Nights and Lights.

Recently took the time to view some photos from a trip to South America.  These photos were taken at night hand holding my Olympus XZ-1.  I don't think they are particularly interesting  regarding the scenery, but the lighting was interesting enough to make me want to post them.

This caught my attention because of the contrasting light on the tail and the stark white light emitting from the window of the aircraft.

This image white balance was cooled off so the blues on the tail and reflecting on the fuselage would stand out better

Bording stand leading to the front left boarding door of the 777.

Evening Comes to Hong Kong

Recent photo taken from a trip to Hong Kong.  This was taken quickly from the window in the hotel. I am amazed at the beehive like buildings in Hong Kong.  Space is at a premium in Hong Kong due to the mountainous terrain.

This photo was taken using my Olympus Z-1, ISO 200, f1.8, and 1/40.

This Image was taken somewhat later than the one above from the hotel window.  ISO 400, 1/25, at f1.8.

Superman

Well, I haven't traveled as much lately so I took some time to practice in the studio again.  I saw one of my children run by in a costume and snagged him for a few photos.  There is an edge light on his right shoulder which is about 1 stop brighter than the main light.  That's all that was used in this setup.  2 lights.  One main light and one edge light.

The first picture was a little challenge.  I used a fan to blow the cape around.  It wasn't an exact science and my son was quickly getting tired of this.  The expression was still good enough to use and he liked the billowing cape.

The Boeing 777

I have found it difficult many times to take things I consider mundane and make them into an interesting photo.  Many people wouldn't consider the 777 mundane, but when you work around things a lot they can become common place.  Here are a couple of pictures where I am struggling to capture something unique about aircraft operations.  The picture taken from underneath was selected because I was attempting to capture a glimpse of the massive size of a 777.  It is massive.  Certain models can take off weighing over 700,000lbs.

The other picture is an attempt to make a ground fueling station look interesting.  I think I'll keep trying.  Early morning and late evening lighting is much more interesting and easier to work with.  Bright daylight is a challenge.  That's why I tried to make some interesting images during the bright daylight.  I wanted to force myself to try even though the conditions were not ideal.

On The Rode Again

Here are some recent photographs from travels to Hong Kong, Japan, and Buenos Aires.  I'm trying to push myself to continue posting pictures because it's good training.  It helps me continue to refine the whole digital file handling work flows and it makes me look critically at what makes a good image.  I'm not saying these are great images.  It's just an exercise used to increase skills.

These photos were taken using my Olympus travel camera.  It's very easy to take on the road and has enough manual settings so it allows me to make some creative choices fairly easily.  It also does pretty good in low light.

Back In the Studio

I"ve slowly been preparing for a special western shoot.  As slow as I've been moving I'll be lucky to get it complete prior to the Spring of 2015.  Anyway,  I used some of my kids as guinea pigs working through the lighting etc....My wife saw some of the pics and she wanted to use them to update her wall.  So, I figured I might as well post a few on the blog.

What you'll see is a single light set up using a black background.  When I finally get the look I'm after I'll be using some black backgrounds, but I'll also be using my Virtual Background Machine for some added variety and creativity.   The colored images are the original images with a slightly warmer white balance than was actually used in camera.  The "almost" sepia images are the same images after using Lightroom 4 presets to get close to a sepia image.

Japan and The Aleutians

While heading to Japan we flew over the Aleutian Islands.  Many times there isn't much to see, but this time I got a pretty good view of one of the volcanic formations.  It's hard to get picture that shows much detail and depth at 35,000 feet with a pocket camera, but I had to try.  During post processing I adjusted the contrast a little, warmed up the white balance and applied a slight vignette.   The second picture is not a very good composition, but I liked the lighting.  It was taken at 1600 ISO by my Olympus ZX1.  I did not attempt to do any noise suppression.  I'm amazed at how well this camera does at high ISO's.