Photo club pictures for October

I've submitted the following three images to my photo club for the October salon (i.e. contest/competition). 

The special category this month is "street scenes/people", and I have submitted two images for this category.  I am not much of a street shooter so I don't really know what "street scenes/people" means.  These two images certainly don't look like "street people" the way I usually think of the phrase.  But they are certainly "people on the street".  Hopefully the judge will find they fit the category.

Both were taken one morning on the streets of Banff, Alberta, Canada.

Full EXIF information can be obtained from the larger images posted on my Web site here:
http://www.peterfraileyphoto.com/p354549645

Young Photographers

Reading the Newspaper



I really like this flower image, and I submitted it for the "open" category.  Because this is a cultivated flower, it is my understanding that this does not fit the requirements for a "nature" category image.

I think orange (or red, depending on how your monitor is calibrated) and green make a very nice combination of colors.  I like the blurred background which keeps it from being distracting.  And I think I captured a good exposure on the bee, as I can even see a bit of orange/red being reflected off the underside of the body.
 


Bee on Flower



Captured this afternoon

After working indoors most of the morning, I decided after lunch it would be a good time to work out in the yard.  At this time of year it is best to avoid mosquitos (the pests seem to be carrying more diseases these days), and mid-day is usually a time when the mosquitos are sleeping (I made that up) somewhere in the woods. 

I sat down on the front steps to tie on my sneaks and looked up to see a gloriously rich blue sky and interesting streaks of clouds.  Of course, I had to see if I could capture anywhere near the correct color with my camera.  I grabbed the Olympus with 14-54 lens and took several exposures of this scene.  This one was the best IMO.





Southern Maine Coast

Laurie and I were up in Maine yesterday to visit family.  The weather was wonderful.  The air was dry and the temperature was about 70F.  After our morning visit we decided to take a little excursion, driving the coastal route from Kittery Point to Ogunquit.

These are all mid-day photos.  Usually that is supposed to be a "bad" thing because the light is harsh and the shadows deep.  But I love the colors I was able to get.

The lighthouse seen in two of the shots is Nubble Light.  It is also called Cape Neddick Light.

The camera/lens combination was the Olympus E-M5 and 14-54II zoom lens.  These four images were cropped to a 2:1 aspect ration while processing the RAW images in Lightroom 4.

 

 





"Faux" HDR without bracketing: The Old State House

The latest version of Adobe Lightroom has made for some very nice HDR-type effects by simply applying several adjustments to one image. 

In the past I needed to bracket my shots, typically with three images about 1-stop apart in exposure.  The HDR process, using software such as Photomatix, involves taking parts of the three images to create a single image with brighter exposure in the dark areas and darker exposure in the lighter areas.  It is often said that this is how the eyes sees.  Photomatix does this automatically.

But with Lightroom 4 I find very nice results by taking only one image and (1) reducing "highlights" and "whites" and (2) increasing the brightness of "shadows", all via sliders in the develop model.  In this example of the old Boston State House building, the basic exposure was a RAW file taken with a Panasonic LX5  and imported into Lightroom 4.  I adjusted the "highlights" and "whites" slider to minus 100% and adjusted the "shadows" slider to plus 100%.

Below are the before and after results. 

Note that the light areas (such as the sky) are darker and the dark areas (building surfaces) are lighter, in the second image.

(Also note that I have also used Lightroom to reduce the amount of perspective distortion recorded in the original file. Perspective distortion refers to the tilt of the buildings.  It is the same thing as what happens when you look down a long train track.)



Day 15: My favorite airport: Spokane International

My brother dropping us off

Ah, a Starbuck's in the center of the airport.  Just the way things should be!!

Follow the red carpets to the gates.  Wow, compare this with Logan!

Heading East



Day 14: Canadian Rockies: Spokane, WA

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Today's Itinerary: Drive from Bonner's Ferry, Idaho to Spokane, Washington

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The Badger's Den for a simple breakfast

National Guardsmen

A simple breakfast

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We saw our only moose (plural) of the trip in the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

 

 

Two moose in the distance.  (My long lens unfortunately was back at the hotel. Grrrr.)

 

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We purchased Elk, Beef, and Buffalo jerky from this vendor. Yummy.

 

 

 

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Hippies?

 

Tie-dyed shirts for sale, Sand Point, Idaho

 

 

Day 13: Canadian Rockies: Kalispell, MT to Idaho

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Today's Itinerary: Drive from Kalispell, Montana to Bonner's Ferry, Idaho

 

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Kalispell at sunrise, from the window of our hotel

Western Outdoor is a huge cowboy store in Kalispell.
You'll get the idea from the pictures below.

Check out all those bandanas!



 

 

We entered Idaho about 4:30 pm



The Best Western at Bonner's Ferry is also where we had stayed the second night of the trip.
This is the view from our small balcony.

 

Day 12: Glacier to Kalispell, Montana

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Today's Itinerary: St. Mary, Montana, around the southern tip of the park and on to Kalispell.

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These are unshod Blackfoot Indian horses on open land.

The result of forest fire

Red Buses are used for auto tours of the park. These are 1930s vehicles
built by White Motor Company. In 1939 there were 33 of them.
Some number less than 33 were refurbished by Ford in 2001 and run on propane.

The Red Buses are driven by "Jammers"

Lake McDonald

I wish I knew what this is called.

Rafting on the Flathead River

McDonald Lake as seen from Apgar Visitor Center, West Glacier

From our hotel window in Kalispell looking east to the Rockies at sunset