Guadalupe White Water

Today's image was taken last weekend in Gruene, Texas.

Title: "Guadalupe White Water"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to combine three exposures (-2, 0, +2) into one HDR (High Dynamic Range) image > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Shanty Tubes

Last two from my visit to Shanty Tubes in Canyon Lake, Texas last weekend.

Title: "Shanty Tubes (Elvis)"


Title: "Shanty Tubes (Miller)"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to combine three handheld exposures (-2, 2, +2) into one HDR (High Dynamic Range) image > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin > Red Paw Media Bleach Bypass and Beautifier plugins

Shanty Tubes Parking

Here's another shot from my Shanty Tubes visit this past weekend in Canyon Lake, Texas. As with to the image I posted of the Guadalupe River below, I like both versions of this image. I don't necessarily think either one is "correct", they are just different. The pano version places more emphasis on the main subjects but at the expense of losing some great shadows, textures and details in the parking lot and sky.

Title: "Shanty Tubes Parking"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to combine three handheld exposures (-2, 0, +2) into one HDR (High Dynamic Range) image > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Title: "Shanty Tubes Parking Pano"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to combine three handheld exposures (-2, 0, +2) into one HDR (High Dynamic Range) image > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Shanty Tubes Van

There are a lot of tubing outfitters located on the Guadalupe River in Canyon Lake. I stopped at Shanty Tubes this past weekend to take a few shots while things were quiet during the off-season. I hope to be able to process a few other shots from this outing and post them tomorrow.

Title: "Shanty Tubes Van"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to combine three handheld exposures (-2, 0, 2) into one HDR (High Dynamic Range) image > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Gruene, TX Guadalupe River

We were in the Wimberley area over the Christmas holidays and I took this photo of the section of the Guadalupe River in Gruene, TX that runs behind Greune Hall. I presented two different versions because I couldn't decide which crop I liked best.

Title: "Gruene, TX Guadalupe River"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to combine three exposures (-2,0,+2 with the camera stabalized on a rock) into one HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Title: "Gruene, TX Guadalupe River Pano"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to combine three exposures (-2,0,+2 with the camera stabalized on a rock) into one HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Blanco River Hang Out

Taken this past weekend in Wimberley, Texas. If you drive along the Blanco River in Wimberley, Texas you will see a great many of these riverside decks. Some are simple construction and some are more elaborate, most have been there for many years. It's winter now and no one is in the water but you can still hear the kids laughing and the water splashing if you listen hard enough!

Title: "Blanco River Hang Out"


Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to combine three handheld exposures (-2,0,+2) into one HDR image > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin

I See Me cont'd

Here's the rest of the set I shot yesterday. Shaving is a relatively intimate and personal process and something that all men do every day. Conceptually my hope is that these photos are both revealing, due to their personal nature, and a little intriguing, due to their familiarity.

Title: "I See Me 4"


Shot data: 1/250s f/4.0 at 50.0mm iso200
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Strobist: 1 Vivitar 285HV, 1/4 power on light stand slightly camera left pointed down, 1 Canon 430EX background light on light stand all triggered with Pocket Wizards and using an intervalometer to take a series of timed shots
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin


Title: "I See Me 5"


Shot data: 1/250s f/4.0 at 50.0mm iso200
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Strobist: 1 Vivitar 285HV, 1/4 power on light stand slightly camera left pointed down, 1 Canon 430EX background light on light stand all triggered with Pocket Wizards and using an intervalometer to take a series of timed shots
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Title: "I See Me 6"


Shot data: 1/250s f/4.0 at 50.0mm iso200
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Strobist: 1 Vivitar 285HV, 1/4 power on light stand slightly camera left pointed down, 1 Canon 430EX background light on light stand all triggered with Pocket Wizards and using an intervalometer to take a series of timed shots
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Title: "I See Me 7"


Shot data: 1/250s f/4.0 at 50.0mm iso200
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Strobist: 1 Vivitar 285HV, 1/4 power on light stand slightly camera left pointed down, 1 Canon 430EX background light on light stand all triggered with Pocket Wizards and using an intervalometer to take a series of timed shots
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin

I See Me

I took a series of self-portraits tonight to test a concept I have for a possible future body of work. I especially wanted to test this lighting setup. Part of the concept is for all the images to be in black and white to add a bit of timelessness and drama to the shots.

Title: "I See Me 1"


Shot data: 1/250s f/4.0 at 50.0mm iso200
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Strobist: 1 Vivitar 285HV, 1/4 power on light stand slightly camera left pointed down, 1 Canon 430EX background light on light stand all triggered with Pocket Wizards and using an intervalometer to take a series of timed shots
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Title: "I See Me 2"


Shot data: 1/250s f/4.0 at 50.0mm iso200
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Strobist: 1 Vivitar 285HV, 1/4 power on light stand slightly camera left pointed down, 1 Canon 430EX background light on light stand all triggered with Pocket Wizards and using an intervalometer to take a series of timed shots
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Title: "I See Me 3"


Shot data: 1/250s f/4.0 at 50.0mm iso200
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Strobist: 1 Vivitar 285HV, 1/4 power on light stand slightly camera left pointed down, 1 Canon 430EX background light on light stand all triggered with Pocket Wizards and using an intervalometer to take a series of timed shots
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Flash Frame

This shot shows the simple light setup I used to take photos at our Company's Christmas party last weekend. I like the composition of the shot and I find the lighting interesting. I didn't notice the light spill over the top of the umbrellas during the actual event because it was outside the viewfinder of my camera as I focused in on my subjects.

Title: "Flash Frame"


Shot data: 1/125s f/4.5 at 17.0mm iso400
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom

More Event Photos

I always take a variety of wide angle and detail shots of the venue setup. These are setup shots from our company's Christmas party last Saturday night. I included these shots with the event photos and also sent them to the gallery manager who had requested copies.

Title: "Venue Setup 1"


Shot data: 1/60s f/2.8 at 17.0mm iso800
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17/55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Title: "Venue Setup 2"


Shot data: 1/60s f/8.0 at 51.0mm iso800
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17/55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Event Photos

These photos are from our company's annual Christmas party where I volunteered to be the event photographer. All shots were taken using light stand mounted strobes fired by Pocket Wizards into shoot through umbrellas. One umbrella was head high camera left and one was chest high camera right.

I had basically an eight foot square of area to work with as long as I could maintain a corridor through the middle of the space for foot traffic. The space was an art gallery and both walls available for backdrops were covered with art work. I didn't have enough room to get enough distance between the background and the subjects (subjects were 6" to 8" from the wall) to make it possible to blur the background and keep a good working depth of field. I don't have a portable background but I don't think the gallery manager would have allowed me to cover any of the art anyway. I guess the one option I had but didn't think of at the time was to rearrange the art and move a couple of the more distracting pieces to less prominent locations on the wall.

These five photos are fairly representative of the portraits I took that night. Any commments about how I might have improved the results would be greatly appreciated.

Title: "Party #1"


Shot data: 1/160s f/5.0 at 55.0mm iso400
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom

Title: "Party #2"


Shot data: 1/125s f/4.5 at 55.0mm iso400
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom

Title: "Party #3"


Shot data: 1/125s f/4.5 at 55.0mm iso400
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom

Title: "Party #4"


Shot data: 1/160s f/5.0 at 44.0mm iso400
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom

Title: "Party #5"


Shot data: 1/125s f/4.5 at 55.0mm iso400
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom

Gallery Manager

The company I work for had it's annual Christmas party last night at a local gallery. I volunteered to take photos. This shot is of the gallery manager who was kind enough to spare 30 seconds for me while I was trying to get my lights set. This isn't the final settings for the lights but I really loved the expression on her face and the pose she struck.

Title: "Gallery Manager"


Shot data: 1/125s f/4.5 at 20.0mm iso400
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Lighting: Vivitar strobe on stand with 43" shoot-through umbrella camera left, Canon 430EX flash on stand with small (35"?) shoot-through umbrella camera right, triggered with Pocket Wizards

Robert

Last night my siblings and I met Robert at Donnaley's Restaurant in Baytown. Robert was in Houston on a business trip and my sister had arranged the get together. We hadn't seen Robert since we were kids which meant we hadn't seen him in more than three decades! Robert is a VIP in the field of health care law in Washington. He's also a great guy and we all had a terrific amount of fun reminiscing about the old days and catching up on the events of each other's lives. I took a couple dozen photos during the night while we were sitting at the dinner table and today's post is one of the two that I liked.

Title: "Robert"


Shot data: 1/250s f/2.8 at 55.0mm iso320
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Flash: Canon 430EX on camera bounced against the ceiling
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS4 > Nik Viveza plugin > Topaz Adjust plugin

Conquest

I took this shot on a quick trip down to Galveston last month. The early evening light was hitting the side of the ship in a beautiful way and gave the whole scene a surreal feel.

Title: "Conquest"


Shot data: 1/640s f/5.6 at 400.0mm iso250
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 100-400mm L zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust

Curious Squirrel

Taken in a local park about a month ago. I know he's just a rat with a bushy tail but still...he seems cute in a way, doesn't he? :-)

I know I get low marks for creativity with this shot but I'm feeling a bit lazy on a rainy day here in Houston. I really need to get out and do some shooting!

Title: "Curious Squirrel"


Shot data: 1/3200s f/2.8 at 18.0mm iso500
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom

Canon vs Nikon

I wanted to bring this photo out of the archives (Feb 08) and onto my blog. It cantains a subtle message that might help someone decide between the two major camera brands as they consider purchasing a camera for Christmas! :-)

Title: "Canon vs. Nikon"

Jon, The Pianist

Today I have one last photo I want to post from our Thanksgiving get-together in Teague last week. I know conventional wisdom would suggest that I could have, maybe even should have, cropped away some of the negative space from the top of the photo. I like it as it is though because it gives me the feeling that music is filling void.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some weather related photos as Houston is scheduled to get it's earliest ever snowfall today. We'll see...even though we've had a couple days of snow in the last five years, a snow day in Houston is still a pretty rare event.

Title: "Jon, The Pianist"


Shot data: 1/50s f/6.3 at 52.0mm iso800
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Miki and Adrian

Here is another informal portrait taken at our family's Thanksgiving get together.

Title: "Miki and Adrian"


Shot data: 1/60s f/5.0 at 55.0mm iso250
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55m f/2.8 zoom
Flash: Canon 430EX > On Camera

Waiting Their Turn

Taken Thanksgiving Day. Because a lot of our family members are blessed with talent (present company excluded) our Thanksgiving Day celebration traditionally includes a talent show. Here two aspiring musicians await their respective turns.

Title: "Waiting Their Turn"


Shot data: 1/50s f/6.3 at 28.0mm iso640
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin > Virtual Photographer plugin

Emma and Sophia

Another shot from Thanksgiving. I'm not sure exactly how this particular photo was lit but most of the day I was using my Canon 430EX flash on camera and bounced from the ceiling.

Title: "Emma and Sophia"


Shot data: 1/60s f/5.0 at 55.0mm iso400
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Three Generations Redo

Here's a couple of more versions of the photo I posted yesterday. These versions are in response to feedback I received yesterday.

Title: "Three Generations Pano"


Title: "Three Generations B&W"

Three Generations

Taken on Thanksgiving Day at a family get together in Teague, Texas. Is this a great photo or is it just me? Do you have to know and care for the folks in the photo to love it as much as I do or does it move you anyway?

Title: "Three Generations"


Shot data: 1/60s f/5.0 at 44.0mm iso250
Camera / Lens: Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Concan Cypress Trees

Taken two weekends ago in Concan, Texas. The fall colors of the giant Bald Cypress trees lining the Frio River in Concan were at their peak.

Title: "Concan Cypress Trees"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 100-400mm L zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to combine three tripod mounted exposures (-2,0,+2) into one HDR (High Dynamic Range) image > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Galveston Photog

Sunday evening while on East Beach in Galveston I watched a photographer for a while as he set up a wedding shot. Interestingly enough he chose to set up where me and my truck were in the background of the shot. I guess he was planning to remove us in post-processing...but I relocated to save him the trouble.

Anyway, I'm always curious to see how other photographers do their situational photo setups. Hope you are too. :-)

Title: "Galveston Photog"


Shot info: 1/250s f/4.5 at 100.0mm iso250
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 100-400mm L zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Galveston No Swimming

Another shot taken in Galveston yesterday evening. As tempting as the water looked I didn't go swimming...because of the sign! :-)

Title: "Galveston No Swimming"


Shot data: 1/60s f/5.0 at 150.0mm iso250
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 100-400mm L zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Galveston Powered Parachute

I went down to Galveston this evening to try and make a few photos. I really enjoyed watching this powered parachute for a while.

Title: "Galveston Powered Parachute"


Shot data: 1/1000s f/5.6 at 400.0mm iso250
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 100-400 L zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Lost Maples Fall Colors

Here's another shot from last weekends trip to Lost Maples Natural Area in Vanderpool, Texas.

Title: "Lost Maples Fall Colors"


Shot info: 1/320s f/3.5 at 37.0mm iso200
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

The Medina River

Today's photos were taken from a highway overpass crossing the Medina River near Bandera, Texas this past Sunday. I didn't really enjoy the cars whizzing by me at 55MPH but I did enjoy the view! :-)

Title: "The Medina Looking South"


Title: "The Medina Looking North"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to combine three tripod mounted exposures (-2, 2, +2) into one HDR (High Dyamic Range) image > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Maple Leaves

Taken this past Saturday at Lost Maples Natural Area in Vanderpool, Texas . At some point during the outing I removed my wide angle to normal zoom and replaced it with my 100-400 telephoto zoom to focus on taking more detail oriented shots. Since I had found myself in an area where the vistas just weren't what I had hoped they would be (read as: Texas isn't New England when it comes to Fall colors) I hoped to save the day by switching tactics and photographing more detailed shots. I intentionally simplified this shot (removed details) and added saturation (pushed the colors) in post-processing so that the emphasis would be on the shapes of the Maple leaves and the fall colors. Hope you like it!

Title: "Maple Leaves"


Shot data: 1/40s f/5.0 at 190.0mm iso800
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 100-400mm L zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

The Frio River in Fall

I took this shot Sunday morning at a Frio river crossing in Concan, Texas (near Lost Maples Natural Area). The fall colors of the Bald Cypress trees along the Frio River made this scene beautiful and I took about as many photos at this location as I did on my Lost Maples trip the day before. To get this shot I positioned my camera to sit on a flat rock near the edge of the river.

Title: "The Frio River in Fall"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to convert three exposures (-2,0,+2) to one high dynamic range (HDR) image > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Lost Maples 1

We arrived home yesterday evening from our weekend trip to Lost Maples State Natural Area near Vanderpool, Texas. This area is famous for the fall colors of its many Maple trees this time of year. We had watched the foliage reports on the Internet and knew this past weekend was supposed to be the peak time for fall colors. You don't get to see New England like fall color changes in Lost Maples to be sure but Lost Maples is about as good as it gets within convenient driving distance of Houston. You can see in today's photo that while there were some beautiful colors in the trees the majority of the foliage is ever present green.

Title: "Lost Maples 1"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to combine three tirpod exposures (-2, 0, +2) into one High Dynamic Range (HDR) Image > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

The Birds in Flatonia

Just in from a weekend road trip to Lost Maples. I'm just starting to process some shots. This was my last shot this weekend as we stopped for diesel at a filling station in Flatonia, Texas. The birds of course caught my eye and I needed to do something to make myself quit watching the total sale amount on the gas pump rolling ever higher, so I made a photo.

Title: "The Birds in Flatonia"


Shot data: 1/30s f/2.8 at 24.0mm iso800
Camera / lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Near Times Square

Taken from the top of a tour bus while visiting NYC this past May. The original sky in this photo was solidly light blue and did nothing for the photo. I took the photo toward the surreal by replacing the flat blue sky with an image of the surface of swimming pool. You may or may not like the end result but to me it is much more interesting than the unaltered image. I hope you like it! :-)

Title: "Near Times Square"


Shot data: 1/320s f/7.1 at 17.0mm iso250
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Longhorn Cavern Entrance

This is shot from just outside of the cave entrance at Longhorn Cavern State Park in Burnet, Texas. The entrance is below ground level where it appears that an original portion of the cave collapsed and left openings through which the surface can be viewed (and photographed!).

Title: "Longhorn Cavern Entrance"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to combine three hand-held exposures (-2,0,+2) into one HDR (High Dynamic Range) image > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Longhorn Cavern Approach

This is the approach to the cave at Longhorn Cavern State Park in Burnet, Texas. This shot was taken with my back to the actual cave entrance looking pack down the path we had approached on.

Title: "Longhorn Cavern Approach"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to combine three hand-held exposures (-2,0,+2) into one HDR (High Dynamic Range) image > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin