Blue Angels

We did not really enjoy the blue angels show this year as much as last .. but did get a few great pictures with Alcatraz in the backdrop. 

Last year we could not find parking and were outside the city hall. This year we succumbed to the city fleecing and paid a good 30 bucks to park near Pier 39 so we could watch the planes go between the Pier and Alcatraz.

The crowd was overwhelmingly a "smoking" crowd and there was nothing we could do. If it is one or two folks you can request them to kindly move away, but if it is a group of 15-20 people around you lighting up, what do you do?

You hope the show gets over fast and you get a few good pictures!

 

and my favorite.. a shot that was accidentally taken by tracking the planes towards the sun. Managed to salvage it using the HDR toning utility in photoshop that gave this a cool effect!

Next year we watch them live on TV! 

Self portrait?

The Digital Photography School homework assignment was "Faceless Portraits"..

Hit on this one one while taking a portrait shot of the kids in their new clothes. Turned to the mirror to see me in typical action asking them to smile just before the self timer hits for a HDR snap..

However, the HDR didnt turn out as good as I expected.

We did get a shot for the assignment though!

Call me obsessive..

It has been a hectic week at work but the good news is the cold is gone in spite of skipping Yoga the entire week. Finally managed to go back to Yoga today after an entire week of long distance driving, 18 hour work days and beating a cold.

The kids have recovered completely as well and that is good. 

In the middle of all this, dedicated 90 minutes every night to parallel process work and Photoshop to get 70+ HDR images of the Joshua Tree National Park trip. That was 210+ images condensed into 70 images. Most of the images are a composite of 3 images (a normal, over exposed and underexposed image) to grab component details in bright areas from underexposed image and details in the dark areas from the overexposed image!

Are you with me so far? No?

See the picture below the way PHotoshop does it. I give it three images with -2, 0 and +2 eV and it does the initial superposition. Then I get to work with the slider bars to create the right image, i.e., the way I thought my eye saw it at that time!

Do you see how the sky details are clear in the darker picture, the tree details are clearer in the brighter picture and they have to be ported over into the picture in the middle? 

That way you can see it the way your eye sees it!

Finally the photos are done and have been uploaded into two Galleries. One is the HDR Gallery and the other one is the people photos. 

Have not found a way to get comments into the individual photos yet. Will work on that tomorrow!

The little one who sits on my lap during the editing process encourages me to go overboard on the synthetic HDR look. That is why the previous post had an artificial look for the trees. Guess she wants every thing to look like Dr. Seuss land in Universal studios.. psychedelic colors, too much vibrance, over saturation, less detail.. etc.

Daddy is more into photorealistic HDR. So most of the snaps fall into that category!

Hope all of you enjoy the Photos.

Joshua Trees

We spent the long weekend at Joshua Tree National Park. Why would the weary Narayanan family to to a desert in 100 degree heat? Well, we have seen most of the other parks and the one park which is new to the family and to the parents is this one. 

So off we went and spent almost two full days there. The flora and fauna in this place is unique and so are the rock formations. 

Walking around Joshua Tree national park is like walking around Jurassic park! So surreal that the Photoshop HDR pluggin actually does justice to what it really looks like. 

The tips of the cactus glow in the morning and evening sunlight. The rocks and boulders seem to have been picked and placed to perfection. The Joshua trees seem planted in formation and do not look very natural. There is an eerie lifelessness and the occasional movement of a desert squirrel or lizard that reminds you of the hidden life in this unique desert forest. 

We made it to a few hikes and made it back in one piece without the parents or kids going through any major events! That was a big plus. 

There are more than 500 photos (all combo photos in HDR) which need a lot of processing time. After driving for a good 8 hours this is what I could manage to post tonight as a sample.. 

Yes! Did shoot the caterpillar in with exposure bracketing using a feature that comes in handy on the Manfrotto tripod (widen the legs to make the camera come real close to the ground.. you can even put the camera upside down on this tripod) using the 50mm Macro lens. The real caterpillar is 1 inch long! The kids spotted a whole bunch of caterpillars on the ground when we went to take photos at one of the scenic spots and it turned into a HDR attempt.. 

Seriously, this is how this place really looks as the sun casts shadows on the trees and cactus on the floor. The rocks actually look like this as well in the setting sun! 

More to come in the next few days as more editing time is found.

We had a great time with the parents, kids and cousins. The trip was not without its nervous and lucky moments. I got a cactus ball between my heel and sandals and it was a painful experience extracting the thorns out. We very near ran out of gas and did not notice trying to chase the sun as it set through the mountain ranges and barely made it out to the park entrance before the reserve ran out! 

Strongly recommend this place to photo enthusiasts. Please do try to go in April when the oasis have water in them and the cactus and Joshua trees are blooming!

More HDR

Two key players in the house were not captured in HDR yesterday.. so they got their chance today during the feeding time. 

San will not pose.. So the plan for tomorrow ? Self Portrait in HDR. Hopefully the Yoga will help me take a deep breath and stay absolutely still.. who knows, maybe go +/- 3 or 4 eV bracketing?!

We saw a gorgeous sunset today with some amazing clouds. Will try to capture that tomorrow. Looks like this weeks pet project to take my mind off things is HDR.