Month: February 2011

365-59 Bokeh, Topaz and Orton

Back to normal today, no more fun abstracts. My 365 shot  is of some kind of pod on a tree next to my porch. There’s a busy street in the background so I used my Super-Takumar 50mm wide open at f/1.4 for limited depth. Due to the relatively boring subject, I decided to punch the color up a bit with Topaz…

365-58 A late one

12:02 AM. I guess I missed my post today by a few minutes. Well it’s late, so I’ll keep it short with a simple shot. Pentax K20D, DA17-70   White Wall Blue Sky    Edited to add a shot from the other side:                        

365-57 Pittsburgh details

WordPress drives me crazy sometimes when I want to edit.  I changed a photo and all of my text disappeared! Anyhow, I made a brief visit through downtown today. I just got to walk around a block and take a few snaps. For my 365 shot, “Levels“, I shot with a telephoto to compress the perspective a bit. I liked…

365-56 No extra effort award

For my 365 choice, I just liked the colors here, especially the gradation on the wall. I would have liked the shot to be a hair sharper but the light level was pretty low, considering the focal length. Plus a few of the shots could have benefited from a smaller aperture. I could have boosted the ISO more but I…

365-55 A study of grass

Not much out there today. I was shooting near a railroad station trying to get something “railroady” and although I got a couple of shots in that theme, I ended up liking these grass shots better.  I used Nik Silver Efex B&W conversion with toning then blended opacity to bring some subtle color back in. I used the “coffee” tone on photos No.1 and 2…

365-54 I really like abstracts

I’ll offer another abstract for my 365 today. It’s in portrait orientation, which is a little rare for me. I’ve been trying to do all landscape oriented photos for my 365, just for consistency sake, but I had no set rule. I tried to rotate this shot but I liked it best in the original vertical. I’m not going to say…

365-53 Make up day

I’m going to try to make up for the lame shot I did yesterday. I had an early appointment this morning and woke up to six inches of fresh snow. I figured a new fresh blanket of white should help me get creative again. It did, but I didn’t really take any “snow” shots, nor did I venture far from…

365-52 A little lazy today

Nothing fancy today, just pretzel sticks in a bag. Straight built-in flash shot, not even any fancy f/1.4 bokeh, natural light stuff. I did do a little touch of orton effect in processing just to jazz it up a bit. I’ll make up for it tomorrow. Pentax K20D, DA17-70. Sticks In a Bag

365-51 Black and white trickery

Something a little different. I took the smokestack picture today and the sky was nice but a little uninteresting. A good time to practice some Photoshop skills.  I remembered I shot some rain clouds with lightning a couple of years ago so I searched my files and found the shot. I extracted the sky from the old photo and added it to the…

365-50 In search of color

Finding any kind of color right now is pretty difficult, but I know its out there somewhere.  With actual sunshine the past couple of days, I just wanted to find some bright photo subjects, even if that means going abstract again. Pentax K20D, DA55-300. Parts