Raindrops and Tree - D700, 85mm PC
It’s been raining sooooo much this Spring that sometimes it’s difficult to get outside and take some photographs. I shot this image from the dry comfort of the living room. Two exposures blended in CS5. One of the tree through the window focusing on the tree and one of the tree focusing on the raindrops on the window. A little blending in CS5 and some curves and color adjustments and you have what kind of day it was…moist.
Click to view a little larger…
Bluebell Variation No. 1 - D700, Lensbaby, Sweet 35
I have been taking a bunch of images of the Spanish Bluebells we have along the sidewalk. Here are four variations of some of the images I shot recently…experimenting with some Flypaper Textures and some other effects…
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Bluebell Variation No. 2 - D700, 85mm PC
Bluebell Variation No. 3 - D700
Bluebell Variation No. 4 - D700
Lily of the Valley - D700, Lensbaby Composer Pro, fish-eye
OK this might be the last of the ‘lily of the valley’ fish-eye shots…not totally sure about that but pretty sure. The first image is shot in the shade on a tripod using ‘Live View” to get the focus right. Then you get out your led flashlight and paint a little sunshine into the scene. I highly recommend the Fenix LD10 led flashlight for macro work. You get four different intensity setting so you can dial in as much or little light you need. This image is a combination of two photos with a slightly different angle with the flashlight. Loaded both images in CS5 on different layers and painted in the light I wanted to use. Additional post production with Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0, Tonal Contrast and blended in some Topaz Simplify too.
Lily of the Valley - D700, Lensbaby Composer Pro, fish-eye
No flashlight on this one, just some Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 Classical Soft Focus filter.
Click on images to view a little larger…two sepia versions for you b+w fans.
Lily of Valley - sepia version
Lily of Valley - sepia version 2
Lily of the Valley - D700, Lensbaby Composer Pro, fish-eye
Here’s another ‘lily of the valley’ image shot with the Lensbaby fish-eye optic. Post production on this one was done using the ‘pixel bender’ oil paint plug-in for CS5 to give a more painterly feel.
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Lily of the Valley - D700, Lensbaby Composer Pro, Fish-eye optic
The ‘lily of the valley’ are starting to hit their peak now and I have been checking them out daily looking for a different way to shoot them this year. I broke out the Lensbaby fish-eye optic and crawled around the patch looking for an interesting composition. Here is one of my early shots with the fish-eye. Not an easy lens to use, you got to get REAL close to make an interesting composition. Had to resort to “Live View” to make the composing easier and make sure I was in focus, getting harder to focus as I get older. Yes that’s a small spider that appeared for this shot only.
Some layering and masking with different blend modes was done to make this into more of a paperweight image.
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Pink Azalea - D700, Lensbaby Composer Pro, Fish-eye Optic
Looking around the garden yesterday trying to find a different view of my annual ‘lily of the valley’ photos. I got the Lensbaby fisheye optic out and started sketching to see if it would give me something different. Anyway I got sidetracked by the color of the azalea’s. Yes, I did get some lily of the valley shots that were OK…I’m refining that image some more.
When I started processing this shot I fell in love with the color’s and mood of the shot. Processed in Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 with the Polaroid Transfer filter and a few tweaks back in Photoshop. Not what I expected, but happy to find it…
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Wooden Egret - D700, Lensbaby Composer Pro
I was dreaming about the beach trip we never got to take this spring so I decided to create a little beach time right here… Shot an image of this wooden egret we got at the beach one year against a white wall, then blended it with a few textures using the excellent Flypaper Textures. I can hear the birds squawking with the surf in the background…well almost.
IR Mirrored View - D200, IR converted, 18-35mm
Mirrored IR image shot at Kings Gap, looking for a different interpretation of the view at Kings Gap…
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Floral Abstract B+W - D700, 24-70mm
This is a floral abstract done with an in camera multiple (10 shot) exposure technique. My interpretation of a Tony Sweet technique, loosely moving the camera between exposures. Converted to black and white in Nik Silver Efex Pro and finished off in CS5 with some local area contrast adjustments. Another variation doing a little playing around with the Twirl filter in CS5…not sure which one I like better.
Floral Abstract 2 B+W - D700, 24-70mm
Leaf on Metal - G10, Macro Mode
Took a walk with my G10 after our Friday tennis get together, yes it was a little chilly and windy for tennis but we are a hardy bunch. Found this leaf laying on an old rusted piece of metal and was drawn to the textures and colors. This next one was in the creek along the bank, a bunch of leaves and twigs were captured in nook in the bank. Again it was the texture that attracted me along with the color.
Autumn Twigs and Leaves - G10
Processed both of these using Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 with the Tonal Contrast filter and finished off in CS5 with a Selective Color adjustment layer. This last one is another creek-side reflection with some mirroring applied. Something about the color pallet that me smile…click on any of the images to view larger.
Mirrored Autumn Creekside - G10