Weeks 29 and 30 of 52

[mtngal]

Week 29 and 30 of 52

I’ve still been limping along, but only taking pictures when I can, trying to not feel too bad when I don’t manage to take a picture and trying to not feel so frustrated when work and other obligations get in the way of my hobby. I figured I’d spend New Year’s Day trying to get caught up with the past few months. Since I’m so far behind, I’m going to combine some weeks, to cut down on the number of threads I’ll be starting on one day. Feel free to comment on anything, I always like feedback.

Sep 17 – 23:

I didn’t take many pictures this week. I took a couple of sunrise pictures Thursday Sep. 20th from near my office, but they weren’t anything special. Nice, but not special. Here’s the link to one of them. http://mtngal.zenfolio.com/p487897818/e44cfa580 , I liked the small silhouette of the bird but really the picture is a rather ordinary sunrise picture.

I did take a number of pictures Friday, Sep. 21st. They aren’t very good (I’ve seen some awesome ones that others took) but it was hazy, the marine layer hadn’t quite lifted. Also, I didn’t even know it was going to happen until early that morning, so I didn’t have a 300 lens. These were all taken with the DA*200 and it was really too short. These are all heavily cropped.

Anticipation:



This is one of the highrise buildings. This is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone on the roof of one of the buildings. Everyone, including me, is looking up in anticipation.

This is the picture I posted to the project, I thought it was good for a number of reasons. As you can see, there were two fighter escorts, not the one that appears in the first picture.



This was the best I managed to show some detail of the various planes involved. It isn’t the greatest – I’m pretty sure this was an almost 100% crop.



Saturday morning found me photographing another sunrise, this one in the mountains. I did this HDR version but at the time I didn’t like the way it came out and posted one of the frames. Looking at this HDR version now, I’m not so sure what it was I didn’t like about it. I’d love some feedback on what others think of it.

The HDR version:



The non-HDR version:



I did some processing to bring out detail in the ground shadows.

Sep. 24 – 30:

I had been debating whether I should split off this next week, especially since this week we spent a couple of days in St. George and went to Cedar Breaks. It’s spectacular and of course, between Dan and I we had a lot of pictures. I also spent Monday at the botanical gardens, and ended up with several very good pictures that I think are worth sharing. But in the interest of brevity, I decided to just post links to some of them, if anyone is interested. Looking in hindsight, I think the 4 botanical gardens are more interesting than most of the Cedar Breaks pictures, where I was overwhelmed and tried too much to capture the whole thing.

In any case, here is the picture from the botanical gardens that I posted:



I also liked this reflection picture, thought it came out nicely.



The other two pictures, one of a turtle and one of one of the koi in the stream that goes through the botanical gardens are here, if you are interested. I thought that they were both interesting in their own ways, the turtle perhaps less so. Don’t ask me what the appeal is of these two pictures, perhaps they won’t appeal to anyone else (would love to know what others think of them).

Koi: http://mtngal.zenfolio.com/p487897818/e44cfadb6

Turtle: http://mtngal.zenfolio.com/p487897818/e44cfafc2

These two links go to the pictures in the zenfolio album, rather than just the pictures themselves.

Tuesday I managed another picture, this one in front of a bike store. I’ve never managed to get an interesting picture of the bikes that are always outside the shop, though I’ve tried several different things. There’s something about them that interest me, the repeating shapes and the different colors, but I never quite get the right picture of them. I posted this one but think it is more a failure than anything else. Link is: http://mtngal.zenfolio.com/p487897818/e44cfb212 .

We arrived in St. George on Friday and Saturday visited Cedar Breaks. It’s much like a mini-Bryce, the weathered edge of a plateau. The road through it is closed in winter because it gets a huge amount of snow. It’s actually not far from Brian Head, one of Utah’s ski areas.

This was taken with the 10-17.



I also did a panorama, this is a link to a larger version of the picture: http://mtngal.zenfolio.com/img/s4/v68/p1160506496-5.jpg .

I was also playing around with some different types of processing. I came up with this but wonder if it’s a bit over-the-top. Here’s the processed version:



And here’s a link to a more traditionally processed version: http://mtngal.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v55/p1160515938-4.jpg

I’d love some feedback about this photo.

Finally, it was still fall, and the aspen had changed. It was a little past its peak higher up, but there was still some outstanding color.



We stayed in a timeshare in St. George, and I always try to take some interior shots of the unit. This time we were in a lovely 3-bedroom unit, I think it was bigger than my house! It also had a hot tub on the patio, which we used quite a bit.



Timeshares have a bad rap (deservedly in some cases) and aren't for everyone, but we've sure enjoyed ours. Like anything, it is only a good buy if you use it, and we do. It allows/encourages us to travel to places that we like.

[mole]

Amazing geology amazingly captured with the 10-17 - I prefer the "less-processed" version, but both are fascinating. Very nice photo of the Milkweed Bug and great reflection.

HDR of sunrise is certainly more vibrant, but maybe a little oversaturated in some of the cloud highlights (or maybe it's just my monitor...) So glad you are continuing with this project!

[mtngal]

Thanks for the feedback, Mole - I always appreciate it. Maybe that's what it was that bothered me about the HDR version in the first place. I could probably try combining the two versions and keep the ground from the HDR version and the sky from the single exposure one. But while I like the scene, it's not worth spending more time on it so won't bother.

I think we have the similar tastes when it comes to processing. While I find the more processed version very interesting, I find it a bit jarring or something in some way, can't put my finger on it.