Polaroid Transfer of Worth Avenue

Posted on December 14, 2010 by admin

Worth Avenue

This image shows Worth Avenue in the City of Palm Beach, Florida looking toward the west. At the far end of the avenue is Lake Worth (the body of water, not the city). The alleyways, or vias, off of Worth Street lead into courtyards housing shops and restaurants.

There are hundreds of elegant and upscale shops – small and large – lining Worth Avenue. In Florida, the lake, the city and the avenue are all named after General William J. Worth who was an officer during the Second Seminole War. He also served as the Commandant of Cadets at West Point. He later had commands in Texas and was in charge of the “Department of Texas”. The cities of Ft. Worth and Lake Worth in Texas are also named after him as is Worth Street in NYC (near where he is buried). BTW, he was born in Hudson, NY!

This image was created with Nik Color Effects Pro to simulate a Polaroid transfer print. I did this to capture the feel of old Worth Street as in might have looked during the time of Addison Mizner.

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Detail of the Clock Tower at Sunrise

Posted on December 13, 2010 by admin

Detail of the Clock Tower Base.

This image was made a bit past sunrise but while the sun was quite low in the sky. The great golden light still is reflected off the stonework of the base of the Worth Avenue Clock Tower.

The original tower dates back to the “roaring twenties”. The current structure was just “made over” last May as part of a reported $15 million spending spree to update Worth Avenue. Although it was a bit controversial, I like it and it makes for some interesting photo opportunities. You can see a set of images from this photo shot on my Gallery.

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Sunrise Seen by the “Eye of the Master”

Posted on December 12, 2010 by admin

Sunrise on the Beach

I went to photograph the sunrise at the end of Worth Avenue and the Atlantic Ocean in Palm Beach, Florida. On the road at 5:30 am this morning, we set up at Ocean Avenue and Worth with about 12 other photographers from the PBC PhotoWalkers Meetup Group.

The light came up fast. This image was made through the arch in the Clock Tower at the foot of Worth Avenue. Three photographs at 0. +2 and -2 exposure values were taken from Lightroom 3 into Photomatix to produce this fantastic high dynamic range, or HDR, image.

This image captures the golden light of the early morning perfectly!

The eye of the master will do more work than both hands.

This sentence was written in 1744 by none other than Ben Franklin (Poor Richards Almanac). Ā Found (by me) this evening in a fortune cookie at a Chinese resaurant, it aptly describes my sentiment about today’s photo outing. While many photographers in our group were good at seeing interesting things to make images from, a few complained about “nothing to shoot” or”the sunrise is better elsewhere”. Good photographers are best at seeing things others can not. Just my “two cents”.

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Abandoned Bridge

Posted on December 9, 2010 by admin

Abandoned Bridge

I took this photo while walking in the woods near my home in Delmar. It was made during the bleak days just after Thanksgiving. And while I am now in Florida, I thought I would put this up as an example of using Silver Effects Pro to convert an image to black and white.

The original, of course, was in color. It is pretty nice that way but I wanted to capture the cold and bleak nature of late fall when the air is dank and the leaves have fallen. The scene is of an old abandoned bridge.

The photo was “developed” from a RAW file in Lightroom 3 and then brought into NIK Silver Effects Pro for the B&W conversion. Then I brought that file into Topaz Adjust 4 to enhance overall details.

I also created another file from this one with output sharpening from NIK Sharpener for viewing at a distance of 2′ to 5′. It was then printed on RedRiver Aurora fine art paper on a Canon Pro 5000 printer.

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Vision and Photography

Posted on November 24, 2010 by admin

I am always surprised at the difference in the way photographers treat the same subjects. The last two of my posts dealt with the images I made at a recent photo shoot with about 25 other photographers. Each of us saw the same subjects but many had different approaches in our picture making. Some images were great – good use of texture and light, effective framing and persepctive, dramatic and/or interesting images.Ā Others were pedestrian: poorly exposed, lack of perspective or point of view, just plain blah. Too many of the photos used light poorly or framed their subject poorly.

Some took their photos at eye level – the object of our camera was right in front of them. Many photos were taken of subjects below our plane of view but from above – that is, the photographer was standing up with his or her camera pointed downward. Other photographers took their photos from afar without getting involved (or rather, getting us viewers, involved).

So what is my point? Many photographers fail to change their perspective from the everyday and ordinary view. Here are some of my tips:

  • Get down low with your subject even if it means getting on your belly or knees.
  • Change your perspective and take the photo from below with the sky as your background.
  • Get up close and personal with your subject and fill the frame.
  • Make effective use of lighting: try for theĀ dramatic – use backlighting and rim lighting (and use a fill flash where needed).
  • Go for the “different” and skip the ordinary.
  • Make images rather than “taking photos”.

I try to learn from others. There are many great blogs and web sites out there that provide inspiration and technical tips. I make lots of images to help me develop technical skills. Most important, I striveĀ to find aĀ personal vision and style – I have not found those yet :(.

Take a look at my photos from the last two posts (and from the others below on this page). Each presents a point of view. Each uses light differently. Each presents the subject from different perspective. While perhaps not perfect, these images do illustrate my evolving vision.

What can you do to develop your vision?

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Strange Vegetation

Posted on November 23, 2010 by admin

In the "Tropical Rain Forest"

Well, this is some cool vegetation in the “tropical rain forest” at Unbelievable Acres. I have no idea what it is but is makes for an interesting image.

The original was post-processed in Lightroom 3 and then taken into Topaz Adjust. I used my special custom filter to enhance the details.

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Unbelievable Acres

Posted on November 22, 2010 by admin

Droplets

I went to Unbelievable Acres yesterday morning with the PBC Photo Walkers (West Palm Beach). I took this photo of a Bird of Paradise leaf with one large and one small water droplet hanging conveniently from the edge. Taken with the Canon 100 f2.8 macro. If you click on the photo to get a larger version you can see the reflection of the surrounding foliage in the larger water droplet. Outstanding!

Unbelievable Acres is a private, nonprofit botanical garden located in West Palm Beach, Florida.Ā The garden was established in 1970 by Gene Joyner, who has developed and maintained it since. It is now one of Florida’s largest private collections of tropical fruit trees, with a 30 m (100 ft) high tree canopy. Gene gave us a tour through the gardens.

Palm Tree

The garden contains some 2000 varieties of plants, including more than 170 varieties of fruit trees, with 92 types of citrus, and 35 types of banana and plantain trees. It also includes orchids, bromeliads, palms, and ferns, as well as less well-known plants such as jaboticaba trees.

This image of a palm tree was a complete and happy accident. The tree was under exposed and the sky blown out. I used that to my advantage having enough detail in the tree to extract a good image . Post-processed in Lightroom 3 for exposure and in Photoshop CS5 to remove some dead leaves using the fantastic context-aware fill feature.

About 25 members of the PBC Photo Walkers Meetup group participated and it was a very nice event. I had been there last year as a photo assistant to Vincent Versace and Steven Ames – a nude photo shoot (the models not the photographers). I did not have a chance to walk the trails then (too busy holding reflectors on the models).

Drama Flower

This last image was made of a flower with some dramatic lighting again using the Canon macro lens. Notice the delicate texture in the petals by clicking on the photo to see a larger version of the image.

All photos from the trip can be seen under Flowers in the Photo Gallery or go directly to: http://bit.ly/coXwUF

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Caddy Tonemapped

Posted on November 18, 2010 by admin

Caddy Interior

Going through some older photos for display, I looked for this great image of the interior of a vintage Cadillac taken at an Auto show last year.

I got up close from the rear seat to take this shot of the driver’s side. The image was taken into Photomatix Pro for a one-shot HDR. Then a brief rinse in Topaz 4 to bring out some detail.

I love the rich, vibrant colors – just the way I remember it (but probably not as good as the owner’s original)!

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Preview in Blue

Posted on November 17, 2010 by admin

Blue Glass

This image was made during the summer at the Corning Glass Museum in Corning, NY. Why do I post about it now? Well, the Delray Camera Club is having a competition with the subject of blue. I think I will enter this photo as one of my three photographs.

I love the symmetry and the lighting. The glass pieces were mounted in a display case and the lighting emphasized both the highlight and shadow detail. The photo was taken with the Tamron 17-50 at 50mm hand held at 1/250, 2.8, 1250 ISO. What little noise was there at the high ISO was eliminated with the wonderful noise reduction technology in the new Lightroom 3.

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Two Tips for Better Flower Photography

Posted on November 16, 2010 by admin

Change of Perpective

OK, here are two tips for better flower images. Change your perspective. Most of us take flower photos looking down on them. Boring šŸ˜‰ – many times.

Why not get down low. In this image to the left, I shot from a position below the flowers and used the sky as my backdrop to emphasize the flowers. Be careful of the exposure. The sky will fool your autoexposure mechanism and the subject will be underexposed. So, use your exposure compensation dial to properly expose the subject – some trial and error is in order and be sure to watch your LCD panel.

Get in Close

Tip #2: get close and fill the frame. The second image (of a Rose of Sharon) was made with my Canon 300 L IS f4. Its close focusing ability allows me to get close especially on larger flowers.

You can also use a macro lens to explore your flower subjects. Be sure to use a tripod. High overcast days are best for nice even light: it’s light using a giant softbox.

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