shop window #1

Shot half an hour before sunset under the south ramp of the viaduct in South Downtown Seattle.

Lindmark Machine Works

This was taken this evening less than an hour before sunset in South Downtown Seattle, near the south end of the viaduct. I got permission to shoot at a steel works which was just south of the machine works. Spent a hour there dodging BNSF trains and fork lifts from the steel plant. They obviously have a late shift.

the phone call

Another shot from Sunday evening.

shoot yourself

football #1

Playing catch at the beach barbecue.

generations #2

I shot this just after 8pm this evening. 300mm, F8, 1/400th ISO400 and very nearly 100% crop so the effective focal length is something awesome, well over 1200mm anyway.

the channel

These were taken on Easter Sunday April 21, 2009 late in the day during a storm.

yellow hotel

This is on East Marginal Way S in Seattle. Not far from the Duwamish river. The color in the late sunlight was very intense. I adjusted the gray scale curves but didn't do anything to enhance the color, just left it at default Lightroom settings (all my photos are developed from raw captures).

roof line

This was taken just after 8pm 7/6/09 on the north bank of the Duwamish up stream from the Duwamish Bridge about have way to the 16Th Ave Bridge. Some guy came out of this building and wanted to chat, that happened twice in half an hour during this shoot. People like to chat with photographers. I'm not unfriendly but the light was going away and I cannot chat and shoot at the same time.

Posted three different color treatments. What looks good in LightRoom 2.4 doesn't always look good after it gets exported to a small sRGB jpeg. [update, decided to choose one with a little less saturation in the sky.]

stern veiw (again)

a horizontal crop of the previous post.

stern view

Taken last night at sunset on Duwamish, north bank, about a mile upstream of the Duwamish Bridge

an open door

Shot last night, just before sunset, location the north side of the Duwamish bridge upstream a quarter mile.

pipes and glass

white dogs and dynamic range

This isn't what you like to see when you open up an image in LightRoom 2.4. The bright red area indicates one or more color channels are at 100%. This means you have lost some of the visual information. If all three color channels are at 100% you basically have no visual information.

This is a problem with contrast that exceeds the dynamic range of the digital sensor. I could have dropped the exposure until the white dog dropped into the acceptable range but that would have pushed the man into the lower end of the gray scale. This isn't something you want to do.



By reducing the exposure in LightRoom 2.4 more than 3 levels, I was able to separate the different channels here to show what part of the image is totally blocked. The pink area is blocked only in the red channel, the middle blues two channels are blocked and the light blue is blocked in all three channels. This is a summary, an over simplified explanation of what you are seeing.



So what can be done with an image like this? Well, I left the overall exposure as shot, didn't use any recovery but used the adjustment brush tool in LightRoom 2.4 to select an area on the dogs bright side, then reduced the exposure about 35 and desaturated it somewhat to remove the color distortion. The result isn't too horrible. I've posted it above. There isn't any texture in the bright fur, which is what we want to see in highlights, texture. But short of just giving up on shooting images like this, a highlight with some gray scale variation is better than a completely blocked up white mass. Soft fur in certain kinds of light will not show any texture, the light needs to be at an angle which produces shadows. In this case the light is blasting directly at the broadside of the dog, so there wouldn't be much texture even with reduced exposure.

man & dog

Shot just before 8 pm this evening at the beach. My only subject tonight. Lots of people but no subjects. Took seven exposures before he spotted me.

a door of welcome

General Offices

This was taken South Downtown Seattle. An employee saw me shooting and came out and offered to unlock the gates so I could shoot inside the yard. For some reason this didn't appeal to me. I thanked him and moved on.

sidewalk cafe

The main street of Burien Washington now has several eating/drinking establishments where you can sit out on the sidewalk. Why anyone would want to do this is beyond comprehension.

blue beach

It was a dark and stormy night, well anyway it was dark, it actually did start to rain just as I was packing up my gear. Some other blues Blue Door and Blue School.

the photo shoot

Seahurst beach an hour ago. Crain Photography was down at waterline shooting a model. I have done some other shoots, here is one at Fort Lawton, close up, where you can see it The Shoot - Fort Lawton