Hardly Harley

Carson Mansion This is the Carson Mansion in Old Town Eureka. I can't imagine the work that must be done in hanging all these lights on the house. The shot is a 7 shot HDR and will more than likely grace Christmas cards next year, so act surprised. I find shooting houses with lights like this to be tricky. You wouldn't think it, but those little lights can easily overwhelm a photo. And waiting for complete darkness is a mistake. The HDRing does a decent job of keeping them in check while bringing out the other parts of the house. The large star was actually the moon, but it didn't come out very well, so a little star burst was added. I think it worked well since it will probably be made into a card. The lighting of the area was with some horrible, but probably historically correct, yellow lighting that was a challenge both in shooting and in processing. RAW files help a lot, and the ability to paint in white balance corrections, especially in the walkway, really helped ...

Sunset This was one of those times where I was planning on shooting something else but stumbled across this. My head was wrapped around the shooting of the other site that I wasn't really thinking too much about how to shoot this. For example, it didn't dawn on me until post processing that the floating dock I was on, well, floats and is susceptible to up and down motions. So though the tripod helped for some kinds of motions (my jittery hands) it didn't do anything for the floating up and downs. And of course I turned off image stabilization, like I think you should, when shooting on a tripod. This is a 7 shot HDR, and the negative exposures, since they have faster shutter speeds, didn't show the bobbing effect of the longer exposures. This is where having a good input sharpener comes in handy. Topaz Labs InFocus  really did the trick for this, especially when there are so many masts in contrast to the sky. This shot was a longer process as I took care of noise a...

Santa Bomb Wow! Only 2 more assignments left! This week was bokeh. The effect is most noticeable in the lights, the scary dude on the left is Santa (believe it or not) and was used as a focus point for the camera. I liked the point of view of this shot, which was basically from ground level looking up. San Francisco After spending an inordinate amount of time trying to make a bad shot into a good one (you'd think I'd have learned that lesson by now) I went back to the archives. Market Street in San Francisco from Justin Herman Plaza. I really like the sharpness of this photo and the chance I got to play with the Panasonic 20mm F1.7 lens. It's a great little lens, emphasis on little because it's a pancake lens. The only downside to this and the new mark II version is that autofocus is slow.

Magical Christmas Tree For the first time in awhile I'm having a Christmas tree. And not a fake tree but a full on Douglas Fir. So of course I had to take a shot of it and give it the HDR treatment. I generally try to show a photo how I see a scene, but in this one I definitely crossed that line into, I guess, art? Saturated colors, light flares, and some liberties with the physics of lights and shadows. But aren't the holidays supposed to be a magical time of year? But if you think my version of the tree is a little much, you should see what Google+ did with it and it's #autoawesome twinkle. Twinkle Tree Give it a minute to load if it hasn't already and you'll see some twinkling working their way through the tree. Thankfully this version is toned down from some other versions which had every light on the tree twinkling.

Without Star Effects on the Left. With a subtle dose of Star Effects on the Right. Some plugins I don't use nearly as often as maybe I should. And, quite frankly, there are some I forget I have, except in those few instances where I see a shot and think such and such plugin will really spice things up. That's the case with  +Topaz Labs Star Effects . It's not a plug-in I use daily, but when a shot comes up with the right features, it can be a lot of fun. Basically Star Effects adds some oomph to your light sources. Think of it as bling for your lights. And you can control just how much oomph there is. As you can see in the photos above I think I went for a more subtle look. So how does it work? When you bring a photo into Star Effects it looks for light sources and marks them. You can control the threshold for what is and is not a lightsource, or you can paint them in or out. Then you can choose from various presets the look and flare of your stars. Everything from t...

A Good Drink in a Nice Glass Glass was the theme for the black and white project. I find that Clarity  by  +Topaz Labs  does some wonderful things to glass, making it seem more clear and clean. Really glad I decided to see what it could do to this photo. Smiling Frosty I really didn't know what I was going to shoot for  +Weekly Photo Project 2013  and our theme of Smiles. I had my Moto X out and ready to shoot random people, but it didn't really work out. Plus I felt like a total creeper. So instead I found a Christmas tree ornament that fit the bill nicely.

Separated First the big news. For 2014 I've gotten together with +Scott Davenport  (of  Scott Davenport Photo  fame),  +Julianne Bockius , and  +Andrew Willard  to run another 52 week project,  +The Patch - PhotogrAphy Themed CHallenge . We're taking the theme idea and tweaking it a little with weekly themes that are related to a monthly theme. There will also be a monthly contest with the winner receiving a +Topaz Labs  plug-in of their choice. Come by and check us out. Now about the photo. I'm liking borders on my black and white photos recently, but not so much on my color shots. I'm thinking part of the reason is it's easier for the border to blend into the photo when the border and photo are made up of blacks and whites. That way the border isn't too overbearing and easily compliments the photo. I have some plugins that allow me to change border colors, but I have a hard enough time matching my clothes nevermind border colors. I'm hopin...

A Smartphone Progression. From Windows Mobile (on the left) to webOS, to Android Due to an initial hiccup with ordering that was my fault, I ordered the second day the Moto X became available. The process isn't any different with Republic Wireless than with any other cell phone order. Oh, except you don't have to give them every piece of information needed when opening an account with AT&T or Verizon. Just name and address for shipping and billing, a valid credit card, and your choice of phone and initial plan choice. I will say that from within the Republic Wireless support forums there was some miscommunication from RW staff about whether phones would be in customer hands in 5-7 days or shipped in 5-7 days. Mine was shipped in 7 days. I suspect that the 5-7 day window is in place currently as a safety window for RW to handle what one would hope is a lot of orders. So enough with the ordering talk, let's get to the star. A quick primer on the Moto X that applies...

Where is everyone? First thing's first, if you're looking for some editing tools checkout my earlier post about the Topaz Labs collection and their sale good through today (Monday 12/2). For week 48 our theme for my black and white theme was symmetry. I went looking for symmetry in nature but wasn't finding anything that caught my eye. So how about a seemingly empty and abandoned section of highway? That works for me. So where was everyone? The shot was taken on Black Friday, which in America draws the multitudes to malls and shopping centers. The shot kind of has a Walking Dead  feel to it, which I like. Not the berries you're looking for The theme for  +Weekly Photo Project 2013  was plants or flowers, not a real interesting theme when we're in the thick of winter. But I did come across these berries that at least make for a colorful photo. You can view my Weekly Photo Project album here . My black & white project album here .

My Arsenal As some of you probably already know, or have guessed, I use a lot of  +Topaz Labs  plugins in my photography work. It started with Adjust  which I wrote up a pretty popular (for my blog) review here . Then, because I hate noise and micro fourthirds cameras seem susceptible to it, I went looking at DeNoise . It's nothing sexy in terms of the look of your photo, but without it nothing else can really happen. So the fact that Topaz Labs is putting their entire collection on sale over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend is pretty big news. That's 14 products, which would normally retail for $770, usually sells for $380 on sale for $199! So what are the highlights in this group? DeNoise: You should hate noise in your photos, and the built in noise removers in Aperture or Lightroom aren't nearly as powerful as this guy is. It often amazes me how just using a preset in the plugin can clean up a photo, and this goes for photos taken with my phone or my ca...

This is what I'm talking about! I'm getting a smartphone. No big deal, right? Everyone and their mother (including mine) has a smart phone. But this one is a little different. And, I'm pretty sure I'm paying less than you. I mean like a lot less. But let me back up a bit.  +Republic Wireless  is a MVNO, a mobile virtual network operator, of Sprint. What that basically means is that RW doesn't actually have a cell tower or a network of their own they buy bandwidth from Sprint's network. So far nothing different than Virgin Mobile who does the same thing. But RW uses what is called a hybrid system. See we're usually around a network that we already pay for and is usually of a higher quality than a cellular network so RW's plan is that we use that network for most of the time using the phone then fall back on cellular networks when we're not connected to it. What network is this? Your home internet connection. Chances are, if you're like me, you...

Golden Gate on Canvas Printing on paper bores me. Well, that's not true, but being limited to 8.5" by 11" annoys me. And I can't understand why manufacturers don't make wide format printer/scanner all in ones, with awesome color and detail. That last bit was meant as sarcasm as I'm sure those wouldn't sell very popularly. But since I don't have a wide format printer (or the desk space for it) yet, I've been curious about other print media for awhile. Canvas prints are exactly how it sounds. Your photo is printed onto a canvas that is then stretched over a frame. There is more to it than that, if you want to get into the details, but for the most part that's the basics. Recently I got to try the process with Easy Canvas Prints , and I have to say I'm quite impressed with it. The canvas you see above measures 16X20 inches (40.64X50.8cm) or a 4x5 ratio, which was a little annoying because most of my photos come in at 4x3 so I needed to d...

The photo says it all Just a quick post to share a wonderful customer service encounter with Shutterfly . I had designed and placed an order for some custom holiday cards. You can see it up above. If you get it, please act surprised when you open it. Anyway when we got the package the interior text, which we had supplied, just didn't ring right. After a day it was decided it needed to be changed. I contacted Shutterfly to see what our options were for placing a new order with different text. I was expecting, since the error was fully on our end and was up front with that while talking with the CS agent, that we would have to place a new order and pay the same prices again. Or that maybe Shutterfly throws us a bone and gives us a percentage discount off the final price. I was in no way prepared for Shutterfly to tell us that they would give us a credit for the same number of cards originally ordered and rush deliver the new order of cards at no charge. And we could keep the ori...

Fog Filled Valley An early morning trip that involved a driving up and through some mountains rewarded me with some great views of fog flowing over the hills and mountains and filling up a valley. This is the eastern end of the valley. I wish I had taken the time to setup the tripod and snap off a panorma of this valley because it was pretty incredible to see, and the couple shots I have of this really don't do it justice. In terms of processing this shot the tool that I find myself constantly amazed with is Clarity  by  +Topaz Labs . It really brought out the ridges of the mountains and some shape to the fog. Speaking of Topaz Labs, if you or someone on your holiday gift list is a photographer and in need of some excellent plugins, keep an eye out here and on my social media profiles for some links to Topaz Labs Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals. It'll be a great price on the COMPLETE collection of excellent Photoshop/Lightroom/Aperture/iPhoto plugins.

Stairway to... Stairs was the theme for the black and white group this week. I like looking at stairs photos from other photographers but never like my own. Honestly I took probably 20 shots of these stairs and settled for this one because I like the cloud wisps. Under the bridge I was really hoping for more from this shot, except I didn't realize until too late that I had shot my HDR brackets in JPEG meaning I don't get quite the detail and flexibility I would normally have with RAW brackets. The theme this week for  +Weekly Photo Project 2013  was Vanishing point, and I'm pretty happy with this image.

Samoa Coast Guard Station, Humboldt Bay For me when I was taking this picture the clouds were the subject, the Coast Guard Station a nice supporting actor. Located on north spit of the Humboldt Bay, this unit sees a lot of search and rescue action throughout the year. Though the main house is a nice house on its own. This was a 7 shot handheld HDR shot.

King me! I feel like checkers just doesn't get the love that chess gets. Maybe it's because all the pieces look the same? I liked the light on this travel set and it worked out well. What's in the Box?! I was drawing blanks on what I was going to shoot for the theme this week. Finally I stuffed a box with a light in it and there we go. You can view my Weekly Photo Project album here . My black & white project album here .

Elk at recess Shot this awhile back and really liked how it came out. The fog, the school house (now a museum) and a herd of elk just chilling out and feeding. Processing this photo was a little difficult. I wanted to keep the fog, bring out the school house some, and capture the nonchalance of a herd of elk just roaming around. Infact I processed two versions of this shot, this color shot and a black and white shot and liked them both, though I chose the color one for the schoolhouse.

Sundial Bridge Catching up on two week's worth of project photos here. Up above week have last week's theme lines shown in the lines of the Sundial Bridge in Redding, CA. The tall structure in the back acts as a sundial (hence the name) and is an overall neat bridge. Sadness is an empty glass and bottle Mailed this shot in for week 43 Emotions. Best comment that went with the photo on G+ was how the commentator would be sad if they were drinking Costco rum too. In defense of the Costco rum, it tastes quite a bit better than Captain Morgans, has a higher alcohol content, and is $5 cheaper. Trick or Treat Week 43 for  +Weekly Photo Project 2013  was Candy or Sweets, because not everyone celebrates Halloween, yet we still wanted to somehow tie in Halloween. I had the good stuff to handout. 917  I kind of shot myself in foot with this. A couple weeks back I used a reflection shot for our Mirror theme so this week I didn't want to copy the style or type o...

Stillness I've neglected the blog this week. And photography. I think after the ABC Project I was overloaded with both photography and this blog. But October overall was a good month, so far as the two subjects are concerned. Took and published A LOT of photos, and apparently that brings in visitors. Who knew? I drew in a whole lot more pageviews to set a new personal high. So thanks for that, visitors. On the photography front I did shoot and post photos for both projects, but they were very uninspired. I'll get to posting them on here this weekend. For my normal Thursday photo I submit to you this. I liked the stillness of the photo, the textures of the water and the fog masking the background rocks. The symmetry is eye-pealing as well. I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween, if you do things for that, and have a peaceful weekend.

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project. You can catch up with the the previous photos here!

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project. You can catch up with the the previous photos here!

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project. You can catch up with the the previous photos here!

The Bay Bridge I was looking through my blog posts and noticed that there has been a lot  of black and white or monochrome postings. Between my black and white project, and the ABC project you have to go pretty far back to find something with vivid colors. I had a shot that I was originally going to use for today but it was basically monochrome so I'll share that one later. So then I got started working on this shot. I don't know why I thought this would end up being a vivid colorful image, because it certainly wasn't when I started it. I did, as you can obviously see, bring out some blue in the water. Probably too much, but I flip flop between too much and just a little too much. The exposure was an 8 second long exposure so I liked what it did to the water, this soft dreamy look to it. As far as processing the heavy work was done in Clarity  which has been my favorite tool to work with for just about any photo. Using the clarity sliders I was able to make the clouds p...

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project. You can catch up with the the previous photos here!

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project. You can catch up with the the previous photos here!

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project. You can catch up with the the previous photos here!

Foggy day on the pier I've been shooting/processing a lot of black and white photos over the course of October, so when I saw the theme for  +Weekly Photo Project 2013  was Black and White, I wasn't as excited for it as I had been about a month ago. A foggy day, making high contrast black and whites harder to come by, didn't help. But a foggy day does make it easier to "see" in monochrome. I wanted to somehow use the fog in my shot, and I think this worked out pretty well. Straight on leaf For  +Project 52 B&W  I knew what kind of shot I wanted. That cliche shot of a fallen leaf either in a puddle or just on the ground. As you can see, this is not that shot. This is the shot I take when I procrastinate and don't have the time to get the shot I wanted. I do like how it came out though, with the detail looking nice. You can view my Weekly Photo Project album here . My black & white project album here .

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project. You can catch up with the the previous photos here!

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project. You can catch up with the the previous photos here!

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project. You can catch up with the the previous photos here!

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project. You can catch up with the the previous photos here!

Sepia Gate Bridge Though I only show usually three photos a week on here I work on a lot more. Usually I have an idea as to what I want the finished photo to look like, but sometimes I go into working on a photo with no real idea on what I want. I went into Black & White Effects  wanting to get a dramatic look, but the overall flatness of the image (it was a cloudy, surprise, and dull looking day) wasn't helping things out. So then I thought I'd just play around with the image and see what I could do. First thing to do was to bring in a sepia tone to the image. This is a light yellowish tone that often makes a photo look old or vintage. I don't get to often play with sepia toning because my black & white group is/was kind of strict about what makes a black & white photo. Which, now that I think of it, makes sense; sepia toned shots probably fall under the category of monochrome. So after sepia-ing it up I felt that the charm of the bridge was missing. So I...

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project. You can catch up with the the previous photos here!

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project. You can catch up with the the previous photos here!

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project. You can catch up with the the previous photos here!

Mirrored Clouds  For  +Weekly Photo Project 2013   our theme was Mirror. I experimented with some shots of mirrors that I didn't really like but lucked out with this shot. Great big puffy clouds over some relatively calm water. Didn't do too much to the photo, though I did use Clarity  to accentuate the clouds even more and Detail  a little on the clouds and in the water to, oddly enough, blur the water more. Spoiled? Street Photography for  +Project 52 B&W . I don't really like shooting street photography. I feel like I'm spying on people. I want to ask them if I can photograph them, but then the spontaneity of a shot is gone. This shot was fun, and I didn't feel like I was spying too much. This was also shot with the wonderful 20mm Panasonic 1.7 pancake lens that a friend let me borrow. I really like this lens for its size and sharpness. Not to mention that fast 1.7 aperture! My only gripe is how slow it is when focusing. I was lucky this do...

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project. You can catch up with the the previous photos here!

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project. You can catch up with the the previous photos here!

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project. You can catch up with the the previous photos here!

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project. You can catch up with the the previous photos here!

Infrared Clouds Every so often I'll look out my window and see a shot that works for X kind of processing or method, or kind. When I shot this a couple weeks ago I looked out my window and saw great big white clouds with a deep blue sky backdrop that I knew would work for some dramatic looks if shot in infrared. And I wasn't disappointed. Take a look at the RAW color, the in camera B&W conversion, and a quick HDR'd version and see for yourself: RAW, In-camer B&W, and HDR'd In each of the "natural light" versions above the clouds look flat and listless, nothing how I remember seeing them. It was almost as if the clouds overwhelmed the camera sensor. Looking over the shots from that day I remember being disappointed when I ran across the color RAWs and camera B&Ws  and was preparing for more disappointment when I got to the shots with the IR filter on. I like to try and take a number of shots in the natural light before putting the IR filte...

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project.

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project.

Blinding Lights The theme for  +Project 52 B&W  was Lyrically Inspired. You remember back in class when you would be assigned to write some essay that you thought was stupid? That was my thinking on this. AND! And it involved more work because you had to find a song that would work for a photo. Or you could shoot a photo and find a song, but still, it's a two step process. So I found a song that I really (see video below) and thought I'd find a photo that worked for it. Please note I said "find" and not "shoot". To the archives I went. This shot of San Francisco worked just nicely. In the conversion I played up the contrast, pumped up the whites and got some blinding lights for U2's City of Blinding Lights . Angelic Colors I wasn't having any inspiration hit me photographically. Sure the ABC Project was easy enough, but I didn't know what I was going to shoot for  +Weekly Photo Project 2013  and our theme of Colors. Or Colours. S...

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project.

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project.

Favorites! A little horn tooting today. I submitted a photo for the email group Favorites curated by Heather Champ  and it got picked! You can view it, with the other chosen photos for this past week here , and be sure to sign up to receive the weekly email here . The photo I submitted was from this past Thursday’s post  in infrared and black and white. I first heard about Favorites from  +Chuq Von Rospach  and this blog post .

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project.

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project.

I'm taking part in an ABC challenge for October. A different letter for each day. Because I need more of a photographic challenge, obviously. I'm also lazy and will just be embedding my G+ posts for this month long 26 day long project.

On the IR Road This was one of those, "what would happen if I do this?" shots. I had been taking some infrared shots for my black & white project  when I thought I'd step out onto the road and try a shot. As I mentioned in the linked post my 720nm IR filter and my non-converted to IR G3 don't make a good combination for faux color IR shots, but with a little help from Black & White Effects  I'm able to get some very high contrasty shots in black and white. Check out the shadows on the right side. I think they play with the mind a little; to see all this deep dark blacks yet still have shadows on the road is kind of a mind trick. I suggest clicking on the photo to see it full screen.