More from Uvas

It takes me an average of 15 minutes a photo to work out the entire pictures..

Focus on green leaves and grass, water streaks, rocks, bridges etc, skylight on individual basis and then apply all the elements to the landscape photograph.

This is no different from the teeth whitening, red eye reduction, skin wrinkle removing, eye lash sharpening and putting these elements in a portrait photo.

Still feel it is too long. Have to figure out how to automate some of these tasks!

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Uvas Canyon

We visited Uvas Canyon State Park near Morgan Hill last Sunday with the Cousins. Was in two minds to go on Sunday as there was an early flight to catch on Monday morning, but went anyways.

We walked around for 5+ hours through the park and covered multiple waterfalls and walked along creeks. It was a very pleasant day and we thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon enjoying nature.

This was my first trip with the Canon 5D Mark II with the L series lens and most importantly the Manfrotto tripod.

The pictures have improved by leaps and bounds compared to the old broken tripod and the 400D + sigma lens combination. Not that those were bad photographs but yours truly has learned a lot of tricks since that trip two years ago..

Here are a few pictures.. (the second and fourth Images are HDR composites of 5 images taken at -2.0, -1.0, 0, +1 and +2 Exposures respectively and then tone adjusted in Photoshop)

Seriously thinking of getting a photo site..

Any suggestions?

Filoli - again

Wanted to show FIL at least some local place before his return to India.

Chose Filoli. Promised a 2 hour trip max. Still bad idea.

It was 96+ C out there. The van temp indicator read 106 F!

Filoli gardens are very well watered. The steam sizzles off the floor. The heat, humidity and pollen form a bad combination for people prone to hay fever.

So, this post will be brief...

Two pictures..

Daddy danced with the little one again for a short time and she was ecstatic! We had fun while we were at Filoli. It just had side effects for daddy.

On a side note Jr. was busy making cards.

Me : ???

Jr. : I want to make a yellow card and a red card

Me : ???

Jr. : To give to amma! (mommy)

Me : (thinking.. finally someone in this house dares to give Amma a yellow card or red card ?! this must be some sight) ????

Jr. : That way if Amma feels slightly upset with someone in the house she can show them the yellow card and if she is really upset with someone she can give them the red card!

Me : (very disappointed, but accepting the inevitable fact that the only person who gets carding authority in the house as Amma) Can I give a yellow card?

Jr. : NO. Only Amma!

At the end of the day, we might actually adopt this system. Yellow is warning. Red card means person will have to go to garage for a timeout.

Jr. has some amazing solutions, doesn't she?

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Happy fathers day

Jr. and the little one told me that their gift to me on daddy's day will be "great posing".

Both of them tried to pose for me at Twin Peaks in San Francisco and again at the Coyote Point Park and Museum. The Twin Peaks view point was amazing. Fantastic 360 degree view of San Francisco!

The Coyote Point Museum and Center for Environmental education was really good for kids. They made education entertaining. They taught kids all about Reptiles by bringing out some real reptiles like bearded dragons, tortoise, California King snake and a Boa constrictor! Jr. was thoroughly entertained and touched a snake for the first time. Apparently being a brave girl was another father's day gift..

We had a ton of fun at both places and are back home to get some rest before the week starts again tomorrow!

To all the dads out there... have a great father's day.

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An hour at the local Park - Photoblog

Not to mention another half hour with Photoscape playing with some ideas on presenting photos.

Did not know that you could use a spline fit to control the luminance to adjust relative grays to different brightness!

Also caught up on much needed sleep today. An 4 hour afternoon nap?!, if it could be called a nap. Hopefully the energy balance has been restored to keep moving forward for another week.

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