#589. Falstaff Brewery

Taken two weekends ago in Galveston, Texas. This is and HDR image of the old Falstaff Brewery which was closed about twenty years ago I think.

Title: "Falstaff Brewery"


Shot data: 1/166s f/11.3 at 24.0mm iso100
Camera / Lens: Canon 5D Mark II / Canon 24-105 L zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to combine 7 exposures into one HDR (High Dynamic Range) image > Photoshop CS4

#574. Galveston Building

Taken from near The Strand in Galveston, Texas. The image underlying the rollover is after processing with Photomatix Pro, which you should always consider to be your starting point for post-processing when you are working with HDR images (i.e. never think of the image created by Photomatix as your final HDR image).

[Technical Note] This particular image had an alignment problem that Photomatix couldn't resolve (it was taken hand-held) so I aligned the images by loading them into Photoshop CS4 as three separate layers and then used the auto align feature, cropped the edges to lock in the alignment (basically trimming the uneven edges caused by the auto alignment process), and then saved each layer as my Photomatix input. This is a technique I credit to Larry Patrick from the Bay Area Photo Club and it really does a great job.

Title: "Galveston Building" (rollover)


Camera / Lens: Canon 5D Mark II / Canon 24-105mm L zoom
Post-processing: Photoshop CS4 > Photomatix Pro > Virtual Photographer plugin

Official Effort

This is one of the officials that helped organize the Galveston Bay Foundation's Marsh Mania event this past Saturday at Burnet Bay near Baytown. The Marsh Mania event was all about planting these buckets of grass so I wanted to emphasize the grass in this shot.

Title: "Official Effort"


Shot data: 1/250s f/13.0 at 17.0mm iso100
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Cock-eyed Dock

This was my second entry for the Bay Area Photo Club's September 2009 Honors Night held this past Tuesday. This dock is located on Canyon Lake and, as with all the Texas hill country lakes, the ongoing drought in central Texas has caused the water level to be extremely low. This dock is supposed to be floating and the ramp in the photo is supposed to be roughly level with the upper landing (where I'm standing to take the photo) but instead the dock is partially resting on the bottom of the lake and the ramp is at about a 45 degree angle between the upper landing and the lower. This photo was given a Silver Award by BAPC's panel of judges.

Title: "Cock-eyed Dock"


Post-processing: Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin > Nik Viveza plugin > Virtual Photographer plugin