Wind and Sun

"Toy." This shot is unprocessed. Saturated right out of the camera. Due to the long exposure and large aperture, the picture is very soft. But for me it conveyed the energy of the moment. A little boy busy creating color, light, and noise.

"Boy." Shot with diffused flash. Desaturated and curves applied.

At the Superdrome in Frisco, TX. It's hard to shoot with strong overhead sun. I didn't love this picture, but it was better than the rest.

"Lost crayons." Some crayons on a ledge in teh airport parking lot. More polygonal bokeh.

"Staircase". I made fun of my friend's blog, which pictured several pictures of overpasses. I told him, "I'm not going to go around shooting overpasses." Well, I thought I would throw in a token "structure" shot. Taken from a moving car, so was not particulary carefully framed. Would be better I think if I cropped the bottom, but don't feel like it. Untouched.

"Bring me down." Driving through the airport, shooting through the passenger window (car moving). The plane adds a bit of interest to the beautiful sunset. Untouched.

Similar picture to the last, except the saturation was slightly increased in Picasa (too lazy to mess with photoshop at the moment).

"Late start". Just a simple picture right through the windshield. Untouched.

"Summer fountain." Another picture at the dogpark. I increased the saturation in this picture to bring in warmth and increase the summer evening feeling.

"Akita." Several years ago I thought I wanted an Akita. Then I became concerned about their dog-on-dog aggressiveness. I went to a shelter and saw a disproportionate number of Akitas there. Another red flag. I wonder what happened to them. They are noble creatures, certainly. The fence reflects on my ambivalent feelings.

Here is the original imagine, unaltered. I include it as a contrast for the simple fact that I am yet to find a photoblog that publishes before and after. The picture below is a 2 minute riff on this one.

Sunset in Dallas. Urban setting. Saturation, color balance adjustment. Shadows added. Cropped.

"Water on the Windshield." Manual focus here on the rain drops. Distant lights shine in geometric forms. Only processing here is an uptick in the saturation through Picasa.

"The Thinker." Untouched.

"Car Radio."

"Drive-in." This was a drive-by "shooting" of a drive-in.

"Ghost music II". As a contrast, this is a non-processed image. You see the warmer, yellow light. Also a smaller aperature at f18, and a longer exposure at 1.3s. Some of you may be able to tell that this was a Schubert piece.

"Ghost music I". Shot at f13, 1/4s exposure. Corrected white balance (the only light source was a very yellow lamp).

"Son". More post-processing here. Cropped. "Chalk" filter applied. The original in color was too warm, and I think this version brings the focus to the face and the expression, which I prefer.

Continuing my experimenting with processing, I added a Gaussian blur layer to this image, among other changes. It was easier than doing an herbal skin peel (just kidding!). I say that because I know at some point she will see this post, and I can't help myself.

Same place, different picture. This one post-processed in Photoshop. Cropped, some color adjustments. Again, for me, these changes led to a more evocative picture. I'm a real beginner with photography in general, but post-processing is something completely foreign to me. So you are seeing my first few experiments.

Another experiment in post-processing. Massively overexposed shot. So I made it black and white, sharpened it, and increased shadows in Picasa. I think it makes for a nostalgic feel, almost like an illustration from the 1950's.

"Over there". Shot at a work party in low-light conditions with the 50mm 1.4. Kind of an accidental shot that worked for me (worked better than the others, that is). Perhaps you have noticed that this person greatly resembles a photo of a pregnant woman in front of a window....There was a funny artifact/reflection on one of her teeth that I cloned out. Additionally this picture is cropped.

Experimenting with sports photography again. This picture was achieved with camera pan at 1/4s exposure at f22.0. There is nothing particularly remarkable about this photo other than I was able to convince Jen to ride back and forth down our alleyway. :)

Happy 4th everyone. I wasn't terribly pleased with any of the pictures I took. Not sure where the camera ended up focusing in this photo (AF mode).....but I chose this one as the best due to the motion and action it conveys. The soft focus feel is quite accidental.

Experimenting with action photography for the first time, cycling here.

Don't forget the archives.....

If you like the photos here, or if you are a long-suffering friend or relative who has been browbeaten into submission and forced here, don't forget to go to the archives for a few extra pictures.

"Cheese". Added soft focus effect in Picasa (all other pictures in this blog are unmodified unless specified).

"This House"

"Acts of Faith"

Katie. Using new 20D with 50mm f1.4 lens. Most all shots from here on out will be with the 20D I would presume. I will still use the Sony when space is a premium.