View from Petroleum Club #4

Taken from the Petroleum Club in Downtown Houston today at lunch.

Title: "View from Petroleum Club #4"


Post-processing: HDR from three hand held exposures (-2, 0, +2) using Photomatix Pro > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin > Nik Viveza plugin

Drop Off

I was going through the archives gathering up some photos to submit to the upcoming TAACL show "Flotsam and Jetsam" when I noticed this photo, one of my favorites, hadn't been posted to the blog before! Time to remedy that situation!

Title: "Drop Off"


Shot data: 1/640s f/9.0 at 17.0mm iso400
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-15 f/2.8 zoom

Spaghetti Warehouse

Taken this past weekend at the downtown Spaghetti Warehouse restaurant.

Title: "Spaghetti Warehouse"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: HDR from three exposures (-2,0,+2)with camera sitting on table using Photomatix Pro > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin to adjust overall contrast and sharpness > Filter Artistic Palette Knife with Layer Mask to selectively apply the effect > Distort Lens Correction Vignette > Transform Skew to alter the perspective from the 4:3 aspect to approximately 8 1/2 X 11

Inside Ikea

Taken at the Ikea store in Houston yesterday.

Title: "Inside Ikea"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: HDR from three handheld exposures (-2, 0, +2) using Photomatix Pro > Photoshop CS3 for saturation and level adjustments > Nik Viveza plugin for selective brightness > Topaz Adjust plugin for contrast and sharpening adjustments

Melon Tower

Taken today as we passed through Luling, TX.

Title: "Melon Tower"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: HDR from three handheld exposures (-2, 0, +2) uisng Photomatix Pro > Photoshop CS3 > Tapaz Adjust plugin "photo pop" preset

A Place to Spit

This time of the year Luling, Texas is all about watermelons! I believe the big annual "Watermelon Thump" was just recently completed. Of course you've seen Luling's watermelon shaped water tower? When we were there last weekend I spotted this seed spitting venue! :-) Not sure if this is a permanent venue or just seasonal.

Title: "A Place to Spit"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: HDR from three hand held exposures (-2, 0, +2) using Photomatix Pro > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

The Rock-A-Bye Motel

I have been fascinated by this old motel located at one of the main crossroads in Luling, TX for years. If memory serves I have made other attempts to create a photo here without much success. This past Sunday I parked the car and walked around some and spent a little more time than I had in prior attempts. Not surprisingly I like the results this time. We all know that the greater the effort you put into a goal the greater the satisfaction you get when it turns out well... but sometimes we need a successful effort to remind us!

Title: "Rock-A-Bye Motel #1"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: HDR image from three handheld exposures (-2, 0, +2) combined with Photomatix Pro > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Title: "Rock-A-Bye Motel #2"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: HDR image from three handheld exposures (-2, 0, +2) combined with Photomatix Pro > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Inside Mr. Davis' Bath House

This is an HDR interior shot of the bath house featured in yesterday's posting.

Title: "Inside Mr. Davis' Bath House"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: HDR from 3 hand-held exposures (-2, 0, +2) combined in Photomatix > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Mr. Davis' Bath House

We did some driving around and between Luling and Houston today specifically looking for photo ops. This old bath house in Luling, TX has a great story behind in that you can read about in more detail here. The short story is that the powers that be tried to demolish the building at one time but found its construction too sturdy to be easily knocked down so instead they buried it. The flood waters of the San Marcos eventually uncovered the Bath House and it now sits in this condition near the public golf course.

Title: "Mr. Davis' Bath House"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: HDR from three handheld exposures using Photomatix > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Kemah Carousel

We went down to the Kemah Boardwalk last night to see what was going on. I took a few photos and this was one of my "keepers".

Title: "Kemah Carousel"


Shot data: 1/50s f/2.8 at 17.0mm iso1000
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom

Lake Austin Bridge

This is a shot I took of the Lake Austin Bridge on loop 360 in Austin, TX over the 4th of July weekend. The shot was taken from a bluff overlooking the bridge and lake. This is a great spot to take photos from and the climb to the top of the bluff is short and relatively easy. This location will definitely warrant another visit next time I find myself in Austin.

Title: "Lake Austin Bridge"


Shot data: 1/320s f/7.1 at 17.0mm iso200
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom

High Key Battleship

I took this shot of the Battleship, Texas in bright sun and then pushed the hot areas in post-processing for a gritty, high key look. (Archives) Hope you like it!



Shot data: 1/250s f/9.0 at 275.0mm iso200
Camera / Lens: Canon XTi / Canon 100-400 L zoom

Setup for In-Laws Portrait

Here is the setup for yesterday's shot of my in-laws. I know photographers are sometimes curious about the technical stuff but I mainly wanted to put it here for my own future reference.

Title: "In-Law Portrait Setup"

The In-Laws

My in-laws have their 50Th wedding anniversary coming up and so they needed a photograph to commemorate the occasion. I used a Wescott Spiderlite softbox for a hair light, a Canon 430 strobe into a silver umbrella camera left for the key light and a Vivitar 285 flash through a shoot through umbrella camera right for fill. Comments? Suggestions?

Title: "The In-Laws"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 100-400mm L zoom
Shot data: 1/250s f/8.0 at 100.0mm iso100

Phil Redo

If it works out that I receive advice on this blog about how to improve a particular photo, AND if I think that the advice has merit, AND if I actually have time to make the change, then I do like to try and make the change and post the revision. In my mind this serves two purposes: 1) it demonstrates that I do indeed pay attention to the feedback I receive and 2) it lets other followers of the blog see how relatively minor changes can have a large impact on a photo.

I originally posted this photo of Phil on Thursday, July 2 and received a lot of positive feedback related to it. One suggestion I had, offered by Larry Patrick (fellow Bay Area Photo Club member), was to remove some of the negative space between Phil and the photo on the wall in order to strengthen the relationship between the two. Larry's change to the photo, which I really liked, went even further than I did here by actually putting a portion of Phil's head in front of the wall photo. I tried various different spacing options and settled on this one that leaves a little more of the original negative space in place. I think this small change does improve the impact of the photo and would be interested to hear if you agree (scroll down three postings to see the original image).

Title: "Phil Redo"

Hey Cupcake!

You can always count on seeing something interesting in Austin! This past weekend we spotted this business being run from a small Airstream trailer. I don't remember if it was the giant rotating cupcake on top or the "Hey Cupcake!" sign that first caught my attention but either way it struck me as funny in a "Keep Austin Weird" kind of way.

Title: "Hey Cupcake!"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix to combine three handheld exposures (-2,0,+2) into one HDR image, Photoshop CS3 for contrast and color adjustments, Topaz Adjust plugin for contrast and sharpening adjustments

Based on feedback to yesterdays posting I did a little more Photoshop work on "Austin's Oasis". Mainly I leveled the horizon by partially rotating it (not too much because I wanted to limit the cropping I would have to do after the rotate operation) and then by using Transform Skew to raise the top right hand corner. I also brightened the image a little while I was working on it.

Title: "Austin's Oasis Redo"

Austin's Oasis

We spent this past weekend in the Lake Travis area of Austin. One of our stops was the famous Oasis Restaurant where seating is available inside or outside on a series of hillside decks. The restaurant is famous for offering a spectacular view of sunset. About 10 minutes prior to sunset the Oasis staff removes all the umbrellas so that a clear sight line of the sunset is available to all the restaurant's customers.

Title: "Austin's Oasis"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix to create an HDR image from three handheld exposures (-2,0,+2) > Photoshop CS3 to adjust contrast and heal some spots caused by dust on the camera sensor > Topaz Adjust Plugin to improve contrast and reduce noise

Phil

This is a shot I took of my boss while we were at lunch a while back. I like the lighting in the photo and the strong red color of the background but there is something about the composition that I can't exactly put my finger on that makes it really appealing to me. Maybe it's the contrast between youth (the young child in the drawing hanging on the wall) and age (the not so young subject (sorry Phil) sitting at the table)? Or maybe it’s about innocence versus wisdom? Whatever it is, I hope you enjoy the photo.

Title: "Phil"


Shot data: 1/250s f/2.8 at 18.0mm iso400
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom

Watch Out for Farmers!

Just a quick grab shot today. I took this shot while in Pennsylvania in May. You can see a bit of the beautiful farmland in the background but mostly I took the shot because of how well the simple sign represents such a huge part of Pennsylvania's industry.

Title: "Watch Out for Farmers!"


Shot data: 1/60s f/16.0 at 55.0mm iso125
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom