drewhendricks

Spring storm over Los Angeles

Kim,

 

The colors were pretty flat and monochrome. I attached the color version.

Those look awesome. With the right light and those trees you could get a world class shot. I love the granduer of your hills. The ones I shot were more like lumps and only about three feet tall. However, they look a bit bigger without any reference point.

Jacqueline,Welcome to Five! I looked through your portfolio and love your creative eye. Many of your shots go beyond the ordinary setup.

This image in particular strikes me as interesting. What really catches me is the diagonal created by the receding wave that is offset at ninety degrees by the next incoming wave. Aesthetically this is very pleasing and rare to capture with such a pleasing reflection from the sky on the sand.

 

If I were to add my two cents on improving the image I would say to crop off the bottom by an inch or so. this way the bottom corner would be the start of the diagonal. I would then work with then try to enhance the sky a bit. If you shot it in raw I would overlay a version that is one or two stops down from this which captures the sky. I would then combine the two with a gradient fill. this would bring out the clouds more.

Lastly I would adjust the saturation and run a sharpness editor on the whole thing.

The more I look at it, the more I realize what a great image you captured. Well done!

As far as the BW conversion goes I used the Greg Gorman PDF action that I sent you. I did not use a filter.

We definitely did not get rained out. The weather was beautiful. However, we never made it to the trestle and not for lack of trying. My mistake was allowing my father to lead the hike. It is a 1,200 foot climb up rock boulders. You have a choice of three routes. After going up the first for about 3 miles my dad decided we took the wrong route. Result, 3 miles back down. After a short break he took us on a different path. 2 miles into our second attempt he decided this was also the wrong route. Result, 2 miles back down. At this point I was beat. As we drove away my dad said, "Look on the bright side at least we know which way to go next time."

The ironic thing about this hike is that when I got home I learned that all three canyons converge on the flat part on top which is 3/4 of the way there. We hiked up to the flat part twice.

I have to hand it to my father, he is 65 and in better shape than most 18 year olds. He was ready to go up a third time that same day.

 

Next time I'll have a GPS and lead the hike.

Kim, I got out of there pretty quickly once the rain started. Judgeing from the hardened four inch deep footprints I saw on the way in, I would not want to be anywhere near here once the ground got saturated.

 

Heather, it's only 80 miles away. I can't think of another place within San Diego County that has such a varied topography.

Comments Welcome!

Best Creative Sports shot I have seen in a very long time!

All thoughts are welcome. This is not the supersaturated landscape

with a dramatic sky that is usually popular on phote.net, but I

thought I'd post it anyway. What I love about this image is its

subtle, pastoral quality that I have seldom been able to capture in

the desert. Usually I capture the harsh drama and starkness of the

region.

All thoughts are greatly appreciated. This image was captured after

the first few minutes of a new rain. The normally pastel terrain

took on a deeply saturated color reminiscent of the Painted Hills in

Oregon.

Kim, sorry I did not see your question. It was a very short exposure 1/500 to be exact. Lenticular clouds are facinating. This was the first time I have been able to photograph them and it was only the second time I have seen them. Do a search on google for lenticular clouds. I did the other day and was amazed at some of the images. They say that many UFO sitings are attributable to them.

Kim, Those specks will be eliminated along with the left sliver in the final prints thanks to all the feed back I have received. Hopefully I will have some more images to post next week. On Sunday I am taking a hike to the Goat Trestle Railroad Bridge. Supposedly it is the largest curved wood bridge trestle in the world. It is about ten miles west of S2 in Borrego. It is 700 feet long and 200 feet tall. The weather forecast calls for partly cloudy skies. All the components are there for a great image. If you do the search for "Goat canyon trestle hike" in google you can see were we will be going.

Carsten and Kim. Excellent Idea. the sky doesn't bother me but I see your point. I have been bothered by the hint of the lower left rock for the last couple of days. If I crop that little sliver off, I will be able to take some out of the sky as well and still maintain the 4X5 aspect ratio. In the print version the sky does not look quite is heavy, but I still think I should lighten the tones a bit. The sky might be a bit too dramatic.

Nick,At the risk of sounding like a crude deconstructionist I'll bite. Is rational thought any different from fantasy? Reason is only rational within a conceptual framework the same is true for fantasy. One aspect of a fantasy builds on another until the picture is complete. The same is true for the building blocks of reason and logic.

 

I maintain that fantasy and reason use the same coin with the sides of qualitative and quantitative thought. Left brain and right brain if you will. One side of the brain may pretend to compute with cold hard reason but it is the other side that determines its value.

 

On a photographic note this image is a great counterpart to my dead daisy picture.

Last Bloom

Almost the inverse.

Nick,

 

I wanted to give this image a 6/7 but apparently I cannot do so. It says that you have already given me a 7 so I am barred from reciprocating. You will have to settle for a 6 /(6) + 1. Drew

Nick,Keeping us on our toes. It took me a minute to figure out what you did. It wasn't until I copied the image and rotated it 180 degree in photoshop that it made sense.

 

This image has a captivating abstract quality that I cannot pinpoint. It is the quality that you see in many paintings in a modern art gallery that makes you say, "I could do that."

However, saying that is easier than doing it. I never have been able to go home and replicate the feeling on print of canvass that looked so haphazard and easy in the gallery.

 

Well, done!

Nick,

 

Excellent colors. Of the three I just saw you post this one is my favorite by far.

I definitely do. Everything is automated on it. The program takes into account the printer and the size of the print then does the rest for you. I have noticed at times it over sharpens scenes. I notice it sometimes has a hard time with grainy cliffs such as those in Borrego. The oversharpening is easily fixed via the selective function. It is basically just a mask that you can paint with greys and whites to decrease or increase the sharpening in areas. I'd give it a look and see if they have a demo version.

Kim, Excellent job cloning out the debris behind the girl. A 6 in itself!

 

I'd try re-posting this image with regular saturation and without the title. I find that all my attempts at desaturation leads to low ratings. While I personally like an image that is artfully desaturated such as this many viewers prefer over saturated cartoon like images. A quick glance at the top photos of the day will prove my point.

 

I also think that although the title fits the mood when you captured this the scene, the final image does not look cold or lonely by virtue of the palm tree, the girl in shorts, and all of her bird friends congregating about.

 

Often the final image in no way relates to the mood when it was taken. If you look at my image The Path you will see my point. This image of Aspens ominously arching over a path in the mountains was actually taken during a bright and cheery hike. It was 80 degrees and mostly sunny except for the brief period when I captured the photo.

Nick,

 

Very well drawn. I guess I had always seen it in the back of my mind, but now that you have drawn, it I know that this is why I prefer this image of these cliffs to the hundreds I have shot over the years. I could never pinpoint why this image had something more. Indeed, the clouds have nearly the same curve as the cliff line itself.

Will,

 

I have not done any sharpening as of yet. I usually use Nik Sharpener 2.0 when I go to print except when I shoot Borrego. I find that the features of Borrego are so sharply defined that most sharpening programs cannot handle it. To see how it would look, I ran the Nik Display preset which is designed to show an image on a screen and the image was degraded badly. When I go to print this one, I will likely print it as it is.

Heather,I always have to remind myself whenever I feel bored with San Diego and the surroundings that many people save up all year to visit here and shoot photos.

 

However, I always seem to be more inspired when I visit some place new. Rest assured the natives have left their cameras at home here as well.

Paul, I tried a few BW conversions but could not find adequate separation of the tones. Here is my best attempt.

I have been to Borrego many times and this was the first chance I have had to capture the illusive lenticular clouds. The clouds in the other direction were really impressive.