Another one from the other night

I think that my camera does not so well at high ISO, I have to do a bit of work to get rid of the grainy darks. Also, I need to work on the composition, or crafting of each shot. I am using the Crop tool way too much. But here in another go the Grinner. Unfortunately, my friend had left before I took this one and all I had was this silly watermark.

So, what do you think?

olc

Sometimes you meet the nicest people

So shit has been piling up lately, and I have not been able to do much but work and try and get that room going. Needless to say, I have not been able to get out and ride much, one of my fall back stress relievers. However, I have been playing around with the camera in my make shift studio. I will get some more of those shots up soon---in my abundant free time, lol!

At any rate, I decided to shake it all up and go onto the the Blueridge Parkway for some sunset shots last Saturday night. I threw my camera and stuff into a bag and the Grinner was growling away impatiently waiting for more gas.

We rumbled to the Parkway and found a nice turnout. About that time, the Earth had reached its point of just before disappearing below the horizon for another long and dark night's sleep.

Anyhow, at the turnout someone saw that I was posing the bike and offered to take a picture for me. I am ugly and worry the lenz will crack if I get in any shots. I returned the offer and asked her if she would my grace my camera with a picture. She said yes! Can you imagine that?

I hope she sees this image and likes it. It would be nice to spend a minute taking some portraits of her. Some people just have a natural beauty that starts within and glows on their skin.

And you can meet the nicest people when all you really want to do is take a few pictures.

Imagine that, "You can meet the nicest people," while riding a motorcycle and I was not even on a Honda...lol

Enjoy the night every one! olc

A day at the NC Arboretum

It all started out so well, the sun was going away and the rain would not start for awhile. Perfect for taking pictures outside mid-day. I have not been able to get out and take any pictures for a while and my shutter finger was getting itchy.

The Runtyun was awake and making plans to "do stuff." I loaded my kit into a different bag because I wanted a few choices for the Bonsai at the N.C. Arboretum.  In the kit I had the 28-75, 17-35 and nifty fifty. Also, I packed a flash and macro tubes...one never knows. I packed my tripod, too.

With all this packed on the Grinner I started to roll on. Finally, I made it to the bonsai garden and pulled the camera out and remembered the batteries were charging---at home. AW SHIT!

Finally, I got it all together and started shooting. I quickly figured out that I would not be able to get close enough to anything to utilize the Macro tubes. But this O.K., I guess. However this meant the Nifty 50 was added weight. 

I think I got some pretty good shots though. The Tamron is a pretty nice lens with the right range of zoom for this kind of shoot. The most difficult part of the shoot was trying to find the angle to get the best shot. Which one is best, your opinion? 

I spent a "minute" lookingat each subject, trying to figure the best shot and  perspective. Most of the time the straight on angle was boring. I could not get above the plants without exposing to the world my levitation powers, so I decided to go low. Actually, I liked that angle in many cases because I was able to find lines for eyes to follow. But in some cases, I felt like I was looking up some ones skirt.  

I was getting hungry. I had a grilled artichoke sub. It was good, but they could have cut the 'chokes a little smaller.

A couple of years ago, the N.C. Arboretum set up a model train exhibit ( what it has to do with its plants, I am not entirely sure, but it works for me). So! I went down and had a look. The exhibit, was pretty elaborate, it looked like a little town around the turn of the 19th to 20th century, except for Thomas  the Train. There were 2 trains, the other was a standard style train called The Number 9.

This is not my best picture ever, but I wanted to to post here for all the kids out there who read this fine blog!

          For the Model train geeks out there, it turns out these train were remotely controlled and battery powered. I asked the Conductor what would happen if the skies opened and rain, mostly I was wondering about shorting of exposed wiring. He brought the trains over and pulled the top off the car which would hold the coal. This exposed a battery pack and sound system. So Cool!

We talked  a minute  minute longer and I found out that the town was supposed to be an interpretation of a turn-of-century WNC town. However, from a geeks point of view, I was more interested to learn that the trains were independently powered with their own power pack and remote control.

Well finally the rain came in earnest and the trains were getting put up.

Here are a couple other pictures I was able to get.

And here I am writing this post!

Plz leave a comment

Later, olc

Repairs take time

What can I say the tire needed to be changed.

A spring ride, part 2

A couple of weeks ago my freind Ashley and I went for a little ride. I have posted a couple of picks of her from the ride, now here are a few more.

I enhanced the clouds a little, and then brought out some details in the forground. This is from a road looking over a mountain farm. We are looking at Canton N.C. I want to go back, maybe this Saturday, to see about getting some spring flowers and leaves....a little spring color, if you will.

This is another image I took. Actually, I walked about 100 feet and turned about 90 degrees and captured this image. I worked on this image for a New York minute trying to pull these details. I like the clouds, But when I worked on the detail of the mountains, I think they worked out well.

A little further down the road, we encountered this barn. I had to enhance the clouds a little, but for the most part, this image is straight out of the camera.

She was out for her morning stroll.

I pulled some detail from the barn interior. But this ladies' natural beauty is all of her own.

The whole reason for the ride and shoot was to take pictures of barns. Believe it or not, there were some chairs by the door on the right. I love photoshop!

olc

The Grinner at sunset

I call my bike The Grinner because of the facial contortions I experience whenever I ride it. The Runtyun and I talked about what we would call the bike. She wanted to call it Bob.

The other night I rode a little and found this place looking over Looking Glass Falls from the Blueridge Parkway. To tell the truth, I don't think The sky was so well defined. So, I played around a little in post. I enhanced the clouds a little. Then worked on the rock face to pull some more details. Of course, The Grinner was perfect, so I did not do anything to it.

It seems that I take a lot of pictures of the bike. I am always looking for people to have as models, so if you want to be immortalized in digital media, let me know. All we need is you and a nice background!

olc

A spring ride with Ashley. Part 1

The riding season has begun! 

Ashley reached out the other day and said let's ride! We talked about a bunch of stuff including up coming shoots. I guess she has found a guy she likes and he has a Chevelle which he has refurbished. I need to figure out where is best to highlight the car and Ashley. Hmm, This could be a lot of fun! I wonder if I can get him to pay for the lens rental???!!! I am going to do a little boning up on car fotog and the angles used before this one. Though the guy may not be big time, I really don’t know, he may know someone who is indeed an avenue to photographic riches. HMMM...

O yeah, the ride and shoot we already had, is the subject for today! The truth, is I have not gotten a chance to look at the images and I only took about forty, but I think some came out well. I did work on one with Ashley in it. Unfortunately, part of the sky was washed out in muddy white clouds with no definition, so I had to crop it severely. It looks OK on screen, but I fear it may not print well. 

During the post processing though, I used the new Photo app from Apple. It is great for removing objects that distract from the subject! However, the importing and exporting of images is a little problematic and I need to ponder if I want to be restricted by Apple's need for control.

The sun was a bit of a problem during the whole shoot. Clouds kept obscuring the flow of light and the later in the day, say mid-afternoon, the clouds began to leak. There was one series of shots of a red barn with the mountains in the background that may have come out nicely, But I know that I will have to do some work on them to make ‘em right.

More when I have worked some more pics and have an idea where it is all going.

                                                                                                                 

This is the first image I worked from the shoot. As I am still learning EVERYTHING about photography and post shoot processing I am pretty happy about this result. But because I am ever inquisitive, I went on line, or someplace to see what I could do to improve the whole picture. You see, I cropped the crap out of the original. The clouds are over exposed and make the whole thing hard to look at, so I took them out. Now I know how to modify the image to “pull” info out from the image. SOOO…

Well, I know that the beautiful Ashley is still a little out of focus, But you can still see her beauty. Not only that, but we can see beyond her where I have enhanced and defined the clouds and landscape a little.

More later!

olc

Dreamin' 'bout ridin'

Some times it seems like I spend more time working on the Grinner, than riding it!