Category: Photography – Canon 5D Mark II

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HDR Photography Mare Island Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II

The Dry Dock – Mare Island – 2011

Drydock - Mare Island - 2011

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A few weeks back, Doug Kaye and I did some exploring around Mare Island – the old naval shipyard in Vallejo, California. This was my first time there – and I was struck by the sheer size of the place, the immensity of the buildings, and the urban texture that remains. While we were only there about two hours, we had a lot of fun getting acquainted with the site – which is famous for early evening twilight shots in much better light.

This image is a classic three shot HDR image shot taken hand-held over a fence with my Canon 5D Mark II. Because I was holding the camera over my head, I used Live View to try to align it for the shots. It was post-processed first in Photomatix Pro – also responsible for aligning the hand-held images, and then adjusted in Photoshop using Nik’s Viveza 2 and Color Efex Pro 3. I love the symmetry of the shot, the dramatic lines in the dry dock and the texture – enhanced via the HDR processing.

See my Mare Island archive page for a few more shots taken that Sunday afternoon.

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iPhone 4 Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Yosemite

Valley Glow – Yosemite – 2010

Valley Glow - Yosemite - 2010

This image was taken during a one-day session in Yosemite that my son and I took last October with Michael Frye. Shot using my Canon 5D Mark II, I had accidentally left my lens on manual focus for the first 20 or so shots of the morning. This was one of those first 20 shots.

Yet, I loved the colors and composition – the question was whether there might be a way to salvage something from the image – in spite of the lousy focus.

I post-processed the image using a combination of Topaz Simplify – BuzSim, Nik’s Viveza 2, Color Efex Pro 3 and Silver Efex Pro 2. My general goals were a) to have something about Half Dome work in the image, b) capture the morning fog line along the far trees at the edge of the meadow and c) highlight the yellow leaves and structure in the foreground.

It’s obviously finished in a painterly style – hopefully it works. For me, it brings back great memories of that early morning out shooting with Michael Frye and my son!

PS: Michael has recently released a new iPhone application that I think is the best tool for photographers wanting to capture Yosemite. The app is an updated iPhone version of his earlier definitive book on photographing Yosemite. The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite is highly recommended!

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Alcatraz Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon 5D Mark II San Francisco/California

On Guard – Alcatraz – 2011

On Guard - Alcatraz - 2011

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Here’s another Alcatraz shot – taken with my Canon 5D Mark II in mid-day. With a bit of post-processing, this image looks like it was shot on a moonlit evening!

This image was processed in Adobe Photoshop CS5 using Nik’s Viveza 2 – to restructure the waves in the water – and then in Silver Efex Pro 2. A bit of blue toning adding to the moody, nighttime feel.

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Black and White Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Stanford

Moonrise Over Stanford – 2011

Moonrise - Stanford - 2011

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Last night, I went over to Stanford to try to capture the full moon rising near Hoover Tower just as the sun was setting. I had figured out (using the great TPE application) that a good spot for trying to capture this might be the roof of the parking structure at the corner of Panama St. and Via Ortez.

Turns out that this particular parking structure isn’t an ideal location – because of the new buildings in the Science Quad that block the lower half of the tower from this vantage point – but it was good enough for tonight and, most importantly, properly aligned with the path the moon was going to take as it was rising. Unfortunately, the tower itself was in less than perfect form with the scaffolding still remaining up top! So, this was good practice but didn’t produce a perfect image!

The moon began to appear out of the haze around 7:10 PM and then slowly rose up and to the right. This particular shot was the last shot I took – about 7:30 PM – handheld as I was putting everything (tripod, etc.) back into the trunk of my car. It was far and away the best shot of the night! Post-processed in Photoshop using Nik’s Color Efex 3 and Silver Efex Pro 2.

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Black and White Nik Software Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Yosemite

The Valley in January – Yosemite – 2011

The Valley in January – Yosemite – 2011

We’ve all seen photographs of this particular vantage point – Tunnel View as you enter Yosemite Valley on Wawona Road. When the valley opens up in front of you as you emerge from the tunnel, it’s stunning. And photographers love shooting the valley view from this site.

This January we spent a few days in Yosemite – and, naturally, we stopped at Tunnel View to snap a photo or two. As I was relaxing this Labor Day, I went looking through those photos to see if one might have potential. I chose this one taken in the late afternoon – because of the expansive view – and also because of how the sun shadow swept across the valley from upper right to lower left.

In the original image (see below), the shadow area in the lower right quadrant is almost completely darkened. I wondered what I might be able to accomplish with post-processing and first did a single-image tone mapped HDR of the original RAW file taken with my Canon 5D Mark II. Photomatix Pro did an amazing job of popping the details up out of the shadow area – including beautiful Bridalveil Fall. But, the rest of the image was very busy – a cluttered mess. I wanted something that was non-traditional – a different kind of perspective from this iconic location.

First, I used Nik’s Silver Efex 2 to convert the image to black and white. I adjusted the toning a bit, added a vignette – but was still unhappy with the result. After trying a couple of other filters, I settled in on the combination of the Low Key filter in Nik’s Color Efex 3 and Topaz Simplify. The toning is the result of Low Key, the reduced complexity/busy-ness of the image is the result of simplify. I used a tweak in Viveza to drop a control point on Bridalveil and brighten that up just a touch before pulling the image back into Lightroom for final noise reduction.

The result is different from the traditional valley view photos – hope you also enjoy the difference! Click on the image to see the large version.

Yosemite from Tunnel View - January 2011
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Hawaii Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II

The Winona at Sunset in Hawaii

Winona – Mauna Lani – Kona Coast – Hawaii

This is the Winona riding at anchor at sunset in Makaiwa Bay on the big island of Hawaii. This is near the Mauna Lani Hotel on the Kona Coast – one of our favorite vacation spots!

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Hawaii Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II

At Anchor – Hawaiian Sunrise

At Anchor - Hawaii - 2009

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I did a quick bit of post-processing of this 2009 sunrise image from the Mauna Lani on the big island of Hawaii. The primary effect used in this image was Topaz Simplify’s watercolor filter – helped transform an otherwise noisy image into something I find very peaceful and beautiful. Wish we were there!

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Black and White Mare Island Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Textures

Another Look at Building 680 at Mare Island

Building 680 - Mare Island - 2011

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Here’s the exterior view of Building 680 at Mare Island. In this treatment, I’ve added a texture effect along with a bit of Pixel Bender’s OilPaint filter to stylize the image – definitely into the “grunge” category! Makes the place look ancient (it is!) and the photo too!

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HDR Photography Mare Island Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 Photomatix Pro

A Peek Inside Building 680 at Mare Island

Building 680 - Mare Island - Ready to Go - 2011

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Doug Kaye and I spent a bit of time exploring Mare Island this afternoon.

I was amazed at the scale of the place. Huge buildings. Imagining this place with thousands of workers doing their thing. Brings back yet another sense of the greatest generation – how they were able to build and deliver on something of this scale. Yes, it is a great country!

This is one of the images we got peeking into the windows of Building 680, perhaps the largest building on the island. What did they make here, we wondered? This image is a hand-held HDR shot using my tiny Canon PowerShot S95 – with its lens flat up against the glass.

Below is another version – somewhat aggressively post-processed into a black and white. It’s the same building – but a different wing – and this version was shot using my Canon 5D Mark II with a 28mm f/1.8 lens.

Tracks - Building 680 - Mare Island - 2011

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Black and White Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon 5D Mark II San Francisco/California

The Rack

The Rack by by Scott Loftesness

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I’m heading up to San Francisco this afternoon to meet up with Doug Kaye for an afternoon of exploring and photography. Thinking about it last night, I remember this photo taken at the first photo workshop I attended in 2009 with Chris Honeysett.

During the workshop, Chris had us set our cameras to display our images in black and white – and I remember feeling how different the feedback was when in that mode vs. looking at the usual color display on the back of my DSLR. There’s something about seeing the results in black and white that focuses on the quality of the light and not the noise of the color.

As we were leaving Embarcadero Center, I happened to notice this circular bicycle rack – which had exactly one bicycle in it – you can barely see it at the far end. I loved the symmetry of the circles in this rack – and bent down very low to take this shot. I post-processed it (an original JPEG) using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2 and added in just a bit of color to set the mood.