Above the Trees

Bishop's Palace and Sacred Heart Church -- taken from the esplanade on Broadway about two blocks west. I see this scene every time I come into Galveston; and sadly with the oaks now cut down post Ike, there are new vantage points previously obstructed by trees. I found myself there Saturday morning so I stopped and took a couple of shots. I didn't have a tripod, so I handheld a couple of bracketed exposures. Ended up with some misalignment so I did a one-shot HDR merge of a couple of Photomatix tonemapped variations. I wish I could have gotten a bit higher to shoot above the treeline. And maybe at a different time of year and a little earlier in the morning there might even be a sunrise in the background. Nikon D200, 180mm at f/6.3.

Snowflake Vampire

Gotta love the Renaissance Festival. Although not seen in this photo, this woman had fangs to go along with her powder blue French maid's costume and snowflake make-up. Quite a sight. The greenery in the background was from some of the numerous trees with ivy scattered around the fairgrounds. Nikon D200 at 116mm, 1/160 sec at f/5.6. Light from small softbox from camera left provided by Doug Haass. I don't think Doug shot this woman, but somehow I managed about 10-12 shots of her -- probably my high for the day of any one person. She told us she made her own costume and did her own make up. She really did a nice job. I did a little touch up to the eyes in Photoshop -- highlighted the iris a little more, and added new catchlights.

Gull in the Fog

Experimenting with some textures and blending modes. The original here was shot in deep fog, so I kept the image going in that direction with some color shifting warm textures.

Shop Keeper Revised

Here's a revised version of my last post. After some input from Doug and Cindi I decided to rework this a bit - I lightened up the shadow side of the face, also tried to de-emphasize her natural dimple that created an odd shadow pattern. I also removed her hand from the right side and let the edge and texture fill that area.

Renaissance Festival Shop Keeper

This picture was made at the Renaissance Festival in November. It's been floating around on my hard drive ever since. Finally finished it off tonight with a slight warming layer and an edge. As I remember that day, Doug and I started talking with the owner of this shop, and he had us photographing everyone who was nearby. This woman was working behind the counter, so we had to wait a bit for someone to fill in for her while we took a couple of photos. Not sure if Doug shot her or not. I kinda don't think so because we were in such a hurry. We were in full stride paparazzi mode by then -- not taking too much time with any one person. Anyway, the more I've seen the photo over the past few months, the more I like it -- nice expression, decent light, sharp eyes, and a not-too-cluttered background. Can't ask for much more in the realm of less-than-5-minute potraits. Nikon D200, 1/160 sec at f/5.6, flash through softbox from camera right.

Lincoln Memorial

This one is posted in honor of President's Day ... taken a few years ago in DC at night and a few moments before I was politely asked not to take photos with a tripod at the monument. Nikon D200, .8 sec at f/8, on a tripod.

Kelsi #2

This image is from the shoot with Kelsi, the Friendswood High School softball player that Larry, Doug, and I photographed on January 18. I used this shot for the photo club's surreal composite assignment last night. It scored pretty well -- 19 points and a silver award. I'm including the starting point below. I got a lot of inspiration for this from two young sports photographers -- Zach Ancell from Eugene, Oregon (link) and Greg Sims from Boise, Idaho (link) -- both doing some great stylized sports portrait work. Ever since we went to the McNally workshop in November, we've really wanted to do some edge lighting, so the shoot with Kelsi was a perfect opportunity for Doug, Larry and I to give this hard edged lighting style a try. We were fortunate to have a great sky that afternoon. My surreal touches were a couple of Topaz Adjust layers on Kelsi and the sky, lightning in the sky, rain, dirt on pants, eye black under the eyes, light stands, and light beams. Lighting at the scene included two SB800s flagged from either side and slightly behind her at 1/8 power pointed at Kelsi's nose and Larry's Elinchrome Quadra with a large softbox providing the front light.

Another Floral Macro

Another in the series of shallow depth of field floral photos I've been doing over the past year.

On a totally side note, I read a post earlier today from Jerry Jones on his Shadowhouse Creations blog. He mentions he will no longer be posting textures on Flickr, but will continue to share his great work on his blog. Interesting post and comments. Here's the link. So if you read his blog for inspiration and resources for your own work, it'd be nice to leave a comment of encouragement. Many of us post photos for fun and to share, but it's really incredible the quality and amount of resources he makes available for free.

From the Archives

Playing with some newly acquired textures and edges. This image was shot on December 31, 2005 at an Indian Pow Wow in Tucson, Arizona. I thought it fit the texture and sepia treatment. The texture is from Jerry Jones, who has a new blog featuring lots of great layering goodies. Here's the link.