Picture of the Day (Dial-up internet users enter at own risk!)

[Phydeaux]

Although I own a Olympus DSLR, mine above were shot with my Casio point and shoot. Thanks for the compliment!

 

[geoand]

Great pictures from so many! It is always a joy to see the art created by you folks that have that magical box in your hands!

 

[jerseyfinn]

Following up on Barry's Lines, Light, Tones, Texture, a few from the Big Island of Hawaii:

Nice shots. I especially like the rock shot as one can always find so much color and texture going on in these sort of places -- and there are so many angles and perspectives to shoot the same scene.

My wife knows to either not go walking with me, or to relax and take in the scenery while I'm "prospecting for pixels"

Barry

 

[jerseyfinn]

I thought I was mostly done doing my photo thing for the year. Then I dropped in when my wife and a very close family friend of hers to grab some shots of them baking Christmas cookies, a task they have shared together for several years. I've been trying to get over there to capture this cookie-making process for the last couple of years, but last year a snow storm kept me busy shoveling snow all day while she baked.

For you photo folks, I shoot everything here with existing light. This means some slow shutter speeds ( as low as 1/15th hand held at ISO 800 ) & a little less sharpness than I would usually like. I could have helped myself by jumping up to ISO 1600, but I try to hold the line between light and overall image quality and noise control. I shoot with a P&S Canon G-11 which takes fantastic images, but one must always be mindful of the smaller-sized chip in P&S cameras and the noise limitations that go with them ( that said, Canon does a fantastic implementation with the G-11 ).

• Images are mostly as taken in-camera, though one must always necessarily sharpen jpg images in the post-processing phase. It's usually best to get the exposure correct in camera ( including any EV adjustment ) though Photoshop can indeed help you reach the pixel finish line.
• One can always use selections to tweak levels or to produce other effects in Photoshp (PS) or Photoshop elements(PSE).
• In the 1st image, the angel cookie is exactly as captured in macro in aperture mode ( sharpened of course ). I make a selection of the angel and invert it and I apply a modest hue desaturation to the rest of the image to draw one's eye to the angel. The image appears to be vignetted, but I do not apply a gradient and the natural vignetting is from the camera exposure itself.
• The 2nd image is a shot in camera, also macro in aperature mode to blur the BG. Once again, I select the entire FG with trees etc. & I invert and slightly desaturate the BG hues & thus draw eyes to the trees and the FG. Keep in mind that after you desaturate a selection in Photoshop, one needs to select the selection mask & apply a motion blur to the mask -- otherwise you'll end up with a delineating line between the full color and the desaturated areas. I also make a very narrow selection of the focused elements ( the tree to the left and the immediate areas around it ) and I sharpen only this area.
• The 3rd image is macro shot out of camera with selective sharpening.
• The 4th image is macro shot, aperture mode -- focus on the cookie cutter was crucial and this is where a DSLR makes the task easier, though the G11 does have a heads up focus view in the LCD -- and I've had enough failed focus shots before to slowly adapt to the camera and how to use it. Exposure was tough here as the BG is the true ambient light and the cookie cutter was markedly underexposed. I can't correct this, but I can moderate it by selecting the cookie cutter and applying a "screen blend" to lighten the cookie cutter which is the only sharpened object in the image.
  

I hope that this thinking out loud is helpful to some folks here who dabble with Photoshop Elements as the first two images can easily be handled in Elements. I'm clunking along with an aging full version of Photoshop CS2 and a Wacom pad which is essential for making precise selections, but one can indeed work with a mouse for simple selections.

The more pictures one takes and the more hours with PS or PSE ( many of them frustrating hours learning what not to do in PS/PSE ) will slowly pay off provided one also reads their camera manual and learns how to get the most out of their camera features.

The easy part of course is not pondering any of this and simply going out camera in-hand and finding the picture. Lots of folks here are taking some fantastic shots. This thread is a great image resource as well providing new insights/ideas/inspirations from some fantastic images.

I don't know how I get into this long message when all I wanted to do was post some images

I'm getting hungry looking at the cookies. The full gallery is located here.


Merry Christmas to all.

Barry

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[geoand]

A warning should have been posted. Something to the effect that if one is drooling for Christmas goodies - DO NOT OPEN!!!

 

[jerseyfinn]

A warning should have been posted. Something to the effect that if one is drooling for Christmas goodies - DO NOT OPEN!!!

You got that right! We've got all of these tins of those individual cookies & every day I make several trips to check the angels and trees. Their numbers seem to be dwindling.

So much for holiday diets.

Barry

 

[Rose Pink]

You got that right! We've got all of these tins of those individual cookies & every day I make several trips to check the angels and trees. Their numbers seem to be dwindling.

So much for holiday diets.

Barry

I thought that was the holiday diet.

 

[RDB]

Home for Christmas

 

[HatTrick]

I would nominate this one as Photo of the Year. Can you talk a little about it, Barry?

 

[SueDonJ]

Good Morning, 2011.

 

[jerseyfinn]

I would nominate this one as Photo of the Year. Can you talk a little about it, Barry?

Thanks for your kind words Hat Trick. I'm very humbled . I'm not sure that it's a picture of the year or the likes, but it is indeed a really neat image.

Not much going on other than that the hour is perfect ( @ 60 minutes to sunset ) & there's all of those tones/textures/light all around you which makes the sand stark & imparts 3-D drama to the motion of waves & water. I'm sitting there watching the waves & the tide go out and I notice this "rip effect" when the wave recedes down the steeply-inclined beach & it breaks into two parts which collide as the water races back to mother ocean. So I zoom out with the lens from my high vantage point & I try to direct my frame onto that interaction where the waters collide. I shoot away in continuous mode, and just like when you're fishing, I hope for some luck from the pixel gods. I knew that my auto exposure would over-react to the white froth in the frame so I tweak by EV by -1/3 stop ( to allow more exposure/light than the meter wants to allow ). I tweak the levels is PS adding a small bit of white and I sharpen the image & I render it in B&W because those tonalities would do this image the most justice.

I'm a surf fisherman ( though not on this trip ) and we are on the beach all day when we're here at Ocean Pointe. So I watch a lot of water and this is one of those unusual times when I notice this sort of temporary aberation in the water and I've got extraordinary light to work in. My hats off to my G-11 which does catch some nice images as I was indeed pleased with the results when I got home to the post processing phase.

Once again, thanks for your kind words. I'm glad that others enjoy it as it shows what anyone can do with a little light and some luck.

Barry

 

[HatTrick]

I render it in B&W because those tonalities would do this image the most justice.

So right. Thanks for sharing, Barry.

 

[dmbrand]

Eagle River, WI - Winter 2011

We spent week 1 at the Treehouse Village in Eagle River, WI. Every year, the town erects an ice sculpture. The design for 2011 is an Ice Castle. It stays up until it melts.

 

[dmbrand]

During our cross-country ski outing, we stopped at the warming shelter in the Nicolet National Forest. We had some snacks that the chickadees also enjoyed as well as us. We just held out our hands and they would land.

 

[Rose Pink]

I love it when birds eat out of my hand. I sort of feel like Snow White.
Loved your photos. How large is the ice sculpture? Can you go inside?

 

[dmbrand]

It is fairly tall; they must have used a crane to construct the towers. And no, they didn't make it enterable...most likely for safety reasons. People do sit on the "throne" in front for picture taking, though. It is also lit up at night.

 

[SueDonJ]

Oh wow, Dawn, LOVE the bird in your hand!

We had that big storm this week with a foot and a half of snow and it's been so cold since then that the snow still hasn't melted off the trees. Here's last night's sunset:

And of course with all the snow the creatures are out looking for food. A little while ago a deer went bounding across the fairway out back but too fast for me to grab my camera. This morning, though, this guy stuck around the corner of the yard long enough to eat whatever bunny or fieldmouse he managed to find:

 

[FlyerBobcat]

Jamaica

Jamaican vendor (sells "everything" )

Had a good time at Iberostar Rose Hall Suites near Montego Bay....

 

[Timeshare Von]

A few more from Alaska

I had the occasion to pull some photos for my FB page so I thought I'd share them here too:

Beautiful black wolf - Denali National Park

Gulkana Glacier - Richardson Hwy near Delta Junction, AK

Knik Glacier - Palmer, AK

 

[Mike21222]

Thanks for your kind words Hat Trick. I'm very humbled . I'm not sure that it's a picture of the year or the likes, but it is indeed a really neat image.

Not much going on other than that the hour is perfect ( @ 60 minutes to sunset ) & there's all of those tones/textures/light all around you which makes the sand stark & imparts 3-D drama to the motion of waves & water. I'm sitting there watching the waves & the tide go out and I notice this "rip effect" when the wave recedes down the steeply-inclined beach & it breaks into two parts which collide as the water races back to mother ocean. So I zoom out with the lens from my high vantage point & I try to direct my frame onto that interaction where the waters collide. I shoot away in continuous mode, and just like when you're fishing, I hope for some luck from the pixel gods. I knew that my auto exposure would over-react to the white froth in the frame so I tweak by EV by -1/3 stop ( to allow more exposure/light than the meter wants to allow ). I tweak the levels is PS adding a small bit of white and I sharpen the image & I render it in B&W because those tonalities would do this image the most justice.

I'm a surf fisherman ( though not on this trip ) and we are on the beach all day when we're here at Ocean Pointe. So I watch a lot of water and this is one of those unusual times when I notice this sort of temporary aberation in the water and I've got extraordinary light to work in. My hats off to my G-11 which does catch some nice images as I was indeed pleased with the results when I got home to the post processing phase.

Once again, thanks for your kind words. I'm glad that others enjoy it as it shows what anyone can do with a little light and some luck.

Barry

From the description, luck had much less to do with it than your obviously suberb photography skills, kudos on a majestic photo.

 

[HatTrick]

I love it when birds eat out of my hand. I sort of feel like Snow White.

Barred Dove, Oahu.

 

[Rose Pink]

Love the bird pictures!

 

[HatTrick]

Ala Moana Boulevard, Honolulu, at 8:30 pm.

Taken from the Kalia Tower at Hilton Hawaiian Village w/2-second shutter speed.

 

[HatTrick]

Okay... What's Plan B?

Taken from the Kalia Tower at Hilton Hawaiian Village.

 

[dmbrand]

I love the Hawaii pic. I remember walking along that boulevard one early morning and seeing the Hilton buildings.