take a shot of them for the blog, and used this big storm we had as the time.

It really rained. I mean a "go build an ark" kind of rainstorm.  I went out with my camera and saw that if I waited a bit some of the grapes would be back-lit and I should be able to get something blog worthy.

Unfortunately it was pretty dark, with all the thunderclouds overhead. And then add the wind. So I only got a few shots that were sharp, this being one of them. The tripod keeps me and the camera steady, but can't help the subject flopping back and forth.

Cheers to this year's crop!

If Rian visited Sacramento

Canon 5D Mark II, 15mm F/2.8 Fisheye, f/9.0, 1/200, iso 200

My blog buddy Rian (www.digitizedchaos.com) is THE fisheye master, in my book anyway.  Sometimes I'll see a particular scene, and think fisheye, and it always makes me think of him. What would he do here? 

My wife and I were cruising downtown Sacramento last weekend when I saw this church and thought I'd give it a try. It was a very dreary day, so I went ahead with a black and white treatment.

How is this one working for you?

Fun Friday - Sandpit Video

I found this video cruising the web, and I have to say it is mesmerizing. The photography, the creation of video, the music, it's just beyond cool!  Sam O'Hare is the photographer and creator of this video. Here is a link to his blog.

I found a page where Sam was interviewed, and I'm copying a bit of it here:

How did you shoot The Sandpit?

SAM: It is shot on a Nikon D3 (and one shot on a D80), as a series of stills. I used my Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 and Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 lenses for all of these shots. Most were shot at 4fps in DX crop mode, which is the fastest the D3 could continuously write out to the memory card. The boats had slower frame rates, and the night shots used exposures up to two seconds each. The camera actually has an automatic cut off after 130 shots, so for longer shots I counted each click and quickly released and re-pressed the shutter release after 130 to keep shooting.

That has to be a lot of stills!

SAM: I shot over 35,000.

How did you capture the mini look?

SAM: I did some initial tests a while back using a rented 24mm tilt-shift lens, which is the standard way to do this. However, after my tests, I found it made much more sense to do this effect in post, rather than in camera. Shooting tilt-shift requires a tripod, as it is very hard to stabilise afterwards, and gives less flexibility in the final look. I opted to shoot it on normal lenses, which allowed me options in the depth of field and shot movement in post. I used a tripod for the night shots, and my Gorillapod (which is much more portable) where possible, but many locations—like hanging over the edge of a roof or through a gap in fencing on a bridge-- had to be shot hand held, and the inevitable wobble removed afterwards.

How long did the shoot take?

SAM: The entire shoot was completed in 5 days and two evenings, during the hottest week of August 2009. Many thanks go to all the people who gave me access to rooftops, penthouses and balconies to shoot from.

The footage was shot as raw NEFs, which I organized and color graded in Adobe Lightroom. I always shoot raw, as it gives you so much more latitude when grading. These were then output as 720p jpg sequences and quickly stabilized to do the initial edit. Once the edit was mostly locked, all the final footage was re-output at full 2800px resolution, tracked, stabilized and the DOF effect and movement added in Eyeon Fusion, using Frischluft Lenscare. I output the final shots at 1080p. Although most shots stay with the basic tilt-shift effect, some have focus pulls, or more complex depth mattes were built up along with some paint work to allow buildings to drop out of focus next to the in-focus ground. This would not have been possible if I had shot using tilt shift lenses on the camera, which works best with relatively flat landscapes. New York City is anything but flat!

Is this guy crazy? Crazy good I would say!  I have watched this several times and it is just so interesting. I'd love to create something like this, but I just don't think I have the time and I'm sure I don't have the video post processing skills.

Wow!

Of Poets and Belly Dancers

I don't usually follow up Wordless Wednesday, but today I think I will.  I first noticed the subject of yesterday's post when my wife and I were walking down the street in Sacramento. It was "Second Saturday," which is like an artists day, and lots of people show up for the fun. So we hear, as we have not been.

If you look at the far right of the above picture, and imagine a guy walking toward the gentleman, that is where I was when I first saw him. He was sitting in that rickety chair, leaning forward toward the brick wall. I knew it was a cool shot but I wasn't able to pull it off. So when we got up to him, I just started talking with him.  Turns out he lives above, in this building. You can actually see his apartment in the shot.

His shtick is writing poetry, which he then prints, and sells for $5 each. He was very interested in me as a photographer, and wanted me to consider a joint venture.  For the next Second Saturday, he would be writing poetry about bull fighting, and did I have any bull fighting pictures?  These poets are quite the characters I'm finding.

Anyway, I asked if he had written any poems about dreams, and he pointed me to this one:

So I decided to buy it, thus becoming his first sale of the day.  He says he does pretty well.  I asked if I could take a few pictures of him, and thus we have yesterday's portrait.  I shook hands with the poet and we continued on our way. I was still a bit miffed at missing that first action shot though, and after crossing the street I turned around. The scooter guy was approaching. I waited and then got this moment.

The real action begins after 2 pm, but we already had plans so we missed the big event. I'm thinking I'll go back for some street photography next month.

Just in case you are in the area or are in need of some custom poetry:

Wordless Wednesday

On Wordless Wednesday, you tell the story...