Vintage Cadillac Hood Ornament

Canon 7D, Raw, EF-S17-55mm, 54mm, f/8.0, 1/200, 320 ISO, SilverEfex

I was lucky enough yesterday to take photos of a completely restored 1949 Cadillac. This one is my favorite. I absolutely love this hood ornament. I did some work in camera raw and Photoshop, then I took it into OnOne Software’s ColorEfex program to maybe convert to black and white. I decided to go with their pinhole choice. I liked the way it makes the face stand out. I then went back into Photoshop and did some dodging on the face and also to get the eyes to stand out more. I hope you like it. Let me know!

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Santa Monica, CA Pier

Canon 7D, Raw, EF-S17-55mm, 55mm, f/14.0, 1/125, ISO 125, Nik

Well, here it is August 1. I have been neglectful of my blog and Willie is angry with me. I am going to try to redeem myself. To my followers, I apologize. Anyway, I participated in the 3rd Annual Scott Kelby PhotoWalk last Saturday. We were in Santa Monica for a couple of hours and I took a lot of photos. Here is the famous Santa Monica Pier as seen in many movies and TV shows.  I used my Nik Silver Efex software to convert to black and white and then I added a slight vignette. It is a very colorful photo, but I liked the black and white better. It was a gorgeous day there so I will add a few more so you can see the colors of the pier, the sky and the water. Here are the other photos if you want to see them all. Until tomorrow…

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Claremont Historic Depot, Part II

Canon 7D, Raw, 33mm, f/10, 1/60, ISO 160

Here is another photo from the Claremont Historic Depot. This is the entrance to the depot from the train side of the building. I think it looks good in black and white. When I brought the image into Photoshop, the first thing I did was straighten and crop the image a little. I then did a levels adjustment. I converted to black and white using Silver Efex software then added a vignette. You can see the door in yesterday’s image in color. I got my Lily fix this morning, so all is well! I’ll be out taking more photos tomorrow. 

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A Star Wars Robot

Canon 7D, Raw, 38mm, f/8, 1/320, ISO 200

Well, not really, but that is what I thought when I saw this on the pier. I was at the beach yesterday, an absolutely beautiful day, and I took several photos. I put a new photo up at the top of my blog today also. I will take some more down there maybe this week. I converted this to black and white to give the image a more industrial look. It is actually a very bright turquoise color. Maybe when I change a photo like this, I should put a little thumbnail here of the original? Like a before and after. What do you think?

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A Solarized Tree in Central Park

Canon 7D, Raw, 17mm, f/9, 1/800, ISO 2500

The original photo of this tree came out exactly like I wanted. I did have to do some exposure adjusting in Camera Raw, but no cropping or anything else. When I got it into Photoshop, I decided I didn’t want to show you just another tree surrounded by green grass in the park. I started playing around with different filters and settled on this to give it a black and white, high grain solarized look. What that means is, parts of the “negative” are reversed. If you look at a black and white negative and it is reversed in post processing, that is one type of solarization. Did you learn something new today?

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A Beautiful Geranium

Canon 7D, Raw, 55mm, f/2.8, ISO 100

I have never done a black and white geranium photograph. This was a beautiful pink with many colors going through the leaves. I opened up my Nik filters and decided to go black and white. This has a blue filter which really made the flowers pop. I made a slight contrast adjustment (lowering it) along with a levels adjustment and here is the result. I hope you like it. I like the way it has a circular feel from the leaves in front and the leaves and stems in the back. It makes your eyes stay on the photo and not go off. Do you agree?

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Mother and Child

Canon 7D, Raw, 47mm, f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 1600, Nik Silver Efex Pro Software

 I took this photo on Easter Sunday. We played around a lot by putting Lily in a basket with her bunny slippers and Easter eggs. She also went through three wardrobe changes (not counting some topless ones)! Out of all the photos we took that day, this is my favorite. I did a levels adjustment, noise reduction and then converted it to black and white. I love the different choices you have with the Nik software and there are many options to customize any of the settings. It is fun to play with the different settings. The rest of the images from this day and others you can see here.  I will be adding to and removing photos from this gallery so check back.

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From the Desert, the Ocean or Both?

Camera Raw, 45mm, f/11, 1/100, ISO 400, Nik Silver FX Filter

I walked outside with my camera today and said to myself, “What are you going to photograph?” I walked around and then I saw this. Isn’t it gorgeous? How many little creatures do you think have lived in and on this rock? How old do you think it is? In post processing, I changed it from Raw to DNG. Isn’t the texture and the depth fantastic? I made a few adjustments in Camera Raw and then brought it into Photoshop. There I used a filter from Nik Silver FX to convert it to black and white. I then used a high pass filter to bring out the edges and changed my layer blend mode. That made all the different levels of this image really pop. 

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Brand New Camera, Brand New Photos!

Canon 7D, Raw, 21 mm, f/4.5, 1/1250, ISO 800, Silvery FX Infrared Filter

 It was a cold, dark and rainy afternoon. I was driving and saw this train bridge in the distance. When I got up to it I was surprised to see how close it was above the road. Looking up, I told myself I have to take a photograph of this. Willie was with me and we found a place to park so I could get out. Luckily the rain had stopped so my camera would not get wet. I took many photos and this one was from standing in the crosswalk at almost the same location as I was in the car. I like the angles and the details in the photo. I was a little self- conscious and I had to time the signals just right. But I am happy with the results and the look of the infrared filter on the image. I definitely need to get out of my comfort zone and this was a start!

What other info would you like on what I do in post processing for my images? I am willing to give you any info that might help you to create your own images and/or more info about mine.

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Late Afternoon at the Dog Park

Canon 20D, Raw, f/5.6, 1/250, 145mm, Silver Efex Pro

I was trying something new with this image. It did not quite come out like I wanted it to, so I consider this an idea in progress. I used my telephoto lens with the sun behind the subjects. The dogs were running around a lot and I wanted them to kick up more dirt. This was the image that was the closest to what I wanted but not quite there. I converted it to black and white and added a vignette. I will be trying this again but I need to go a little earlier in the day.

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A Precious Baby Boy

Canon 20D, Raw, 45mm, f/10.0, 1/30, ISO 800

I really wanted to take photos of this baby boy. He is my “great” nephew, born October 28, 2009. I took the photos in his bedroom and luckily it was bright enough that I did not need to use any other lighting. I used a high ISO (800) and then got rid of the noise with a plug-in in Photoshop, along with a levels adjustment. I converted it to a soft sepia tone and added a  vignette. I took many photos and this is my favorite one. The others can be seen on my gallery pages.

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An Antique Image of a Rose

Canon 20D, f5.6, 1/160, Nik Silver Efex Antique Plate II Filter with Curves and Levels adjustments

 This is an image of a rose I took that is blooming in my front yard. I love the effect the filter I used gave it. As I said the other day, I love these filters and the black and white effects they produce. I will be doing much more of it and sharing the images with you here.

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Round Two

This is the start of year two of one photo a day. Things will be changing on my weblog soon. I am hoping to have it all ready by the end of next week. Willie told me about these roses this afternoon in our front yard. He said I should go take a look. Well, I did and I liked what I saw. I seem to be on a black and white kick right now. I got some new filters called Efex Silver and there are a lot of options with buttons and whistles to play with. I have barely scratched the surface of the possibilities!

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Radio Flyer

I saw this and thought it would make a great photo for the weblog. I believe I was right! I really like the black and white. It shows all the texture and the vignette around the edges looks good too. I didn’t really do any planning to take this photo – sometimes those are the best, the spontaneous ones. Please let me know what you think of it!

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A Great Black and White Photograph

I had a very busy day today. Willie knew I was busy and when I got up this morning this leaf was on the kitchen counter. He said he found it outside and thought I might like to photograph it. Isn’t he a sweety? I got my camera out and took it outside on my front porch. I have taken many photos on that front porch, many leaves and flowers. It is a good location. I really like the black and white and the vignette around the edges. I used a shallow depth of field also.

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Does This Look Like Fun?

Isn’t this a great looking fountain? What is odd about it is it’s location. It is in the middle of the food court at Irvine Spectrum. In itself, that is not so odd. But the fact that children are allowed to put on swimming suits or run through naked is the really odd part of it. There are a lot of tables there for people to sit, have a bite to eat, and ignore their unruly children running and playing in the water. There are a few kids in this photo, although I don’t think you can see them!

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