Category: Photography – Nikon D600

Categories
Nikon Photography Photography - Nikon D600 Photoshop San Francisco/California

My Favorite Warrior of the Terracotta Clan

Terracotta Warrior - San Francisco - 2013

Back in early April, Doug Kaye and I met for one of our photo walks at San Francisco’s Civic Center. We met in the plaza outside City Hall, shot for a while inside City Hall, and then headed across the plaza to the Asian Art Museum – my first time there.

The museum’s Terracotta Warriors exhibition was underway (it closed May 27, 2013) – and, amidst a busy crowd in a room in near darkness, we wandered this exhibition. These terracotta warriors are something to behold – and the museum’s display with its great positioning and lighting made it quite an experience.

I wasn’t sure what kind of shots I’d be able to get in such low light. I kicked my Nikon D600 into auto everything mode – with no flash – and shot what I could. As it turns out, the D600 is a superb low light camera – and I got some incredible images while expecting almost nothing to be worthwhile.

I experimented a bit post-processing this warrior in Photoshop. First of all, isolating him from other stuff in the image and then moving him to a solid, dark purple background. I adjusted the composition a bit – moving him to the left half and leaving the expanse of dark space on the right. Then I tried some really unusual moves – adding a subtle oil paint layer to add the texture and shading on his face. If you look closely (click on the image for larger version), you can see his cheeks are more fluid than carved out of stone – that’s the oil paint layer at work. A couple of selective sharpening steps further defined the edges of his profile.

I just love how this warrior image turned out – one of my recent favorites! Hope you do too!

Categories
Black and White Lightroom Maker Faire Monochrome Photography Nikon Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Nikon D600

Some Assembly Required

Some Assembly Required - Maker Faire - 2013

Last Sunday I headed to the San Mateo Event Center for Maker Faire Bay Area 2013 – joining my photo buddy Doug Kaye for the third year we’ve shot this event together.

This image is from the Steampunk area at Maker Faire – one of my favorites spots – where they had a table setup for folks to create their own Steampunk Goggles.

This image was shot with a Nikon D600 and post-processed in Lightroom 4.

Categories
Monochrome Photography Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Nikon D600 San Francisco/California

Upright Grand

Upright Grand - Hunters Point - 2013

Here’s another view of that decaying piano outside of the Submarine Cafeteria at San Francisco’s Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. It’s stuck in a corner around the back of the building – looks like it’s been there for 50 years!

This image was taken with a Nikon D600 and post-processed in Photoshop CS6. It’s got a subtle “warm black” toning created with an action developed by Doug Kaye with thanks to Ming Thein.

Categories
Photography Photography - Nikon D600

Airstreamers in the Rear Window

Airstreamers - Hunters Point - 2013

While exploring a bit at the old Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco, I came across this wonderful old Airstream trailer parked near one of the Open Studio buildings. It’s been crunched a bit – but otherwise seemed to be in great shape.

Some of the windows had been taped over – but the back window had this wonderful image of a couple taped over it. Seems like we caught them as we were peeking through – don’t you think?

I shot this with a Nikon D600 and post-processed it in Photoshop CS6 and Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2. I just love the look!

Categories
Black and White Monochrome Photography Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Nikon D600 San Francisco/California

Working a Subject

Working the Subject - Hunters Point - 2013

Earlier today, Doug Kaye and I headed to Open Studios at Hunters Point in San Francisco.

We had a great time talking with one of my favorite local visual artists – Pep Ventosa – at his studio in Building 101. I love Pep’s work – with multiple exposures and blending in Photoshop. Beautiful work.

Afterwards, we headed over to another area of Hunters Point for some photography…

This is a shot of +Doug Kaye working one of the more interesting subjects we came across – a sculpture of a woman seated – made of nails. Doug’s shooting with his Sony NEX-7.

Shot with my Nikon D600 and post-processed in Photoshop CS6.

Categories
Hawaii Lab Color Photography Photography - Nikon D600 Photoshop

A Special Sunrise on Hawaii’s Kona Coast

Sunrise Surf - Kona - 2013

With several photographer friends, I recently attended a lecture by photographer John Paul Caponigro sponsored by the Palo Alto Camera Club. He spoke on the subjects of “Illuminating Creativity” and “Landscapes Within”. A 20 minute version of his creativity talk from 2010 is available as a TEDx video.

Caponigro’s purpose in his talk was to push us to explore our own creativity – to realize that we’ve got a lot more that we might not even realize. I’m not sure about that in my case (!) – but I tried to take some of what he taught to bear on this particular image.

It’s a morning sunrise shot from the Kona coast in Hawaii. Sunrise, of course, occurs in the east – and this image looks to the west – off the coastline of the Kona coast on the big island of Hawaii. There was a lovely bank of low clouds (not visible in the image) which were reflecting lovely sunrise colors down into the ocean waters – and that’s what I tried to capture as I processed this image.

Processing involved several steps – including an excursion into Lab color, selective use of Topaz Simplify, some luminosity painting – and other steps I’ve already forgotten!

This is one of those special images that brings me back – back to a very special early morning, walking along the coast in Hawaii and watching the light slowly shift and sparkle. Beautiful. A beautiful memory. For me, that’s what creativity is all about.

Categories
Photography Photography - Nikon D600 San Francisco/California

Perfection at San Francisco’s City Hall

Perfection - San Francisco - 2013

Doug Kaye and I recently met up for one of our regular photo walks – this time choosing to meet at the City Hall in San Francisco. It had been years since Doug had been there – and I can’t recall ever having been inside although I’ve certainly driven by it many times and admired its splendid architecture from a distance! Beautiful from the outside, San Francisco’s City Hall is even more spectacular inside!

This particular shot, taken with my Nikon D600, shows some of that architectural perfection inside. I took it hand-held while sitting on the staircase that heads upstairs below the rotunda. It’s not quite perfectly aligned in the frame – but I find it beautiful – and perfect – just the same. As I was processing it, I was imagining the workers actually constructing this dome – with all of its amazing details. The blend of natural and artificial light just adds to the mood of perfection!

Categories
Photography Photography - Nikon D600 San Francisco/California Topaz

That Ice Cream Man at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

Ice Cream - Palace of Fine Arts - 2013

This afternoon I joined a Google+ photo walk in San Francisco. While the main group headed west towards Fort Point, Doug Kaye and I (along with his wife Cessna) peeled off and headed over to the Palace of Fine Arts – another one of our favorite locations.

Here’s an unusual shot from that venue – an ice cream vendor shopping his goodies. Shot with my Nikon D600, this was post-processed in Photoshop using several techniques – including using Topaz Simplify 4 to soften up part of the image and Lab color to brighten up some of the colors. This is a modification of a technique I first saw used by Chris Hilgert on Google+.

Categories
Cuba Nikon Photography Photography - Nikon D600

That Red Car on the Prado in Havana, Cuba

Red Car - Havana - 2013

On Sunday, January 27, 2013, I was in Havana, Cuba – heading out into Central Havana. We had an amazing day photographing – a light rain came down.

Late in the afternoon – after a rest stop – a few of us headed out again. Just around the corner from the hotel is this boulevard known as the Prado. As were heading out across the street, I caught this shot. Such a perfect red convertible captured my eye!

Categories
Black and White China Monochrome Photography Nik Software Nikon Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Nikon D600 San Francisco/California

Armored Kneeling Archer – China’s Terracotta Warriors

Armored Kneeling Archer - San Francisco - 2013

Here’s another image from the exhibition of China’s Terracotta Warriors now underway at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum.

This image required a bit more work. One of the challenges of shooting images of the warriors as they’re displayed is the combination of lighting and reflections – which bring extra “stuff” into the images.

Plus, when we were there, it was really crowded inside the darkened exhibition gallery. Lots of folks moving around – and bumping into each other – a challenging photographic venue for sure!

But the gallery that the Asian Art Museum created for the warriors is really is superb in terms of how the terracotta warriors are placed and, in particular, how they’re lit.

So, to deal with the issues in the image, I did a quick selection in Photoshop to isolate the warrior from extraneous background elements. I then faded those elements into the background while adding some contrast to the warrior.

Then we made a trip into Nik’s Color Efex Pro 4 to do two steps: bring out more detail and add a subtle bit of glamour glow.

Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2 was used for the conversion to monochrome – adding a bit of structure to the midtones and highlights while removing structure from the shadows. A bit of soft contrast adjustment helped with lighting.

A quick pass with Doug Kaye’s Warm Black action helped tone the image just ever so slightly.

For the final sharpening step, I used the Sharpen 2013 action included in the latest version of Dan Margulis’ Picture Postcard Workflow panel in Photoshop.