2011 Blog Posts
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What the hell do you give your dad for father's day when there stands a high likelihood it could be his last?
I found out a few weeks before Father's day that it looks like my dad's battle with cancer has suffered some setbacks. His diagnosis ranges from months to years. After all, Doctor's are practicing medicine.
Skepticism for "hallmarky" commercialism born made-up holidays aside, one thing was certain this father's day: I felt inordinate pressure to try to find "just the right" gift.
Something with the right balance of celebration, memorialization and a touch of "foreverness".
Regardless of your religious views, parents and grandparents can find immortality in that of their children and grandchildren. My goal was to create a keepsake photo collage of some of Dad's favorite photos of my kids. To add the lasting sense of "foreverness", I had this panoramic put on a Metal Print from Bay Photo.
The result is better than I could imagine.
Looking for something to give Dad this father's day? Why not dust off your photoshop skills and make him a collage of the grandkids or even of yourself.
.. and to make that print truly archival, I highly recommend metal prints from Bay Photo. I printed this one through my smugug account. Believe me, they do amazing work.
..and no this isn't a commercial and I didn't get paid to say that :)
A few months back, I rediscovered my old, sorta cheap Minolta film SLR in the closet floor. So on a whim I decided to grab it and take it out for some attempts at doing HDR with film. Or, at least.. tone mapping with film results.
Since it was on a whim, I couldn't find the best of film. In fact, 200 Fuji was all I could locate - even after visiting a local Calagaz.
So, armed with my junky 200 Film and a camera I haven't shot with since my newspaper days, I headed out at sundown and shot this shot of one of my favorite piers. I then, sent off the film to have it developed and negative scanned. $40 and a few weeks later I got my picture CD and negatives. It was nostalgic to hold negatives in my hand again, being that in a past life I was a darkroom good at a newspaper.
As you can see, my first result really sucks quite bad! Way… too noisy.. And this is AFTER noise reduction. Oh.. and just for added fail, there was a piece of hair in the image as well. :) So.. a good cleaning, some better film, I may give it another shot when I feel like wasting another $40.
from the Photoblog: www,graffitivisuals.com
Step into my Delorean, throw some PBR into Mr. Fusion and travel back with me to May 30, 2010.
With my wife's family in town, we made our annual trip to the beaches for Memorial Day weekend. My brothers-in-law and I piled into the truck and launched my (single) Honda Jetski on Big Lagoon near Pensacola NAS in Florida. (But, um, to be clear - not exactly Pensacola Beach on Memorial Day. ;) ) However, I'm sure 1 fat-short dude (me), 1 tall-big dude (Jr.) and 1 skinny-tall dude made an adorable sight putting across the no wake zones of Big Lagoon towards Johnson Beach.
My brother in laws jetted off down the beach for some sightseeing and waves I hung back to chill-ax on the beaches with plans to meet more family who would later come by car with coolers, tents, gear, food and important to me -- my DSLR which I felt was unwise to include in a jetski ride.
The boys were gone for quite some time, apparently the sights were very good. I was enjoying the down time when I was caught unawares in a crazy summer lightning storm that often pop up in the South - especially the Gulf Coast.
I found shelter under this walkway, which runs between this solitary road on this nearly abandoned beach on the Lagoon. I rode out the storm with a pretty freaked out family from Idaho and thought enough of this makeshift shelter to snap this photo when the camera joined our little beach party.
So, why the long story for something so trivial?
I had been following this travel photography blog, pretty famous one -- http://www.stuckincustoms.com . If you've been living behind a mean web filter or under a Rock named Steve: It's this photo-a-day travel photography blog by this really talented and cool photographer, Trey Ratcliff. I'd been fascinated with his processing style for a few months but hadn't attempted following his tutorial to duplicate the method.
This photo was my first attempt at an 'HDR' photo and to resemble his processing style and it was at this moment I decided to release a photo-a-day via Flickr from my own experiences and vision of Gulf Coast life. I've since found my own style for processing but still often borrow from his brilliance. This is an actual reprocess of the original photo with some new life thanks to newly acquired photoshop skills, whilst the original still hangs in Canvas form on my living room wall. It serves as a great reminder to me of the cool experiences that await me and my camera as I take time away from my indoors software dev after-hours tendencies to get out there and explore.
It's been a cool year and I may have missed a day here and there but I think in aggregate I released and average of 3 photos a day since last Memorial Day. I'm having fun, it's not interfering with work so I see no reason to stop. In fact, I'll be stepping it up a bit, this summer.
At least two trips planned. One, a vacation to Disney and one, a quick trip to Seattle. Both will have photo opportunities, as will the coming summer. Hoping for something a little more int'l in the coming year… Longer term, the British countryside, Hong Kong, Thailand and Hawaii have been on my bucket list for some time. But I'll need to write lots of apps to get there.. ;)
Thanks for the supporting comments over this year for those who have been watching - I always enjoy feedback, nice or mean.
Happy Memorial Day Weekend. Be safe, be responsible and be courteous to others on the road and waters..ArtBeachesGulf CoastHDRJohnson BeachLEprintsPensacolapiers n such
CornMaze
Shadowy Path
It had been a long day. I'd been at the Fairhope Pier at sunrise to try catch some favorable shots. Jeez was it cold. in the 20's (which is odd for the Gulf Coast), plenty of breeze and I apparently had a touch of walking pneumonia to top it all off.
I went home that morning, in defeat. Woke up at noon, chills gone, some Sopa de Pollo at Poor Mexican and then back out for one of my most productive photo walks this year. I had been nestled around the pier for the usual shots when some pretty snobby professional photographer types came out with flashes roaring to shoot some 20-something, ostensibly with something important going on in her life.
I was annoyed and retreated to the hilltop in time to find this shot. I wish I could have gotten a tad higher to change the composition of the trees on the pier but at this location, there is no higher without involving flight! Higher res here: http://graffitilogic.smugmug.com/Landscapes/Winter-2011-Photowalks/15368148_vpsJF#1304954436_M4jbh5Q
from the Photoblog: www,graffitivisuals.com
DSC_4440
For Tuesday: A Spooky Photo Self-Challenge Day #2
Spooky Photo Challenge
Cameras in the shop… I decided to try to challenge myself to be more creative in post processing this week for halloween by consuming these "leftovers" in a creepy or macabre way..
Day 2 of 5: Descent: Ft. Creepsville
It was a very clear, cool January afternoon. What's awesome about the Winter in a beach town is that you can often find local tourist locales completely abandoned. As was the case on this spur-of-the-moment after-work trip to Ft. Morgan, Alabama. It was cold and I only had a few hours before the Fort was to close but.. as was said in this fort's wartime, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"
A lot of the architectural details struck me about this Fort's era, as did the history of the Battle of Mobile Bay. The masonry here is.. just breathtaking in places. The overall scale of the grounds is especially chilling when you are absolutely alone on them in a cold afternoon near sundown.
However, in keeping with this week's theme of creepy places, I was also abundantly aware that many young men's lives had likely come to a violent end, here.
Look, I'm not particularly worried about ghosts and ghouls, aliens and zombies. I'm quite aware of the many real dangers in this world than to occupy my limited brain cycles on such things. That being said, I descended into the small catacomb-like entrance pictured here (to the right and down from center) for some exploration.
As I descended the very steep stairwell into the lower areas there was a disorienting blackness like I've seldom experienced. There, in the cold, you could almost hear the gunfire, smell the powder and hear the orders to fire being shouted to young men on shore guns. Again, I'm not one to really put stock in hauntings and the like but I do tend to feel that different locales have a palpable "feel" or "energy" to them. One particular room in these lower areas led me to believe it was time to leave. So, I did just that. ;)
from the Photoblog: www,graffitivisuals.com
An interesting history..
DaphnePier_NEW
from the Photoblog: www,graffitivisuals.com
DucksInARow
Debs Bike
For Wednesday: A Spooky Photo Self-Challenge Day #3
Spooky Photo Challenge
Cameras being professionally cleaned… I decided to try to challenge myself to be more creative in post processing this week for halloween by consuming these "leftovers" in a creepy or macabre way.. I'm aware this isn't my forte, thus the growth experience.
Day 3 of 5: Where Siri Hides Bodies
On the http://www.thisismynext.com technology podcast, Joshua Topolsky inquired of Siri on the iPhone 4S, "Siri, I nee to hide a body." "She"/It will come back with a list of categories for probably locations to hide a corpse. I'm not sure if it will suggest a pier. However, I was watching a Dexter re-run recently and it seemed to be a good location for one of the antagonists to stash their victims remains..
I realize that his is terribly overcooked and weird in so many ways. But that was the challenge. Edit it until it gives me the willies..
..and it does..
from the Photoblog: www,graffitivisuals.com
.."My Other ride.."
Taken near Kingdom Hall and the Baldwin Rural Area Transport Service station in Robertsdale. I leaned out the car to snap this photo after leaving the Law Enforcement Memorial. That's my excuse for it not being so great. ;)
This photo had some spots, both from the lens (actually, the polarizer filter) and the sensor.
I made a quick video of how to use Photoshop to remove the spots you see in high f-stop blue-sky shots.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrRNI29METY
BTW: I highly recommend the Giottos Rocket Air Blaster to get stubborn spots of your sensor. Use with caution, though - If you touch your sensor, you could damage the low pass filter that covers your sensor. That's a costly repair.
http://www.adorama.com/GTRABLR.html
Optically, I'm aware this isn't a great shot. I was setting up the Sony Nex-5 (it's smaller than my Nikon and pairs well with a telescope) to use with the Meade ETX 125 in a prime focus config. I pointed towards the area on the horizon where I expected the moon to come up and then went off about my merry way, grabbing a beer and setting up another camera for conventional shots of tonight's full moon.
When I returned to the telescope, this was the result. Nothing was really in focus (the tree is too close for the 1800mm telescope) but I really liked the "style" of the shot so I took it anyway..
HDR Video Tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNb5nxBZdOk
(Of this photo!) ;) - Sorry for the crappy audio. I got invaded by little peeps while recording…
I went to Orange Beach Bayside Park to take some shots of the area and to record a quick tutorial on HDR as a result of some emails and posts I've received about how to get started in HDR.
You can't tell from this shot but the park was unusually busy. Maybe a dozen or more families on the back-half, swimming, playing and going about their business while a small van load of kinder-aged piled out of a bus to tromp around in the pine covered area that I had decided was a good perch from which to take shots of the bay. So, these shots… will be a little more hurried than usual, because I was pretty quickly driven away my inquisitive button-pushing spring-breakers.. ;)2011Baldwin CountyD7000GraffitiGulf CoastHDRLandscapeMostly365MostlyPhotoNikon D7000Orange BeachWolf Baygraffitilogic
There's nothing like the first night of a vacation. (This was a few weeks ago)
After traveling all day and checking into the room, I took a quick walk to a market for provisions (a drink containing agave ingredients). Of course, I brought my camera. Along the walk, I snapped a bracket of these palms. It was pretty windy so this is a lightened version of the fastest shutter shot in the bracket.
Thanks for looking!
Wishing you and yours a just-scary-enough Halloween and safe candy-gathering escapades this evening.
Regardless of what you may think about Halloween, be extra vigilant in watching for little ones on the road today and find a safe speed while in-town.
from the Photoblog: www,graffitivisuals.com
How Disney Feeds Animals
DownTheRiver_IPretend
Riverside Reflections
Walt Disney had an idyllic view of the future. One with cutting edge transportation, sustainable energy consumption and a continuous thrive for innovation in order to make all of our lives better.
I hope our country enjoys more visionaries like him in the future.
Yup… I know the clouds are all blown out. I didn't really get a usable dark version of this shot to temper the clouds but I still liked the composition enough to use it..
from the Photoblog: www,graffitivisuals.com
The Art of Chill
CarBeachResort
+Trey Ratcliff over at http://www.stuckincustoms.com really nailed this shot awhile back and this is in homage to his amazing and inspiring work... I've been wanting my own capture on it since I saw his... This morning we were halfway enroute to Disney's Hollywood Studios when I realized I had indeed left both of my tripods (one of which was attached to the stroller) back in the hotel room. Bummer. Not a good formula for HDR.
Still, being tripod-less (yes, I've carried a tripod the entire vacation) wasn't going to get me down. We played in the park, I took over 12 gb of photos today alone, handheld… After watching Phantasmic with the kids, I decided to have a go at it. I knew I wanted to do some HDR treatment to get the clouds in so I couldn't really just crank the ISO up and shoot willy nilly.
I shot this bracket (2 were usable but they were RAWs at 200 ISO) by leaning my weight heavily in an "arm bar" sort of motion into a tree and using this to create enough pressure to hold the camera reasonable still for the long exposure.
Some guy walking by called me a "frikkin tree hugger".
Sure, it took nearly 20 attempts and humiliating myself to do this but I see it as stubborn persistance won the day. Though, I felt a little like MacGyver trapped in a freezer without his handy multi-tool swiss army knife- thing.
Wish I'd have had the tripod but I'm happy enough with the result and can mark this off my landscape photography Bucket List :)
Happy Thursday Friends,
Bill from Disney World
As I walk around a subject like this that is so central to the design aesthetic of the landscape, I find myself looking at it from every vantage point to try to find the ideal location to capture it. In this case, the ideal location appeared to be from within a roped off section of seating on the path between main street and tomorrow land that runs near the smoking section right against the moat, as soon as you turn right off of Main Street. Because the restaurant here is closed, this is apparently a seating for special viewing of the fireworks display over the castle.
I ducked the DO NOT ENTER sign and captured this with my tripod. Actually, it is 9 shots in all, 3 sets of three in a panoramic that is closely cropped. The water is a little dingy in this area but the reflection in the sky helped to downplay the algae growing there. Probably my favorite Castle shot because of the added width to include the tree. I'm certain a good wide angle would have been able to do the same.
from the Photoblog: www,graffitivisuals.com
For Thursday: A Spooky Photo Self-Challenge Day #4
Spooky Photo Challenge
Cameras being professionally cleaned… I decided to try to challenge myself to be more creative in post processing this week for halloween by consuming these "leftovers" in a creepy or macabre way.. I'm aware this isn't my forte, thus the growth experience.
Day 4 of 5: Haunted Mansion
As a departure from yesterday's gory submission, I'm going to cheat and use an easy one. I thought we'd take a transition to the realm of "fun scary"
This is a not-that-great shot of Disney World's Haunted Mansion.
On this day, it had been raining. The interesting thing about fake fog and rain is that the fog tends to get heavier and cooler, then hang around lower. I stepped out of the queue to try to get this shot. I don't like the angle on the mansion but based on the queue awnings, I'm not sure the better angles are photo accessible.
If you ever wanted to know about how some of the special effects are accomplished, check this fun site out: http://www.doombuggies.com/
I'm also playing around with Squarespace as a potential home for tying together photographer efforts.
http://www.graffitiVisuals.squarespace.com
-- Would love to hear your feedback on that.
from the Photoblog: www,graffitivisuals.com
I really couldn't think of a better image to share on this, a Friday before a gorgeous weekend than this one. WIshing you and yours a safe and wonderful weekend.
from the Photoblog: www,graffitivisuals.com
When my wife and two children (6 and 2) went to the beach to observe the turtle release, we were the first ones at the beach. It was a great time to snap some photos of the kids and to explore a "new to me" section of Orange Beach, near "The Palms" and "The Turquoise" condominiums.
It is getting cooler so the kids played in the sand with their sand pales and shovels, my wife enjoyed the salt air and breeze and watched as her two smaller children played in the sand and her 32 year old child ran up and down the beach-line with a Nikon and Tripod.
The folks in this image showed up shortly after us, sat up next to the trench and unfolded their chairs to watch the sunset. One of the things that struck me was the contrast between their point in life and ours.
Two, younger retirees sitting on the beach at sunset, probably condo owners. Given their relative younger age, probably reasonably successful. What adventures have they had? Where have they travelled and where to next? What careers did they hold and how did they meet. Everyone has a story but I didn't have the opportunity to get theirs, unfortunately. I felt it inappropriate to invade their perfect moment with my robotic queries but I did grab this quick capture.
Coming from my station in life as a photographer, then network engineer, then programmer, then manager, then programmer again - turned photographer; two kids, wife, mortgage, at least two jobs; this scene was encouraging to me. The current hectic pace of my life will hopefully one day yield to a quiet, reflective time like this with my own loved ones. Lord willing.
from the Photoblog: www,graffitivisuals.com
SunsetOrange
Somedays, you just have to get away.
I was really, super-extra, way-behind on some tasks for my real job.
I have a programming-zen-sort of hang out near the Gulf that I'll often escape to when I really need to be productive.
I worked for about 36 hours straight with a few 1 hour naps, lots of Redbull and other unhealthy food.
I did take a dinner break with a sandwich and a camera as a beachside walk at the public beach in Gulf Shores.
from the Photoblog: www,graffitivisuals.com
Sometimes, when capturing a photo, I find myself getting a little tunnel vision. Or maybe it's viewfinder-vision :)
I was driving down the beach road in Gulf Shores @ sunset when I saw this image. I was so preoccupied with pulling off the side of the road to capture it, I was somewhat unaware of cars around me. It could have went poorly, but thankfully the nearest car was far enough away to just see me as a crazy-driver and not one that almost hit them.
In my tunnel vision, I payed little attention to the "Authorized Personnel" only sign and walked down a stretch of beach to get at this angle.
There is such a simple beauty here and I'm still a little torn as to the best way to present it. I have so many captures, from light-to-dark but I sort of like this one in the transition between the two.
The three palm trees and their silhouettes sort of reminds me of the three crosses. As you stand in awe of another of God's sunsets, the parallel isn't hard to make.
Happy Weekend, Friends
from the Photoblog: www,graffitivisuals.com
Doctor Said, "Go Sailing." I went sailing. This is a total everyone loves raymond moment, but anyway… Happy Monday, Folks!
from the Photoblog: www,graffitivisuals.com
