Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Real Dunes Have Curves - Death Valley

Death Valley sand dunes abstract

I don't do a lot of abstract work, but the sand dunes in Death Valley National Park scream for it. I usually like some sort of a focal point, but there is none here as I wanted the eyes to just wander around the curves of the dunes. This was taken mid day but I still had a fair amount of shadows to work with so I emphasized them by brightening the highlights and darkening the shadows. I focused on an area that was not covered by footprints so they wouldn't distract the overall image. Only downside of not having some sort of focal point is you can't really tell how big they are, but they are pretty massive and quite fun to walk on.
Nikon D7000, Nikkor 18-200 @ 170mm, f/16, 1/30 sec, ISO-100


Sunday, July 26, 2015

Golden Shower - Malibu Sunset

Shooting sunrays in Malibu

Ok, maybe a bit of an inappropriate title. But this takes shooting in the golden hour to the next level. Compression was key here so I used my telephoto to frame this how I wanted. My man Paul was setup at the overlook while the setting sun cut thru the fog producing some awesome rays through the santa monica mountains in the distance. Telephoto distortion is a form of perspective distortion that transforms a scene to look different than when shooting with a normal focal length. Just like the saying on your passenger mirror, objects may be closer than they appear. This also happens at the other end with wide angle lenses which can make distant objects look smaller which may not be ideal if you have an awesome mountain or something of importance in the distance. If your background object is more towards the center of the frame and not the very top it will help a little. You can also blend shots at different focal lengths where you take a shot of the foreground, and slightly zoom in to take a shot of the background and combine them in photoshop but this is quite a bit trickier to do.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200 @85mm, f/14, 1/500 sec, ISO-500

Friday, July 24, 2015

Lighting the Way - Milky Way from Malibu

I've accepted that my 20mm isn't wide enough for some shots to the point where I will have to occasionally use pano's to capture the full view of what I see. However with this scene, I'm not sure even a 14mm could capture this. With the MW getting more and more vertical, it's getting harder to fit the entire core of it into landscape orientation shots. This is part of a 5 shot horizontal pano (camera in portrait orientation) to capture the entire view of both the milky way and Malibu Canyon Road that winds through the Santa Monica mountains. The fog hung out on the coast during this time. We moved over to another spot maybe 10 minutes later and it rolled in cutting all visibility. Weather changes so drastically in this area. Definitely a fun place to explore.
5 shots with the Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1/8, f/4, 15 sec, ISO-1600.


Monday, July 20, 2015

Photography Exhibit - The Collective Realty

Come check out the event at @thecollectiverealty in Hollywood on August 1st. I'll have some steel wool shots up as well as a few LA ones. I still get quite a few questions on steel wool shots so feel free to stop by and ask me in person or just stop by to say hi. There will also be a silent auction to benefit Free Arts, For Abused Children. Photos will be up through Oct 31st.


Saturday, July 18, 2015

The Green Mile - Red Rock Canyon State Park

Glowstick lit path, Red Rock Canyon

Where is the new moon taking you this weekend? While a new moon is ideal for having dark skies it's not always required. Sometimes a crescent moon near the horizon in an opposite direction can help naturally light paint your foreground. You can even get away with getting a good shot if you have a moon well below the horizon. Best way to plan is to use a program like stellarium where you can map these things out in advance. You can also check the moon phases online so you do know when the next new moon will be.

We were out in Malibu Thursday night for the new moon but I haven't processed anything so here's one from Red Rock Canyon State Park. We experimented with the glow sticks all night and I ended up just holding one up for this pic. It did a nice job of putting a subtle glow on the path. Red rock is ideal for astro as you are far enough from LA but still only about 1.5 hours out.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/2.8, 20 sec, ISO-4000

Friday, July 17, 2015

Manhattan Beach - Long Exposure

Manhattan Beach long exposure sunset

Here is a long exposure sunset from the Manhattan pier. LE's are a great way to change up the mood of your shot by smoothing out the water texture and by changing the dynamics of the clouds by capturing the movement of them. The mood will vary from how much the clouds streak across the image. In this shot, the sky had serious potential but only lit up in a few spots during the burn so I oped for a longer exposure to capture the nice pinks moving through the sky. The length of shutter time usually depends on how fast the clouds are moving. With a lot of wind, sometimes 20-30 seconds is all you need. Since they weren't moving too fast I slapped on the ND and opted for a minute exposure.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/11, 60 sec, ISO-50


Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Domination - Palos Verdes

SS Dominator shipwreck, Palos Verdes

The hike to the remains of the SS Dominator that grounded off the coast of Palos Verdes in 1961 is one of the more popular hikes over here. You can take the drain pipe trail which leaves you about a mile to the ruins. Alternately you can take the steeper route down the Lunada Bay side and cut the hike down further. Either way you'll be walking along rocks the whole way. The ship has deteriorated over the years but there are still some stuff lying around from pieces of the hull, to a pretty well intact crane which you see here. Some say the crane was part of the rescue mission to try and free the ship off the rocks. We headed out for a high tide sunset and were lucky that some clouds decided to pass through at just the right time as it was clear all day. The clear horizon line allowed the sun to peak through before it set so I lined it up through the gear to get a nice sunburst. Took quite a few exposures to capture some nice water movement as the waves rushed in. Be prepared to smell a bunch of funky stuff along the way from dead birds to dead sea lions, but that's pretty common up and down the coast. What's nice about PV is that there is something different about each cove and there are a lot of them to explore.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/16, 0.8 sec, ISO-50

Sunday, July 12, 2015

From the Sea to the Sky - Malibu Milky Way

Malibu Milky Way

Here is another MW image from Malibu overlooking the Santa Monica Mountains. The low fog was quite thick so I wanted to capture some foreground detail to show how it was creeping through the mountains. This view looks out South towards the ocean and the line of light running through the image is PCH covered in the fog. My 20mm wasn't wide enough to capture this, so this is a 3 shot vertical pano which was stitched and scaled back to a landscape orientation version. I often get questions of how best to focus for astro shots. For a shot like this with nothing in the foreground, you can try a few things. You can auto focus on one of the houses out in the distance. Sometimes your auto focus may be off tho, so always take a test shot and check it. Another method you can use, and will be able to use if your surrounds are pitch black is live view manual focusing. To do this switch to live view, use your + button to zoom in as much as it will go and locate a star on your screen. Slowly turn your focus ring until that star becomes a sharp point. Flip your AF off if you haven't already to make sure you don't accidentally re-focus and take the shot. I constantly use both techniques depending on the results so couldn't say which is better it's just a good idea to have multiple methods that work.
3 shots stitched from the Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm, f/2.8, 15 sec, ISO-1600


Saturday, July 11, 2015

Scalability - Palos Verdes sea cave

Human and cave sunset, Palos Verdes

Here is the other Palos Verdes cave image I promised to post this week. As a landscape photographer I don't care for random people in my shot unless they are carefully positioned. A human element can add such an impact to a scene and more importantly provide a sense of scale which is often lost in a wide angle shot of something massive like a cave or a huge waterfall. This was shot just as the clouds started lighting up near sunset and I was hugging the left side of the wall to be able to see the rock formation on the outside of the cave. As I was shooting, a person walked out to the edge and started snapping pictures with his phone so I quickly took several shots of different exposures until he left. I ended up choosing one that had some nice water motion in the foreground. This shot also gives you an idea of how to get out here. At low tide you can pretty much just walk around the rocks and into the cave. At high tide, you have to climb down the rocks from where the guy is standing and rush into the cave in between sets. Definitely a fun place to shoot.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/8, 1/8 sec, ISO-160

Friday, July 10, 2015

Eye of Providence - Malibu Canyon

Malibu sunrays over the Santa Monica Mountains at sunset
Happy Friday! Here is one from Malibu where I was hoping for a foggy sunset and was greeted with a fairly clear sky instead. There was a thin layer of haze/clouds towards the horizon and once the sun hit it, it created some stunning rays of golden light shooting through the ridges. It also acted as a diffuser to take some brightness away from the sun so shooting right at it was manageable. I have no issues when the sun is partially hidden behind things to get the sunburst effect, but shooting it out in the open is a different story, especially near the telephoto range. For one its BRIGHT and two you're gonna get some unpredictable flare. I made sure my lens and any filters were as clean as can be as that can add more unnecessary flare/spots. I zoomed in to catch the intimate detail of the rays and the ridges and shot some exposures to capture some detail in the land, which blew out the sun and sky so I knew I had to take some shorter exposures for the sky. I increased the shutter a few stops and shot a few more, leaving the sun blown out but keeping detail in the surrounding sky. I blended the two images using the gradient technique in photoshop which mimics a GND in the field. I added a bit of contrast and clarity back to really separate the tones from the light and dark areas and kept a hint of detail in the land to see some of the houses and roads but not to take away from the focus of the shot. The flare works for me here, as it mimics one of the rays. Love how the contours of the ridges and the rays all point up towards the sun. Love the golden hour, and as you can see its called that for a very good reason.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200, f/22, ISO-500, blend of 1/320 sec and 1/60 sec.


Thursday, July 9, 2015

Experiences Over Everything - Machu Picchu

As photographers, I'm sure we all have those places where we look back and say damn I wish I could go back and reshoot it with what I know now. Two places come to mind for me. One is Sydney, Australia where I went for my honeymoon and the other is this place right here. While this in no way takes away from the experiences I gained while traveling, it does make me critique my older shots and think about what I should have done differently. I do occasionally whip out old files and put a re-edit on them with new techniques learned but these 2 trips were both shot with a bridge camera with jpg files only so there's only so much that can be done. I still love this shot for the memories it sparks, and the blessing that we were even lucky enough to see this place with clear conditions in December as it is fogged out a lot of the time. I'm also jealous of the view that these Llamas have on a daily, so here is a shot of a Llama ass looking out towards one of the New7Wonders of the world.

Do any shots come to mind for you? Would you choose to go back there just to retake shots, or travel somewhere new?

 Shot about 5 years ago: Panasonic DMC-FZ28, f/8, 1/30 sec, ISO-320


Tuesday, July 7, 2015

4th of July in Los Angeles

Fireworks over Los Angeles, 4th of July

Here is one from the 4th. The goal with fireworks is to capture a nice set of bursts in a frame. To do this you don't want your shutter speed too short since you want to capture it from when it ignites all the way to the burst to get that nice trail, but you don't want it too long where you get multiple bursts in the same spot as it can look cluttered and can end up being too bright. It totally depends on the show but somewhere between 10-20 seconds usually works. The problem with capturing a single set of bursts is that you don't get the grand scale of the show, so an easy technique you can use is the "lighten" blend mode in photoshop. To make this work ensure your exposure is the same for each shot you take. Then during the show, fire off multiple shots capturing the bursts. When you review your images pick out a few that have nice sets of bursts scattered in the sky and not directly on top of each other. You then layer your photos on each other and change the blend mode on each layer from "normal" to "lighten". What this does is takes the color information from each pixel of the base and compares it to that chosen layer and applies the lighter color. You do this with every layer and all of your fireworks that you selected are now on your base image.

 The shot you see here is from Ascot Hills on the east side of LA. The city was already super hazy from the from all the pre-firework celebrations and I wanted to capture the essence of how many were actually being set off by the residence. I chose a 20 sec exposure as the fireworks were more scattered than you would get in an actual show so there weren't many overlapping in the same exact spot. Once blue hour hit I fired off multiple exposures until it faded. Once I got home I selected 8 images and used the technique above to get the image you see here.

If you are still with me, I hope you learned something. If you use a different technique, I would love to hear about it as well. 8 images stacked using the Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200 @ 92mm, f/11, 20 sec, ISO-100


Sunday, July 5, 2015

Standing in the Wake - Manhattan Beach Pier

Surfer, Manhattan Beach sunset

Standing in the Wake 

What do you do when you are photographing an overshot location? For one always try shooting in the best light possible. You can shoot the same shot on different days and have it look completely different based on that alone. However I always try and add something else to my shot, whether it be an interesting foreground element or something else of interest. In this case, the surfer adds balance to the right side of the shot, with the pier on the left and the sunset right down the center. When I noticed that he was standing still for quite some time, I knew I wanted to get some nice water motion to go along with the shot so I composed and took a few longer exposures as the waves rolled in. Luckily he stood still and I was able to also capture an exposure for the sky. I then blended the two shots and the result is what you see here. You can always bring a model along but I find it to be more satisfying being a candid shot, your preference may vary.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/11, ISO-64, blend of 1/5 sec and 1/30 sec. 


Friday, July 3, 2015

Heaven's Gate - Palos Verdes

Sunset at high tide, Palos Verdes cave

Quite possibly my new favorite local image. Maybe it was the thrill of getting the shot, maybe it was that conditions lined up perfectly, maybe a bit of both. So we ventured out at high tide, and when I say high I mean up around 6'. This meant a few things; for one there were these huge waves crashing to the back of the cave making for the best possible foreground you could have asked for. But it also meant getting out here was tricky and required a bit of patience and timing which was why we were the only ones out here. This was also shot during the epic sunset we had this past Sunday. This cave faces south which does not always get the benefit of a sunset burn, but on that night the sky lit up in all directions. This was shot right as the sky turned pink when I got a rushing wave roll through. I took tons of exposures as I thought I was going to have to blend them due to the huge dynamic range but I was able to pull shadows and recover highlights from a single RAW file. Yes files are bigger, but cards are cheap and there is much more data to work with in post. There's no reason not to shoot RAW nowadays. Definitely an experience and a shot to remember.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/8, 0.8 sec, ISO-250