Day 120/366

I know I thought yesterday was the last Nimitz Image, But I have been gone all day and knew I had one more image that would work in an emergency. :)

This is a Big Compass on the Admirals Bridge. I was hoping it had some cool name, but the consensus was that there isn't some cool name for it. It's just a BIG COMPASS. I like that we are overlooking to other battleships.

Anyway, Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend.

See you all tomorrow.

Day 119/366

This is another image from the USS NIMITZ. This one is my favorite from that day. This image features the 3 wire. There are 4 Recovery Wires on the flight deck that the jets need to hook in order to land, and they try and shoot for the 3 wire. So I thought it was cool including it along with the TOWER. I had shown an earlier version of this image from my iPhone. But wanted you to see the Final version.
My hope is to get out to the Carrier and be able to shoot while there are actual jets landing on the flight deck.

Day 118/366

Another shot from the USS Nimitz

This was shot looking down at two other battleships,

There were some cool ropes that I thought would be cool to incorporate into the shot. Leading Lines that lead you through the image.

Day 117/366

We take a break from the PSW images, A couple weeks ago I got to tour the USS Nimitz. It's funny how awesome it was to be on, but all the people that have to live on it just see it as a big machine. But I guess thats the case with anything, If you live in Manhattan, it doesn't have the same awe inspring effect as it would to someone from kansas.

But this thing was awesome. I am looking forward to heading back. On this trip we had my niece and nephew and although it was my Brother In Law giving us the tour and would gladly wait as long as needed for me to get the shot, I seriously could be there for 8 hours shooting. And so I tried to shoot quicker than normal. No tripods, or and sort of strobe. But we will be going back, just him and I and I will get to spend a little more time. And now I have shots and areas in mind that we can focus on.

So todays shot is just one of the many hallways. But it had some really cool copper colors. I snapped a 3 shot burst. And moved along.

If anyone wants to know specifics about processing hit me up.

Take care and thanks for stopping by.

Day 116/366

So the day before Photoshop World officially began, I attended one of the pre con events. Ours involved a bus ride to a plantation, where we had some Civil War Re-enactors, They had tents set up and were dressed for the period. That is actually where Abe Lincoln was. Who if you didn't already know was played brilliantly by Russell Brown, Sr. Creative Director at Adobe Systems Incorporated. So the next few days will be images from the Pre Con.

There were some great looking characters. this was a high ranking officer, but I unfortunately didn't get all the ranks. They all feel more natural as Black and white, at least the men do. Some of the woman may be color, we shall see.

Thanks for stopping by.

Day 115/366

We head back to DC. While there I ran into Abe Lincoln. It was quite an honor, I was gonna write a funny story about what I think he might be saying, but thought i would see what cleverness you guys can come up with.

So have at it and let me know what he is about to say.

Day 114/366

"Night Tulips"

Well I spent a good two hours in the dark last night trying to light paint the Tulip fields in an effort to get images that I haven't really seen before. I know I needed to just go and do it, to get something that I could improve upon.
I mainly spent the night trying to light large portions of the field. Didn't really do too much detail stuff. Maybe i'll try that at a later date. I am posting two different attempt.

Hopefully we will get a clear night in the next week. I also noticed a better portion of the field, so the Tulips will be better than they are here, I knew this was a test so wasn't overly concerned with Tulip quality.

Wish me luck in pulling off these shots, gonna require several elements to come together.

Take care everyone.

Day 113/366

Here is one of the Tulip Images I had mentioned in the previous post. I am still Looking for THAT shot, and haven't got it yet. For those that are new to my work and haven't seen my Tulip pics from last year, head over to my website.
http://www.sevenonephoto.com/p146449989/h8a634b4#h8a634b4
I was quite happy with what I got in the past and so I am trying to get something different this year. And obviously a picture of the Tulip Field is by no means original, I do like the lens flare and the warm glow that the whole image has.
I am actually heading out tonight to try and do something I haven't done in the past. It may be a long process to get the images to look right, but luckily I have 2 weeks to try and get it.

Wish me luck.

Day 111/366

The Tulips are finally here. There are a couple of field that are in full bloom and a bunch that aren't. Next week should be great.

Made it out there at sunset. The sky was great tonight. The sun set right over Mount Eerie. This will be my third Tulip season. And I have a few ideas for creating images I haven't done before. But tonight was just reconnaissance. But I figured it would make a good daily photo.

Day 110/366

Here is the final image of the Jefferson. I just have to say, That is one GREAT city to photograph. I think this image came out nice. Although I should have posted this one first, since the other two I am Extremely happy with. So compared to those, this is the weakest. But, I still like it. I think maybe it's the Night Clouds.

Got to shoot some Jets today, but haven't had time to process them. This weekend for sure.

See you back here tomorrow.

Day 109/366

This brings us to the end of the first night, We had shot the Jefferson Memorial and were on our way to the FDR. We had the pleasure of being in DC during the Blooming of the Cherry Blossoms. So on our walk from Jefferson to FDR, we went by a bunch of Cherry Blossom trees. Problem was that it was night time, so everyone got out there cell phones and tried to light them up that way, then, luckily one of the Kelby Media Video guys was there and had an LED light on his video camera. Made all the difference.

Now you are saying to yourself, but the washington monument is blocked by the tree. And you know what, thats exactly what I wanted. You see, that thing is visible from pretty much everywhere you shoot in DC. But I wanted the Cherry Blossom to be the star. But still wanted you to know if was DC, so I snuck it in there, behind the main attraction.

Know the rules, then break the rules.

I was with the big group still, so     If any of you have your images from this spot, would love to see them. So drop some links in the comments.

Alright, tomorrow I will be out shooting some Jets. So may take a break from DC, but when we return, we move on to the PreCon.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Day 108/366

Day 108/366

I shot quite a few shots at the Jefferson Memorial. As we were leaving, there were tons of people coming in, so this shot was born partly out of my always looking up to see what's going on, and out of necessity because of all the people walking around. So on the way out of the Memorial this looked like it would make for a good image, I just loved the columns and the symmetry and of course the Washington Monument off in the distance.

I shot this one again as a bracketed sequence and processed it in HDR Efex Pro. I just love all the little light flares. And the texture of the Columns. Two of my photography buddies  and of course  are huge influences on my HDR, I have learned a lot from both these guys. My hope is to make them proud. :)

I also need to thank  for the use of his RRS Tripod, without it, these shots would have been much more difficult.

But it does PAIN me to have these black bars and ghosted image around my Images. Please change this soon Google.

Let me know what you guys think.

Take care and thanks for stopping by.

Day 107/366

So for this image we head back to DC. After the Chinatown Image from a few days ago, we headed in to check out the monuments. It was       and myself. We had arranged to meetup with   and  at the steps of the Jefferson Memorial. While there is usually a no tripod rule, they seemed pretty lenient with it at this time, there were times when there was 10 to 15 tripods set up to take pictures.

The trick was to either shoot Long Exposure, so all the tourists would blur and maybe add some motion to the shot, or to wait until there was no one, and luckily a large group left and we had the place basically to our selves for a few precious minutes.

My shot came from that period of time. This is an HDR composite and i actually did 2 different HDR's and then blended those two in Photoshop CS6.

Let me know your thoughts and thanks so much for stopping by. And if you aren't following all the people mentioned on Google+, you should be.

Day 104/366

We return to some images from my DC trip.
On our first photowalk, there were these construction cranes, I love trying to make Stark Graphic Shapes. I added a little color to enhance the overall feel.

I will be out all day tomorrow shooting on the Washington Coast.

Thanks for stopping by.

Day 100/366

Continuing on with the recounting of my trip,

The Archway leading into Chinatown apparently has a story behind it. My friend  wrote a bit about it over at his blog, http://bit.ly/Ibz62b. He also posted some images of the archway in different light. It's a good read and i suggest heading over and giving it a read. So after dinner at the BBQ joint, i ran out with a tripod and went to take some long exposure shots, I wanted to capture the intensity of the colors and the motion of the traffic. Also this helped to remove the people from the shot. As long as they were moving they would be invisible to my sensor. I was still in the "Experimental" mindset, not wanting to do what i was seeing done around me I wanted to make a unique image.

So for this shot, it was a composite of a couple of different exposures, I embraced the chaos and texture of Chinatown and tried to retain that in the image. I love the streaking of the headlights, and the flares from the streetlights, i also layered a couple of different textures to capture my vision for this shot.

Day 99/366

The night before PSW began, a big group of us got together and headed out to shoot. We headed to Chinatown and then found someplace to eat. There happened to be a BBQ place that sucked in  for it's HDR potential. So we decided to eat there, the food was a little pricey for BBQ and a little underwhelming, but really, not sure what we expected from a Washington DC BBQ joint.

Anyway, i was trying some "Fine Art" style imagery. When you are surrounded by so many great photographers it brings out the Experimental Photographer in me. I also believe that being experimental helps to push your other work.

If you look in the background you can see all the dollars stuck to the wall. Thats what attracted RC, Not sure he has posted his image from that place. I look forward to seeing it.

Take Care and Happy Easter

Ryan

Day 98/366

Alright, I was feeling much better today and finally started ingesting the images into my MacPro. I figured i would just start chronologically in my approach to showing my Daily photos.

I was very excited for this years East Coast Photoshop World. I hadn't been to Washington DC since I was 12, so i don't remember all that much, although i do remember there being a little more water in the Reflecting Pool. Anyway, for the week, I thought i would rent an 85mm f1.2 Lens. The  rep had warned me that at 1.2, the Depth of Field is like a razors edge. So naturally i had to test this.

I had flown into New Jersey and stayed a day visiting family before I drove to DC, So I got in a quick trip to Atlantic City, mainly to get my iPad replaced. So i was shooting everything at 1.2, just to get a feel for shooting this thing wide open. So how shallow is this lens as 1.2? I think i found a great example.

Image one is my Daily Image. This is the famous Atlantic City Boardwalk.

I know i am penalizing myself having a vertically cropped image, but it works better for the image. So if you click on the blurry photo, you will see a couple of yellow slivers in focus and everything else is out of focus. Those yellow slivers are from the yellow center line that runs down the middle of the Boardwalk. I have included a reverence photo of said Yellow Line.

Razors edge indeed. I absolutely loved that lens. Unfortunately it's way down on the list of new gear I want/need. So i will rely on the fine folks at www.lensprotogo.com to have it when i need it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Day 97/366

One of the great things about Photoshop World, on the expo floor  puts on a great shooting opportunity, they bring in some great models and do some really cool setups that you can just walk up and shoot. So on this day i happened to be at the  booth and they had the brand new Canon 5D MK III, AND the 200mm f2 lens. They were generous enough to let me take this setup over to the Westcott booth and shoot some with it.

Now I have to admit that I usually shoot with a 7D, which is a crop sensor, and have never shot with the 200 F2 lens. So I can't really say it was the camera or the lens that had the greatest effect.

But anyway, I snapped a shot and got a pretty good pose out of the model, and this is the first time that I have been able to zoom all the way in on my display and have it remain super sharp.

So the B$W Image is the Image of the day and the eyeball is just to demonstrate the incredible sharpness.


All this processing was done in Lightroom 4.


Thanks for stopping by.

Day 96/366

I am hopefully on the mend from my cold, had enough energy to unpack and got one of my NYC photos processed.

I got a great shooting location tip from Brian Matiash He had suggested Highline Park, it's a really cool Park that is a converted elevated train track, So it's only about 20 feet wide, but is about a half mile long, maybe a mile, I lost track because I kept stopping to take pictures and it took me about an hour to walk it. I only had a 24-70 lens and saw lots of opportunities for a longer lens. Definitely someplace i will hit up anytime i am in NYC.

So for this shot I wanted to mimic a vintage shot, I tried to frame it so there was just a hint of cars, but not clear enough to make out a year. i wanted dynamic lines that would help lead the eyes and made sure to have some of the beautiful flowers that line this park.

Tomorrow will be a very busy day importing all the images into my MacPro, and working on my bigger screen. should be a fun next few weeks processing and sharing all these images with you.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by.