#756. Taffy Puller

Taken at LaKing's Confectionery in Galveston, Texas. "Pulling" is a key part of making taffy. This looks to be a difficult job if done by hand; luckily LaKing's pulling machine survived hurricane Ike.

Title: "Taffy Puller"

Camera / Lens: Canon 5D Mark II / Canon 24-105mm L zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS4 > Nik Viveza 2 plugin

#751. Taffy 4

Continuing with my Taffy shots from last weekend's trip down to Galveston.

Title: "Taffy 4"

Camera / Lens: Canon 5D Mark II / Canon 24/105mm L zoom
Shot data: 1/40s f/4.0 at 35.0mm iso1000

Old Galveston

My daughter and I went down to Galveston this past Saturday to take photographs to enter in the upcoming Bay Area Photo Club assignment "Old Galveston." This shot was taken on The Strand in Galveston. I was first attracted to the scene by the street lamp and the rich color of the old store front.

Title: "Old Galveston - The Strand"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Lens 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photoshop CS3 > Duplicate Background Layer > Topaz Adjust plugin "Spicify" preset > Distort Lens Correction adjust perspective to remove lens distortion > Merge Visible to New Layer > Cloning to remove minor high contrast distractors from the shot > Select a portion of the foreground and copy to a new layer, moved it over and used it to hide a automobile that was parked on the curb > Merge Visible to New Layer > performed more cloning work to smooth out the preivous work done to remove the automobile > Merge Visible to New Layer > Topaz Adjust plugin "Spicify" preset to add additional pop to the photo > Levels Adjustment Layer to set a Black and White point at 49% opacity > Merge Visible to New Layer > Distort Lens Correction adjust perspective to remove a little left behind lens distortion > Save File > Flatten Layers to reduce file size and save as a new file > Duplicate Background Layer > Copy Lamppost to new layer and move from from in front of middle window into in front of the second window from the right > Merge Visible to New Layer and do final cloning to clean everything up > Whew!

The Strand

Today's images are of The Strand in Galveston, Texas from our visit there last Saturday. The Strand is Galveston's historical business district and home to souvenir shops, restaurants, clothing stores and art galleries. Prior to hurricane Ike The Strand would be crowded with tourists on any given Saturday but on this Saturday, three weeks after hurricane Ike, the historical district is abandoned except for construction workers!

Title: "The Strand: Post Ike"

Click the image for a larger version!

Post-processing: Photomatix (HDR conversion from three handheld exposures (-2,0,+2) > Photoshop CS3 > High Pass Sharpening > Merge to new layer > Noise Reduction > Merge to new layer > Distort Lens Correction > Vignette > Curves Adjustment with masking > Levels Adjustment with masking

Title: "Strand Closed"

Click the image for a larger version!

Post-processing: Photomatix (HDR conversion from three handheld exposures (+2,0,-2) > Photoshop CS3 > High Pass Sharpening > Merge to new layer > Noise Reduction > Merge to new layer > Topaz Adjust Plugin "Photo Pop" > Merge to new layer > Distort Lens Correction Vignette > Levels adjustment layer with mask