Last Morning Shoot of the Trip

How quickly time flies. I captured my first shots of the vacation two weeks ago and here I am posting the last sunrise shot of the trip. My next challenge will be sorting through everything once I get back to home base. And making a number of prints in the process.

This morning presented me with beautiful, if not a bit crisp, weather. Zero bugs, slight breeze, a touch of cloud. That said I’m also out of fresh ideas for these local shots – time is needed to venture further and scout new locations. But it’s hard to get beyond the 5 minute walk out of the cabin to capture shots like this so early in the morning:

This was actually my first attempt experimenting with something called UniWB. It’s a custom white balance that allows a more balanced base exposure in RAW. Conventional white balance settings, such as Daylight or Cloudy, push the reds too much. As such capturing this type of shot demands underexposing the green and blue channels to protect the red. This underexposure reduces details and increases noise in those channels. The UniWB setting is unique in that it allows proper exposure across all channels. The color balance is whacky – a sickly green – but that is corrected in post with more data available in each channel. I’m curious to see how this looks once it makes it to print.

This next is a variation on a theme from yesterday. I quite liked the beach curve shot that I converted to black and white. But it was taken in less than ideal circumstances so I wanted to capture a better quality shot in better light. This is what I ended up with, staying in color this time to exaggerate the complement between the blue water and yellow/orange sand.

And finally these knuckleheads lined up along the beach. “Rats with wings” as coined in the movie Finding Nemo. Don’t know why, just found this amusing.

My next mission for today is finding some canola to shoot on the trip home. It’s late to grow this year so not expecting much.

Sunsets Return!

Finally! After a couple of dreary days we were treated to a nice evening. Was good to get out again and catch my last sunset of the trip.

Last sunrise tomorrow!

For Fun

While sitting and enjoying a coffee this afternoon I grabbed this trio of shots. Nothing overly exciting, but I liked the way they looked with the colors.

It was nice to enjoy a sunny day. Looking forward to hitting the shore for some sunset shots this evening.

It Blows Today…

Literally and figuratively. Sun finally out, but windy as hell and cold. Particularly by the lake. Whitecaps abound. All the interest I could muster before heading back. This is July?!!

The last one appeals to me with the curves created by the waves and shore. Both are enhanced by spot metering on the highlights to preserve detail, rendering the rest of the scene underexposed in contrast. Some dodging and burning in Photoshop was done to strengthen the effect.

Today is our last here, and I’m hoping to get a last sunset and sunrise shoot in before we leave tomorrow.

Making the Best of It

Another crappy weather day, but a wander around the park found a couple of interesting images for me to post. Starting with this refreshing shot…

Shopkeeper wasn’t too thrilled with my camera antics in his store but was at least somewhat appeased when I showed him my picture wasn’t of the price but rather the fruit. This is heavily cropped to isolate just the fruit, with the point of interest being that single lemon that has defected to the other side.

Next up some black and white conversions of details around another of the local shops.

Just emphasis on line and texture, really. With the carved-in graffiti on the stump adding a point of interest in the second picture.

Last up is a series of detail shots from a closed down gas station. The entire building is stark white and red and is very aged. You could spend hours taking pictures here. Texture and color up the whazoo.

With any luck the forecast is correct in that the clouds are supposed to lift tonight. Two sunrises and one sunset left for golden hour lightshows. How quickly time flies.