Day 14 – Seashell

Seashell

I was feeling like I need to go farther afield this morning but not really into it. So, I decided to work in the studio instead. I started out with some slices of lime and lemon trying to capture the bubbles in a glass of carbonated water. But it just didn’t work out as I had envisioned so in frustration I turned to some sea shells I have sitting on the window sill. I might add that I had extension tubes on the Sweet 50 mounted on the Canon M3 camera. I liked the look of this one but it was a little on the cool side. So I added one texture which both warmed it up and added a frame. Suitable for hanging on a Hotel room wall at the coast I’m thinking.

Day 13 – Blackberries

Blackberries

On the way out the door for my morning walk I grabbed the M100 with the Trio28 lens on it and the new extension tubes for the M mount. I knew that the blackberries were getting ripe here in blackberry country so I had them in mind as a subject. I liked the mix of color from shooting ripe and unripe ones together. It took a lot of practicing to get the focus just right and arguably this one is not perfect as the ripe berry is not the sharpest thing in the frame, but it was my favorite of all the ones I took (between sampling the props, of course). At home on the computer I just brightened it up a little and added a couple of textures.

Day 12 – Sweet Pea

SweetPea

I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather today so decided to share another image from the trip to the rose garden yesterday. Again shot with the Velvet85 on the Canon 7D Mark II (aka, the big girl camera). I managed to get the focus right were I wanted it on this one, which is sometimes a challenge with Lensbaby lenses. In post processing I added a high pass filter to bring out the detail in the blossoms, then I used a Lightroom preset which served to lighten the background a little. And finally, I added ont texture to just give a touch more interest to the background.

Day 11 – Rose

VelvetRose

This morning I decided to ditch church in favor of the Harry and David Rose Garden. Most of the roses had seen better days but there  were still a few in prime condition. I grabbed the Velvet 85, the 7D Mark II and a set of extension tubes, along with my tripod, of course. What I learned today is that the difference between f2.8 and f1.8 is huge on the Velvet 85. This image was captured at f1.8 using one medium extension tube. I added a high pass filter in photoshop to just bring out those edges a little more. 

Day 10 – Another Sunflower

Sunflower_081019

Different day, different camera, different lens. I had some business at the Talent Library this morning so I slung the M100 with Trio28 over my shoulder for the wolk over there. Just for fun I threw the new extension tubes I just bought for the M cameras into the bag. This was shot on the velvet setting at my favorite sunflower patch. I wasn’t too happy with the grey area in the lower right corner so I started throwing on textures. I got through about half my texture files before I found a combination I liked. But I am happy with what I can do with the Trio 28 and a small extension tube.

Day 9 – Sunflower

1_Sunflower

I decided to go for a camera walk this morning around downtown Talent. I know, not a long walk. I but the Burnside on the EOS R. Mostly I felt frustrated by how wide the lens is. But in this image I think I finally captured the spirit of the Burnside. You can see the soft and slightly swirly background but the flower is very very sharp. With a 6″ minimum focusing distance the Burnside definitely qualifies as a macro lens in my book. I also learned an important lesson today. the EOS R has a very sharp Electronic View Finder which is a much better choice for focusing than the screen on the back of the camera. This is why I do these projects. Not only do I keep my skills sharp, I get better acquainted with my gear.

In post processing I bumped up the exposure a little, added clarity and vibrance and a High Pass filter for even sharper detail in the flower. I did not have the built in vignette selected on the Burnside so I added a light one in Nik Color Efex Pro.

And for you critics out there, yes, I know, the tip of the leaf should not be so close to the edge of the frame.

Chess Anyone?

Chess

It was a busy day and while I did stop by North Mountain Park on my way home I never got around to downloading the images. So, I decided it was time to turn to the archives. I found this chess set at the barnstormer’s vintage fair. I knew as soon as I saw the raw image that it wanted to be black and white. I added a light vignette and a border. This was shot with the Sweet 50 by the way.

Day 7 – Give me a ring

Telephone2

So, how fun is this? I went to breakfast this morning at a restaurant in Newport called La Maison, which I highly recommend by the way. It is a little off the beaten path a block from 101 in a neighborhood they are now calling the Deco District after about three Art Deco style buildings in the area. I decided to take a walk with the sweet 50 and stumbled upon an antique store that specializes in old telephones.

I learned a lot about the telephone industry and snapped away with the Sweet 50. The out of camera image was pretty dull so I kept heaping textures on it to try and get some color into the background. I wasn’t completely happy with it so I took it in to Nik Color Efex Pro for a border. Well I had been experimenting with maximum detail on an early image so Nik offered that up to start me off and I went “that’s what I’m talking about.” I added my signature because this is more of a digital art piece than a photograph.

Day 6 – Yaquina Head Light

YaquinaHeadLight

I seem to be on a vertical kick lately. Well, a lot of images were made today and I even got a few good ones. My efforts with lensbaby lenses fell a little short however. The light was awfully flat today with typical summer overcast skies at the coast. And the animals I was trying to photograph at the aquarium were moving around a little too much for the manual focus requirements of lensbaby.

This image of Yaquina Head Lighthouse was captured with the Burnside lens mounted on the Canon EOS R. Burnside is designed for street photography at 35 mm but the wide angle is also suitable for lighthouses. In the right conditions Burnside will give a swirly effect in the bokah. It also has a switch on the side that allows you to add more or less vignetting. Burnside is my newest lensbaby and I still need to work with it to master it’s full range of possibilities.

For some reason they have painted the top of the lighthouse black. I remember when it was red like other Oregon lighthouses. But with the flat light there wasn’t much color in the image so I opted to go full on monochrome in Nik Silver Efex Pro. I selected the Yellowed preset but added some structure and contrast.  I also touched up some 20th century features like wires running down the side of the lighthouse using the spot healing brush. I also took out a few tourists who did not add to the story I wanted to tell.

Day 5 – Love

Love

I was able to kill two birds with one stone today as I set out to work on the Oregon Coast Project I had only to pull a lensbaby out of the bag to complete the 100 days entry. While I was headed to Newport this trip I had learned that the Circles in the Sands folks would be doing a labyrinth in Bandon today so I made a detour to arrive a little after the crowds had died down. Today they had a heart theme going on. Since I already had the Sol 45 out I went ahead and continued using it on the M3. This image was pretty monotone to begin with so I took it into Nik Silver Efex Pro and chose the Film Noir preset. I see a potential Note card here but I think I might go with a sepia tone when I get around to printing it.