Category: Stanford

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Compact HDR HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 Stanford

Back in Stanford’s Memorial Court – 2011

Memorial Court - Stanford - 2011

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Last night I was walking to my Stanford Continuing Studies photography workshop as the skies were beginning to clear from our first of the season rainstorm. The clouds were richly textured and with the sunset glow reflecting off a portion. As I walked to class, my mind was still reeling from the news of Steve Jobs’ death that I had heard just a bit before. Somehow this image brought me back into focus.

This image is a 3-shot handheld HDR taken with my Canon PowerShot S95. It was post-processed in Photomatix Pro and Nik’s Color Efex Pro 4 (details enhancer and tonal contrast) with the final tweaks, noise reduction, vignette, etc. applied in Lightroom 3.5.

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Black and White Nik Software Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Selective Color Stanford

Undercover in the Stanford Quad – 2011

Undercover - Stanford - 2011

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Earlier this summer, there was a lot of work going on in Memorial Court at Stanford. On one of my visits, I came across the Burghers of Calais all wrapped up. This image was processed using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2 with a bit of selective cover over the one Burgher.

Hold me tight!

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Black and White Photography Photography - Black & White Stanford

Inside Community Court – Stanford Graduate School of Business – 2011

Community Court - Stanford Graduate School of Business

Earlier this year, Stanford opened the new Knight Management Center campus for its Graduate School of Business. This new campus is quite large – much larger than the old GSB building – with some very interesting design features. Here’s a set of my initial walk thru photos from June 2011.

This image, a black and white conversion from the original, caught my eye – the shapes, the repeating shades of grey – almost like the old green bar paper! It might be cleaned up a bit further by cropping out the “noise” at the top edge – what do you think?

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

The Arches in the Stanford Quad

The Arches in the Stanford Quad by Scott Loftesness

A couple of weeks ago, I was out walking around Stanford and came across this scene just off the inner Quad. This image was shot as a single image HDR with my Canon 5D Mark II and the Canon EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens. For this shot, ISO was 100, shutter speed was 1/320 with the lens at f/4.6 at 130 mm. The image was post-processed using Photomatix Pro and tweaked slightly in Photoshop CS5.

Hope you enjoy!

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

Youthful Exuberance in the Stanford Quad!

Youthful Exhuberance in the Stanford Quad

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A few weeks ago on Sunday, July 31, I walked a bit of the Stanford campus with my Canon 5D Mark II in tow – shooting this time with the long Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS lens. Turns out I had just picked up a new camera strap – BlackRapid – and wanted to try it out while walking the campus.

While walking around the Stanford Quad, I came across this scene of a young man and his Mom heading out toward the Oval. He was just bursting with energy – almost dancing along as he walked while Mom tried to just stare off into the distance. In ten years, I suspect he’ll be a student at Stanford!

In post-processing this image, I decided on a tighter crop than originally shot along with a black and white conversion using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2. I added a layer mask and brought back in the kid’s colorful hat, hat band, shirt and shoes of this young man as he had fun walking.

Shortly after taking this shot, he threw his hat into the air – but, alas, I wasn’t prepared and missed what was probably the best shot! But this one comes close for me!

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Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 Stanford

Trey Ratcliff’s Photowalk at Stanford

First Shot at Stanford

Last night, Trey Ratcliff and almost 200 of his closest friends descended on the Stanford University campus for a photowalk. This was Trey’s second tour of Stanford – I also attended the first of these photo walks with Trey in February 2010 on a much cooler and drizzlier late afternoon!

This image shows the first spot that Trey picked to setup his camera – on the fountain between Hoover Tower and Memorial Auditorium. The sun was beginning to set, the shadows were long, and the light was beginning to get very special. I clipped a few shots before having to head for home.

This image was shot with my tiny Canon PowerShot S95 – cropped slightly but otherwise unprocessed out of the camera.

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Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 Photomatix Pro Stanford

Knight Management Center @ Stanford

Knight Management Center @ Stanford (HDR)

This evening Trey Ratcliff hosted a photo walk at Stanford that started at the Knight Management Center of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. As I was walking to the event, I snapped this 3-image HDR photo of the courtyard using my tiny Canon PowerShot S95. The image was lightly post-processed using Photomatix Pro before cropping it to a 16:9 ratio image for display here.

Here are a few more shots from tonight’s event. Here’s the group photo taken by Peter Adams before we headed out on the photo walk.

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HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 Photomatix Pro Stanford

Sequence @ Stanford

Sequence @ Cantor Arts Center - Stanford University- by Scott Loftesness

This afternoon I visited the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford to see the new Sequence sculpture by Richard Serra that had just been installed. Cantor is exhibiting this amazing work until 2010 when it will be moved to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

The image above is a single image HDR shot using my tiny Canon PowerShot S95. The image was post-processed as a single RAW using Photomatix Pro and then tweaked a bit in Photoshop before uploading it here.

While the colors are over saturated a bit compared to “real life”, I just love how this image turned out. The shades of color, the gradations, and the lovely curves all make this a very special image for me – and hopefully for you!

More of my Sequence photos are available here. Here’s a 2 minute video of my walk thru the sculpture:

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Art and Artists Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 Stanford

Peter Wegner’s Work at Stanford’s Knight Management Center

Monument to Change As It Changes - Zambrano Hall - Stanford University Graduate School of Business

Lily and I made a very quick tour this morning under grey skies of the new Knight Management Center campus of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. While the setting is grand and the spaces are lovely, the work of Peter Wegner stood out for me in our quick tour. Here’s the Flickr set from our walk.

The image above is of Peter’s “Monument to Change As It Changes” (click to see more) which is on one of the exterior walls of Zambrano Hall. Made up of 2,048 of those little rectangular color spinners (he calls them “flip digit modules”), the wall changes constantly creating a mesmerizing experience. Very nicely done!

Wegner has a couple of other installations at the new GSB as well. He’s based in Berkeley – and is doing some obviously great work! Perhaps I’m a bit biased to other artists who also grew up in South Dakota?