#715. Ticket Takers

Another shot taken yesterday morning at Kemah Boardwalk. It's a little early for Halloween but these folks at the Boardwalk are very patient. :-)

Title: "Ticket Takers"


Camera / Lens: Canon 5D Mark II / Canon 24-105mm L zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to combine three explosures (-2, 0, +2) into one HDR (High Dynamic Range) image > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin (exposure color stretch preset)

#707. Target Practice (Rollover)

This past Sunday my brother Larry and I got together and took a couple of shots for the Bay Area Photo Club's photo assignment for Honor's Night. This month's assignment was a diptych with two photos taken by two different photographers. We presented the photos in a diptych frame of side by side 8" X 10" prints but for Internet purposes I thought a rollover would work better. Larry took the photo of me you see below. Hold your cursor over the photo to reveal the photo I took of him. We had a lot of fun doing this and I hope we get to do more in the future.

Title: "Target Practice" (rollover)

#558. Training Day

This was one of the images I presented at our Bay Area Photo Club meeting tonight. I entered this photo for the assignment which was "Humorous". I made a not so subtle editorial statement with the photo (all in good fun of course) but to their credit the judges gave the photo a Gold Award!

Title: "Training Day"


Camera / Lens: Canon 5D Mark II / Canon 24-105mm L zoom
Post-processing: Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin > texture from flypapertexture.blogspot.com

#545. American Beauty

I've had the idea to create an "American Beauty" style image for a while and I finally got around to doing it last night. The basic components for this type of glamour shot are a white background, some high key lighting, some rose petals, and, oh yes, a sexy model! Enjoy! :-)

Title: "American Beauty"


Camera / Lens: Canon 5D Mark II / Canon 24/105mm L zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS4 > Red Paw Media Beautifier
Lights: Alien Bee 800 with large softbox to camera left as key, Alien Bee 800 with 20% Grid to camera right for fill, Alien Bee 400 with 7" reflector as a background light

10 Ton Bridge

Taken last Saturday in Baytown, Texas. What makes this bridge seem unusual to me is that it is a pedestrian bridge in a city park; it has a sidewalk leading up to it, not a road! Isn't a pedestrian bridge with a 10 Ton capacity overkill? Did the engineer that designed it really envision having to accommodate fifty 400 pound joggers at once? More likely this was some city politician's payback for a generous supporter that owned a bridge building company? :-)

Title: "10 Ton Bridge"


Camera / Lens: Canon 5D Mark II / Canon 24-105 L zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to combine three hand held exposures into one HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Balancing Act

Today's posting is of an image I made for the Bay Area Photo Club's February Honors Night held last night. The Assignment was for a Surreal Composite. I haven't done many composites and so I was excited that this Assignment gave me motivation to try something outside of my photographic comfort zone. Once I had a concept the execution was actually quite fun! :-) And...I received a Gold award for my efforts!

Title: "Balancing Act"


Camera / Lens: Canon 5D Mark II / Canon 24-105mm L zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin > Nik Viveza plugin

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"

Slow Children at Play

OK......but where do the smart kids play? ;-)

Scene near Lake Travis in the area of Austin, Texas.

Title: "Slow Children at Play"


Shot details: 1/250s f/5.0 at 100.0mm iso250
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 100-400mm L zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Snakes Exist

Taken at a local park this past weekend. What is the sign really saying? It's not a "Warning", just a "Notice". So it's kind of saying "be aware" but don't be overly concerned unless you actually come face to face with the subject of the notice. I wonder if I went down the path in the background of the photo if I would see other helpful notices like "Evil Exists" or "Liberals Exist"? :-)

Title: "Snakes Exist"


Shot data: 1/3200s f/2.8 at 55.0mm iso100
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Mega City

Looking at the photo I posted the day before yesterday I decided that "my town" wasn't big enough...so I fixed it! :-)

Title: "Mega City"

Seguin's Big Nut

Taken on my stop over in Seguin Tuesday before last. Paris has the Eiffel Tower, London has the London Eye, and Seguin has the Worlds Largest Pecan! :-)

Title: "Seguin's Big Nut"


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 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Tywheelosaurus Rex

I drove to San Antonio and back yesterday. The trip to SA from Houston is mostly down I-10. One of the places I stopped to take a few photos on the way back was just outside of Brookshire, TX where I had always wanted to grab a photo of "Tywheelosaurus Rex," a large sculpture of a dinosaur made from old car wheels. If memory serves Rex was originally constructed by a business located on the property to grab the attention of passing motorists. I'm thinking the original business on the property may have been a golf driving range. Someone with a better memory than my own can probably correct me if I'm wrong!

Title: Tywheelosaurus Rex


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing tools: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin

An Artist's Van

I took this photo in Galveston this past Saturday. It's not often you see a van this colorful that just happens to be sitting in an all black and white area of town! :-)

This van was parked in an area that I was in much of the night so I did eventually see that the owner of the van was one of the street artists performing in the little park on the Strand at 23rd. If I had given it any thought before hand I should have been able to guess that it belonged to an artist. :-)

Title: "An Artist's Van"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17/55mm f/2.8 zoom

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"

Bandera Transportation Center

Taken in Bandera, Texas two weekends ago. If it has either four wheels or four legs it's considered transportation in Bandera! :-)

Title: "Bandera Transportation Center"


Camera / Lens: Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
1/256s f/6.4 at 37.0mm iso259

Post-processing: HDR using Photomatix Pro > Photoshop CS3

Self Portrait (for Dummies)

Last night was the monthly Honors Night at Bay Area Photo Club in Webster, Texas where I have been a member for several years. On Honors Night club members submit photos for presentation to the general membership and for critique by a panel of three judges. Awards are given and photographers advance to higher levels upon meeting certain cumulative awards requirements. Today's photo is one I submitted for the Assignment category. The assignment was Self Portraits. I received a Gold Award for the photo. I also submitted yesterday's post ("Coming Storm") in the Open Category and received a Bronze Award for it.

I hope you enjoy today's post and thanks for visiting my blog!

Title: "Self Portrait for Dummies"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom

Mickey Kite

We spent some time on the beach in Rockport this past weekend. There was plenty of wind so we decided to fly our sorry excuse for a kite. It is amazing how much fun you can have with a $2 inflatable kite when you fly it with people you love! If you're not doing anything this weekend...go fly a kite! :-)

Title: "Mickey Kite"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 100-400mm L zoom

The Owl and the Seagull

From this past weekend's side trip to Port Aransas, Texas. I think the purpose of these fake owls is to scare the other birds away? This is the shoreline version of a crow resting on a scarecrow :-)

Title: "The Owl and the Seagull"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 100-400mm L zoom

Bandera Parking Lot

Another shot from Bandera, Texas taken weekend before last. Create your own caption about horsepower! :-)

Title: "Bandera Parking Lot"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin "Dramatic" preset> Duplicate Layer > Topaz Adjust plugin "Vibrance" preset > Virtual Photographer plugin "Sepia" preset @ 42% opacity > Curves Adjustment Layer to improve overall contast > Merge Visible to New Layer > Nik Viveza plugin to add local brightness to shadow areas > Duplicate layer > High Pass Sharpening in Hard Light blending mode > Merge Visible to New Layer > Distort Lens Correction Vignette

Life's Short...Eat More Pie

I took this shot as we were driving around the Texas Hill Country this past weekend. The shop is located in Kyle, Texas outside of Austin. I thought the slogan "Life's short...eat more pie" contained so much unbridled wisdom that it should be documented on my blog for all the ages! :-)


Title: "Eat More Pie"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom