Late Night Dining

The 24 Diner is a great place to grab a late dinner in downtown Austin. As the name implies, they are open around the clock. Try the hash, it's excellent! This RAW capture was converted in Lightroom. I used Nik Silver Efex for the black and white conversion. In Photoshop, I adjusted the levels a bit and did a little dodging and burning. Hit 'L' for large! You just gotta! Check out my latest blog entry on textures. Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

Textures & Rust

I took a bracketed set of shots of this old truck last year. I wasn't happy with the sky and these exposures were just taking up space on my drive. Somehow though, I couldn't bring myself to delete them. Well, the other day I was inspired by a textured HDR shot posted by my good friend Theaterwiz. I've wanted to try textures for a while, so I dug up some tutorials on the web and gave it a whirl! A couple of textures were used for this image. I got the textures from the talented and generous Jerry Jones (aka skeletalmess). One texture was used as an overlay layer and the other was used as a multiply layer. I'm really happy with the result for my first texture experiment. Processing Info Lightroom: - Raw conversion. - Lens distortion correction. - Camera profile selection. - Final export to JPG. Photomatix: - Tonemapped 3 exposures through Lightroom plug-in(-2,0,2 EV). Photoshop: - Masked in some sky from another shot I took. - Contrast curve. Photoshop filters: - Noiseware (applied in spots). - Nik Color Efex Pro Contrast (medium). - Nik Color Efex Tonal Contrast (medium). - Topaz Labs Detail Desaturated Blush (light). - Nik Color Efex Bleach Bypass (very light). All filters were applied to duplicate layers and blended in as appropriate with layer opacity or masks. Hit 'L' for large to optimize texture viewing. Read more about this shot in my latest blog entry. Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

Dude, Check This Out!

That's what I heard someone yelling behind me while I was taking some shots on 6th St. I turned around to find this barker for Buffalo Billiards anxiously waiting for me to snap his pose. OK, here ya go, dude! I used Topaz Labs Denoise for noise reduction and added a bit of contrast in Photoshop. That's about it. Hit 'L' for large, dude! Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

Of Course I'm Listening

I was actually just getting a shot of the holiday lights and ambience at Casino El Camino. The couple at the bar got my attention when I looked at this one on my screen. It's always interesting how modern gadgets affect conversations, isn't it? This is a RAW exposure that I tweaked a bit in Photoshop. I used Topaz Labs Denoise for noise reduction, a bit of Nik Color Efex Tonal Contrast in places and a little Topaz Labs Detail Feature Enhancement overall. There is an "easter egg" of sorts that I added in for fun. :) Did I mention that image stabilization in the E-PL1 is great? This is another slow hand held exposure. Hit 'L' for large! You're here already and a better view is just one keystroke away. Check my latest blog entry, the Captain Kimo HDR E-book review. Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

Emergency Exit

This doorway caught my eye at Casino El Camino, a great bar down on 6th St. in Austin. It's kind of a dark and gothic place inside with all kinds of gargoyles and monstrous faces lurking about. The little guy sitting out in the courtyard is kind of creepy. This is a single RAW exposure that I processed into three TIFFs with 1EV spacing. I used Photomatix Exposure Fusion to combine them for a pseudo HDR effect. In Photoshop, I took the fused image and used Nik Color Efex Pro Contrast, Topaz Labs Detail Feature Enhancement, and Topaz Labs Denoise filters. On a side note, image stabilization in the E-PL1 is great. Note that some of the leaves were blowing in the wind and are a little motion blured. This handheld exposure was 1/3 second! Hit 'L' for large! Go ahead. It's OK. Check my latest blog entry, the Captain Kimo HDR E-book review. Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

Doodling in the Dark

Here is an abstract shot that I took last month while out for a night on the town with my wife. This is at Casino El Camino, one of the most interesting bar & grills on 6th St. in Austin. I love the lighting and mood in this place. They make a great burger and have a good beer selection. These are some Christmas lights that they had hanging on a balcony railing. Hit 'L' for large! It feels good. Check my latest blog entry, the Captain Kimo HDR E-book review. Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

La Cocina de Casino el Camino

I took this last month while out for a night on the town with my wife. This is at Casino El Camino, one of the most interesting bar & grills on 6th St. in Austin. Their burgers are awesome! This is a shot of their kitchen window, taken with the E-PL1. I love the lighting and mood in this place! Hit 'L' for large! Check my latest blog entry, the Captain Kimo HDR E-book review. Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

Four Palms

There are some palm trees in front of a building downtown and I thought they would look cool in an extreme bokeh shot. I took this one night while wandering around in downtown Austin, lamenting the fact that I'd left my tripod mounting bracket at home on another camera. Not one to waste an evening out with a camera, I gathered a few abstracts like this. This one is kind of dark, which seems to fit my somewhat melcholic mood tonight. Hit 'L' for large! Check my latest blog entry, the Captain Kimo HDR E-book review. Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

Slanted Perspective

This shot was taken down by the Amtrak train station in Austin. I believe this used to be an iron and steel works mill. The old brick building was lit by the last sun light of the day. This shot was taken last year on a photowalk with my friends Evan and Van. A wide angle lens can really skew the lines of buildings! I tend to like the effect and often exaggerate it even further by getting the camera down low like I did here. I like how the angles of the building seem to counter the angle of the grafitti. Processing Info Lightroom: - Raw conversion. - Lens distortion correction. - Camera profile selection. - White balance adjustment. - Final export to JPG. Photomatix: - Tonemapped 3 exposures through Lightroom plug-in(-2,0,2 EV). Photoshop: - Masking and blending of sky with original dark exposure. Photoshop filters: - Noiseware. - Nik Color Efex Pro Contrast. - Nik Color Efex Tonal Contrast (applied to all but sky.) - Topaz Labs Detail Desaturated Blush (applied to all but sky.) All filters were applied to duplicate layers and blended in as appropriate with layer opacity or masks. Hit 'L' for large! It's HDR, you just have to. Check my latest blog entry, the Captain Kimo HDR E-book review. Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

Late Autumn

The leaves were still falling when I took this shot in mid December. I had just finished a motorcycle toy run and noticed these leaves scattered under the trees outside the toy dropoff center. I liked the way the light was hitting these through the trees. This is a raw capture with my E-PL1 and the kit lens. I converted the file in Lightroom and used Nik Color Efex in Photoshop to adjust contrast and tone. Some vignette was added in Lightroom. Hit 'L' for large! It's good karma. Check my latest blog entry, the Captain Kimo HDR E-book review. Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

Not Far From the Tree

Winter is kind of weird in central Texas. We really don't have a winter, except for maybe a couple of really cold weeks in late January or early February. Any other time during the winter months, it might feel like Fall, Spring, or even Summer. This was taken on a day that felt and looked like fall, in mid December. I got done with a motorcycle toy run and noticed these acorns scattered under the trees outside the dropoff center. Looks like some squirrels need to get busy! This is a raw capture with my E-PL1 and the kit lens. I converted the file in Lightroom and used Nik Color Efex in Photoshop to adjust contrast and tone. A little vignette was added in Lightroom. Hit 'L' for large! Because I said so. Hey! Want to see all of my photos for the past year in under a minute? Click here. Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

A Gathering on the Lake

Kayaking and canoeing is a popular activity in downtown Austin. This is on Lady Bird Lake, formerly known as Town Lake. This stretch of water is actually a dammed off section of the Colorado River. These kayakers were lurking by the Congress Ave bridge in hopes of catching some of Austin's most famous night life: the nightly emergence of a huge bat colony that lives under the Congress Ave bridge. This is a shot that I took a while back and had procrastinated on the processing. I really liked the sky and the colorful kayaks. I knew this was going to be a pain to process though! Capturing this scene is kind of tricky. On one hand, I would have liked to have captured more over exposed images. That would have made it cleaner and easier to bring out the little bit of shadow detail that I wanted in the banks of the river. On the other hand, the more exposures, the more the kayaks would be drifting about. Either way, a lot of masking would be involved! I had to mask all of the folliage with my overexposed original to get rid of noise introduced by tonemapping. That happens when there isn't enough over exposure to get the details in the shadows. Photomatix will create some really ugly noise patterns in the dark areas. Masking in an original exposure with a brush set to Darken mode works really well for this. I also blended in some of the water from an original exposure, which tamed the harshness of the tonemapping and made it easier to do do a little masking of the kayaking people. Processing Info Lightroom: - Raw conversion. - White balance adjustment. - Camera profile selection. - Clarity and Vibrance adjustment. - Final export to JPG. Photomatix: - Tonemapped 3 exposures (-2 through +2). Photoshop: - Masking of original exposures as appropriate. Topaz Labs Remask helped with masking in the water. - Blur brush used on sky. - Contrast curve. Photoshop filters: - Nik Color Efex Pro Contrast. - Nik Color Efex Tonal Contrast. - Nik Dfine. - Topaz Labs Feature Enhancement. - Topaz Labs Detail Desaturated Blush (used on buildings only.) All filters were applied to duplicate layers and blended in as appropriate with layer opacity. Hit 'L' for large or check out the full size! Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

Water & Rust

The last light of the day is reflected in a stream of water passing under a pedestrian bridge in downtown Austin. The rusted railing seemed to contrast nicely with the still water reflecting some of the newest buildings in the city. Hit 'L' for large! It just feels right. Hey! Want to see all of my photos for the past year in under a minute? Click here. Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

View from the Bench

A bokeh view of 5th St. in downtown Austin on a quiet night. I took a few shots down there while meandering about with my 50mm f/1.4, mumbling something about forgetting my tripod mounting bracket. Hit 'L' for large! Hey! Want to see all of my photos for the past year in under a minute? Click here. Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

Kill Civilization

An interesting bit of grafitti pasted under a bridge in downtown Austin. Nothing special, just a quick snap while walking by. Hit 'L' for large! Hey! Want to see all of my photos for the past year in under a minute? Click here. First blog post of the new year here. Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

Power Plant at Dusk

I was downtown the other day and thought I'd grab some shots. I intended to do some bracketed shots for HDR, but I left my tripod adapter at home on another camera. Rats! I tried doing some handheld bracketed exposures, but I was losing sunlight fast and really couldn't get the overexposed images I needed without a tripod. So, this image was created with a single RAW file. I used Lightroom to break out the RAW into 3 TIFFs (-1,0+1). You can open a RAW file directly in Photomatix, but I find the results to be better this way. Lightroom does a better job demosaicing the file. The end result is a little more "painterly" than I was going for. That seems to be a side effect of single RAW HDR processing, in my experience. Processing Info Lightroom: - Raw conversion and TIFF creation. - Camera profile selection (landscape for more vivid color). - Final export to JPG. Photomatix: - Tonemapped 3 exposures (-1 through +1). Photoshop filters: - Nik Color Efex Pro Contrast. - Nik Color Efex Tonal Contrast. - Nik Dfine. - Topaz Labs Detail Desaturated Blush. All filters were applied to duplicate layers and blended in as appropriate with layer opacity. Hit 'L' for large or feel free to peruse the full size. It looks way better! Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

Liquor and Smut

I found the coinciding of the sticker on a traffic light control box with the neon sign amusing. Just a quick snap while roaming the dark streets of downtown Austin with a fast 50mm lens. This is a place called Favorite Liquor & Wine. Hit 'L' for large. It's the right thing to do. Hey! Want to see all of my photos for the past year in under a minute? Click here. First blog post of the new year here. Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

Happy New Year 2011!

Happy New Year to all my Flickr friends. I can't thank you all enough for all the valuable comments and support you've shown me in my first year of photography. I've learned a lot even though my schedule has made it tough to practice regularly. I've been on Flickr just a little over a year and I'm happy to say that I surpassed 50,000 views today! That is amazing to me and I'm so glad that I'm able to create images that a few folks find interesting. I look forward to honing my craft in the new year and sharing new images, along with the processes of creating them. I have a lot of talented contacts and I really enjoy seeing your images daily. There are so many of you who truly inspire me. This image was taken at the "24" restaurant in Austin. It's a great place to eat and drink! Have a drink or two to celebrate the new year, but please don't drink and drive. Cheers, ya'll! Hit 'L' for large. It's more better. Hey! Want to see all of my photos for the past year in under a minute? Click here. Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

Push to Cross

I was downtown today for a few things on my day off and took a few shots. I'd meant to do some bracketed exposures for HDR, but I forgot the tripod bracket for my camera. So, I just attached a fast prime lens and did a little shooting on the street before heading home. This is a view down 6th St. near Lamar from a cross walk. Hit 'L' for large. Why wouldn't ya? Portfolio | Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

The One and Only

My wife and I went out for a night on the town yesterday. We ended up having dinner at Casino El Camino, which has the best burgers in Austin in my opinion. They also have cold Newcastle - one of my favorite beers! I love the atmosphere in this place. It has kind of a gothic feel to it. You'd never know they had killer burgers from the initial impression when you walk through the door. I took this shot of my beer as a demonstration of depth of field and aperture settings, which I was explaining to my wife while we waited for our burgers. This is a very dark bar and the bottle is lit by the screen of a video game machine that was behind me. The E-PL1 RAW capture was converted in Lightroom. I used Noiseware in Photoshop to clean up the noise a bit. Nik Viveza was used to brighten the label just a tad. Hit 'L' for large. Why wouldn't ya? Portfolio | Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

Pipeline to the Stars

Here is the under belly of the water tower in downtown Round Rock, TX, all lit up for Christmas. I spotted it on my way home from work and stopped one evening to grab a couple of shots. The wind was calm enough rattle off a bunch of exposures. I used 9 exposures to put this HDR together. It's part of some experimentation I'm doing to see if more is better. It does seem to keep noise lower for these night shots. It's more work to gather the shots but it seems like there is less to clean up, as long as there isn't a lot of ghosting. Check out my latest blog post. Processing Info Lightroom: - Raw conversion. - Lens distortion correction. - Camera profile selection. - Cropping. - Final export to JPG. Photomatix: - Tonemapped 9 exposures (-4 through +4). Photoshop filters: - Nik Color Efex Pro Contrast. - Nik Color Efex Tonal Contrast. - Noiseware. - Topaz Labs Detail Feature Enhancement. All filters were applied to duplicate layers and blended in as appropriate with layer opacity. Hit 'L' for large or click here for full size. Portfolio | Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

Yarn Bombed Angelina

This statue of Angelina Eberly is one of the coolest things down Congress Ave in Austin. Angelina is even hipper now that she's been yarn bombed. I'm told that's what it's called anyway - graffiti with yarn! Read more about this important statue here. Check out my Christmas blog post. Processing Info Lightroom: - Raw conversion. - White balance adjustment. - Lens distortion correction. - Camera profile selection. - Final export to JPG. Photomatix: - Tonemapped 6 exposures (-3 through +2). Photoshop filters: - Nik Color Efex Pro Contrast. - Nik Color Efex Tonal Contrast. - Topaz Labs Denoise. - Topaz Labs Detail Feature Enhancement. All filters were applied to duplicate layers and blended in as appropriate with layer opacity. There was a lot of masking to patch up light trails that Photomatix doesn't handle so well. Hit 'L' for large or click here to see the full size! Portfolio | Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

Back to Being Naughty

Well, Santa has come and gone. Chloe has dropped the "good dog" act and is letting me know how she feels about getting her picture taken! Hope you all got want you wanted for Christmas! Check out my new blog post. Portfolio | Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

A Beacon in Round Rock

The lights hanging from the water tower in downtown Round Rock, TX make it visible from a good distance. I spotted it on my way home from work and stopped one evening to grab a couple of shots. The wind was calm enough rattle off a bunch of exposures. I used 9 exposures to put this HDR together. It's part of some experimentation I'm doing to see if more is better. It does seem to keep noise lower for these night shots. Check out my latest blog post. Processing Info Lightroom: - Raw conversion. - Lens distortion correction. - Camera profile selection. - White balance and contrast adjustment. - Final export to JPG. Photomatix: - Tonemapped 9 exposures (-4 through +4). Photoshop filters: - Nik Color Efex Pro Contrast. - Nik Color Efex Tonal Contrast. - Topaz Labs Denoise. - Topaz Labs Detail Feature Enhancement. All filters were applied to duplicate layers and blended in as appropriate with layer opacity. Hit 'L' for large or click here to view the full size. Portfolio | Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!

Driskill Lobby Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas to all my Flickr friends! I went downtown last week to get some shots of the city at Christmas, thinking maybe some lights and decorations would get me in the Christmas spirit. Sometimes it just doesn't feel like Christmas when the weather is so warm like it's been. We did get a cold front last night, so at least it doesn't feel tropical outside today! The Driskill Hotel is one of my favorite places to visit during the holidays. The decorations and warm lighting are very nice to work with. This is a shot from the staircase, looking into the lobby. It took some patience to get this shot. I took 7 exposures, the longest of which was 8 seconds if I remember right. People would periodically walk through and I gave up trying to shoot clean. One or two exposures had people walking through, but it wan't too bad to clean up in post processing. See my latest blog post for more info on this shot. Processing Info Lightroom: - Raw conversion. - Lens distortion correction. - Camera profile selection. - White balance and contrast adjustment. - Slight cropping. - Final export to JPG. Photomatix: - Tonemapped 7 exposures. Photoshop: - Straightening through lens correction. - Contrast curve. - Masking to fix ghost artifacts of people walking through and correct some shadow noise. Photoshop filters: - Nik Color Efex Pro Contrast. - Nik Color Efex Tonal Contrast. - Noiseware. - Topaz Labs Detail Feature Enhancement. All filters were applied to duplicate layers and blended in as appropriate with layer opacity. Hit 'L' for large or take a look at the full size! Don't settle for the wimpy default size! Portfolio | Blog | Twitter | Google Buzz I welcome comments and I will reciprocate by checking out and commenting on your photostream. Group invites are welcome, but I do not participate in Post / Award groups. I reserve the right to delete gaudy, glittery, flashing group invite icons!