Posts in Category: architecture
5/4/2009
Night Carnaval Corpus Christi
They put me on the 17th floor of the Omni Hotel on the waterfront in Corpus Christi for the ABA Convention. This is the view from the balcony. This is apparently a permanent carnival.
Image Stabilization and ISO 400. I used negative exposure compensation to save the bright lights. Cropped and pumped up the Saturation and Vibrance in Lr.
Sony DSC H50 at about 120mm equivalent. F3.5 @ 1/30th @ ISO 400. Programed Auto. -1.3 EV exposure compensation.
From Corpus Christi ABA.
4/21/2009
Lindsfarne Castle
Lindsfarne Island, the Holy Island, is accessible by road at low tide and several hours either side. The road runs across what amounts to the sandy bottom of the sea. The Island has been held sacred for centuries. I suspect it already had a reputation for spirituality when the Celtic monks arrived during the dark ages and turned it into one of the few seats of learning left in the western world.
It was the trump card of our trip to Scotland, though it is well south of the Scottish border and only by a generous detour on the way home to Manchester from Aberdeen. My guide and driver in this adventure kept hinting that there was to be one final treat, the one place he would not tell me about in advance. It is that special.
Of course we had no more than gotten out of the car when it began to pour rain. Not just a mist like the one that plagued us at Donnattor, but a real find shelter British downpour. We tried to keep dry under the trees of the graveyard around the abby buildings, and ended up pretty wet in the church, along with the rest of the tourists visiting that day. When we ventured out, it was still threatening, so this is as close to the Castle as we got.
A difficult shot, due to the light sky behind, and the mist in the air, but then that seems pretty typical of photographic conditions in England.
Sony DSC H50 at about 100mm equivalent (to frame the castle behind the sheep). F5.0 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
This shot responded amazingly well to the graduated filter effect in Lr. Even using heavy Recovery, I could not get any blue out the sky, but as soon as I applied a graduated filter effect and cranked down the exposure in the top part of the image, the sky detail popped right out. Another graduated filter effect from the bottom to lighten and increase contrast, though I had to go gently as the sheep would not stand much of either. I also used the adjustment brush to increase the brightness and contrast of the castle itself, to counter somewhat the effects of the mist in the air. Normal Vibrance and Clarity settings. Landscape sharpen preset. A touch of noise reduction for the sky.
From Scotland.
4/19/2009
Another Donnattor View
If you were with me yesterday at Donnattor Castle, you’ve already heard the story of this rainy day (just hit the 18 in the calendar to the right). You know it was hard to keep the rain drops off the lens, and if you look closely you will see the evidence of some I missed in this shot. Still, the waterfall and the Castle have to be caught in the same shot. Mandatory. Wasted visit if not.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F6.3 @ 1/40th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto with program shift for the smaller aperture (and increased depth of field).
This is another, that required more than the usual post processing. The castle and cliff edge standing right up against the brightest band of the sky, and the water in the air even at that short distance leaching out the contrast, as well as the range of light…it was all well beyond the ability of the H50s sensor to record. In Lightroom I used 2 graduated filter effects: from the top to darken the sky by reducing exposure, and from the bottom to brighten and increase contrast. I also used the Adjustment brush to paint an adjustment mask over the Castle buildings and the cliff face immediately below. I increased exposure there, and added as much contrast as possible. Globally I brightened the whole image, added some Fill Light to open shadows, moved the black point to the right to deepen definition and colors, and used my normal Vibrance and Clarity settings for the H50. Landscape sharpen preset. Because of the angle of the lens to the horizon (tipped down radically) there was fairly severe vignetting in the top corners. I applied the Vignetting tool in Lr to remove that…and then had to unsaturat the specific blue that was still left in the corners. Finally I cropped out part of the sky to get rid of most of it. The crop actually helped the image by eliminating what turned out to be a distracting area of dead gray at the top. Win win.
From Scotland (and my last Donnattor Castle shot, I promise).
4/18/2009
Dunnattor Castle
Our host in Aberdeen put us on to this castle, as it would be on our way when we left, so we watched for the signs as drove down the east coast of Scotland in the morning. It was well signed but still not easy to find, being well off the main road. And, of course, when we got there it was raining. Not hard but hard enough to make it a dampish walk the quarter mile or so from the car park, protecting the camera all the way. Ah, but what a beautiful place. Dramatic. Rushing streams pouring down over moss covered cliffs. Straight drops to the gray sea, and the Castle ruins standing alone on a promontory so deeply carved it was all but an island. Add the brooding sky and a band of light along horizon where the storm broke and you had the makings of quite a scene. Unfortunately you also had a very difficult photographic challenge. The moss and turf was so dark, and the horizon so bright, with the castle pushed right up against it. Lots of water in the air (not to mention on the lens if not careful) sucking the contrast out of any distance. Still, you have to try. I took maybe thirty different shots, quick grabs when I whipped the camera out, got the shot off, and the camera back in its bag before it got too wet.
Of course, I would like to get back here with more time and better weather. I would like to spend a day, or a week, or a year photographing this scenery…but, in fact, I may never get another chance at this landscape. The pictures I took that day in the rain may be my only images of this place. If so, let it be so, and I will make the most of the shots I managed to get.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide (31mm equivalent). F4.0 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
This shot required a lot more post processing than I normally use. I spent a good ten minutes on it. First a Graduated Filter effect from the top down to the horizon to darken the sky. 2) graduated filter effect from the bottom up to brighten the foreground and add contrast. 3) Adjustment brush applied to the two foreground castle structures, where I applied some exposure and brightness to lighten, along with some added contrast and some sharpening. 4) a second adjustment brush along the length of the low building to pull back the brightness (since at flat wall stood out too much). 5) a third adjustment brush along the bright horizon to pull back the exposure there a little. 6) general increased Vibrance and Clarity, and the Landscape sharpen preset. 6) moved the black point to the right to deepen the colors and added a bit of extra contrast to the whole image. 7)the yellow had become too bright with the exposure adjustments, so I pulled back the saturation of the yellow band in the HSL panel. 8) finally, I used the mouse selection tool in the HSL panel to select the gray of the water and darken it (luminance control).
Again, all of this manipulation is only to bring the image back to something like what I saw with my eye.
From Scotland.
4/7/2009
PB...
Just a bit of architectural detail from the industrial district on Galveston Island. I love Peanut Butter. The image is cropped at bottom and top for composition. It is all about shape and texture and the way the light plays with both.
Sony DSC H50 at about 375mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/640th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, just the most basic Presence and Sharpen.
From Galveston 2009.
4/3/2009
Eilean Donan Castle
Eilean Donan, the quintessential Scottish Castle, seen in many films, and subject of millions of tourist snapshots, including this one. Catch it on the right day at the right hour and it is magical. I took wide shots, and mid-shots, and full telephoto. This is a medium tele shot for framing.
Sony DSC H50 at about 150mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/200th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
Nothing fancy in Lightroom. Recovery for the sky and clouds. Presence increase through Clarity and Vibrance. Landscape sharpen preset.
From Scotland.
4/1/2009
I should probably have something trickier for April Fools Day, but I don’t. Just another typical Hebrides building. This time a round house. The original dwellers on the Hebrides were a people who built round houses, and you still see the remains of these round structures all over the islands, though not as houses. This was probably a sheep shelter before it was rebuilt and converted into a studio/display room for traditional wool arts. Of course it is the grandeur of the setting as much as the structure itself that makes the image.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide (31mm equivalent). F5.0 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
This required (or at least received) similar treatment to yesterdays image. Double graduated filters, from the top to darken, and from the bottom to lighten and increase contrast for the hyper-detailed effect. And then my usual Presence adjustments (Clarity and Vibrance) and the Landscape sharpen preset.
From Scotland.
And here is a view of the inside as it is today.
3/31/2009
Traditional Hebrides Housing (fully modernized)
We had to look long and hard for a traditional Hebrides black house, and then the only ones we could find that were not ruins (and fully a third of the modern homes still have a black house ruin off to one side or behind) were fully modernized. I mean, windows? This example, now fashionably whitewashed and groomed, was just by the airfield and probably represented the retirement home of someone who served there. Still, character shows.
Given the nature of the Hebrides roads (which I have mentioned before are one way…with pullouts for meeting oncoming traffic every so often…and those only on the major arteries) we were not able to do more than jump out of the car while it was still running in the lane and grab a shot. Lighting was not ideal with that bright sky looming up behind and little light on the foreground. Worse, the H50 suffers from unpredictable chromatic aberration. Purple and green fringes pop up at sharp, high contrast intersections in the image at certain settings of the zoom and in certain situations. I have never been able to track exactly what settings of the zoom and what situations, but this was one of them. Green fringes were readily apparent in a medium sized print or at normal screen resolution. Fortunately Lightroom has one of the best Chromatic Aberration tools I have ever seen.
Sony DSC H50 at about 60mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/640th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, besides fixing the CA, I used two graduated filter efffects, one from the bottom to increase both exposure and contrast, and one from the top to darken the sky. The one from the bottom is of interest in that I slid a good portion of the darkest section of the filter off the bottom of the image, to give a more subtle graduation to the exposure increase. As usual with the H50, I added Presence (Clarity and Vibrance) and used the Sharpen landscapes preset.
From Scotland.
3/18/2009
Dooryard: the Hebrides
Standing just outside the door of our B&B on North Uist in the Hebrides. Flora MacDonald, in her 80s, runs it, makes yarn and dies it with native plants, knits and weaves, makes paper from lichen, writes books, and teaches Gaelic. Amazing woman. And this is her view, her garden, and her “wee sheddie” (her studio). Ben More on South Uist looms on the horizon, providing, with the sky, contrast to the homey foreground.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide (31mm equivalent). F4.5 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom I used a graduated filter to deepen the sky. Vibrance and Clarity in the Presence panel, and the Landscape sharpen preset. I moved the black point slightly to the right.
From Scotland.
And here is Flora:
Flora MacDonald: B&B keeper, etc.
3/16/2009
On Deck
You can always see larger versions of the image by clicking anywhere in it to go to the Smugmug page.
On the waterfront in downtown San Diego at sunset. Planes on the deck of the Midway in the foreground, the SD skyline in the back. The light is, of course, the subject here as much as the buildings, but it is also about the shapes and the way they fill the frame. This is where the long zoom range of the Super-zoom cameras shows its real worth. From where I stood at the end of the Fish Market point, near the bow of the Midway, I had an all but infinite range of perspectives to choose for the shot, just by pressing the zoom button.
This shot (Sony DSC H50) was taken at just about 100mm equivalent, to catch some of the color of the planes on deck and put the buildings up fairly large against the sky. F4.0 @ 1/400 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom I applied a little Recovery for the sky, some Vibrance and Clarity in the Presence panel, and the Landscape sharpen preset. I also added some Fill Light to show detail in the shadows under the deck.
I considered cropping it tighter, removing the all but the top of what appears to be a parking garage and the hull of the boat below the deck, but, I decided that when viewed large, the delicate tracings of the tree against the building in the lower left are worth keeping.
From San Diego 2009.