Posts in Category: architecture
3/14/2009
Into the Sun (click image for other size views)
Shooting directly into the sun near sunset often produces interesting effects. In this case the golden look over the stark shapes at the edge of the Marina in Mission Bay California. It looks as though I toned the image, but I did not. It is simply an effect of the lighting and the tight cropping of the fairly long zoom setting.
What caught my eye was the repeating shapes of the catwalks leading down to the docks and the way the sun was catching them.
Sony DSC H50 at about 250mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/2000 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
From San Diego 2009
3/12/2009
Redtailed Hawk on Cabrillo Mounment
This is a resident Redtail at Cabrillo National Monument. I see it there most trips. It must have a nest at the point, though I have not yet found it. This is the first time, however, that I have seen it perched on the actual monument. It landed there in full view of a dozen tourists (me among them) and sat there long enough for me to travel several hundred yards to reach the base of the mounment, and then at least 10 minutes more while I took shots from every angle. (Along with the rest of the tourists.)
Sony DSC H50 at full tel (465mm equivalent). F5.6 @ 1/500 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom I added some fill light to bring up the eyes. Normal Vibrance and Clarity and Portrait sharpen preset.
From San Diego 2009.
And here is another view to give you the context.
Like Patience on her monument...
3/7/2009
The Temple: Carinish, N. Uist, Scotland
Actually the ruins of a medieval monastery, one of several on the coast and islands of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, where learning was preserved during the dark ages. Monks went out from here to reeducated Europe at the beginning of the renaissance. (Though the whole dark ages thing is coming into question these days, no one disagrees with the role the monasteries like the one at Carninish played in keeping scholarship alive.)
There is a public foot path from down-town Carninish to the ruins, including some boardwalks over marshy spots, but little evidence the site is much visited. I spent an hour or more there, walking around the ruin all alone and photographing it from a variety of angles. I have to say I was more than a little distracted by the view. The monastery was placed on a height with a commanding view of the outer islands of the Hebrides and the sea beyond. You have to suspect that the outlying walls once enclosed gardens as well. Those walls, circular as they are, lead to the alternative name of the place which is, not surprisingly, the Carninish stone circle. It must have been a pleasant place to study…in the brief Hebridean summer. In the long winter it must have been grim.
I like this angle, as it catches both the ragged shape of the ruin and the circle. The texture of the stone against the green of the Scottish turf, and the sky behind, the high horizon, and the way the shapes of the structures lead your eye.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide angle (31mm equivalent). F5.6 @ 1/320 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, some Recovery for the sky. Added Vibrance and Clarity in the Presence panel. Landscape sharpen preset. I also cropped out a bit of sky to improve the placement of the horizon.
From Scotland.
Distracting view...
2/23/2009
Southwest Sun
This is my last day in Albuquerque. I am heading home to a late winter snowstorm and all that comes with it, so…
One more sun and hot chile shot. Just a corner of a building glimpsed down a passage to small interior plaza off the main streets in Old Town, but the typical riot of New Mexico color and form. I especially like the flower head molded into the adobe. This is another sunset shot, the lower floor of this building was already in shadow, and the warmth of the light adds to the character of the image.
[Dan from Albuquerque tells this story about the flower shape, which is apparently a common Albuquerque decoration. It is made by repeatedly pressing a watermelon into the still wet adobe. This makes it an interesting visual pun, since the original Spanish immigrants to the area named the mountains that dominate the Albuquerque skyline “Sandia” (watermelon in Spanish) because the color of the range in the sunset reminded them of watermelon. Interesting! Thank you Dan for the story.]
Sony DSC H50 zoomed out to about 140mm for cropping. F4.0 @ 1/160th at ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, I added Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel, and used the Sharpen landscapes preset. I also, since this is really about color, pulled the black point up a bit and added just a tiny amount of saturation.
From Albuquerque.
2/22/2009
Old Town Detail
The southwest, and Albuquerque in particular, produced some of the most interesting iron work of any region of the country. This is another Old Town detail, from a second trip, when the sun was all but level on horizon. This is a second story window. Street level windows were already in shade.
I like the strong verticals which contrast with the curves of the iron, and I like the doubling of the iron curves through their shadows.
Sony DSC H50 at just under 200mm equivalent. F3.5 @ 1/125 @ ISO 160. Programed Auto.
Standard Presence processing in Lightroom, and some cropping on both the left and right.
From Albuquerque.
2/20/2009
Aspire
One of the things that made my color shopping trip to Old Town Albuquerque so satisfying was the light. Late afternoon. High elevation. As uniquely southwestern as the chili restras and the turquoise trim.
The spire of the church in Old Town in that light was a spectacular sight against the high New Mexico sky. In this shot I used medium tel on the zoom to frame the spire against the clouds. The small cross at the bottom right anchors the image and somehow emphasizes the soar of the spire. The bold, sharp angles in the low light contrast with the softness of the cloud behind, and the stark white of the spire is only set off more by the off-white/gray cumulus. Lots of dimension in this shot.
Sony DSC H50 at 250mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom I used some Recovery to pull the whites back and reveal texture in the clouds. Vibrance and Clarity in the Presence panel, and a touch of added saturation for the sky. Sharpen landscape preset.
From Albuquerque.
2/19/2009
Pink Space Contemplation
I don’t do much urban photography, mostly because I rarely have free time in an urban setting. This trip to Albuquerque is giving me an opportunity to practice my urban landscape skills. And where better than this city of color?
I saw this building from 3 blocks away and left my intended path to photograph it. This is one of several shots. I played with the zoom and framing bits of detail. The strong shadow, the vivid colors (adobe and sky), the basic shapes, the lone Rock Pigeon perfectly posed…it all comes together here in design that catches the eye and won’t let go. To me it looks like an abstract painting, but with pigeon, as though the artist felt the need to include a natural reference at the last moment. I find it just slightly amusing.
Sony DSC H50 at about 325mm equivalent. F5.0 @ 1/500 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom I cropped and straightened somewhat for composition. There was a drainpipe and a corner on the right that had to be dealt with. Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel, and a touch of added Saturation. Portrait sharpen preset.
From the Albuquerque gallery.
2/18/2009
Hot and Cold
Old Town, Albuquerque New Mexico. The mother-load of color! I am in town for the North American Nature Photographers Association Summit. The hotel and convention center are about 2 miles from Old Town. I had the late afternoon light. Not hard to figure out what to do.
Color is everywhere. I will be posting an extended appreciation of the colors of Old Town and New Mexico on Point and Shoot Landscape in the next few days. For this shot I was working from behind a locked gate that prevented me from entering the passageway to a small plaza. Chile was everywhere. These wreaths were hung casually across the back of a Santa Fe bench, in a traditional weathered copper green. I liked the contrast with the bench and with the larger Hatch chiles hanging behind. The zoom on the H50 reached out for the shot.
Because it was in deep shade, and I had to use considerable zoom, the ISO was pushed up to 400, and I still might not have gotten the shot without the Sony’s image stabilization. This is the kind of shot, though, where a higher ISO can work. There is so much detail and color that the noise, while there, is effectively massed. Even in the wall behind, the texture of the adobe hides noise.
Focus was also an issue at this relatively wide F-stop, but there was nothing I could do about it. A smaller F-stop would have pushed ISO higher or made the shot difficult to hand hold. As it was I let focus rest on the chilis closest to the viewer, which kept the carvings on the bench sharp, and have to count of the eye’s forgiving nature for the rest. I am not sure it would work as a 16×20 print, but at screen resolution it is effective, and should work at a reasonable print size.
Sony DSC H50 at 250mm equiv. F4.0 @ 1/40th @ ISO 400. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom a small adjustment to color temperature was needed because of the deep shade. Clarity and Vibrance from the Presence panel, to pop the colors. I shifted the black point slightly to the right to add intensity. Portrait sharpen preset.
From Albuquerque.
2/13/2009
Saints Preserve Us
Saints preseve us, it is Friday the 13th. (to mix my superstitions).
This is actually taken on the Isle of Lindisfarne in Northumerland, Holy Island in the vernacular. A straight forward shot of interesting detail in the ruins of a 13th century monastery…one of the sites that had a lot to do with preserving civilization as we know it during the dark ages. Not totally inappropriate for a Friday the 13th.
Sony DSC H50 at about 180mm equiv. F3.5 @ 1/60th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
Basic processing (Clarity, Vibrance, Sharpen) in Lightroom. One of the issues in a low light exposure with the H50, especially where you have silhouettes as in this image, is Chromatic Aberation (green and pink lines at the edges of things) and Purple Fringing (a sensor artifact that puts a purple fringe along edges). This image showed both (still shows come on close examination). Lightroom has filters that work well, but in extreme cases even Lightroom can not cure the whole problem. And if that isn’t a a Friday the 13th nightmare, what is?
From Scotland.
2/12/2009
Mossy Stair
The visitor center at Jack London State Park looks as old as the hills it stands on, probably because it is make out of the rocks of the hills themselves and any rock in this climate grows moss and ferns. I reframed this shot as a close up to eliminate the brown downpipe, but on reflection, I like this better. The downpipe adds color and angularity which only highlights the natural forms of the stone. IMHO.
Shooting in this rainy subdued light pushed the ISO (on Auto) to 200, but gave me interesting saturation in the moss and stone.
Sony DSC H50 at about a 35mm equivalent. F2.8 @ 1/40th @ ISO 200. Programed Auto. Again, the image stabilization in the H50 made a tricky exposure possible without tripod.
From Vallejo and Sonoma.