Sunday, October 31, 2010

Walkin' in the boneyard


Last night, on the eve before All Hallows Eve, my wife Diane and I took a walk through Oakwood Cemetery to see if we could scare up any spooks.  Well I was there to take some pix, not quite sure what Diane's mission was.  She didn't even bring a stake or Holy Water for protection.  We didn't see any ghouls, but it could have been that we got out of there too early, as the only light we thought to bring was my flash for my camera.  Next time we'll be better prepared. 




Sunday, October 24, 2010

The mandatory flowing water shot...


Made it up to Thacher Park yesterday.  And although it was an extremely overcast day, I was able to get a couple of nice shots, including this little waterfall.  After I had gotten this photo from a nice safe position, I had climbed down on the wet and slippery rocks (I really have to get hiking shoes), to get a lower angle.  

Turns out, I should've saved myself the trouble.  I like the first shot better!  Yes, I know it's somewhat cliched, but now I can scratch "Flowing waterfall" off my photography checklist. 

Anyway, even though the sun only peaked out a couple of times, the colors were beautiful and it was a great day for a little hike!




Tuesday, October 19, 2010

You can go home again... on a ladder!

About 20 years ago, I took the above long exposure photo on (gasp) film!  It was from an overpass and gave a nice view of the highway going in and out of the city of Albany.  I always thought I could do better.  First off, I broke the rule of "thirds" by putting the skyline smack dab in the middle.  Secondly, the shot wasn't as sharp as I had hoped.  Even though I was on tripod, there must have been some wind or movement to cause the blur.  I had always planned on going back to that bridge, to try again.  Especially in these days of digital photography where you can take as many shots as you like and don't have to worry about using up film. 

Unfortunately, a few years after I took that original shot, the city erected this 8 foot tall fence...

The fence was much too tall for my tripod and the mesh was too small to shoot through.  Every once in awhile I would wonder if there was a way to get around that fence. After thinking about it for quite some time I recently came up with this...




I wrapped my monopod tightly around the ladder and was able to get just enough reach to shoot over the fence.  I wrapped an extra strap around myself and the camera and as I stood on the top rung, I rested the camera lens on the top of the fence to try to give it a little more support.  Even with that, whenever traffic crossed the overpass I was on, the bridge would shake a little, causing my long exposures to blur.  So I could only take the shots when there was no traffic on the overpass. The exposures were averaging about 20 seconds.  Long enough for the cars to travel the length of the curved road.


Now in that original shot, I felt that the white streak of the oncoming headlights was too much and that the red streaking taillights would have been better if you didn't see the the start of one of the trails.  Ideally, I wanted one lane of oncoming headlights and two lanes of the taillights.  This proved to be quite a challenge.  There were long stretches when there was no traffic at all.  These particular roads come from ramps that don't get that much action in the evening hours.  Also, my hands were getting a bit cold as the sun went down and my fingers were clutching the top of the fence for support.  At one point, a police officer stopped his cruiser and wanted to make sure I wasn't a jumper!  Once I told him what I was doing, he wished me luck and drove off.  And as luck would have it, I never got the exact shot I needed when there was no traffic shaking me and my camera around.  What I did get was a shot of the two lanes of taillights and three minutes later, another shot of the oncoming headlights.  Then, in Photoshop, I was able to combine the two shots into one...

 There was also some cleaning up to do.  I had to get rid of that crane that had been marring the skyline for about a year now. And because of the double exposure, there were some stars that were repeating their pattern because of their movement across the sky.  And later (after some suggestions on the RixFotos Facebook page), I also got rid of the sign.


After taking much care to get a level shot, I decided to tilt the whole thing to make it a little more dynamic. And I came up with 3 different variations. Here are the alternates...
By a small margin, the folks on Facebook, liked this full color one the best...
What I find interesting are the changes over 20 years. At one point, those little reflector signs from the original photo had been removed.  You can also see grass growing through the cracks in the pavement on the side of the road.  And finally, the dark trees hugging the curve now obstruct the highway a lot more than they did in the original shot.  Well, after much long windedness, that's about it.  All in all, I'm pretty happy with the new shot (all three of them)! 

Saturday, October 16, 2010

That baby's a classic!

Speaking of old vehicles, (see last post), last Summer I was visiting my sister and her family out in western Ohio and one evening her husband Jack and I jumped in the truck to search out some dilapidated barns when we came across this beauty...
There was a bunch of people hanging around outside and I asked if they wouldn't mind if I took some shots of their barn.  The woman who seemed to be in charge (at least of the kids that were running around her) said that would be fine, and folks always want to take pix of the barn.  So, while I left Jack with the job of making small talk I started snapping away.  When I rounded the corner, I saw an old Mercury sitting inside...




I went in to take a closer look.  The thing looked like it had been sitting there for years.  I took a couple of shots, trying to find the best angle, when one of the gentlemen who had been on the property said, "Do you have permission to take pictures of that car?"  I had said that I had asked permission to shoot the barn and I assumed it would be ok to shoot what was inside it.  (Never assume!).  Apparently the folks that stay in the house are renters and the barn doesn't really belong to them.  The guy said that the owner of the car wasn't around and that maybe I should go back to the outside of the barn.  He then told me that he had offered to buy the car from the owner, but he wasn't selling.  Really, did the thing even run?  It looked kinda like a wreck!  I acted sort of interested as I went back to taking shots from the outside, but I was kinda bummed.  I had only taken a couple of pictures in there and I felt I hadn't quite gotten "the shot."    The messed up Mercury reminded me of those possessed cars in those Stephen King books, like Christine and From a Buick 8.  I kind of felt it was a missed opportunity.

Anyway, I finally went back to the pictures tonight, to see if there was anything worth salvaging.  This was the best shot I had gotten of the car...
 It was ok, but it wasn't exactly evoking the mood I had felt when I discovered it.  The backlight was way too bright.  I should've taken the shot at dusk and even lit the car.  So I started messing around in Photoshop.  What I ended up with looks more like an illustration from a horror comic...
Again, I wish I had been able to take a few more shots, but I think I captured the moodiness I was hoping for and even given the car a little life.

Click on any of the pix for a bigger view!  And don't forget to visit the website at www.rixfotos.com!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

HDR: Round 2

Looking back at those small previews on my last post, I was a surprised that the pictures didn't look all that different.  The changes are more subtle.  This time, I went a little farther with HDR shots and hopefully will demonstrate better what it can do for a photo.  Click on the images for a bigger view...


This is the original shot of an old tractor in a field.  I got a nice blue sky with the polarizer filter (not to mention some weird pattern effects in the windows that weren't visible with the naked eye), but the details in the shadows are pretty much lost.  Here's the HDR version...


Now, you can clearly see the inner shadow areas of the tractor, although the wheels on the left seem to have a bit of a blue cast to them.  It probably wouldn't hurt to do a bit of color desaturation on them. The sky is also a more even blue.

Then, I took it a wee bit farther...



This time those tires were REALLY blue, so I took my own advice and turned them back to grey.  One thing I noticed, is that I really start to get a lighter haloing effect where the skyline meets the trees, especially on the right side.  All in all, its looking less like a photograph and more like an illustration.  Another thing that you probably can't see in the preview is that the more the effect is applied, the noisier/grainier the sky gets.  Anyway, thanks to John, the owner of the tractor for allowing me to shoot it!



Next pic.  Before HDR...
 After...

I wondered if this one would present a problem with the moving water, since I am combining 3 shots for the HDR effect.  Overall, I was pleased, but I did go back and brought in some of the more natural looking water from the original shot in a few troublesome areas.  There still is a bit of lightening of the sky at the tree line. Not sure if I'm ok with it or not.  What I do like is that the colors really pop!



Ok, now hopefully when I hit "publish" on this Blog-thingy, all the shots won't look the same again!