Archive for March 2010

IMAGES ARE UP AT DELICIAS FOR ONE MORE DAY.

Here is a glimpse of the images at Delicias restaurant in Rancho Santa Fe.

pictures on the wall at Delicias restaurant

pictures on the wall at Delicias restaurant in Rancho

pictures on the wall at Delicias restaurant in Rancho Santa Fe CA

ART SHOW OPENING AT DELICIAS

My images will be on display at the Delicias restaurant in Rancho Santa Fe beginning on Monday. There will be a lunchon Monday at 11:30 am to meet and discuss my new work and on Tuesday and evening brunch from 4 to6 pm.

They have special food prepared for both events. Linsay Duff will also be there with her fine art mixed media paintings.  Stop by and say hello and have a bit to eat with me.

Delicias restaurant

WATER AGAIN

Water has not been my friend for the last three months. First the rains flooded the studio and many friends showed up to help, then the roof and skylights leaked and that had to be repaired and Fried Jackson came to the rescue again, the next day a hot water pipe burst at home in the wall next to kitchen and Fred and Mikey came to the rescue again. I cut out the bad drywall and the repaired the wall. Then the studio toilet and hot water plumbing went on the fritz. Finally today while I was checking the fruit trees at home I found the main irrigation pipe had broken underground and was flooding the yard This is a 1 1/4″ diameter pipe. Morgan and I dug down three feet to find the broken pipe. It was 88 degrees today and the I sweat more then the pipe was leaking. Fred Jackson came over with the right parts to repair the pipe and we will fill in the ground tomorrow. What next?

broken water pipe This is the broken pipe.

Fred Fred had the best shove for getting around the pipe after we dug the hole.

Fred repairing the pipe This is Fred in the hole assembling the new pipe.

Finished This the final repair job.


WHAT IS IT?

Is it global warming or climate change?  I know the debate is on and there are those who cry warming as they watch the polar ice caps melt away while others point to the ever increasing ferocity of the storms. The other camp dispels any claim that the overall weather and climate are changing or that civilization is adding to it. This is my visualization of the issue.

global warming

INCREASING DEPTH OF FIELD.

This is the way I can achieve greater depth of field in macro images. I Take a series of images of the same subject and adjust the plane from near to far. I can set the lens to f5.6 which is the setting with the least diffraction and greatest sharpness. Then I use Photoshop CS4 to assemble the images. When it is finished the final image shows everything in focus.

flower in focus depth selection

This shows the range of depth of focus used.

HDR IN CS4-A NEW WAY

I have been working with some images I took a few years ago. Karen Seibold and I took a summer run to the Alabama Hills in the Ownes Valley with a side tour to the White Mountains and the Bristle Cone forest. I was taking multiple images of each scene with the idea of using them for HDR processing. This time I tried something different. I used Photoshop CS4 to assemble them and process the layers.

Bristle cone tree

I only two images to assemble this on. Karen was only in one of the images.

Mount Whitney3 Mount Whitneys

For the Mount Whitney image I assembled three images and they had very different exposures and color.

Laser arch in 5 expousers.

I use 5 images to make this. All were of different exposures.

Here is how it works: In CS4 Bridge select any combination of images that are taken of the same subject. It can be as few as two or as many as 6 images. The exposures can be varied.
Then go to tools in Bridge>Photoshop>Load files into Photoshop layers. When that is finished select all the layers together.
Go to EDIT>Auto Align Layers …..when finished
Go to Edit>Auto Blend Layers……Then Flatten the layers. and Save as a Tiff file.
You can open the Tiff file in Bridge again and fine adjust it to your liking.

This is digital darkroom at it’s best.

THE BIRDS ARE BACK

A lot of noise out in the yard today. Lots of small birds are cur-ping and singing for their mates. They are hovering around the bird houses and gathering twigs for nests.

bird with twig

small bird in tree

3.14.2101

Today is pie day.

pie

Thank you MIT.

FIRE & ICE

camera-fire

NEW NEXUS GLASS PORTS

I just got the new Nexus optical glass ports with their super optical coating that inhance clarity and contrast. A perfect match for the new digital lenses that manufactures are now producing. The glass ports are heavier and help balance out the buoyancy of the housing. The 170G port is a full radius port that can be set up to work with almost all the best lenses. The 15mm fisheye ports is for the Canon 15mm lens and it’s small size is a big help in close-up wide angle lighting. The special 14-24 port for the Nikon wide zoom lens on the D700 housing give the housing perfect balance underwater.

Nexus 14-24 dome port This is the nexus dome set up for the Nikon 14-24zoom lens.

14-24 dome port on the Nexus D700 housing This is the 14-24 on the Nexus D700 housing.

Nexus 170G full radius glass dome. The nexus 170G optically coated dome whit removable dome shade.

nexus 5DMark2 This is the special Nexus dome for the Canon 15mm lens.

Nexus D700 with new 105 macro portNexus D700 housing with the new 105 macro port with manual focus control. The small front diameter allows for better lighting control where it is possible to get the strobe in close when needed.

Nexus 5DMark2 housing with the Canon 15mm dome. If you are thinking small try the Nexus strobe case for the Nikon SB400 flash unit. It is a fully TTL operative flash set. Direct sync linkage to the camera and small enough for those critical macro shots.

SPRING IS HERE

Spring has sprung and the Wysteria is blooming. It make it a real treat to do the dishes.

KITCHEN WINDOW

SDUPS FILM FESTIVAL APRIL 17th

The San Diego Underwater Photographic Society is proud to announce that its 41st Annual Film Festival will be held 6PM, April 17th, 2010 in Sumner Auditorium, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, CA. RSVP Ticket requests by eMail sdupsfestival2010@hotmail.com (Tickets will be limited, so please take a FREE ticket only if you are coming to enjoy all the underwater photography from around the world from SDUPS members.) Special MC Marty Snyderman.

http://www.sdups.com/2008/11/sdups-40th-annual-film-festival/sdups.jpg

BACK IN THE STUDIO

Since the day of the flood, January 20th, the studio has gone through a lot of construction and clean-up. Now, today we were able to use it for photography. Ken Hanson completed a photo session in the main studio and I will be there tomorrow working. the smaller studio is in the final stages of repair and may be finished by Monday. There are still a lot of details to finish but at least we can work again.

computer in studio

MEDICARE

What could go wrong with Medicare? The more I learn about it and the what the proponents are selling I get the sinking feeling in gut that all those pages and proposals are leading to one thing. Less medical service and support. This photo Montague is my way of showing where it is headed.

Medicare proposal

The final print is 60 inches square so you can see all the little details up close unlike the Medicare Bill.

ART SHOW AT DELICIAS

delicias-black-web2.jpgHope you can make it

invite

coronado bridge Coronado bridge

city with clouds San Diego skyline with clouds.

art

city in art

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