Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Video Contest

In case you didn't see it on Facebook here is the video I made for the Nikon 140 Second contest.  Please go view it, register and comment.  Thanks.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Snow



It usually snows once a year but not this much, not in twenty years.  That much weight on the oak trees causes too many problems for the area.  All of the power, phone and cable lines are above ground and vulnerable to the broken branches and dropped trees.  We were inconvenienced for 48 hours without electricity, but the barn's line, box and roof have not been repaired yet.  Enjoy the pictures.  Click for larger versions.

















 




Wednesday, November 18, 2009

So Called Meteor Shower

I heard a rumor that there was supposed to be a meteor shower climaxing on Nov. 17th.  I set up two cameras to record the event.  I saw three sparks of light and captured one of them.  Hope someone saw something spectacular!  Stay tuned for more projects.  I have four driving videos in production, a video contest for which I'm gathering footage and several panorama shots compiling that are taking way too long to stitch.  Oh, and my website should be live in a week or two or three.  Video, flash, galleries, etc.


Tuesday, October 20, 2009

driving around Missoula




Here is a video of driving from my place in Missoula to a friend's place, and I stopped through costco gas on the way.  511 pictures.  Much smoother this time.  No treatment, yet.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Two from the Road



Here are two pics from the last of the drive today.  We only made it to Eugene, Oregon after many hours of driving. Shot on Highway 126 from Redmond after late lunch in Bend.  We stopped the trip to Crater Lake after deciding it was too late to see anything and backtracked to Eugene to get to the coast.


I shot 4200 pictures each day so far.  I'll have extensive driving movies after I edit the sequences.  Click thumbnails for large view.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Sunrise Missoula October 17, 2009


I could shoot the sunrise every day, if it rose around 7:41am.  Second to the last day in Missoula.  I can't wait to get going.  Click the image for a larger view.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Portfolio in Progress

We have been working feverishly on our portfolios for the Advanced Intensive final. The 20 minute reviewer meetings start Wednesday morning. Prints, business cards and leave-behinds have been prepared all week. Seems like everyone in school rushed into the print lab on Saturday to try to finish his or her project.

Here is a sneak preview of mine. Driving back to Missoula time-lapse with cartoon treatment that I performed for the computer podcast. People seemed to react well to the results so I am showing this body of work. I'll have the video running on my laptop, 8 1/2"x11" prints of the some of the frames and a flipbook with a short example of the video. Ran out of ink and paper this morning so the flipbook is a limited edition of eight copies.

Half of the presentation images printed on Museum Etching Paper.

Four of the flipbooks. Still need a binding to cover the staples. I'll find something before Wednesday.

Inside the Shingle Springs to Placerville flipbook part of the video.

A sample of the larger leave-behind with my logo and website info.

Friday, October 2, 2009

HDR Panorama Redone


Here is the second version. I took the 14 shots and ran them through photomatix. The three shots for each segment were combined with the same tone mapping settings and then stitched together across in photoshop. This results in more detail, deeper blues in the water and a straighter horizon line. One of the pictures was not needed for the panorama due to overlap. The file was 1.4GB with dimensions of 40"x 15".

Friday, September 25, 2009

Scanner Camera

We had a class on using the scanner as a camera. I tried it this morning while delaying my final project decision. Here are the results. As always click on the image to see a larger picture.


The scan minus the stems and black background but with a blue background added.



Blending set to difference.

Blending set to Hard Mix


Multiple background copies blended to Difference and the bottom right flower spun with an action script thirty times and moved to the middle of the frame.



I am working on the HDR of the panorama. I have the file ready but it's 1.4GB--need to decide on the final working size before I attempt the screen cast (so it doesn't crash my computer system!)

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

HDR Panorama 42 shots



We had two assignments for Monday's Lab: High Dynamic Range and Panorama. I decided to try to put the two together. Rita, Marian and I drove up to Nine Pipes Wildlife Refuge directly across from the Mission Mountains. The middle of the day was not the greatest for shooting and the clouds were uncooperative. The scene didn't have great dynamic range either but we had to get the shot.

This is 14 vertical shots across with three shot bracketing of 2/3 of a stop for each shot. So I had photoshop stitch each stop's 14 shots together and then loaded the three panoramas back in to photoshop to mask off the best aspects of each. It took several hours and many GB of RAM to achieve this. Click on the image to view larger version. You may have to scroll horizontally to see the whole image. In the original the sky does not have the wavy pattern. That is jpeg compression to the image to scale it down for the web.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Palouse Area Washington State

For Labor Day weekend, Rita, Marian and I drove to Walla Walla Washington through the Palouse area to see the wheat field scenery. On the way we stopped at the Cataldo Mission in Idaho, Couer d'Alene for lunch and a barn in eastern Washington. We only drove a few miles on Sunday and stopped many times in the fields, climbing to the tops of ridges to find a view. Monday we headed home but only drove a total of 166 miles before we stopped in Farmington to shoot the sunset. Then we had to make it the rest of the way back to Missoula after dark.


Cataldo Mission in Northern Idaho, the oldest standing building in Idaho. They have a brand new modern Visitor Center with an auditorium, displays and a gift store.



Inside the Mission. Tough to find straight lines in that place. Built in the 1850s.



Wheat fields where the tractors leave tire marks in the stubble.



Later on Saturday


Store Front in downtown Walla Walla Sunday morning.


Storage for the crop.


Miles of fields.

All within 20 miles of Walla Walla.


Overlooking Lewiston, Idaho on the Way to Uniontown.

We surprised Marian and stopped in Uniontown where her father was born. We found their church and took pictures. We wanted to go inside and were looking for someone to ask permission. A man drove into the driveway and Marian introduced herself. He laughed after the introduction and told her he has the same last name. Turns out he is her cousin! We received a guided tour of the church.
Wheel fence at an artist's Co-op in northern Uniontown. Took the artist 30 years to assemble the fence.

At the corner of 27 + Farmington Rd.

We received directions from some locals to drive up these hills to look back on Steptoe Butte and the sunset.


The Butte.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Restaurant Fine Dining

We arrived at the restaurant toting all of our gear for a quick setup and shoot. Heather and I were assigned the salad. The various plates for entree, dessert, salad and soup were given to the teams and locations within the restaurant were selected. We set up in the dining room area and had plenty of space to move the table, arrange chairs and borrow silverware.

We worked out a dining shot with our salad in the foreground and a similar plate in the background with napkins, glasses, bread and butter and several pieces of silverware. The light from the table lamp and wall sconce were dragged in to try to reflect the mood of the room. With our setup almost complete (after an hour and a half of scrutinizing every detail) the instructor informed us that the plate we received was the wrong one. Our large square plate became a very large rectangular plate. We adjusted the scene and camera angle.

Then we were shown a preview of the salad. A piece of art, designed and created by the restaurant owner, was going to be placed on our table. Seeing this stark, minimalistic and very arranged array, we had to reset the table. The lighting setup changed completely too.

Here is the finished shot. Let me know what you think. Click on the image to view.


Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Food Photography Class

I have been attending Food Photography Professional Studies classes all week. Monday we shot the traditional Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich. My hero was a little sloppy with the jelly and needed a little piped in to cover certain areas. My first treatment was too morning light/campfire yellow and turned the bread and peanut butter the wrong color. This copy is better but too similar to the standard shot. Too many tangents too--plate/sides, plate/glass, bread/bread, strawberry/plate/bread, etc.


Next we had our favorite food shot. My hero turned out to be less attractive than the stand-in so we kept working with the stand-in. Sauce starts to run after a short time and I needed to bring a blow torch to melt the cheese. Maybe next time I'll have one.


This morning we shot beverages and everyone had an interesting take on this subject.

In the afternoon we traveled to the bakery and our group's assignment was to shoot in an advertising style--product, brand, super clean, detailed, in focus, etc.


Tomorrow we are shooting in a restaurant and then open studio for more practice. More pics later this week.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Driving Home Time Lapse

Inspired by Jeremy's last post on his blog, I set up my camera on the passenger's side of the car and set the interval timer to take a picture every thirty seconds. Here is the result. Shingle Springs, through Lake Tahoe to Carson City, Reno, Highway 80 to 95 to Oregon and into Idaho. I ran out of light about 250 miles from Missoula, so the video ends short of my destination.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Yosemite National Park

I wanted to see the park after telling everyone at school that I have no pictures of it. The three hour drive was scenic with all of the little towns between Shingle Springs and the western entrance of the park on highway 120. First sight at the park was the warning signs that a "maintenance burn" was going to take place on the 26th. After seeing some of northern CA this week, the dry condition of the region worried me.

Fun driving along ridges.

Western entrance to the park. Maintenance Burn of meadow.

Valley floor drive lined with trees.

Half Dome in smoky conditions from valley floor.

Condo reflection of Half Dome.

Two rock slides caused the authorities to evacuate the Ahwahnee area.

Later in the day the smoke started building into a column.

View from Glacier Point looking north.

Glacier Point view of Half Dome.

Heading back down to try to leave the park.

Airplanes and Helicopters were called in to fight the fire.

Highway 120 was closed.

Bridalveil Falls had a gloomy cast due to the fire.




Early filtered sunset. Reports say the fire will be contained by Tuesday.