Category: Photography – Canon 5D Mark II

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HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II San Francisco/California

The Palace of Fine Arts – in HDR

The Palace of Fine Arts - San Francisco - 2011

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Wow, here’s one more shot from this weekend’s photowalk yesterday at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco! When I arrived, the sky was grey and overcast – foggy – typical for July at this venue in San Francisco.

So, I decided not to try to shoot any traditional exposure bracketed shots – the normal drill for HDR photography – because the contrast just wasn’t there without the sun and the shadows. Instead, I just shot single shot RAW photos – which you can see here in this Flickr set.

After playing around a bit with textures this morning, I decided to see what some single-shot HDR (High Dynamic Range) images might look like after processing with Photomatix Pro. The image above is one of those I processed.

What was interesting to me was how the HDR process brought out the full dome – whereas the dome was almost invisible in the normal shots. The sky is classic HDR – almost always gets darker and moody.

What’s special about this shot for me? The swan. She’s a small detail overall in this image – but I really enjoyed watching her move across the water as I was setting up for this shot.

Hope you also enjoy this image! Share your thoughts in a comment below…

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Living Menlo Park Parades Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II

There’s Nothing Like a Parade on the 4th of July!

Ukelele Player - Los Trancos Woods Marching Band - Redwood City Parade

On the 4th of July, there’s really nothing quite like a parade to lift one’s spirits. This morning, I took in two of them – the big annual Redwood City Parade – with lots of units and a huge crowd – and the smaller, home town version of a parade in Menlo Park – with lots of kids on bikes/tricks with silly/patriotic parents to guide them along. Both were a lot of fun.

I took my Canon 5D Mark II to both with the 70-200mm lens and mostly shot wide open in Aperture Priority at f/2.8, resulting in the blurred backgrounds that help make these portrait shots look so good. The photo above is the ukelele player for the Los Trancos Woods Community Marching Band – marching as they always do in the Redwood City parade. The photo below is a lucky curbside shot of a young boy as the Menlo Park Parade was about to begin.

Boy with Flag - 4th of July - Menlo Park

Today’s also an important anniversary of sorts in my family – my Mom and Dad first met 68 years ago today!

Hope you had a wonderful 4th of July. Another day to remember that freedom is not free!

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

Another Look at the Pizza Guy

IMG_5348

While photowalking Stanford a few weeks ago with Doug Kaye, we happened across this guy eating pizza out in the courtyard in front of the fountain in the Old Union. It seemed like such a classic “street shot”. It was shot with my Canon 5D Mark II using the Canon 24-105mm f/4 IS lens.

The first version I did came out pretty flat and dull – so I thought I’d try it again and use Nik’s Silver Efex 2 to perform the black and white conversion. I’m much happier with this result – although I’d still very much a novice at using Silver Efex!

What do you think? Better? Leave a comment for me below.

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Events Maker Faire Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Photography - Canon PowerShot S95

Maker Faire Bay Area 2011

Maker Faire Bay Area 2011

Doug Kaye and I had a great time Sunday at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011. This event provides photographers like us with endless opportunities to explore – and we did just that for the second year in a row. Thanks again to Doug for inviting me along.

I was shooting primarily with my Canon 5D Mark II and the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens. Near the end of my shoot, I switched to my newest lens, the Canon EF 135mm f/2 IS lens – an amazing portrait lens. Shooting both of these lenses “wide open”, they do a great job of blurring the background and making the photos interesting.

My second camera (as always!) was my trusty Canon PowerShot S95. Sometimes I wonder why I bother to bring along the “big camera” when I review what I can do with the S95! It’s an amazing little package!

As usual, I was shooting RAW on both cameras – so I’ve got some great RAW material for single image HDR post-processing when time permits.

Above is a matrix of my Flickr photos from today’s Maker Faire. These shots were quickly post-processed in Lightroom 3 before uploading to Flickr. Lightroom has proven to be a great tool for quickly doing this kind of post-processing and delivering the most important images.

Hope you enjoy them!

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Living Menlo Park Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II

Uplifting – Kids and Kites!

Kite Flying - Bedwell Bayfront Park - Menlo Park, CA

Every year in the spring, Menlo Park’s Community Affairs team holds a Kite Day at Bedwell Bayfront Park. I was out shooting some photos for our InMenlo blog – and here’s one of the ones I like best. A couple of Dads, kids, and a kite with a great tail!

Hope you enjoy it too!

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Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 Stanford

Photowalking Stanford with Doug Kaye

Doug Kaye at Stone River - Stanford University

This afternoon I met up with my good friend Doug Kaye (Twitter) for a photowalk around Stanford University. Doug’s photo club had planned an outing to Stanford but illness intruded and the leader wasn’t able to make it. Doug decided to press on – having already rented a special lens for the weekend.

We first headed for the Cantor Art Center – a great spot for both indoor and outdoor (Rodin Sculpture Garden) photography – see also Chris’s Steps – and for lunch at Cool Cafe at Cantor, one of my local favorites. The photo above is Doug shooting Andy Goldsworthy’s Stone River sculpture – just across from the Cantor Art Center.

After lunch, we headed over to the Stanford Quad for more photos. The weather was near perfect – mostly overcast skies, cool temperatures, it was just great! Below is a shot taken as we were walking into the Quad.

Stanford Quad - Stanford University

I’m looking forward to seeing Doug’s work – he tried some unusual composite shots as well as pretty fully exercising the tilt-shift lens he rented. [Update: here are a few of Doug’s shots!]

Here’s a link to my full Flickr set from the walk. Most of these were shot with my Canon 5D Mark II using the Canon 24-105mm f/4 L lens. A few were shot with my Canon PowerShot S95. The tags on the photos have the details.

Stanford is one of my favorite local subjects – here’s a link to the full collection of my Stanford photos.

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HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Photomatix Pro

The Bill Bliss Memorial – Palo Alto Baylands

Bill Bliss Memorial - Palo Alto (B+W HDR + Selective Color)

On Sunday, I set out to explore some local spots for HDR photography. One of the spots was the new Bill Bliss Memorial Sculpture by James Moore in the Palo Alto Baylands. I shot this photo with my Canon 5D Mark II using a 28mm lens.

This was a 3-shot HDR taken with the 5D mounted on a tripod – and then post-processed in PhotoMatix Pro. Once that conversion was complete, I used Nik’s Silver Efex 2 to do the black and white conversion – with the selective color to bring out the blue in the bike frame. A final touch up in Lightroom 3 completed the image. 30 seconds of composition on the scene followed by 30 minutes of post-processing to get it right.

I have so much more to learn about how to use Nik’s Silver Efex 2 – just beginning to get acquainted with all of its power!

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HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Photomatix Pro Stanford

Stanford Quad – Memorial Church in HDR

Memorial Church - Stanford - 2012

Spent a delightful hour this morning at Stanford – shooting HDR with my Canon 5D Mark II. This photo, of Stanford’s Memorial Church, was shot using a 28mm lens just below the front face of the church with the 5D on a tripod. At the time, the sun was just behind the left corner of the roof.

The image was post-processed using Photomatix Pro – in this case being double tone-mapped to bring out the incredible detail and colors on the face of the church. Hope you enjoy it – and share it!

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HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Yosemite

Three Brothers in Yosemite – An Editors Pick on HDR Spotting!

Wow, I was surprised to learn last night that my Three Brothers photo taken in Yosemite last fall was an Editors Pick on the HDR Spotting web site.

This was the first time one of my photos has “won” anything! A nice feeling!

Once again, thanks to Michael Frye for taking my son David and I to this most special spot alongside the Merced River in Yosemite! It was spectacular to shoot from there! If you’re going into Yosemite for photography, Michael’s your best guide!

Three Brothers - Merced River - Yosemite (HDR) - Scott Loftesness

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Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Sports Stanford

Equestrians at Stanford Red Barn

Serious - Stanford Horse Show - by Scott Loftesness

Frankly, I’m not much of a sports fan – so I headed over this afternoon – on Super Bowl Sunday – to Stanford looking for some opportunities for HDR photography. It’s been a glorious weekend here in the San Francisco Bay Area – with bright blue skies, temperatures in the 70s, just a delight. Had to get out of the house for an hour or two of photography explorations! One of the blessings of shooting HDR is that mid-day sun and shadows can be your friend.

I had recently met a family who happened to have horses – and they kept them at the Stanford Red Barn. It had been a while since I’ve visited the barn area – so I decided that would be my first stop.

Turns out, there was a collegiate horse show event underway at the Barn – so that provided me an opportunity to try out shooting with my Canon 5D Mark II in modes that I’ve really not tried before. This Flickr set is the result. I was mostly shooting in Aperture Priority using the AI Servo autofocus mode with all focus points enabled. I had the 70-200mm f/2.8L lens wide open at f/2.8.

My favorite image from the shoot is the one above. She’s so serious. Hope she won her event!

I also took some HDR shots using my Canon PowerShot S95 – here’s that set on Flickr. One example below:

Stanford Red Barn - Stanford University by Scott Loftesness