I used Photomatix to create this "tonal mapped" landscape of Lake Cachuma. This was the first time I used Photomatix which I read about it on Flickr.
Here's my second version of this photo taken across Lake Cachuma.
The light for this photo was very low and dull so I had to play with the image to give it a lift. Since there was a lot of noise in the photo, I decided to try and make it appear like an old-fashioned toned photo and also tried to make something of the darkness of the scene.
Here's a second shot of this osprey at Lake Cachuma. Actually when I saw him land on the pole I got a good view of the feathers on the underside of his tail, and they really were red!
A group of us went up to Lake Cachuma which is about 20 miles out of Santa Barbara this past weekend. We went in a 32-foot motor home that some friends are currently renting. What a great time we had. This red-tailed hawk happened to land on a high-voltage power pole right by our site and luckily I happened to see him. He was very used to people it would seem as he wasn't bothered at all by me walking around the pole taking his photo. What a high voltage bird!
This is a photo I took tonight about an hour before sunset to show you the effect of the smoke on the sun here in Southern California where there are many wildfires burning currently. This was taken at the Irvine Ranch Water District's San Joaquin marshlands.
This is 100% Photoshop practice and demonstration of the things that can be done with Photoshop. Starting with this photo of a boat on the water, I used Photoshop's "clone source" to create a reflection in the water. The hardest part has been to get it so that the reflection doesn't look totally fake and as if the boat is sitting in the water rather than on top of the water.
I took this photo of this beautiful yucca glauca bloom (Great Plains yucca) in Arches National Park in May.
This to me is a picture of bliss. This polar bear at the San Diego Zoo was frolicking in the pool, playing with balls and simply enjoying the feel of the water flowing over him as seen in this photo. Everyone was just enthralled watching the bear at play.
Shelley Beach is located on Waiheke Island a short 30 minute "Quick Cat" ferry ride from downtown Auckland, NZ. While staying there this past February I caught these seagulls availing themselves of this boat on the bay. It was early morning and the water had a beautiful glassy appearance.
Here's the last tonal effect I did of this photo of Madison sucking her thumb. I think this is my favorite. This and the sepia one.
I'm having some Photoshop fun now and creating some toned versions of this portrait. This is the sepia toned portrait of Madison sucking her thumb.
Here's the classic kid pose - Madison sucking her thumb. Doesn't she just have the most amazing blond hair!
Who doesn't think of their nieces as little angels...well, most of the time. I thought Madison would look kind of cute floating on some clouds, so here she is.
This is a portrait of my little niece Madison. She's a fantastic model to work with as she just loves having her photo taken and loves striking up all sorts of poses. Unlike her older brother who threw a major tantrum when I pointed my camera in his direction!
I guess you could think of this part of the building to be like the curled up edges of the pages of a musical score.How did they manage to build a structure like this? It sure must be expensive to build something with curved surfaces like this. Of course, curves are a feature of Frank Gehry's architecture.
This is the photo you saw in the previous post. I didn't boost the contrast in this one as I did in the high contrast image of the previous post.
No, not actually a night shot. I increased the contrast of this photo to give emphasis to the light and dark areas. Because of the very reflective nature of the stainless steel skin of the Disney Concert Hall it's a perfect photo for high contrast effects. Now it looks like a night shot in a Hollywood movie with the very dark blue sky. Photo #4 is the same photo without the high contrast adjustment.
I just can't help sharing with you how these pictures of the Walt Disney Concert Hall look as color negatives.
What a coincidence! Tonight's edition of Huell Howser's "Downtown" series on the LA PBS station KCET featured the Walt Disney Concert Hall. After watching this show, I now know I have to go back again, and not just for a concert. I had walked up some side stairs to a garden level to the left of the concert hall, but it happened to be the intermission for the concert that was taking place yesterday and the garden was filled with concert-goers enjoying the autumn sunshine. With my camera in tow I felt intrusive and didn't linger for very long, but having seen tonight's Huell Howser show I now realize that this is a public space, and not only that, but there are walkways built into the outer skin of the building that Frank Gehry intended for the public to use to clamber over over the exterior of the building! It was a fascinating show, and as I said, I'll have to go back. (Huell Howser's website)
Designed by architect Frank Gehry, Walt Disney Concert Hall, is home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and is designed to be one of the most acoustically sophisticated concert halls in the world. The curved exterior of the building is constructed in stainless steel and makes for an impressive sight that captures the light in a fantastic display. This view is taken from across Grand Ave so that you can get an overall view of the building. Following photos will capture the building up close.
Time for a Photoshop tip. The last three photos I posted of a native American Indian warrior with a sunset background are a composite of two photos: this one of the Native American Indian performing at a pow-wow and this photo of a sunset over the Grand Canyon South Rim.
So keeping this in mind, white is always going to be lighter than everything else, so I started out by making a selection of the chief and masking him. Then I make everthing that was unmasked white. My intention here is that all the white will be replaced entirely by what is in the second photo when I change the blending mode from Normal to Multiply. To the left is what my lower layer looked like.
I then opened the sunset photo that I wanted to use as the background. I arranged my window in my Photoshop workspace to "Tile Vertically" and then dragged the sunset photo over top of the photo of the chief. (Hint: By holding down the shift key before clicking on the photo you want to drag, and then continuting to hold down shift while you do this, Photoshop will automatically center the photo over top of the one below when you let go of the mouse button. If you don't do this you might have to nudge the top layer around a bit if it ends up off-center. At this point in Photoshop I see only the sunset in my window. However, with the sunset layer selected and chosing Multiply from the Blending Mode dropdown as illustrated I end up with my beautiful blend.
This is my third rendering of this composite photo. I resized the Indian chief and moved the background a bit so that it appears as if he is a colossus rising up from the mountains of the Grand Canyon.
This is the first of two composite photos I made using Photoshop and two of my photos: this Native American Indian performing at a pow-wow and this photo of sunset over the Grand Canyon South Rim.
This is the second of two composites made from two of my photos: this Native American Indian performing at a pow-wow and this photo of sunset over the Grand Canyon South Rim.
This is the first shot in a series of 6 photos in an action collage of a teen skateboarding at Venice Beach, CA. Hands up in the air to lift the center of gravity for lift off.
Photo #3 in a 6 photo collage of a teen skateboarding at Venice Beach, CA.
Photo #4 in a 6 photo collage of a teen skateboarding at Venice Beach, CA. The palm looks cool too, don't you think? Very SoCal.
5th in a series of six photo collage of action shots of a teen skateboarding at Venice Beach.
Here's the first of the individual photos that make up the 6 photo collage of the teenager skateboarding at Venice Beach, CA. Well, actually it's really the last one of the sequence so that once they're all posted they will appear from first to last in sequence down the page.
La Quinta is a small desert town in Southern California about 20 miles from Palm Springs. The La Quinta Resort and Club features several PGA golf courses and a tennis club, a spa, and several restaurants. The thing I like most about it is that unlike so many other hotels and resorts, La Quinta has smaller and more private pools that are enclosed by groups of rooms. I think in total there is something like 50 pools and they are never crowded. This is the view across the pool that was closest to our room on our recent stay. Between the rooms in the background you can see a peep of the San Jacinto Mountains and the wonderfully blue and clear autumn sky.
The La Qunita Resort is located in the low desert of the Cochealla Valley, California, about 20 miles south east of Palm Springs. The western side of the resort is framed by the San Jacinto mountains which are starkly bare. My stay there last week coincided with a full moon, and this photo was actually taken at around 7:20am not long after the sun had arisen and just before the moon set. The newly risen sun behind me cast a beautiful warm red glow over the mountains.
