Category: Menlo Park

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Fujifilm X100S Menlo Park Photography Photography - Fujifilm X100S Photoshop CC

Hard to Believe It’s Almost Christmas!

Christmas Tree - Menlo Park - 2013

I felt like I needed a walk this afternoon. I grabbed my Fujifilm X100S and headed down to Menlo Park’s Santa Cruz Avenue about 30 minutes before sunset.

I walked the avenue – camera in hand – and captured a few holiday shots. But I think one is my favorite – a Christmas tree shot through a store window. I had to do a bit of post-processing cleanup in Photoshop CC to remove some reflections – and then decided to apply a bit of a painterly feel to the image using a combination of Topaz Simplify 4 and Photoshop CC’s oil paint filter. I used a layer mask to keep the ornament details sharp and added a bit of burning to add some depth to the tree itself.

This one my be our holiday card cover for next year!

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Fujifilm X-E2 Menlo Park Photography Photography - Fujifilm X-E2

The Garden Path at Allied Arts in Menlo Park

Garden Walk - Allied Arts - 2013

On Saturday I stopped by Menlo Park’s Allied Arts Guild with my Fujifilm X-E2 in hand. I posted a few photos from my walk on this article on InMenlo.

This is one of my favorites – looking down the garden path toward the artists shops at the end of the walk.

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Fujifilm X-E2 Gardens Menlo Park Photography Photography - Fujifilm X-E2

Those Persimmons at Allied Arts in Menlo Park

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While I was out running errands on Friday, I stopped by Menlo Park’s Allied Arts Guild with my new Fujifilm X-E2 camera and took a few shots (see my Flickr set).

I tried to compose this one to have the permissions be a diagonal line – adding visual interest. Post-processed in Lightroom 5 using VSCO Film 01 – Fuji 160C film emulation.

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Fujifilm X100S Menlo Park Photography Photography - Fujifilm X100S Photoshop CC Topaz

A Sharon Park Sunrise with the Fujifilm X-100S

Sharon Park Sunrise

As I headed out the door this morning to do a bit of grocery shopping for our dinner tonight I stopped by Sharon Park briefly. I love the low sun angle this time of year – and it was filtering through the trees from this particular angle which captured my eyes.

I post-processed this in Photoshop CC using a combination of Topaz Simplify 4, the Oil Paint filter, and some old fashioned dodging and burning to add a stronger sense of depth. Shot with my Fujifilm X100S.

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Flickr Fujifilm X-E2 Menlo Park Photography Photography - Fujifilm X-E2

First Images from My Fujifilm X-E2

Sharon Park - Menlo Park - Fujifilm X-E2

Last night, my new Fujifilm X-E2 arrived and I was able to squeeze in a few minutes this afternoon on the way home to stop by one of my favorite spots – Sharon Park in Menlo Park.

This image is a JPEG straight out of the camera. I’d set the camera up with pretty much the default settings – the only change was to shoot the JPEGs with the Velvia film emulation option – which adds color to the image. I’ve posted a few more images from the X-E2 to a new Flickr set that I just started today.

So far, I’m loving how this camera feels and works. A big attraction for me was compatibility with the menu system, etc. between the X-E2 and my Fujifilm X-100S. It’s great having both of these so capable cameras in my “nimble photography” kit bag!

Next up – trying out the 14mm f/2.8 lens on the X-E2. Looking forward!…

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Fujifilm X100S Menlo Park Photography Photography - Fujifilm X100S

Halloween Princess

Menlo Park Halloween Parade - 2013

Saturday I took my Fujifilm X100S to capture some images from the annual Menlo Park Halloween Parade – a great annual event for kids and their parents to just have fun parading up Menlo Park’s Santa Cruz Avenue.

Lots of fun – see my full set over at InMenlo.com – but this one captured my heart. Before the parade started, I was hanging around the front of the parade route when this little princess came down the sidewalk. I asked her if I could take her picture and she lit up, looking right at me and my camera. The Fujifilm X100S is perfect for this kind of street capture!

Life is a series of these wonderful moments – and Saturday was special indeed!

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iPhone 5 Menlo Park Photography Photoshop Topaz

Sunday in the Park – Menlo Park

Sunday in the Park - Menlo Park - 2013

Once in a while, I’ll snap a quick shot on my iPhone and, sometime later, come back and look at it more closely. This is one of those images – shot yesterday at Sharon Park in Menlo Park while out for a walk with Lily. I had just come back from the Menlo Park Library where I’d spent an hour or two looking through some of their great books – including a huge book on the French Impressionists and a large 1974 collection of Ansel Adams’ images.

Perhaps some sort of combination of those two is what I saw when I snapped this shot while on the go with my iPhone 5. I opted to post process it using Topaz Simplify 4 – with the Black and White I preset brought back into Photoshop in Luminosity blend mode. I then added an Oil Paint layer – that impressionist effect working a bit of its magic on me!

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Apple iPhone 5 Menlo Park Nik Software Photography

The Best Camera – Cafe Borrone in Menlo Park

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This best camera is the one you have with you – as they say – and my iPhone is that camera for me. Here’s an image taken and completely processed on my iPhone 5. The courtyard area outside Cafe Borrone in Menlo Park is normally a busy spot – except when it’s wet and cold during the winter months as it was on this particular morning.

This image was shot as I was heading into breakfast one December morning – and then processed on the iPhone using Nik’s Snapseed and Painteresque. It’s really pretty impressive the kind of photography and post-processing that can now be done one these little sensor-loaded computers that we carry in our pockets.

I’ve got a domain that I haven’t had time to develop – theworldinmypocket.com over on Tumblr – where I want to develop this theme a bit further!

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Lab Color Menlo Park Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S100 Photoshop

So Succulent – Playing with Photoshop’s Oil Paint Filter

So Succulent - Menlo Park - 2010

Earlier today, Adobe’s Julieanne Kost shared some images of succulents she made using the Oil Paint filter in Photoshop CS6. They were great – and brought me back to images of a succulent wall that I had taken using my tiny Canon PowerShot S90 at the Sunset Magazine Celebration Weekend in June 2010. This was a display by Succulent Gardens of Castroville, CA.

I pulled this image into Photoshop and tweaked the Oil Paint filter in initially add the artistic strokes. After that, I followed with a modified Picture Postcard workflow to add more depth followed by a trip in Lab color to bring out some of the colors. Fun!

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iPhone 4S Menlo Park Panoramas Photography

Playing with Panoramas on the iPhone 4S with iOS 6

This morning while out for a morning walk at Menlo Park’s Sharon Park I played around a bit with the new panorama option that was introduced to the Camera app with iOS 6 on the iPhone 4S and the new iPhone 5. More about my adventures in a story I wrote over on InMenlo.com.

Remember – the best camera is the one that’s with you!

I’ve include a couple of examples below – you’ll find the full story over on InMenlo.com! Pretty amazing images – for just a few seconds of work. Click on any of these images to see a larger version!

Sharon Park - Panorama - Menlo Park, CA

Sharon Park - Panorama - Menlo Park, CA

Sharon Park - Panorama - Menlo Park, CA