Focus at Infinity

Zooey, aka Wiggles

admin — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 04:05:59 +0000

More fiddling with the NEX 7. It’s not what I’d call a “great” low light camera, but it does Ok. One thing I love about it is the OSS built into the 18-55mm kit lens. The steady shot feature allowed me to get this shot at 1/4 sec, hand-held. Zooey is a tough target. She’s a rescue dog and she’s a little skittish. She managed to hold still here for at least 1/4 sec with nothing more than a little ear wiggle. Added a subtle vignette and a little sharpening on her face and, voila!

El Rincon

admin — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 17:28:51 +0000

I passed by this little place last night and thought it was worth getting a shot. So, I got my camera and came back. I tried some brackets and a bunch of different single shots all hand-held. I should have gotten my tripod out but with all the traffic it would have been hard to concentrate and mess with the camera since I’m still learning how to use the NEX 7. I worked on one HDR image but the framing was too close and it felt crowded and the colors were bugging me. I liked this framing much better and I decided to do a black and white version. There’s a lot to like about the NEX 7 but it is a little noisy with longer exposure and increased ISO. And the 18-55mm has some hideous distortion but ACR lens correction will handle that pretty well. With some noise reduction, lens correction, straightening, a few filters (I don’t even remember which), curves adjustments, and elbow grease, I managed to come up with this.

Winter Color

admin — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:56:26 +0000

Finally, a blog post! Had a chance to stroll through the park yesterday and found this little gem. Still getting used to my new NEX 7. I LOVE carrying this thing around. It’s like carrying… nothing. The 24 mega pixels is way overkill and I would have been happy with 16, but of all the mirrorless cameras out there, I felt this one was the right one. I did a LOT of research and people generally are not impressed with the Sony lens lineup, apart from the Zeiss 24mm, which is not cheap. I settled for just the 18-55mm kit lens for now and I’m pretty happy with it. Going to find myself a nice, petite tripod and I’ll be good to go. Ah, the joys of mobility!

Silver Stalker

admin — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 23:10:26 +0000

Spider season is here! You really have to watch it walking outside after dark. These guys like to spin webs in the trees that overhang the sidewalk. There’s nothing worse than walking through one of these. I used my Nikon 70-300mm, so it’s not a real macro shot or anything, but I was able to get some good detail on the body, mostly because this thing was pretty big. Nothing real complicated about the processing. I used Perfect Effects from onOne Software. Lots of great filters in there. This one is from the black and white presets called Dawn Treader. A little sharpening and contrast and not much more.

California Living

admin — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 23:05:44 +0000

While cruising through Venice, this little apartment building at the end of the alley caught my eye. You honestly couldn’t pay me to live down here… way too crowded for my taste. But there are some interesting sights to be seen. This is a 5-exposure HDR, although a single exposure probably would have been fine. As usual, I added a couple of onOne filters and also a little Topaz Adjust.

On the Way to the Temple

admin — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 17:31:43 +0000

I had scouted out this spot weeks ago when I played chauffeur for my son’s prom. You can really get messed up driving in L.A. and I wanted to make sure I had a good route and didn’t foul up getting them there on time that night. When I drove by here on that Saturday morning, I noticed people walking by this wall and thought it would make a great background. So, I made it back here same time, same day and was able to get this shot. I composed, set focus, and waited for my subject to walk by. Sure enough he did. Luckily he pretended like I wasn’t there and I got the shot I was looking for. I like the graphic feel on this one and how the black design on the wall ties in with the the man’s basically black suit. I added just a touch of Blue Dawn from onOne’s Photo Tools and that was that.

Walking on Rodeo Dr.

admin — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 14:37:11 +0000

I don’t really take too many people shots. Not sure why. Anyway, I was basically done shooting the cars at the car show and I had noticed this wall and I thought it might be an interesting background for some pedestrian shots. So, I composed and waited for people to walk by. I think one reason I’m not much of a people shooter is because I think it makes most people real uncomfortable to have a camera trained on them. They’ll usually duck out of the way or look at you like you’re some kind of stalker. This is exactly what happened with the first couple of shots I tried here. So, I decided to just look real casual and turned away from the wall as if I had no interest in it. My plan was to spin around at the last moment and take a shot before anybody could escape what must appear to them to be The Eye of Sauron. This actually worked and I was able to get one I liked quite a bit. Afterwards, we chatted about photography and, you can’t see it, but he was toting the new Nikon D800 (which made me very jealous). BTW, this is James and he loves people shots. You can see some of them on his flickr stream.

Jubilation

admin — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 16:05:18 +0000

Another from my son’s graduation from Venice High School. I was using the 70-300mm and waiting for this shot. This is actually a combination of two shots. The first hat toss was Ok, but I wanted more hats. I kept waiting and there was a second wave of hats in the air and I got that one too. Later in photoshop, I combined the two and it created a much better image. Very little additional editing on this one since it speaks for itself. Is there anything better than getting out of high school??

Thunderbird in Beverly Hills

admin — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 20:50:44 +0000

They don’t make ‘em like they used to. This classic Ford Thunderbird was on display at a car show today in Beverly Hills. There were some amazing cars there and I got there early to avoid the crowd. This being Beverly Hills, there were more high-end cars than usual… Rolls Royces… that kind of thing. I decided to use the Sigma 15mm fish eye to accentuate the lines and shapes of the cars. I really didn’t get that many shots that I liked, but I thought this one wasn’t bad. This is a single exposure HDR, processed with a few filters from onOne software and a little Topaz Adjust. I really like the palm trees and the graphic on the billboard. I think when people imagine Los Angeles, this is what they see.

Venice Grads 2012

admin — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 13:49:09 +0000

My son graduated from Venice High School yesterday. I had taken my 70-300 for some long shots and I had my 50mm for after the ceremony. The plan was for him to round up his friends so we could get some shots. But there were a LOT of people running around and it was hard to find everybody. I was about ready to call it a day when a bunch of his friends showed up for a little photo session. What a great bunch of people. Gives me hope for the future. End of an era and a new one begins.

BTW, I think with photos like this, you really don’t need much in the way of processing. The people make the picture.