Cholla Cactus - Joshua Tree NP

HDR vs. Blending

I've been a pretty faithful user of HDR over the last several years. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. In HDR photography, I take a bracketed set of shots of the same image. Bracketing means changing the exposure time while holding the F-stop constant, thus getting a series of images that capture different amounts of light with the sensor. The idea is that camera sensors don't have the same dynamic range as the human eye so you make this series of images and then 'blend' them together to get the final image. In reality, you don't really extend the dynamic range of your image ... you compress the dynamics of the image to match the limited range of the display you are using. This is called 'tone mapping'. So the HDR image you see is really a false representation of the true dynamics of the picture. You can always tell you're looking at an HDR image by the way it seems to be over saturated. HDR is OK ... a lot of famous photographers have used this technique to make their images more dynamic and attractive. But I get the feeling this technique has run its course. I find myself still using the same software but applying a much lighter touch to the controls so my images aren't nearly as intense as they were before. I've also been spending some time exploring a different technique ... image blending ... to get what I want. I've just started doing this and haven't really gotten good enough to show the results. But I like the technique. The results appear much more natural and less forced. I think I'm going to start heading that way in the near future. I just need to spend some more time getting familiar with the methods and figure out how to get the results I want. Stay tuned.

Cholla Cactus - Joshua Tree NP

I've already commented on how difficult it is to take photos in Joshua Tree NP. Most of the living entities are just not that photogenic. Certainly not the Joshua Trees which are down right ugly. You need to look very carefully to find shots that are exciting and nice to look at. Such is the case with this blog's photo. This is a Cholla Cactus. There's one spot in Joshua Tree where they appear. You're driving along Pinto Basin Road and suddenly there they are. Ugly things on the whole but, if you look very carefully, you can find some very intriguing compositions. I was coming from the south, right around sunrise, when I got to this location. I wanted to shoot there before the sun got too intense and washed out everything. That's how you shoot in a place like Joshua Tree. I found a cactus that was just starting to flower and was able to get very close so the flowers were basically the only thing you could see. I also wanted to get some sky which was very blue at that moment and I wanted the background to be out of focus. Notice the f-stop of 4.0. The lens is wide open.

You also have to be very careful around these cacti. They are barbed on the end and will do some serious damage to any exposed skin. While I was there a park ranger was attempting to extricate some of these nasty thorns from a guy's leg and it wasn't going very well. He was using a pair of needle nose pliers but the spikes are very fragile and hard to get out without breaking. The guy was in some intense pain. He was advised to visit a hospital emergency room to finish the repair. Was his fault as there are signs everywhere warning about how dangerous these cacti are. He was wearing shorts! Not a good idea in this place.

Anyway, this is made from 5 bracketed images, run through Photomatix and then finished in Lightroom. I really like the contrasts and the composition came out pretty good too. Joshua Tree NP ... definitely a place to visit but not in the summer. It's really hot and dry. Bring plenty of water and arrive early. And watch out for the cactus thorns.

Cholla Cactus - 35mm,f/4.0,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Big Sur #1

So What Happened...

You are all very aware of my issues with money and Crimea. The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), has a stranglehold on the Crimea and refuses to let any money into the place no matter the need. I've tried every method known to man, including VISA, Western Union and SWIFT, to no avail. I have to resort to the most draconian methods to get living expenses to my family. What's really frustrating is the folks at OFAC told me directly that living money for personal expenses was OK with them and yet they make it nearly impossible to do just that. This choking of Crimea has reduced the place to near poverty for most as there are only local and rather ineffective banks with little money and no services other than paying utilities which they charge far too much for.

Well, this trip home I tried to send money to the daughter of my wife's cousin, who just graduated university in Ukraine and needed some money to rent a flat and buy some furniture. I figured, wrongly, that SWIFT would be able to handle this as Ukraine is not under any sanctions. Unfortunately, the girl isn't totally aware of the nuances of OFAC control and she listed her home address in Crimea by mistake. Her family lives in Simferopol and, due to the way Ukraine deals with college students and the fact that they still claim Crimea as part of the country, her home address was listed as Crimea, part of Ukraine. Students don't have addresses in the town where they attend school and the bank required her 'real' home address which was Crimea. This little slip seems to have caused OFAC to decide I was trying to send money to Crimea and they blocked the transaction. Now, what really gets my hackles up is the fact that no one bothered to let me know that the transaction was blocked. For 4 weeks my bank kept telling me the money was in Ukraine when, as far as I could tell, it was in an account with OFAC. After 4 weeks of frustration on my side and on the Ukraine side I finally went to my bank and cancelled the whole transfer. It took 10 days to find the money and bring it back. Still don't have a complete explanation of where the money went and why it didn't get to Ukraine but that's the way these government agencies work. They do whatever they want and if it blows up your life ... too bad. There is no accountability and this clusterf**k of an operation has so much power to destroy lives and countries. They are the group that starved 500,000 kids to death in Iraq because they decided that medicines and food had military applications and therefore they were not allowed. Evil personified.

Unfortunately, this fiasco diverted my attention for over a month and kept me from setting up the website for my business and from getting my image sales started. By the time the dust settled on this disaster it was just too late to do anything. So the business is not yet running and there is no website. I hope to get it setup while I'm still in Crimea this time so there's something to sell when I get back in country next spring. I hope...

Big Sur #1

One of my bucket list items for this cycle was to spend time in Big Sur. It is such a spectacular place with cliffs and big surf and too many places to photograph. That was my intention ... but the weather had other ideas. The massive storms last spring washed out huge sections of rt. 1 on the coast, closing everything from Ragged Point in the south to Big Sur Station in the north ... essentially the entire Big Sur area. So I was reduced to driving as far as the closure at Ragged Point, then backtracking to rt. 101 and going north to where I could get to rt. 1 and driving south to Big Sur Station. I got a nice taste of the area but a thorough expedition has to wait for another cycle. However, I do have a not so nice memory of that trip. I stopped in a McDonalds in Salinas before turning west toward the coast. I ordered a chicken sandwich. After taking a few bites I noticed the lettuce was bad, covered with black spots and had a not so pleasant smell. I took it off the sandwich and stupidly ate the rest. I should have taken it back to the counter but was in a hurry to get back on the road. By the time I hit Big Sur Station my stomach was starting to rock and roll and a few miles north I was forced to find a place to park and be really sick. It was a miserable night on the side of the road and I didn't feel even a bit better until the sun was coming up. That's the first time McDonalds sold me bad food and it may be the last time I ever buy from them. Every time I went into a McD to check the Internet my stomach started rocking. Something like that sticks with you for a long time.

Anyway, before I got sick I was able to find a couple of nice spots to photograph. I'm not sure exactly where this location is, but it was just north of the town of Big Sur. Storm was brewing and surf was up big time so the image came out really well. This is a panorama made from HDR images. Lots of work to get everything right. Still a little rough in spots but I wanted to get the image out there so everyone could see it. Enjoy.

Big Sur 1 - 24mm,f/20,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Los Padres Sunset

DaVinci Resolve

I've been spending the last week learning about new things. Lots of reading from the internet and dipping my fingers gently into new software. All in preparation for the next cycle when I want to get more heavily into video and extend my mastery of the photographic and the moving image. I'm not sure yet what type of project that will be but it happens in and around LA. I'm narrowing my choice for the next camera (hint ... it's between the Canon 5D Mk 3 and the Sony A7 Mk 2). I'm convinced I want to stay away from the really high resolution rigs for now as they are 1) very expensive and 2) fraught with issues. With the 5D Mk 3 I can get reasonable resolution (22.1 Megapixels) plus can install Magic Lantern and get 14 bit raw video at HD resolution and up to 30 fps. Imagine ... video with higher color depth than a professional movie camera costing a large fortune. I've seen some of the video from this hack and it's almost orgasmic. And I can color grade it in DaVinci Resolve (lite for now as the full package costs almost a grand). So, for the last several days, I've been reading and playing with a very powerful and capable system to color correct and grade my footage. It's not for the faint of heart as the software is the exact same code used by the major studios to grade their movies. But mastering this package gives me the ability to really extract the maximum from that raw footage. That's if I get the Canon ... no such capability from any of the Sony cameras unfortunately. All 8 bit and that's not all that good. One would get the impression I've made up my mind ...

Los Padres Sunset

I drove the California coast from north of LA to almost Eureka and saw an amazing number of beautiful shots. I've got thousands of images to work through and that's going to take some time. But one of the best images came from an overlook in the Los Padres National Forest somewhere south of Big Sur. I was just driving along the coastal road and came upon this place. As is always my way, I parked the truck, ate some lunch and took out my tablet to read while awaiting the sun's end. One never knows what to expect as the afternoon drags on ... will it get too foggy or will all the clouds disappear or ... will everything come together and give me a special image to capture. That's what makes this business so interesting and so damn frustrating. I've read stories of photogs who hung out in one place for days awaiting that perfect set of conditions. I didn't have time for that this cycle but next time I'll be doing just that ... spending days in one place, taking the same images each time but waiting for the best conditions. I'll be covering southern California very thoroughly so expect some really interesting results.

Anyway, this is an HDR panorama of the little bay as the sun set behind some really nice clouds. It wasn't exactly stormy but could have been. I think the plants at the bottom are a form of sage which was blooming at the time. It's always nice to have living ground cover instead of ugly rocks. Would have been nicer with some waves but one can't be too choosy given I only spent one afternoon there. So, grab a beer or something more refined and sit back to enjoy the view.

Los Padres Sunset - 16mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Point Arena Light

West Coast Lighthouses

I'm a big fan of lighthouses. Although they've outlived their purpose in most areas, they are still a big reminder of the hazards ships used to face and man's efforts to mitigate the risks. They are always in the most dramatic places ... near rocky shores or perched precariously on dangerous cliffs ... and manned by the most insanely crazy men (and occasionally women) who sought the solitude and braved the dangers. They are largely ceremonial now, historical landmarks to an age long gone.

I guess I was disappointed by the lighthouses I found in California. I'm used to the dramatic spires of the East, thrusting high into the sky so their lights could be seen for miles. Some of the old houses in California are like that but most are very ugly and lacking in charm. I drove for miles to see the light at Point Reyes and was floored by how downright ugly it was. Same with the light in Pacific Grove, no more than a light perched on the roof of a small house. Really wasn't worth shutter cycles to take a picture. So it was very gratifying to drive out to Point Arena and find the majestic light there... and the dramatic rocks that it was guarding.

Point Arena Light

Near Flumeville in Northern California, on the Shoreline Highway (rt. 1), lies the Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands and the Point Arena Lighthouse. It watches over some of the most dangerous hazards in the area. The geology is amazing ... massive blocks of sedimentary rock turned literally on edge by the teutonic forces at work as the Pacific Plate collides with the North American Plate. I'm sure many an ancient ship floundered on these rocks before the light was built in the 1870. Today it's a museum but still ... what a majestic location. After seeing so many disappointing lights it was a huge lift to see one so amazing.

Now there's a back story to this image. I arrived, as I often do, in early afternoon so I could scout the location and find the best vantage point. I wanted to shoot as the sun went down so I hung around to see how the fog developed. As a precaution I took a pano which I'd hoped to process during the afternoon but the weather didn't cooperate and I forgot about it. Turns out the fog rolled in like clockwork ... around 3 pm ... and only got worse as the afternoon progressed. By 7 it was obvious there wouldn't be any sunset so I left. As I said, the images from the pano went into my workstation where they languished until a few days ago. I was going through the catalog and came across the folder in Lightroom. Didn't expect much from the images but took the time to run them quickly through Photomatix and Photoshop. The resulting composite image literally blew my socks off. Amazing colors and the composition was nearly perfect. I make a small jpeg and sent it around to family and friends for their comments.

As I waited for the responses I started looking more carefully at the image. It had serious problems that I hadn't noticed in my rush to get it processed. One major problem with HDR appears when there is motion in the scene and the various images have differences. You often get 'ghosts' ... streaks and shadows in your images that cause major disturbances, especially when you try to make a panorama. In this case, Photomatix left huge holes, black areas, in the images which ruined the pano big time. There was also the ever present popcorn noise although it was diminished because the sky was dark. And, when HDR merges images with movement it often creates a muddled result that's not really acceptable for a professional image. These were all issues I had to fix. Fortunately, Photomatix has tools for dealing with ghosts and muddled images and I was able to use them to eliminate the major problems. But it took many iterations to get it right as a fix in one area would create a problem in another. Photoshop's ability to merge images isn't one of its really strong points and sometimes a merge line runs right through the middle of a major focal point (like cutting the light house in half so the top was displaced to the right of the bottom ... a very major muddle). It took several days to get everything right but the result was definitely worth the effort. I'd have to classify this image as one of the best and most stunning of all the photos I took during this cycle. It may be the crown jewel of my trip ... don't you agree?

Point Arena Light - 16mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

One PS: the light from the 'light' is faked ... most lights today don't sweep dramatically across the water anymore ... it takes too much electricity ... so to add drama I created scatter from an imaginary light because that's what we all expect from our keepers. It's not a deception if I tell you about it and almost every photographer does it. It's expected after all.

Pacific Coast Sunset

Greece...

It looks like Greece has been destroyed ... at least for some time into the future. The Germans and their allies have put together a financial package that guarantees a long and devastating future for the peoples of that beautiful country. I'm not going to comment on who's at fault ... it would appear there's plenty of blame to go around ... but I do want to suggest that, as is always the case, the political class has had a big hand in the outcome. Incompetent and greedy, they have taken a small problem and made it into a catastrophe. And the Greek people are paying the price. I, for one, believe the Euro union needs to be destroyed as it only serves the rich and powerful while enslaving the weaker nations. And it would appear that the EU needs to be dismantled too. What appeared to be a great idea has been twisted and mangled by the politicians into something that only inflicts pain and suffering. I wonder if it's possible to have a world without politicians. Do you think it's possible?

Pacific Coast Sunset

I was finished with San Francisco and licking my wounds as I journeyed north up the Pacific Coast Highway. It had been a very frustrating few days as the afternoon fog had conspired to ruin one day's images after another. I'd almost given up hope until I found an overlook near Jenner, California that showed a great deal of promise. Lots of wild flowers and rocks doing battle with an aggressive surf. It was exactly what my battered ego needed. All that was missing was a cooperative sunset. As is my custom, I settled down to wait, reading a book on my tablet while the sun drifted toward the horizon. To my surprise, the fog held off and the sunset looked like it would be pretty good. There were some storms in the area and they added a bit of anger to the sky which only made the images better. So, as the sun settled in the west I set to work and produced the image below. Came out pretty good and helped lift my bruised spirit just when it was needed most.

Pacific Coast Sunset - 16mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Finding Places to Shoot

One of the biggest problems for a photographer, beyond creating images, is figuring out exactly what to shoot. Unfortunately, most of the planet isn't all that photogenic and one can waste a lot of shoe leather pounding around the neighborhood looking for something interesting. I keep a notebook by my computer and write down pertinent directions for any interesting places I find as I surf the internet. But that's hit and miss, especially if you're on the road and looking for places ahead to explore. With gas prices what they are (and expected to rise significantly in the future) it's important to have a plan.

I've found several places where one can get guidance in this regard. All of them require you to be on the internet to access the images. One is an application call Stuck On Earth from Trey Ratcliff, the well known travel photographer. You can look at photos taken by Trey and others and get useful information about how the picture was taken. It's overlaid on Google Maps so you can see exactly where the photographer stood to make the shot. Unfortunately it's only good for some MAC computer (OSX version 10.7 and higher), for the iPhone/iPad crowd and Android. No Windows versions yet. But it's excellent for finding locations that produce good images. Trey admits to using it himself to find good places to shoot.

The other application I often use is run by Google. Panoramio shows interesting photos overlaid on Google Maps with location information so you can see where the picture was taken. As you zoom in more and more pictures open up so you can drill down to a specific street or map location. No all the images are that interesting but you can always find gems. Again, it's about saving time and aching feet.

There's also a site called Atlas Obscura which details interesting places to visit and photograph. Not sure it's exactly a directory to photo sites but it does provide details about the place and why you might want to visit it.

Look Under the Covers

Sometimes it pays to look a bit deeper when composing a shot. A few years ago I was visiting a friend in Woodbury, CT. It was in the late spring and he had a huge flowering bush in his front yard which was covered with small white flowers (wish I could tell you the name of the tree but he didn't know). I had just bought a new camera and was itching to take some shots to see how good the images were so I wandered out in the early afternoon and started poking around in the shadows. The bush, all 10 feet of it, intrigued me but the sun was so bright I knew any images would be washed out and uninteresting. Just out of curiosity I stuck the lens through the outer leaf layer and was amazed to find a whole other world in the shadows. Here the flowers were more vibrant and the colors more exciting. A few dozen shots later I had plenty of images to work with.

In Photoshop I wanted to try something different. Although the image was interesting it lacked depth and, quite frankly, there wasn't a real focal point. I decided I'd create one by muting out much of the image and concentrate attention on the closest grouping of flowers and associated buds. Using the selection tools I picked the background elements and converted them to black & white. In this way, the viewer's eye is drawn to the foreground and the colorful buds. A nice image made better by being a bit creative.

Beautiful flowers - 100 ISO, f/4, 1/80 sec (license CC BY-NC 4.0)