Portrait: Tasha Botz
Dec 14
I will admit any day that while I enjoy taking pictures of my family I’m definitely not a portrait guy. I think I’m pretty good at capturing my family well but when it comes to others – not so much. I’ve been asked to do portraits before and I can usually get a couple of poses that I like but when it comes to portraits my wife is the real photographer. She has all the best ideas.
I’ve seen pictures with textures for a long time and I’ve always steered clear of them only because I wasn’t sure how they would turn out if I did it. I’ve been experimenting with them for about a week now and I think I kind of like them. You really have to experiment with them though because there are a million ways to incorporate them – just another way in which my lack of Photoshop skills comes into play.
When we went to pick pumpkins in October we took a bunch of pictures of the kids running through some tall grass/weeds in the pumpkin patch. There was a very specific look I was trying to achieve – a sort of autumny-vintage-timeless-youthful-playfulness sort of look and feel and I was just not getting it with just putzing around on my own. I finally sat down and starting playing with some free textures that I downloaded and I think I got the look that I was going for. I think that I could start to use textures more but you have to be careful because you can really blow out your images if you’re not careful.
Portrait: Isa & Alanzo
Nov 24
Somewhere, Washington
Nov 5
This picture was taken somewhere in Washington state at six in the morning. I’m not sure where it was taken. We had just woken up from a short nap in a rest stop after leaving Seattle and were heading back to Oregon. The sun had just come up and we had taken off the interstate to look for a Starbucks so that I could get a hot, soothing drink and I noticed this view from a gas station parking lot.
The Crab Pot (http://www.thecrabpotseattle.com) is a restaurant on Pier 57 in Seattle, near the Seattle Aquarium. I had so much fun when I was there, even if it was merely four hours. I had forgotten how much I missed being on the coast. It reminded me of San Francisco in every way. For those who have never been on the coast, at least the west coast as I have no experience on the east coast, there is a certain ambiance when you go there. The first thing that hits you is the temperature – it’s cooler than being inland. I had forgotten the difference in temperature until we got there. The next thing you experience is the smell and there really is no way to describe it. It smells absolutely wonderful. It had this fresh, salty, seafood-type smell and I absolutely loved it. It smells the same as San Francisco and being in Seattle reminded me of living in Sacramento and driving to the coast. There were mountains in the background. I know that Bainbridge Island is across the bay but I don’t know if the mountains were part of that or part of Olympic National Park.
We had walked around after what should have been merely a two and one half hour drive but ended up being much longer so we were really hungry. I was not about to go to the coast and not eat fresh seafood. There were a few places to eat and we settled on the Crab Pot and I loved it. I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting the area.
This represents one of the very few night-time HDR shots that I’ve ever taken and I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. HDR pictures are inherently noisy, even at low ISO. Being an entry-level camera, the D40 offers the least amount of noise reduction possible and I just wasn’t sure how this would turn out. I’ve taken low-light HDR pictures before and could just not find a way to reduce the noise – even with noise-reduction software. The picture below is a hand-held shot taken at ISO 200.
Sunset at Sibley Park
Oct 26
I forgot about this picture. I was browsing through my camping pictures with Becky yesterday and came across this picture. It’s very interesting how some of the most unlikely pictures can become your most pleasing. As I said in an earlier post, we had decided to do a spontaneous picnic at sunset so that I could be set up as the sun set while not having to spend time apart while she ate. It was a perfect night. The weather was gorgeous, we got to hang out and be together. It was definitely reminiscent of our “dating” days.
This picture was taken without any setup at all. I was determined to get as many pictures of the sun going down from as many different angles as I could and this shot, literally, was me putting the tripod down and snapping a picture. I don’t even remember if I leveled it (it’s level, so, obviously, I did).
I’m not sure how I feel about this picture, or any of the pictures I took of the temple when I was in Oregon over the summer. Ever since Jacob got me into HDR photography photographing temples was something that I knew I wanted to do – they’re perfect for the medium. I’ve been looking at other pictures online that people have submitted and they are absolutely gorgeous. The temples of the church are perfectly suited for HDR photography.
The problem with this particular day was the time of day that I was there. We were there on a bright, sunny day right at lunch time and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. You can take some really nice HDR pictures under those conditions but I haven’t really perfected the technique yet.
I keep seeing the pictures popping up on my screensaver and there are a couple that pop up that I go back and forth on. On one hand, I think it’s kind of nice to see an HDR image that isn’t too grungy looking but I can’t help but feel that I could have done a better job at tonemapping the image and fine-tuning it in Photomatix. There is also some bad halo, which I haven’t figured out how to avoid. I don’t know. Either way, I think I like it enough to throw it up on here and maybe someday someone will stumble upon it and offer some advice.
Leaves at Quarry Park
Oct 9
I haven’t always paid much attention to leaves until my wife had the camera a couple of years ago and brought home some really nice pictures and ever since I’ve kind of paid more attention. I actually don’t mind the fading colors, or the “dead” texture of them (it is fall, after all) – I still think there’s a beauty to them.
