I’d heard of China Camp – but never been there. It’s a great spot – on the bay side of San Rafael in Marin County – with some wonderful places to shoot.
This is an image I shot with my iPhone 5. Post=processed using Lightroom 5 with VSCO Film 04 and then Oil Paint filter in Photoshop CC. I love how the painterly effects play with the water and sky in this image.
Here’s another shot from our pre-Thanksgiving visit to New York City. We were walking up Madison Avenue to dinner. Something friends have always told me – be sure to turn around and look back – came into my head. I did – and here’s what I saw. Love the scope of this image – from the guy on the left with the garbage can to the taxi hailer and then on to the FedEx truck on the right.
Shot handheld with the amazing Fujifilm X-E2 and post-processed in Lightroom 5 with VSCO Film 04. Adjusted a bit further in Photoshop CC using Topaz Simplify 4 to reduce detail on the buildings in the distance to keep the eye down at street level. Click on the image to see a larger size version.
Ah, New York City in the fall…
On Sunday morning, November 24, the air was crisp and the sun crept up slowly from the southeast – lighting up the tops these trees in Central Park.
Sometime I enjoy applying painterly treatments to my images – and this is one of those times. Adjusted just a bit in Lightroom 5 before going into Photoshop CC to add a touch of the Oil Paint filter.
Shot out our hotel room window with my Fujifilm X-E2
Just before Thanksgiving, we were in New York for a special weekend – and the holidays are a great time to be in New York.
I had my new Fujifilm X-E2 along and captured this image as we were walking up Madison Avenue to dinner. It’s a classic shot on this street – with the wonderful blend of architecture in the buildings juxtaposed with the storefronts, the fall colors in the trees and the lights.
But, I got lucky (well prepared?) with this shot – there’s a biker coming on the left side, the couple in front of the ETRO store are clearly “checking in” – and they probably belong to that big black SUV over on the right side sort of parked up near the fire hydrant. This is one of those images with a lot going on – it’s fun to explore. Click on the image to see a larger version for exploring further! Might make a great jig saw puzzle too!
Shot with my Fujifilm X-E2, post-processed in Lightroom 5 using VSCO Film and finished up (with a touch of sharpening) in Photoshop CC.
After putting together and reviewing my Portfolio 2013 book, I realized that I should experiment a bit more with this particular image – shot in a produce market in Havana, Cuba this past January. Doug Kaye and I were there for a week – and on our first full day we visited this market.
This particular couple was backlit by light streaming in through windows up high on the wall behind. The contrast of the light and shadows, her cigarette smoke, and the rich textures make this one of my favorite images from the trip.
My post-processing of this image was done using Photoshop CC and some of the techniques taught by Jean-Michel Berts in his video tutorials. Using the Berts’ techniques, I adjusted the toning of the image to darken certain areas and, with subtlety, lighten others. The Berts’ techniques are an extension of the old dodge/burn techniques that have been used in the darkroom for years.
I then used some of the techniques that Aaron Nace of Phlearn.com explains in this video tutorial – in particular the two step high pass sharpening along with the subtle addition of some grain in the shadows of the image after it had been resized down to 2048 pixels on the widest dimension. As a final touch, I added a 60px wide black border all the way around the image.
You can see the color version here.
People check in from everywhere!
Shot on the streets of Havana, Cuba in January 2013. Nikon D600 with the 24-85mm kit lens. Post-processed in Lightroom 5 and Photoshop CC.
Here’s a fun shot from our visit to Havana earlier this year – taken outside our hotel with my Nikon D600 with the Nikkor 24-85mm kit lens.
Post-processed in Lightroom 5 and Photoshop CC with VSCO Film 04 Fortia SP and Topaz Simplify 4.
After reading about Saul Leiter’s death early this week, I started scanning back through some of my images looking for some vivid color shots with either scarcity of stuff or an abundance of stuff in the image.
I came across this one – shot in Havana in late January. That’s my friend Doug Kaye out of focus in the lower right looking at this scene. The title comes from the four men I see in the image – maybe you can find even more! What’s fun to me about this image is how my eye just keeps exploring around the scene – it’s so chock full of interesting stuff, color, and texture.
Shot with a Nikon D600 and the 85mm Nikkor prime lens. Post-processed in Lightroom 5 with VSCO Film and in Photoshop CC.
I had a wonderful time this morning visiting one of my favorite spots in San Francisco – the Palace of the Legion of Honor – and the amazing exhibition currently running of the work of Swedish painter Anders Zorn. If you haven’t been, you must go – his work is just superb. I’ve never seen watercolors like he painted!
As I was heading back to the car, I noticed this view overlooking the golf course – with a view of this cypress grove. This early December low sun angle light makes almost everything look wonderful to my eye – but this was even more special. Ming Thein, a Kuala Lumpur-based photographer who’s taught me a lot, starts with “Start by finding interesting light.” This was special light.
Shot with my Fujifilm X-E2
The day after Thanksgiving I stopped by Menlo Park’s Allied Arts Guild with my new Fujifilm X-E2 camera. I wrote a brief article about it over on InMenlo.com.
Allied Arts was decorated with holiday ornaments – and this particular one caught my eye. There’s a distant reflection of another red ornament in the window in the upper right – purposely out of focus in this shot.
Post-processed in Lightroom 5 with VSCO Film and in Photoshop CC with a touch of the Oil Paint filter.