Day 10 – Coastal Sunset

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Sunset_small

So, today it rained again and I decided it made more sense to post something good that was newly processed rather than something mediocre that was newly shot. And the focus of my photographic effort for the day was processing images from my trip to the coast. That may also be the focus for the next few rainy days so that may just be what you see.

In any case I was able to bring a lot of color and depth out in this image using Nik color Efex Pro. Detail, brilliance, warmth and just a hint of brightening the center and darkening the edges. Overall a very pleasing image, I think.

Day 8 – Lunch

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Salmon_Cake

The weather at the coast continues to be frightful but we were treated to a cooking demonstration at the Lincoln City Culinary Center and served this delicious lunch consisting of arugula salad, salmon cakes and roasted Yukon gold potatoes,

I was shooting at 6400 ISO so I wouldn’t have to use flash. I had to do some color adjustments to compensate for the warm lighting but otherwise it was just noise reduction, sharpening and a very slight crop to manage edge distractions.

Day 7 – Brewery Abstract

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Brewery_abstract_restyle

It was another rainy miserable day on the Coast with Road Scholars. Fortunately we had an indoor tour at Rogue Brewery this afternoon. I was taken with the geometry of the pipes on a fermentation tank. In post I did some sharpening and then went a little further with a high pass filter. Thought it needed a little more color so I took it into Topaz restyle where the Orange peel filter gave me what I wanted.

Day 6 – Butterflies

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Butterflies

Who says there are no butterflies in winter? The holiday lights display at Shore Acres has long been on my bucket list. Finally made it today, unfortunately it was pouring rain. Nevertheless the displays were gorgeous. though not as showy as a wide shot of the whole display I liked the simplicity of this intimate shot of butterflies in what looks to me like a fairy forest. I found that shooting 2 stops under the auto exposure worked best for these twilight shots. Post processing was mainly just adding saturation and vibrance and darkening the background a little.

Day 5 – Shark

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Shark

My tour group ended the day with a visit to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. I was really taken with the light patterns in the lower right and just waited for a shark to swim by to give the image some meaning. I don’t even mind the spotlight in the upper left which could just as easily be the sun peeking through.

I was shooting at high ISO so the main processing challenge was noise reduction. I also did some sharpening and used spot healing brush to eliminate distracting spectral highlights.

Day 4 – Yaquina Head Light

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Yaquina_Head_light

Driving to the coast today I saw many beautiful sights but found few convenient places to pull over for a picture. And the rainbow coming out of Florence looked like I was driving straight into the pot of gold but no way I could stop in the middle of Hwy 101. Then I checked into my room and found this, yes distant, view of the Yaquina Head Light and knew I was saved. I have to say, though, it looks much better in the full resolution version.

I used the EOS M again with the new telephoto lens. Shot handheld at ISO 800 f8 at 1/160sec. In post processing I did noise reduction, sharpening, some exposure adjustment and saturation and added a warming filter. Oh, yes, there was some cropping involved and I edited out some distracting elements. Now, can I go to bed?

Day 3 – My New Lamp

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Lamp

The weather outside today was not fit for woman or beast, let alone cameras. So, I was left with whatever I could find inside the house. I turned to my new stained glass lamp for a nice geometric abstract. Post processing entailed saturation, detail, and sharpening as well as some color balance adjustments.

Day 2 – Bottle

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Bottle

I had some errands in downtown Ashland this morning then went to lunch at the Granite Taproom. I came home with several images that could have qualified for image of the day but finally decided this closeup of the top of my water bottle at the restaurant was my favorite. I was particularly fascinated by the old school mechanism to hold the cap on the bottle as well as the blue color of the cap. Red lamps on the adjacent tabletops added another pop of color.

This was shot with the Canon EOS M 18-55 mm lens with a closeup filter. ISO 1600 1/160 at f8. I often subscribe to the f8 and be there school of thought when hand holding. I was pleased with the way background blurred out. In post processing I went with extreme detail extraction in color efex pro with also a significant amount of saturation and warmth.

Day 1 – Rhododendron

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Rhody

Early in Winter
Wrapped in Anticipation
New life awaits spring

So, I’ve been thinking about this project for awhile though I did not have too many preconceived notions about the subject matter. I decided to start in my backyard where I was surprised to find this rhododendron looking very spring like. So I decided the promise of spring was a very appropriate subject for winter.

And just to change things up a bit I thought I would try my hand at adding a Haiku to each image. At this point I’m considering the Haiku optional, we’ll see how it goes. It could even blossom into full blown poetry.

And just in time for the opening of my project a very appropriate blog post from Hank Erdmann via the North American Nature Photography Association. Check it out here to get some tips on how to dress, how to take care of your equipment and to see some of Hank’s beautiful winter photos. http://www.nanpa.org/news/facing-the-howling-blizzard-with-your-camera-by-hank-erdmann/