Dream Tomorrow, Live Today, Cherish Yesterday

Wordless Wednesday - Windows

On Wordless Wednesday, you tell the story.

Topaz Tuesday - St Christopher's

Sony NEX-7, 18-200mm, f/6.3, 1/20, iso 1600

One of the things I love about travelling is discovering the source or original version, of things I have known about all my life. For example, I'm not Catholic, but like probably everyone, I am familiar with Saint Christopher's medals that many people wear.

And then one day I'm walking along in Dublin, "oh look, another cathedral.  Mmmmm. Saint Christopher's? THAT Saint Christopher?"

Yes, that one. It was a interesting story to read about. And of course, yet another gorgeous cathedral. This was at the end of our trip and I ventured out with just the Sony. I got this slow speed shot by placing the camera on a piece of furniture, and tipping the lens up with the strap. Self timer, and off we go, who needs a tripod?

But the original version is a bit flat, and I thought it would make a good Topaz Adjust subject. Adjust 5 has so many cool presets, but here I began with my old standby Spicify. I then added a bit more saturation and saturation boost. Ol Saint Chris would be proud!

As always, on the Continue link below you can see the original, and leave a comment if you wish.

Residents of Skellig Michael

Sony Nex-7, 18-200, f/6.3, 1/500, iso 400

I was really enthusiastic about going to Skellig Michael, a foreboding hunk of rock off the coast of Ireland. Basically used as a monastery since the 6th century, it is a place I read about early in my life (see wikipedia entry).

Unfortunately the day we chose to go had miserable weather in the forecast. 8-10 foot seas, solid rain. The ride out to the island was one of the most unpleasant boat rides of my life. I am a very experienced boater, and I was duly impressed by how stoically my photographic companions tolerated this trip.

Once on the island it was obvious we would not be hiking to the top, where the monastery is. The conditions made it much too dangerous.

But no matter, puffin pics were in the making! These gorgeous creatures live there in abundance. They are very tolerant of photographers. Sometimes just as interested in us as we were of them, it seemed. They look a bit clumsy, but I assure you in the air they are not. They are very fast and agile fliers. Catching them just about to land was quite a trick, most autofocus cameras were just not up to the task.

All of my favorites are where I had positioned myself such that I'd have the beautiful sea in the background, like this one. Pretty nice bokeh for f/6.3, the max aperture for this lens at the long end of the zoom.

Pink & Gray

Leica M9

Walking through a small Irish town I came across this lovely home. This kind of scene was very unusual, usually homes are more quaint, and certainly less regular and perfect!

 

Topaz Tuesday - Dublin Graffiti

Sony NEX-7, 18-200, f/8, 1/160, iso 400

If you visit the blog often, you know I'm a fan of graffiti. I found this nice mural in Dublin, Ireland. When I viewed the original image, it was nice, but didn't have that urban, gritty feel that I think goes with this kind of scene.

So into Topaz Adjust 5. After viewing a few presets, I knew I would go for one that would tone down the colors. But the one that got closest, is called Grunge Me! Ha ha. It did a good job with the details, giving me the grit I was looking for. From there I used the saturation slider to tone down the colors. And a major dose of "Highlight Protect" to rein in the bright whites.

As always, click on the Continue link to compare the original to the Topaz version. You can even leave a comment here, kind of like this artist left his or her comment on the wall.

Topaz Tuesday - Ladies View B&W

Leica M9

Interesting experiment today. After last week's image, which I had done a lot of work on and quite a few back and forths between Lightroom and Topaz Adjust, I was going for simple.  An image I could just hit with a preset and be done.

When I tried this image out as a B&W, I liked it immediately. But I couldn't find a preset that was working for me. No problem the various sliders available in Topaz Black and White Effects, and their instant visual feedback, make it so easy to dial in the desired effect.

Which was dark and moody! As always, the original is available on the Continue link, and you can comment there as well if you like this one.

Oh yes - "ladies view?" That's the name given to this area of the Ring of Kerry.

Street.... Shooting

Sony NEX-7

If you frequent this blog, you know I'm very enamored with street photography. Which usually means catching people in interesting situations on the street.

In this case, I was walking down a Dublin sidewalk and noticed this amazing array of glass, I presume to let light into an underground area below. The colors, textures and patterns just blew my mind. I took several shots, and then when I looked up to resume my walk, noticed that several people were giving me quite the strange look. If only I would have caught those too!

Behind the Red Door

Leica M9

I have always tried to be a bit of a "stealth tourist" when possible. Have always been cognizant of the Ugly American concept. When I lived in Australia, after about a month I blended in so that no American could figure out I wasn't a local!

As such I don't typically go in for tourist buses and all that kind of thing. But while in Dublin, Ireland, we were at the end of a three week trip and kind of tired. We found that they have these open top buses that regularly circle the city. You buy a ticket and for two days you can "hop on/hop off" all day long. Very convenient.

And being an open top bus, I had the chance to get some interesting POV shots, like this one, which I really like. I did a little creative processing too.

Irish Country Town and AMAZING new Lightroom Module

Leica M9

One day the afternoon light was just too harsh for landscape, so we pulled into the little town of Allihies and just wandered around. This is my kind of shooting!

There was a graveyard, as you can see. This one grabbed me more than any other I saw on the trip. It was quiet and peaceful. Every name was so... Irish. O'Sullivan, and all that kind of thing. I had a feeling of "reverence" taking my time and just trying to soak up the moment. Thinking about these people, that had lived in this small town hundreds of years before. I hope this shot represents that.

Now onto this Lightroom 4 announcement. There is a new "Map" module, that is just amazing. Basically, your images can be encoded with their GPS information. Lightroom will then access Google maps, and integrate them. In other words, you can point at a picture or pictures, and go to the map to see where they were taken, OR, you can go to anywhere in the world, and LR will show you the pics you took there.

(You can click it for a larger version). When I was on the picture above, I clicked the Map module, and this is what is displayed. This is the small town, and you can see how many shots I took from each location! You can zoom in and out, and you can even preview your images right on the map.

As good as LR is with keeping photos by date, using keywords and so on, there are times where I say "I want to see all the images I took at XXXX place..." Now we can do that.

Some cameras have GPS built in and record this. None of mine do, so I bought a nifty little device called a GPS recorder. (Link to it on Amazon.) This device continually records my whereabouts whenever I'm moving. At the end of the day, or trip (whatever), you plug it into the computer, and export the data. Now you import this "track log" into the LR map module. LR compares the GPS time stamps with the time stamps on your images and automatically applies the GPS to the images' EXIF.

Totally magic! Life is good for photographers right now!

Topaz Tuesday - Portrait of an Irishman

Sony NEX-7

We were in our van, roaming the Irish countryside, on a gravel road... We are going downhill, and we see an older gentleman tending to his gate, the one that keeps his sheep in. There are about 8 of us, and as we get close, I know we all had the same thought, holy cow (sheep?), we need to shoot this guy.

Someone pipes up and mentions it to our driver. I'm thinking he'll just laugh it off, but no, as we get to the guy's location, he stops, opens the window and says in his thick accent "I gut a busload of photographers that want to take your picture!"

The guy is stunned for a few seconds but then without missing a beat says "Oh I'd like to, but I'm just much too busy!"  In a few seconds we are all laughing. As far as the eye can see, there is this guy and his sheep. How busy can he be?

The driver is negotiating a bit, but old Paddy isn't budging. I notice that if I lean forward a bit, I can catch him in the outside mirror. So I quick grabbed the Sony and began firing off shots. They aren't fantastic as I was never able to completely isolate him in the mirror. But that's what this is, his reflection in the van mirror.

In Topaz Adjust 5, I began with the Detail Strong preset and went from there. Some saturation adjustment, a few others, just by eye. I thought Adjust really brought out his character, and it was a blog worthy image despite the mirror frame.

On the Continue link, you can see the original, and I have included another shot so you can kind of see what I was working with.