Category: Stanford

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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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Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 Stanford

Out Shooting Circles at Stanford

Stanford Circles by Scott Loftesness

While out walking at Stanford yesterday afternoon, Lily and I came across this sunken oak tree planting – with these beautiful steps tiered down to the old oak’s ground level. The steps had some great light and shadows – in the wonderfully diffuse light of a mostly cloudy day.

My late friend Chris Gulker first turned me on to these kinds of scenes. Just walking with him was an experience in seeing things – that I would never have seen. Chris paid special attention to the combination of lights and shadows that most of us miss. He just saw the world differently. A favorite example is the stairstep railings shot at Cantor – where Chris saw shadows from the railings I never would have seen. Learning to see a bit through his eyes was such a treat.

Chris would have loved these steps down to the heritage Oak. I know we would have lingered for a while looking at these lights and shadows – just as Lily and I did.

This image was shot with my Canon PowerShot S95 and post-processed using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2.

Hope you like these steps too!

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Compact HDR HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 Stanford

Planes at Stanford – The David Packard EE Building

David Packard Electrical Engineering Building at Stanford University (HDR) by Scott Loftesness

Perhaps my tricky title fooled you? No, I’m not thinking of airplanes – but of flat surfaces – those kinds of planes.

We had some interesting weather and skies in the San Francisco area this afternoon – so I headed over for a walk around the north side of the Stanford University campus – and came upon this scene. It’s the David Packard Electrical Engineering building – shot as a single image RAW using my little Canon PowerShot S95 and post-processed using PhotoMatix Pro. This is a more realistic HDR – where the effects are more subtle and photorealistic.

The sun was behind the clouds over to the left side of the image – so there were no dark contrasty shadows but, instead, some beautiful light. When I look at this image, it flips back and forth around the centerline in my mind – fascinating effect! Do you see that too? Click here to see a larger version on a black background.

Hope you like it! If you do, let me know in the comments!

By the way, this image makes an incredible desktop image for your Mac – use the “Stretch to Fill Screen” setting to widen it out – beautiful!

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HDR Photography Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 Stanford

The Thinker in the Rodin Sculpture Garden

The Thinker - Gates of Hell - Rodin Sculpture Garden - Stanford University

Up top in Rodin’s Gates of Hell sculpture sits the Thinker – pondering everything. The Gates is an amazing sculpture and beautifully displayed outdoors at Stanford’s Cantor Art Center.

This image was taken with my little Canon PowerShot S95. It was converted from original RAW using Lightroom 3 followed by a black and white conversion performed using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2.

I like the way it turned out – hope you do 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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Books Living Stanford

Loving Ann Packer’s “Swim Back to Me”

I was recently away traveling for almost two weeks – and happened across Ann Packer‘s latest book “Swim Back to Me“.

Swim Back to Me - Ann PackerWhat a delight! The first novella in the book – “Walk for Mankind” – takes place in the neighborhoods in and around Stanford University. It’s close to home – and feels very nearby – but I think that’d be the case even if I lived hundreds of miles away! This story about two teenagers – Sasha and Richard – is just perfect – with crystal clear dialog, great drama and surprise.

I’m now continuing into the book’s shorter stories and looking forward to the final novella “Things Said or Done” that brings Sasha back much later in life.

I was originally tipped to the book by this great review by Joan Frank last weekend in the San Francisco Chronicle. Frank wrote: “One of the bankable pleasures of Packer’s work is her terrific command of details that push us directly into domestic lives: harried ex-spouses, messy rooms, picky eaters, lost textbooks.” Indeed!

Earlier today, Dave Iverson interviewed Packer on KQED’s Forum – it’s a great interview and well worth the listen. Her discussion about the power of her writers’ group – and how they help her – is especially interesting. A Reading Group Guide is also available on Ann’s web site. The book is available in print from Kepler’s, Amazon.com in Kindle format, or Amazon.com in print.

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Living Photography Stanford

Chris’s Steps – at Stanford

Chris's Steps

I remember one day walking with my late friend Chris Gulker here in the Rodin Sculpture Garden at Stanford. I had totally missed this perspective on the shadows from the two hand rails – one jagged, the other very smooth.

Chris’ eye spotted that juxtaposition immediately – which I had missed. By pointing it out to me, he helped teach my eye to pay just a bit more attention to shadows. Now, I remember his teaching every time I’m here – as I was on Sunday!

Taken with my iPhone 4 and post-processed with TiltShiftGen.

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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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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

Categories
Business Payments Stanford

Nathan Eagle’s Txteagle

Attended a great presentation this afternoon at Stanford with Nathan Eagle talking about Txteagle – putting 2.1 billion people in developing countries to work using their mobile phones.

Once qualified and working, they’re paid in mobile airtime – an effective virtual currency that avoids all of the regulatory issues with actually sending money instead.

What tasks do you have that a villager in Africa could help you with?