iPhone Photography, Travel Photography and Camera Reviews
Surfing is a spiritual activity. You hear surfers talk about it, but when you really think about it there are few other activities which provide such a direct communion with nature. You sit, staring at the flat horizon, waiting for waves of energy to roll in that have originated thousands of miles out at sea. When they do, you paddle as hard as you can to ride them to their final destination. It’s a beautiful moment.
Lately I’ve been missing ‘Game Of Thrones’, so I thought I would quench my thirst for a good fantasy by posting a photo from Castellio di Amorosa’s own throne room. Yep, it is a true to life castle set beautifully in the heart of Napa Valley. I’d love to return during the grape harvest to photograph other parts of the castle. I understand it’s beautiful that time of year. For the photographer’s in the crowd, I posted a screen shot of my processing notes on our Facebook page. You can purchase a print of this photo simply by clicking it and adding it to your cart.
Hmmm…that is a pretty lame title. Try to cut me some slack, I have to make up titles every Monday through Friday. They aren’t always easy and the muse isn’t always with me. I posted the processing screenshot of this image this weekend in our various social circles. Here is a breakdown of what I did. The image is a 7 shot HDR image, processed in Photomatix. The resulting .TIFF was the color/contrast corrected in photoshop. At which point it was then brought to life using this technique I pioneered with Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. I added a little Glamour Glow to the arches to make it a bit more dreamy and finally ran some dark luminosity masks to deepen the shadows. I also cleaned up a bunch of light spill in Photoshop.
For the adventurers out there, who could careless about how the image was processed and just want to know where it is so they can visit it, it is from Balboa Park in San Diego, CA. Hope to see you there!
Well…at least not yet! I’m working on something new to spice up our iPhone Friday’s and I couldn’t quite get it done in time. We might still have iPhone Friday…or possibly Saturday this week. I’ll keep you posted. That being said, I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t share something pretty with you today. I know many of you visit here early in the morning. Plus it’s Friday the 13th, I wouldn’t want to worry anyone.
Today’s Pic
One afternoon, while I was north of San Francisco shooting some time lapse segments for a movie, I noticed these grasses dancing in the wind. The deep blue ocean made for the perfect backdrop.
I have long been fascinated with Ansel Adam’s image for Scripps Pier. I even tried to recreate his iconic image using my iPhone. When I finally had the opportunity to photograph it myself, I wanted to try and bring something unique to the image. I decided to focus on the pier itself by doing a couple of things. 1) I slowed my shutter down to lose any definition in the the water and sky. This allowed some separation between the rigidity of the pier and the softness of its surroundings. 2) During my B&W conversion using NIK Silver Efex Pro 2, I increased the contrast a bit to emphasize the structure as well as darken the areas around it. I was very excited about the way it turned out. So much so I decided to offer a Limited Edition run of it on Metallic paper (Click Here). The first one is already sold!
The cool news I mentioned yesterday is that my gallery is open! What does that mean for you? Well, it means you can easily purchase prints of the image you find on the site, but it also means the daily desktops have just gotten better! If you know how to click through the image and get the 3xl version for your desktop, great! If not, here is a quick video to show you how. I hope you enjoy it!
