Posts from the ‘One Click’ Category
If I were to ever record an album, I think I would use this image as the cover art. In college, when my band recorded a demo, the cover art was nothing more than contact information. Obviously my rock n’ roll fantasy didn’t work out. It sounds cliche, however my band fell victim to ‘creative differences’. I think we would have been a great band. I doubt we would have headlined a stadium rock show…..without question we would have opened for someone headlining a stadium rock show. Anyways, I added a page to the site where you can check out monthly playlists I have created to spread the word about bands I would have loved to open for. Click here to take a listen.
Capture Notes:
Nikon D300
Nikkor 16-85 VR II
Exposure: 1/4000 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 85 mm
Processing Notes:
Capture
NIK Silver EFX Pro
NIK Color EFX Pro (Color Stylizer)
Photoshop (Resize for web)
LightAsMagic.com
We had front row seats on the roof of our hotel in Cozumel for this one! Most of the time I leave sunsets in color, in all their glory. However, because of the smaller clouds dancing in the foreground I decided the contrasts would make a nice black and white composition.
Capture Notes:
Nikon D300
Nikkor 70-300 VR AFS
Singh-Ray 3stop Reverse GND
Gitzo Traveler
Exposure: 0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture: f/11.0
Focal Length: 300 mm
Processing Notes:
Capture (1 image)
NIK Silver EFX Pro (B+W Conversion)
NIK Viveza 2 (enhance the glow of the sun on the sea)
Photoshop (resized for web)
LightAsMagic.com
Tip: It might seem counter intuitive to shoot sunsets with a long focal length, but it is a great way to get up and close and personal with a setting sun. I always carry a 70-300 with me while traveling.
By no means do I consider myself a wildlife photographer, I don’t have the patience for it. If you want to see great wildlife photography visit Moose Peterson’s site. His name says it all. I discovered this little fox, along with his brothers and sisters, on my way to the post office. I had my camera with me and thought I would try my hand at ‘Dancing with Wolves’. After a deliberately slow approach, I settled into a seated position and waited. I would yawn, blink, look away, etc; Everything you might learn from watching episodes of the Dog Whisperer. The one thing I didn’t do was immediately start shooting. After about 20 minutes, a reluctant mom let her kits out of the den. She didn’t let them walk up and sniff me, but they were allowed to make eye contact and observe me from a distance. I stayed there as long as a 1 gig CF card would let me (in 2002 that was a boat load of memory). Actually, I stayed a bit longer than that. It was an experience I will always remember.
Nikon D1x
Nikkor 80-200 2.8 AFD
Processing Notes
Capture
Photoshop (Curves Adjustment)
NIK (Sharpen selective to the eyes)
LightAsMagic.com
Tip: In a situation like this you might be tempted to open your lens up as wide as it will go to try and soften the background and emphasize your subject. However, at 2.8 in this case I was barely able to get the eyes in focus if I was focusing on the bridge of their noses. I think f/3.2 – 4 might have been a better choice.
On occasion, you just want to fill the frame with something interesting and click. This one was one of those times. The waves of clouds lit by the rising sun made everything on the ground meaningless, so I pointed my camera to the sky and……click. From my camera to your computers, with nothing in between.
Nikon D300
Nikkor 16-85 VR II
Processing Notes
Capture
Aperture (Raw Conversion)
LightAsMagic.com
Tip: To achieve a silhouetted foreground and a brilliant backdrop, you want to set your camera to capture the appropriate exposure for the sky which will leave your foreground dark and detail-less. To do this you can set your camera to ’spot metering’ mode, and meter for the sky. If you don’t have spot metering capabilities, you can use exposure compensation by reducing the metered exposure by several stops. Try making a couple image and review them in your LCD until you like what you see.
A Quick Boston Sunset, originally uploaded by LightAsMagic.
After a long day of walking the freedom trail we were rewarded with this georgeous sunset back at the room. This image was made with the Lumix TZ4 after a quick draw from the cargo pants. Photography of opportunity.
Note: With the TZ4 I ride the exposure copensation quite a bit. For this image I took 2 stops out.
Boston Fly, originally uploaded by LightAsMagic.
A day of bad weather and flat light drove us inside while visiting Boston. In line at the Museum of Science we ran into the CEO of the Michael Scott Paper Company. We didn’t bother him, it looked like he was pretty busy being a dad. We didn’t stay long. We were there just long enough to catch this little glimpse of summer.
Note: Shot with my trusty sub $200 Lumix TZ4.
