Anker – Seattle

22. October 2012 · Comments Off on Anker – Seattle · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

The other day at work some of the guys in my team asked me about image processing, so I promised to bring in my computer and show them what I do.  So after three days of forgetting I finally remembered to take in my computer and today we looked at the apps I use.

At one point one of them asked about HDR images and asked how you create them and why bother.  So I went looking for an example to show them what you can do.  After searching for a couple of minutes I found this anker picture that I took on Saturday morning on Alki just after the sun had come up.  I bracket pictures quite a lot and had three images of the anker with different exposures.  So I dropped them into Photomatix and tonemapped the result.

Then I post processed the image in Photoshop, removing some dust spots and blurry seagulls. Next I tidied up grass a little, got rid of some purple fringing and selected a bush that wasn’t moving about from one of the master images to replace the blurry one I had in the tonemapped image.  The picture had an unsightly public sign in it so I covered that up with some long grass, and finally I lightened the sky, HDR tends to give you black clouds and while the sky did look dramatic, there were no black clouds.

Once I’d done all that I applied a couple of Nik Software filters, one to apply a sunrise effect, the other to add a vignette.  Having completed the work we compared the original normal exposure image and the one I’d post processed.  The funny thing was I really liked the finished image and this wasn’t one I was planning on posting.  So this is kind of a free-be.

So that’s the image I’m posting tonight.

Now of course the guy I showed all this to is planning on buying a load of software – his wife is going to kill me!

Abi had a great gymnastics meet yesterday and got 5 medals – 3 of them were 1st place (one was best overall) – so the guys tried them on.

Seal Pup – Seattle

21. October 2012 · Comments Off on Seal Pup – Seattle · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

I’ve come the the conclusion that luck plays a big part in capturing a great picture, but then you do need to recognize the lucky opportunity and act on it to get the shot.  Yesterday was a perfect example.  There we were at sunrise on Alki beach taking pictures of the Seattle skyline and the islands out in Puget Sound with the Olympic Mountain Range backdrop.

We had quite a few photographers there and we were all standing on the sidewalk and park above the beach.  I thought it might be interesting to get closer to the beach so I could include the sand and breaking water in the foreground so I walked down to the waters edge.  Now here’s the embarrassing thing, I then went ahead and took a load of pictures and it wasn’t until I looked at the captured image on the back of the camera that I saw a small seal pup right in front of me.

Now we aren’t supposed to get to close to seal’s on the beach but the little guy was pretty close already and didn’t seem bothered by my presence.  I did have a quick look around for the mother, as they can be a little agressive if they think the pup is in danger, but she wasn’t around.

So I got down on the floor and took a LOAD of pictures.  I was so excited that I totally screwed up the first ones, but once I calmed down I got a lot of beautify images.  Now I was around 5 feet from this little guy, and in truth that was probably too close, but I was there already so took the opportunity.

After I got the shots I wanted I backed away slowly and told all the other photographers about the pup.  They then ran down to the beach and I had the park and sidewalk to myself with nobody in the way.

Now I’ll be honest, I LOVE animal pictures, but they usually require amazing patience with you sitting by a hole in the ground for hours.  And as I’m amazingly lazy it’s not really for me.  But give me an opportunity like this and I’m all over it.  I loved the pictures I got and chose this one with the little guy’s eyes open.  I think he liked the camera too, as he almost looks like he’s smiling.

Tonight the guys found a “pumpkin” tree and played in that.

Morning Cityscape – Seattle

20. October 2012 · Comments Off on Morning Cityscape – Seattle · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , , ,

So I have quite a lot on at the moment, I’m taking a picture a day (that takes a load of time), we have just gone through a re-org at work and I have loads to do there, and for some ridiculously stupid reason I decided to do a photography course at Bellevue College.  I have no idea why I signed up for this and this morning I really regretted it!

Why this morning? Because I had to be in Alki, West Seattle at 7am on a Saturday!  Which meant I needed to get up at 6am, seriously sad news.  So why did I have to be there?  Well the course is called “Shoot to Show” and is all about shooting images that you can then frame and show and sell.  We had to pick a theme for our images, and decided on “Beginning or End of day”.  So this morning we all arrived in West Seattle to photograph a sun rise.

Anyway I got there around 6:40 and this was one of the first shots I took.  The sun hadn’t really come up yet, so the city was all lite up and looked really great across the water.  The lights from the city were reflected across the water and the sky was  almost black.  So I set up the tripod and too some pictures.

This picture was a 30 second exposure, so long that the sky looked light blue.  I took a few shots at the waters edge and the images looked great, but I really wanted some foreground interest.  So I stepped back from the water and set up behind a bench and took the image below.  I really liked the end result, the bench looked great and you can even see some grass under the bench.  And then in the distance you have the beautiful city of Seattle.  Pretty cool.

As Lisa and Abi have now decorated the house, Carter and Master Chief are now playing with all the Halloween “stuff”, tonight it’s Boo!

Carillon Point – Kirkland

17. October 2012 · Comments Off on Carillon Point – Kirkland · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

One of the “problems” of taking a picture a day is that if you work for a living (like I do) you tend to take pictures at the same time each day – after work.  And when summer is over and the sun goes down around 6pm, all your pictures become sunset or night time shots.  Now this is not really a major issue as this time of night is considered by most photographers as the “Golden Hour”.

The Golden Hour is said to be the best time of the day for pictures outside.  Really the golden hour is usually thought of  as the hour before sunset or the hour after sunrise.  (Although many believe it’s the hour that straddles both).  So what’s special about this time of day?  Well the sun is very low in the sky and casts long soft shadows on people and buildings.  Also the sky takes on a colored (sometimes red) hue which many people find attractive.  Sometimes if the weather’s not that nice the clouds become more dramatic.

Tonights picture is a great example of this.  I shot the image at Carillon Point in Kirkland as the sun was going down.  Earlier in the day the clouds were pretty flat and boring, but once the sun was low in the sky the clouds took on a much more interesting look.  Luckily when I set up the tripod for this image nobody was around (that usually never happens) so I didn’t have to take anyone out in Photoshop.

If I had taken this picture 30 minutes earlier or later I wouldn’t have got the same shot at all, so it shows that hour is kind-a special.  So as the nights are starting earlier these days, you should expect a lot more pictures like this.

Today the guys wanted to play on some halloween decorations.

Sailing in Fog – Seattle

11. October 2012 · Comments Off on Sailing in Fog – Seattle · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

You know when summer is over and fall is coming when the fog rolls in and you lose the sky in the morning.  That’s been happening a lot here lately so I thought I should capture some examples.  Normally I see it on the way to work in the morning as I live at the top of this hill and on the way to work I drive past a large lake.  The fog (I guess) builds up on the lake and then rolls onto the land and I hit it as I drive down the hill.

Anyway, in the past I’ve seen some amazing “fog” pictures, you know the kind of thing, fall trees by a field with a fence and fog coming off the field (I so loads of those) so I thought I’d try to capture some myself. This does of course require me to get up early enough so I have time to stop of the way to work and take a picture (that may be a problem).

But I do have this picture of a sail boat on Elliott Bay with a foggy Seattle skyline.  So I thought I’d start with that.  Ironically this was captured a while ago but I like the image so I thought I’d post it tonight.

The downside of fog I’m finding (in pictures that is) is that my images have no (or very little) contrast or color and look a little boring.  So I had to boost the contrast to make this even slightly interesting.  Now this could be because I suck at photographing fog, but it also could be that there is little foreground interest in this image.  There is the boat (that’s white with a black sail) and then there is just loads of water.  So I shouldn’t be surprised that this is pretty washed out.

Anyway I’ll keep trying and see what else I can get.

Oh, by the way.  My photo walk is this Saturday and I’m leading a group of photographers (28 in total) around Redmond.  So that should be interesting and will hopefully produce a lot of images.  Of course rain is suposed to be here on Saturday but as we live in the Pacific North West I’m hoping people will still turn up – I mean we are used to rain right?

Today, Master Chief was attacked by a huge green spider.  Carter Tried to help, I think it was because Master Chief’s uniform is also green!

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