Image + Imagination

2012-01-14T13:33:00.000-08:00

This is an office building near my apartment. Pam and I walked by it the other day, on a walk through the neighborhood. I loved the color of the windows, and the style of architecture - which is...I don't know :)

So I came back here a couple of nights ago, just at sunset, and got a few good pics. This is looking roughly due North.

I had the vibration reduction on the lens turned off, accidentally, so only a few pics came out unblurred. Oops.

Serendipitous

2011-11-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

Such a nice surprise in Austin this weekend: I was in town visiting my sister, and was taking pics of the Texas History Museum on MLK and Congress. While snapping, the circus/performance group Clan Tynker were setting up for a show that night. They graciously allowed me to take some pics.

The dancer is Serendipity, and my photos don't do justice to her dancing.

Austin is such a beautiful place. I lived there for ten years - went to school, got married, had a baby there too. So it was like homecoming. A friend and I closed a club or two Saturday night (electronic music), I spent time with my sister, enjoyed my niece's 18th birthday party, and drove round lots to see Austin.

Montreal

2011-10-08T14:27:00.000-07:00

I love my job. I spent Thursday with folks who needed software training, then I had Friday and Saturday to hang out in Montreal before flying to New Jersey on Sunday.

The snaps were taken with my FinePix point and shoot. An inexpensive thing, and produces images to match, but it's got a pretty cool form factor, and I just didn't want to carry my Nikon for a week.
Also, from the first pic I got a warning that the battery was dying, so I took very few pics.
And I shot in black and white - or it's digital equivalent.

I really liked my time in Montreal. It's a big, beautiful, strange city. The picture with this post is of Silo No. 5. It stored lots of grain for export, back in the day (I don't know when that was exactly). So it represents Canada's glorious, industrial age past.

I stayed on the east side of the St. Lawrence (Fleuve Saint Laurent), just at the Pont Jacques Cartier. I spent a lot of time downtown, in the area around Mont-Royal/Rue Rachel and Boulevard Saint Laurent/Rue Saint Denis. I drove through lots of neighborhoods - Mont Royal, Outrement right by/through the University of Montreal, up (down?) along the river to the north right by the weird Olympic Stadium, down (up?) the river through some narrow curvy streets through tall squat beautiful government looking buildings where the sidewalks go right up against the building facade, up and down through the hilly neighborhood where McGill University is. I walked alot. I got soaked in the rain, and stuck in traffic. I spoke a few words of French. I bought souvenirs in a shop selling clothing from India and from vendors in the park by the angel statue. I watched a young girl being silly and laughing and her father pretending to be impatient with her. A shopkeeper told me how he saw a guy getting beat up and he drew attention to himself and away from the guy getting beat up - and then he got beat up himself.

Montreal felt good to me.

Newark was also nice. Or, I had a nice visit there. I saw how my company's product was being implemented, which I haven't seen much of, up close. I ate dinner in the city one night - Thai, on Meg's recommendation.

Have I bragged on Meg lately, btw?

Garden of the Gods

2011-09-04T10:44:00.000-07:00

Taken last week, while I was in the area for a family reunion. My sweetheart was with me, and I brought my daughter over from Portland. Pam and Meg met for the first time, and Pam met my mom for the first time as well. All firsts for me too. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Garden of the Goddesses

2011-09-03T12:05:00.001-07:00

Click. Here.

August sunset

2011-08-09T12:11:00.000-07:00

From my balcony.

White Rock, BC

2011-07-02T11:37:00.000-07:00

Click here to see pics of White Rock, BC, just south of Vancouver, on Semiahmoo Bay, in the Strait of Geogia. I was in nearby Abbotsford, BC, training some folks on some software. When I was finished for the day, and on the recommendation of one of my training participants, I hopped into the rental car and headed to White Rock to see the water.

It was cool-ish - it'd been raining and raining in the area, and the clouds had only just broken up and let in some sunlight as I was headed out. It was about 7 in the evening, so the sun was getting low to the horizon - though this far north it would be a while before the sun actually set.

I miss water and clouds and cool wind living in Phoenix in the summer, but the traveling, and the air conditioning, help me maintain balance and serenity :)

PS Here's a really nice photo I found (not mine), taken from the pier at White Rock, looking back at the shore.

PPS My photos were taken with my Fujifilm Finepix point and shoot

May Already...

2011-05-05T17:28:00.000-07:00

The world is awake, and buzzing with life. Rejoice.

Always Learning

2011-04-30T13:06:00.001-07:00

Lots of change. Including trying some new kinds of photography. Since January I've taken interior house shots, shot several girls soccer games, and a wedding. I've been very happy with alot of the resulting shots. It's been especially satisfying because I've tried different techniques that I've not used too much before.

At the soccer games, I've tried panning with a slow shutter speed in order to get an in-focus subject, with the background showing motion blur. Yesterday I was switching between shutter priority and aperture priority (1/20 and wide open, respectively), too. I wanted to see motion blur in the subjects, and stopped motion. That shutter speed was too slow, though - way too much blur, not enough subject.

The wedding shots were experimental more in the processing than the shooting. I used some Lightroom presets that I hadn't used before - almost all of them black and white presets. I also used hdr for a few shots of family and friends sitting during the ceremony - pretty nice.

Albuquerque 2011

2011-02-02T17:21:00.000-08:00

There's been record-breaking cold in Albuquerque this week. I moved here less than two weeks ago, and I've enjoyed the change of climate - Phoenix doesn't get snow like this.

I used Photomatix for tone mapping on all these photos. Lovely results.

I Heart Chicago

2011-01-26T14:18:00.000-08:00

Business brought me to Chicago, and I extended my stay by a day and a half. A friend and his wife graciously put me up for the night. Bart took me and his German Shepherd Bosco around the neighborhood for a couple of walks, and while inside, Bili the cat kept me happy and smiling. I heart animals too.

Bart and I ditched B&B long enough to head downtown. Then it was dinner with Bart and his wife Jenny and their friend Melissa. Really nice visit - thanks you guys.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-15T15:38:00.000-08:00

From the hermit himself :)

experiment in hdr

2010-12-12T21:14:00.000-08:00

Here are some more shots rendered using hdr. The last two show a really weird looking distortion - I have no idea what that's about, unless I caught a weird alien life-form that's usually invisible to the naked eye....?

The one of the coffee ("Viennese") is interesting to me because of the way the three-dimensional surfaces are rendered. Look at the right-hand edge of that Persian carpet-looking thing (which is actually a mouse pad for the old ball mouse). That is 1/4 inch thick, but it looks flush with the table top.

Also, look at the upper right portion, where the table corner butts up against the door frame. The bleeding of the colors, and the bumpy texture, are really sweet looking.

I think this rendition get old, but used with the right subjects, it makes a really cool style for large print art - stuff you frame and hang up. As to what IS the right subject: that's why I tried it on a live subject in the photo titled "Cemetery". I think it gives a softness and depth to the human face that is really pleasing. The image for that photo, though, was from a cheap point-and-shoot, but makes a good hdr image anyway.

I'm going back in my archive to find more candidates for this sort of effect.

Merry Holidays

2010-12-11T12:48:00.000-08:00

Loving this hdr plugin

2010-12-05T20:06:00.000-08:00

I really hope you're seeing this image on a widescreen monitor (click on the image to see a big version). The textures are so amazing. I'm using Photomatix high dynamic range (hdr) processing software. It melds multiple copies of the same image, where the only difference is the exposure value. So you make three versions of the same photo, one very dark, one medium, and the third very bright. Photomatix takes those three images - which together have more shades of color than any one image by itself - and blends them into one image.

There are some presets, or you can manually edit the image. You can use it as a plugin with Lightroom - there are lots of screens opening and closing in this mode - or as a standalone application.

Look at the folds of the dress and the jacket, and the lettering on the right face of the monument she's leaning against. Just so nice.

This is a new bit of processing for me, so expect me to overdo (thank you Hilary and Gloria) it for a while.

Cheers.

More music shots

2010-11-23T12:49:00.000-08:00

The Lost Leaf in Phoenix is a safe hang out for me - laid back, small, really comfortable and cozy. The Green Lady Killers are really fun to shoot. This past weekend, the two came together.

I'm in Portland this week, spending Thanksgiving with my daughter and her boyfriend. Love their neighborhood, and like the cold snowy weather :)

Cheers.

Vancouver - Enhanced

2010-11-10T17:33:00.000-08:00

A few of the previous post's photos, enhanced using HDR with Photomatix...

Vancouver

2010-11-03T10:38:00.000-07:00

I grabbed two quick hours in Vancouver after a business appointment in nearby Abbotsford. I wandered around West Hastings and Granville.

I have a story to tell about my disappointingly short time there. But not here. Keep your eye out for the book...

Speed

2010-10-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

My nephew races a Hyosung 650 down here in Arizona. I got the chance to go to one of his races at a track just south of Phoenix. I have a separate gallery for the shots of him. These photos here are of some of the other racers.

I haven't ever shot sports or high speed action. I took 400 shots, but only about forty-five turned out. I asked my friend John for some help - he shoots a lot of sports. I'm going to another race soon, so I'll practice what John said, see how those turn out.

Matt won three of five races. Pretty cool to watch - they're going SO fast.

Ciao for now.

Danny

Desktop of the Day - Happy Halloween

2010-10-13T12:58:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to check out some electronic music at a club I’d never been to. When I drove by the place, it looked too scary, so instead I headed to a very tame jazz club I like. I walked in, and the whole front room – it’s a small place – was full of people with paints and canvases and easels, busily painting a live model. One night a month they have an artists’ night with a live model. I’m going to go next month, and bring my camera and laptop, and take photos, and process them right there. In fact, I saw one guy drawing on his laptop. I didn’t notice if he was using a graphics tablet or what. The painting looked pretty good.

Anyway, this is the model they were painting.

Click on the pic above for a closer look. The insect is Winamp...

The Other Desktop

2010-10-07T12:40:00.000-07:00

The analog species.

It looks like the desk of a neurotic (Pam used the word "eccentric" last night, which comically surprised me, because she's usually very quiet about such things - she's very accepting and non-judgmental of other people's personalities).

I'm considering shooting at full manual mode or shutter priority for a while. Except for an occasional switch to full automatic, I always shoot in aperture priority mode. I like the narrow depth of field. But I will switch over to shutter priority for a while, see what happens.

Phoenicians

2010-10-03T15:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a selection of shows of several different - and very different - bands. There's a powerful energy here, if you're looking to listen to some good music. That, and the big airport with lots of cheap connections to the rest of the country, are the two things I like about this city. Pam is here, too, but I don't give Phoenix credit for her - it doesn't deserve that honor.

Desktop

2010-09-19T17:53:00.001-07:00

Kuwait Downtempo

2010-09-13T08:42:00.001-07:00

This is one effing dj

2010-07-26T22:23:00.000-07:00

I shot several djs downtown at Bar Smith the other night.

The headlining DJ was Star Eyes, from New York, who's in the photo to the left. Really good music. Really cool space. It's a balcony on the second floor - more like being on a rooftop. There are walls on opposite sides that are the sides of taller buildings. The djs' backs are right up against the railing overlooking the street, so they play with their backs to the street.

It's always hot in Phoenix, but this was a mild evening - about 95, maybe 90 degrees.

The sound system was good. The lighting was difficult. The music was great. The djs were a challenge to shoot. Pretty good evening.

The Kongos at The Lost Leaf

2010-07-21T19:10:00.000-07:00

I had a really tough time with the light at this show. It was a deep red the entire time. B&w looks good on most of the shots that I've fussed with so far.

One bit I haven't gotten to my satisfaction, though: See the blur to the right of the guy's face in the foreground? That's a blur of his nose and chin, when he turned his head. I want to make that more obviously a blur of his face.

The stage at The Lost Leaf is narrow and deep, so there's no getting close to the drummer. The space in front of them - where I was standing - is also very small, so I shot sparingly so I wasn't too obtrusive. I don't know if I succeeded.

The lead guitarist is also a photographer. I think he said he shoots with a Nikon D90.

By the way, you can click on the photo in the post and you'll see a larger version.

Cheers.

Phoenix Art Museum

2010-07-19T18:24:00.000-07:00

The Phoenix Art Museum...

Amsterdam 2008

2010-07-11T17:15:00.000-07:00

The Phoenix

2010-06-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

These three are The Green Lady Killers. This is my favorite group of live shots to date. They were taken at the 910 here in Tempe, just a few blocks from my house. It's a really nice venue for live shows - the stage is open in front and back, and the back looks outside onto a nice, large space surrounded by very private walls.

A friend just recently suggested I start a blog to feature my live music shots. I think that's a great idea. I'm thinking "The Phoenix" for the name. Until that's up (a month or so?), enjoy these photos.

Cheers.

Danny

Phoenix Bus and Glass

2009-09-28T17:31:00.000-07:00

On the corner of Washington and Mill, looking northwest.

I get to the ASU area from my place by going down Scottsdale, right on Weber, left on College, right on Curry, left on Mill. I'm not yet used to the area, so things still stand out.The building behind the bus always looks so empty.

The soul-less condo complex is on Weber. Not only is it really empty, but you can see the rebar for several other units that haven't gotten finished - no active construction going on.

The one of the white car and truck and two tall buildings is in Tempe, around Mill and University. Looking west. I would almost swear that the white car is the car I had repossessed a few months ago. Mazda 6S.

The bandana came from the good people up there in Montana who love me so much. Thanks, and for all the other treats - Stagg Chili, portrait of ACA sales lead, animal crackers, etc..

Cheers.