We had some substantial rains last Thursday and Friday. As a result, Monday, there was a patch of rain lilies in the yard.
Rains Bring Rain Lilies
Reply
Tag Archives: Waco Portrait Photography
Wisdom exists for a purpose
There are times when one should heed common wisdom. I almost always shoot using Aperture Priority. I think most serious photographers do as it allows you to determine the depth of focus. That having been said, most sports photographers would argue that shooting in Shutter Priority is better for sports. It allows you to choose a shutter speed appropriate to freezing the action of your subject.
Saturday we went up to Denton to watch Mathias play football. This season, he is splitting time between his established position as corner back and his new position as running back. Saturday, he played a significant part of the second half at running back. He had a couple good, long runs and even scored a touchdown. Of course, I had my cameras and shot the game.
I began in Aperture Priority and selected f/8. It was a bright sunny day, and that allowed me to get good depth of field at a reasonable shutter speed. I had the 70 – 200 lens on my a550 and the 500 on my a700. Somehow at halftime, without my being aware of it, the aperture on my a700 got changed from f/8 to f/22. As a result, almost every pic had motion blur because I was now shooting at a shutter speed of 1/50 sec. Here is an example:
This is one of the better ones. I should have paid closer attention, but I didn’t. I should have shot using Shutter Priority, but I didn’t.
Pier 21
An add in local Galveston publications features a picture of Pier 21 at dusk. It struck me as an interesting picture, but an HDR treatment might add to its effect. Debbie and I went to a concert Saturday night, and after it was over, we went down to Pier 21 and tried to get some pictures. I ended up with two versions, and I can’t quite decide which one I like better.
The statue on the left adds a strong foreground element to the composition of this version, but, I wonder if it is not also a distraction compared to the second version.
Commercial Real Estate
I got another call to do a Commercial Real Estate shoot. This was for a local motel. They wanted a variety of shots of the exterior and interiors of their three different room configurations. They wanted the exterior shot during the day and after sundown to show the lights. Here is after sundown.
This was not a simple picture. I started out intending to do an HDR, but the processing seemed to add noise to it. So, I used the normally exposed frame. I adjusted exposure and black level, added contract, and sharpened as I would normally do, but there were distractions. They were in the process of installing something in the grass between this place and the one next door. There was an orange net fence. So, I cloned that out. There was a street sign that was distracting. So, that got cloned out as well. Then there was the street in front of the place. It was a large grey region in the foreground. So, I burned it in to darken it and then blurred it to reduce any definition.
This was the view of the double room configuration. The interior shots, too needed a great deal of help. First of all, there were no drapes in these rooms. The only thing to control the ambient light was mini blinds. I used my two LCD video lights and set those up in the corners behind me. Even at that, the exposure was dark. So, I corrected exposure and black level, added contrast, and vibrancy and sharpened the image. It still had some shadow problems, so, I moved the shadow slider up as far as it would go, and that really opened up the shadows. The final thing was the perspective. Every frame of this shoot was taken with a 10 – 20 lens, and there were serious perspective distortions as a result of the lens. So, I took the images into photoshop and transformed them to remove the distorted perspective. Now, all the lines are straight, and the end result was a usable image.
Shooting in the yard
It’s been kind of gloomy the last couple days. I have found a couple things to shoot around the house. This grasshopper was on one of the hibiscus.
This morning when I took the trash out, I saw a couple Wild Petunias next to the trash cans.
Real Estate Photography
I received an email last week out of the blue. I was asked if I could take pictures of a building for a California company who owned it. They wanted pictures for their web site where they listed the building for sale. In looking at their web site, I saw lots of pictures of buildings that were nice, but not really all that great photographically. The object was obviously not to take a great picture of an ordinary building, but to take a picture of the building that depicted it accurately.
I had no idea what to charge them. So, I gave them a figure. I was told I was too high. They normally pay less than I was asking. That was OK with me, and I submitted a proposal/contract. They returned it with a couple small changes, and we had a signed contract.
Monday I went to this building. It is a call center for a defense contractor. I started taking my pictures, and a security guard came out and told me I could not. I explained what I was doing, and showed him the contract. He went inside, and the head of security came out. Both of them told me it was a “government facility” and no photos were allowed, but they both realized that there was really no way they could stop me as the building was not owned by the government. Finally, he called the building manager, and I was told I could take my pictures but only of the exterior, and no employees could be recognizable.
So, I took my pictures. One of the stipulations on the contract was I was to include the building signage. The problem was there is no signage on the building. So, I took 20 pictures of a pretty normal, ordinary building. Here are a couple.
Cozumel
The third stop on our cruise was Cozumel. We have been there several times before, making it easier to just head out on our own. We took a cab into town and shopped, stopped at Palmeres and had a margarita, then stopped at Margaritaville for lunch before going back tot he ship. The port area is much more built up than the last time we were there.
Another shot of a boat, this one not as stylized as the one from Belize. This was taken in downtown San Miguel.
Altun Ha Ruins and Belize
Our second stop was Belize, and we took a tour to the Altun Ha Mayan ruins. It was unbelievably hot, and the “guide” (as typical) went on and on and on about trivial details. There were about 40 people in our tour and two other groups besides us. So, getting reasonable pictures without lots of people was a problem. However, by using photoshop, I was able to produce some pretty good images.
On the road, as we drove along the shore, I noticed there was an old boat leaning against a tree. So, I took a quick picture of it as we passed by. With the use of a variety of NIK effects, it turned out to be a pretty good image.
Roatan Honduras
The first stop on our cruise was the island of Roatan. We took a tour to the Carambola Botanical Gardens. It was an absolutely terrible day. It was raining and humid. I wanted to get some good flower pictures, but it was almost impossible. I did get a really good shot of an orchid.
Following that, our bus toured the west side of the island, stopping in a small village. From there, we went to a resort area. I got this picture at the resort. It took some manipulation to better balance the details and the contrast, but it was worth it.
Cruise 2013 – Galveston before we left
We went on a cruise a couple weeks ago. Prior to departing, you sit on the boat and wait. While waiting, I did get a couple of interesting shots. Then, when we did sail away, I was able to get a couple more really good ones.
This is another HDR shot. I shot it from the deck of the ship and did my best to get a straight shot along 25th St. The deck I was on ended a little short of where I really wanted to be, but this worked pretty well. You can see from the harbor all the way to the Pleasure Pier.
As we were sailing away, I was able to get this HDR image of The Elissa.