Anytime I’m walking around big cities I’m always looking for good reflections. I came across this building with a nice reflection, only thing missing was a dramatic sky.
ISO 250 1/250 50mm
Looking for reflections
The Abandoned School
Re-post from July 2011
A few days ago I decided to travel the local country side to look for interesting structures to take pictures of. It was in the middle of the afternoon and is typically the worst time to take pictures because the sun light causes very harsh shadows and typically the camera cannot compensate for the amount of exposure. Besides HDR photography there are other ways to fix this problem. One way is to use a neutral density filter.
Neutral density filters are either colorless or grey and reduce and/or modify the intensity of light without harming color rendition. This allows photographers to shoot in situations that typically wouldn’t allow them. These filters come in different intensities, which allow for different shooting techniques.
I recently purchased B+W ND 3.0 at B & H Photo for my Leica 21mm Elmarit lens. It allows me to shoot in very bright light, thus allowing proper exposure. It can also be used to create a time lapse picture which shows the motion of clouds or objects in front of it. As I was driving around I came across this old school (built in 1896) that appeared to be on its last leg. You can see in the pic, the motion of the clouds in this 4 second exposure.
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Man on a bike
I don’t typically discuss my post-processing but today I thought I would mention a few programs that I routinely use. I store all my pictures in Apple’s Aperture 3. Most who read this blog are probably familiar with it or know of it. It’s basically a program to easily store and file all your pictures (i.e. library). You can also make adjustments to your pictures without making permanent changes. Most, use Adobe’s Lightroom or the casual photographer will use iPhoto. I’ve used all 3 and iPhoto is definitely more for enthusiast.. Lightroom and Aperture are very similar and I really wouldn’t say one is better than the other.
I use Adobe Photoshop 5 or more recently 6.0 (beta). I use this when needing to make more complicated fixes or needing to layer my pictures.
Last, I routinely use Nik Software’s Silver Efex 2 and Color Efex 4. Both allow very controlled and unique changes and I highly recommend both.
I’ve posted a prior shot of this guy with cars flying by him. This is just one shot when he was patiently waiting for traffic to clear long enough for him to go. This shot was edited with Aperture 3, Photoshop 6, and Nik Software Color Efex 4.
Here’s the previous post.
ISO 160 1/30 f/1.4 50mm summilux
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Dad, who are these people?
Re-post from September 2011
As we were walking around at Steve Huff’s workshop, we came across this father and son walking. What made this interesting was the height of the father in comparison to his child. We inquired if we could take a few pictures and the entire time his son just stared at us wondering what the heck we were doing.
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On the go
Recently I purchased Leica’s new 21mm super elmar. All I can say is WOW! The sharpness and minimal distortion is phenomenal. Last, I love using “zone focusing“. I just set my aperture and shooting distance and I’m ready to go. If you set your aperture to f/8 (has to be a sunny day) and shooting distance to 5 feet, anything beyond 3 feet will be in focus.
This shot was taken from the hip. This guy was definitely on the go.
ISO 160 1/250 f/8 21mm super elmar
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Victory
You call this talent?
Repost: 9.27.11
As we were walking to the hotel and stopped, waiting to cross Michigan Avenue, we noticed this guy on a bike smoking a cigarette and balancing himself in one spot for what seem to be an eternity. While multitasking, he had many cars passing him left and right. I definitely think this is a talent but don’t think it’s a talent I want?
The shot was taken with my Leica M9 and 50mm summilux set at continuous shooting, f/1.4, and 1/45 shutter speed. Because of the low aperture and the small size of the camera I was able to successfully get this shot at such a low shutter speed. Last, I keep my camera on continuous shooting so that I have a better opportunity of getting a sharper image and catching the action act the exact, right time.
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Morning Haze
Repost 8.21.11
Yesterday morning I was heading into work on a road behind our subdivision. It was foggy and as I was driving I found the light coming through the trees with the combination of fog to be very interesting. I stopped in the middle of the road and opened my door and shot a few pics.
This image was created using my Leica M9-P and 50mm summilux. I initially edited the picture with Nik Software Silver Efex Pro 2. It has a slider that allows for you to selectively bring back colors. I did this to the road and really liked the look. Unfortunately, I didn’t like the rest of the pic thus I decided I would go back to my original file and process it through OnOne Softwares Perfect Layers. Once I did this I felt I was on to something. I then opened up Photoshop CS 5 and layered the two pics. Next I extended the sun rays and added a sepia tone to give it a more warm feeling.
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Puddle
I originally posted this picture back in August 2011 after attending the Leica Akademie Shooting Experience in Chicago. It was probably my favorite shot and was taken from the hip using Leica 24mm.
ISO 160 1/250 f/8 24mm
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Streets of Chicago
Keeping my theme from the past few days I figured I would post a few more street shots I took while in Chicago. Both of these shots were taken from “the hip”. Meaning, I just set the camera to the proper exposure and started firing shots when I saw something interesting. Both pics were taken while holding the camera near my waste (shooting from a low angle can give the viewer an interesting perspective).
In the first pic “Keeping it cool”, it’s a candid shot of a guy walking and waiving while holding his smoke. Even though the subject is out of focus, it gives the viewer a feeling of movement (or at least it does me) and has a three dimensional feel to it.
The second shot “lets go out” is two people having a casual conversation. In this shot, the sharpness is dead on. If there was any lost of sharpness here, the shot would be ruined.
Repost August 2011
