31. May 2009 by Friedhelm.

Photography requires patience. I was standing on a bridge with a bunch of other photographers (I named the bridge paparazzi bridge). We were all waiting for the sunset and we were hoping that Half Dome would would change into a red ball of fire. Many gave up way to early. Some just came, looked, shot a few images and left. I was happy that I waited and I am thankful for my patient wife. At the end I was rewarded with this image. I used f22 with a long exposure time.

Happy photographing

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30. May 2009 by Friedhelm.

Applegate Park is one of my favorite places to photograph. There is the fountain, lots of wonderful trees, a creek and lots of people in the afternoon. Normally this would be a silhouette image. The sun is right behind the fountain which means that the sky is usually perfect exposed and the fountain is black if you are using the automatic mode of your camera. If you are exposing for the fountain, the sky is usually washed out. In order to get the best of both you need to take several shouts on a tripod or, like I did, shoot the image in “raw” format. Out of the “raw” image I created three tiff files, one over, one under and one normal exposed. Out of the three I created a “high dynamic range” or “HDR” image, which you see here.

Happy photographing and editing.!

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29. May 2009 by Friedhelm.

My son had to photograph some cityscape pictures and I went with him. When we arrived at downtown Merced there was a Jazz band playing and I immediately changed my plans. I was fascinated by the reflections of the brass instruments and I was lucky that the musicians did not mind me photographing around. I used a 85mm portrait lens at f2.8 which produces a very shallow depth of field. The boyscout principle definitely applies to photography: Be always prepared! You never know what you will see the next moment.

Happy photographing

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28. May 2009 by Friedhelm.

I am always on the look-out for ordinary things. I want to photograph them and make them look interesting. This morning I was photographing some Dandelion and I bumped into my tripod. When I looked through the viewfinder I saw this image which sparked my interest right away. The water and the glass broke the light and created an interesting structure, like a cascade. In addition the color of the vase and the water change the color of the stem.

Happy photographing

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27. May 2009 by Friedhelm.

I sometimes wonder how many times roses have benn photographed or painted. There is something special about them. Yesterday the light was just right and so I decided to give it another try.

Enjoy and happy photographing

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25. May 2009 by Friedhelm.

A friend of mine and I went to Lake Yosemite to photograph. We got beautiful images like this one. When we arrived back at my friends car we realized that someone broke in. The door window was smashed and glass was everywhere. There was nothing in the car to take which makes this act even more senseless.

I hope for better days

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22. May 2009 by Friedhelm.

I poured a cup of water in a small bowl. The bowl I put on a black card board. Then I added a table spoon of oil. Oil and water don’t mix. The oil formed some bubbles and I used a continuous light to create this image.

Happy photographing!

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21. May 2009 by Friedhelm.

I used my old 4X5 camera in connection with my DSLR to create this image. The light comes from the right and I set the camera to f32. It took 10 seconds exposure time. Enjoy!

Happy creating!

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20. May 2009 by Friedhelm.

I photographed an old computer chip today. Normally I try to close the lens as much as possible to get the maximum depth of field. In this image I did just the opposite. In order to get this incredible reflection I used a 35mm lens at f2.8 with three extension tubes. I only used one light-source coming from the right at a 90 degree angle.

Have fun and use your imagination!

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18. May 2009 by David.

I decided last week to join a hiking club. Now I am not in great shape but they billed this hike in Yosemite as a ‘easy’ hike of 4 miles with just 500 feet of vertical climb. Well 5 hours later and 9 miles this old body finally got back to the car. Did I mention we went ‘off trail’ (not lost, just off trail) 3 times, one creek dunking (not me)  and spectacular views. Just a note; hiking to a destination is different than hiking for photography. I did the best I could on the run.

The vertical photo is of Yosemite Falls from Sentinel Dome  and the horizontal is of Half Dome and Nevada Falls. Please note that we are above both falls, in fact we are near the top of Bridal Veil Falls. The photos really don’t do justice to the sights I saw. And yes I do plan on staying in the club. After all they didn’t have to carry me out. You’ll notice it took me a day to recover before I could post these photos .

Keep clicking & exploring

Dave

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