Louvre Part Deux
Here’s the Louvre from my trip to Europe in the fall of ‘08. I used a lot of long exposures here – good thing that I always carry my mini tripod with me. The Louvre looks amazing at night. I love the look that a cloudy night gives the city sky in the shot above. The purple, hazy glow is way cool. We didn’t see the museum this time around, but had a great time just taking pictures of the building and fountains. That’s me in the shot at the end of this post. It’s a fifteen second exposure that I walked into after few seconds and then held still for the rest of the shot.
Long exposure HDR conversion:
Entering the glass pyramid:
Click on the thumbnails to see full size:
Beer
Traveling the world and drinking good beer is a good thing. There are so many interesting things to try that are hard to come by at home. Here in Washington State we’re lucky to have a great micro-brew industry, but today we’re going to look at a few foreign beers. My favorite shot is the one above. This is at a bar in Vancouver that specializes in Belgian beers. It was my first ever Hoegaarden. Below left is three half liters of Hoffbrauhaus‘ Witbier. Below right is from a bar in Amsterdam. Click on the small images to see them large.
More beer pictures on Flickr.
Vancouver
Both these shots are from the trip that we took to Vancouver for my birthday a couple of years ago. This was the first vacation with a DSLR, the Pentax K10D. It’s a great camera and I’m still using it today. The shot above is the Vancouver Public Library. The photo below is a sculpture at English Bay. Both shots are five exposure HDR images. I have a few more interesting shots from this trip. Stay tuned and I’ll post them another time.
Trains and Kites
This is the train yard near the Everett, WA waterfront. Look closely at the tree in the upper right to see the red kite that just got caught. The kid that was flying it is nearby, thinking about how to free it from the bare branches.
The kid has returned and looks up at his kite and wonders how this fate could have befallen him. Just moments ago he was having the time of his life, doing what he loves best. Now he wonders if he will ever get his red kite back and fly it once again. Click on the pictures to see the detail up close.
The kid and his kite - Click to see large
Making Chili
Here are some images from two chili making sessions. Each shot is a five exposure HDR. A couple of these became very popular on my Flickr page. The chili turned out very good and yes, the habanero batch was quite hot. Click on any of the thumbnails to view full size.
Rocket at The Center of the Universe
The Fremont Rocket is surely the best rocket ever to be mounted to the side of a building. I took this shot a couple of years ago while practicing this new HDR thing that I had just heard about. It’s always been one of my favorites. I like how the process lets you see all of the detail in the dark beneath the rocket and also the brightness in the clouds.
The Blob and The Needle
I’ve been told that this is actually a sculpture of a whale. I just looked back at the five shots that make up this photo and I’m really surprised that it turned out at all. They are really quite bad. This turned out to be my favorite shot of this trip to The Seattle Center. I love the grainyness in the sky and the detail in the blob.
Wink
Wink, from Hellboy II, was part of my short-lived toy 365 project. The whole series can be seen on Flickr. All of the Wink shots are here. The shot above is my favorite of the series and was even featured on Seattlest.com. [Screengrab] The building in the background is the Westlake Tower and the image is a five exposure HDR.
Yellow Farmhouse
This great view can be found in Everett, Washington on the Snohomish River. If you look closely, you can see the Cascade Mountains peeking over the horizon. This is a five exposure HDR image.
Shack in Field
This was a stop on our drive from Munich to Castle Neuschwanstein. It looked like a great photo opportunity, so we pulled the car over and I walked out to the middle of the field to get a shot of this shack with the castle in the background. It’s a single raw image processed in photomatix and photoshop.
More of my pictures from Germany on Flickr.
Space Needle Monorail EMP
Buy Prints here: http://www.redbubble.com/
It was a cold winter night in Seattle. The Purple Haze drifted over the Space Needle. We exited the Experience Music Project and I looked up and saw this shot. It’s become one of my favorites.
Camera: Pentax K10D
Five exposure HDR – 18mm, f3.5 - Shutter Speeds: 15s, 8s, 4s, 2s, 1s
Musée du Louvre
Camera: Pentax K10D
Late evening in late October at the Louvre in Paris
Processing: Single RAW image tonemapped in Photomatix Pro. Imported into Photoshop: Curves, Color Balance, and Hue/Saturation adjustment layers.
More of my images of The Louvre @ Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/prestondave/sets/72157622924487597/detail/
