So my last trip was into the Canadian wilderness. A place that is out of service and beyond the reach of the ‘regular’ world. The true north. Beyond the wall. I will just shortly discuss my favorite picture from that adventure and a little insight as to how I post-processed it.
First, the right night had to be picked. Not every night was as clear or water as calm. Once the night was picked, I canoed out to a rock that had a good shot of the house. I didn’t bring my tripod on the trip so my camera was resting sideways on a rock. I read somewhere that photographers are really just problem solvers. Next, because the house was so much brighter than the sky I had another problem. Capture the stars and blow out the house or get the house and have no sky. My original thought was to composite two images of different exposures for the house and sky. That is a lot of work and tough to pull off convincingly. So I met somewhere in the middle and shot it in RAW because I know I would need it later. Actually, I almost only shoot in RAW.
This was shot at ISO 800, f/2.2 and a 10 second exposure. Why these settings? The lens is a Nikon 35mm 1.8G. At full open (f/ 1.8) the image isn’t as sharp, so I stopped it down a tiny bit. 10 seconds is pretty much the max time my combo (lens/camera) can stay open without getting star trails. The basic formula for crop sensor, like my Nikon D7000, is 400/your focal length (35mm). That’s about 11.4 seconds. If you have a full frame sensor your formula is a 600/FL. I wish I could have done this shot with a wider angle lens. But alas, one has to work their way up the latter. And the ISO 800 was just the ISO I needed for the exposure.
Quickly for the post:
in Lightroom:
Exposure +.3
Painted with Highlight boost and clarity boost on sky
Painted with Highlight reduction on house
Photoshop:
Slight blue tone layer
Frequency separation sharpening (I’ll make a write up about this soon)
Done!
UPDATE: I ordered a Tokina 11-16 f / 2.8 yesterday! Would have really enjoyed that wider view but I am still quite pleased with this.
Impromptu trip down to my old stomping grounds of Crested Butte, CO was a great success. Checking my bank account before leaving revealed that I had more money problems than Xhibit. However, the feelings of apprehension at first were put to rest as soon as I got there. Seeing old friends and co-workers was more important than saving for the future.
There was clouds the whole time making for some great sunset photos.
We went off-roading towards the Devil’s Punchbowl which is a crazy dangerous ride where some deaths have occurred.
Abandoned Cabin
Sweet old blue stove
Gas leaks can actually be quite beautiful
A backcountry rainbow rail. Be fun to hit that in the winter.
Finally, I did what Crested Butte is famous for in the summer; Biking. Went down-hilling for several hours on Saturday and was getting scared senseless. A little because you are barely navigating a missile over rocks, jumps and through trees, but mostly because I had my camera and 2 lenses on my back. I even fell twice but my camera lives to tell another tale.
Sardines and beaches. My time in Portugal is coming to a close and I am faced with another 24 hour trip back to Colorado. With my mental brain fart, all I can think to say has to do with the second season of a Game of Thrones. I am just going to say that I am thoroughly disappointed in the way the second season was done. I really believe that to be happy in life one needs to have low expectations, how can you be sad when something exceeds your expectations? How can you be happy when something falls short? Anyway, I know I am going to be disappointed when the third season comes out because the third book is the best in the series and one of the best books I’ve ever read. So the third season must equally be as cool, right? Or because I am expected to be disappointed by my high expectations I have just lowered mine. Then, by lowering them to meet the disappointment of my high expectations I have just raised them. Then… Here are some pictures.
So for those of you who don’t know I am in Portugal with the family helping out and taking photographs.
There is an abandoned farm not too far down the road from where we are. It’s been abandoned since we discovered it a few years ago. It use to be an orange orchard. It still has the orange trees but nothing is up kept. Unfortunately, there isn’t an old cool farm house to explore and find creepy things but if you come at the right time of year there is infinite free oranges, lemons and even pomagranites. Now is not that time of year but still a fine walk once you pass the gauntlet of dogs.
 |
| Anti-depressant ad? |
 |
| Mmmm, free oranges. |
 |
| An Old Portuguese well |
 |
| This poor dog has obviously been abused. He wanted so bad human attention but was scared. After he got some he had a satisfying stretch. |
 |
| Traditional indigo blue trim. |
So I am in Portugal. It happens. After a grueling 24-hour trip that involved 3 planes and a train I have arrived at my destination in southern Portugal. It has been a destination that I have been coming to for the past 16 years or so. I don’t even remember. On my mother’s side is very connected to Portugal. I have 2 aunts and several cousins who live here. It is host to friendly, character filled people and some of the best food and beautiful beaches in the world.
 |
| Walking around JFK waiting for my flight |
 |
| I left on the 4th of July. I bet those were really cool up close. |
 |
| Again just walking around the airport. |
 |
| Coming down into Madrid |
 |
| That bag must have been so full of ties and shoe polish |
 |
| The train station in Lisbon |
 |
| My sister waiting for the train |
This has been fun. Keep a look out for some more photos coming your way. In the mean time you can check out my photography website.