Colour #photoassignment Finding Orange in the Sunset

This was a little easier, I was counting on a good sunset and waited for the strongest colour. Ok, I'm a little restricted in the view to the west but I much better views than a lot of folk in single room isolation or locked down. Still, there is beauty in watching the sunset.

Sunset

Mucking around on boats :: Balmy dusk, perfect time for that sundowner.

ArtInspired :: Autumn Leaves HDR to Dreamscope

  
I’ve been concentrating of the possibilities around taking macro photos out in the wilds. Its a bit more challenging than say photographing something like a toy or texture in a brick wall, because the patterns go on and on and blend into other patterns. Nature has a habit of packing lots of things into the available space, whereas mankind has the opposite habit of stripping out everything away and replacing it with very little ot single functionality,

This began as a HDR Camera+ photo on my android phone, of the autumn leaves on a pathway. I like the texture. So I began with OnOne’s Dynamic Contrast and Fall Enhancer. to give me the image on the upper left. Then I tried two dreamscope filters “jewelled” and “watercoloured”. These use the methodology described by Google’s Deep Dream explanation of neural networks analysis photographic images. Finally I used OnOne’s layers capabilities to blend the three images together. Letting reality merge into art.

Choosing can be the challenge

It was a very grey overcast afternoon, not that exciting for summer or photography. Yet there are a few flowers bringing a little brightness to the garden. Now the problem is choosing which should be my daily photo post?

Wow I’ve made it to my 50th. Daily Photo.

Wow What a Sunset

Truely Brilliant, but fleeting

PhotoFriday :: Blue Hour Skyline

For PhotoFriday‘s topic Skyline

PhotoFriday :: Clouds

Red Sky at Night ...

For PhotoFriday‘s topic Clouds

Red Sky in the morning

I must admit I’m normally still snuggling in a warm bed at this time of the morning, and it has been a very cold spell. However I was up and awake early today and able to capture the first light of dawn. Giving me a great opportunity to compare my “girls” (the three current mistresses, aka photo managers/editors, I’m using rather than picasa/google photos) as I would normally edit/tweak them. The Photo on the right is the original unedited Jpeg. The photos below are edited by AfterShot , Lightroom  and Perfect Photo Suite 9. These three systems render my .pef file (Pentax’s RAW format) differently but their RAW file renders all look very flat compared with the jpeg. I liked the dark silhouette of the trees, so I have left the images very low key and just just concentrated of adding a little extra contrast and vibrance.I also straighten and cropped each version. In the edge they all look somewhat similar, supporting the observation that it probably doesn’t matter a lot which software you use as long as it does what you want.

AfterShot Pro 2, which has become my first stop on my laptop. In this case I have just click on Perfect Clear and lifted the vibrance slider a little. With a straightening and crop to finish. All over in seconds
Lightroom 4.4, was a little more considered and all done in the development module, lifting clarity (rather than contrast) and a little vibrance (not saturation) then straightening and crop.

Perfect Photo Suite 9, was a actually my second port of call but I have left it till last as it seems to match my memory of the moment best. I started in Perfect enhanced (which is where cropping and straightening are normally undertaken. Whilst there I couldn’t resist using their wonderful content aware magic  perfect eraser to remove the two light poles (which would have bee a very time consuming task with a cloning tool on the second post behind the tree). I also finished with perfect effects, a natural Dynamic Contrast, A fall enhancer Colour Enhancer bought back to 60% layer opacity and a soft darker vignette

A Beautiful Dawn and being Accustomed to My Camera

Even though I was still half asleep and had not put in my contact lenses, I couldn't help but notice the magnificent sunrise. So I quickly grabbed my camera, despite being dark and not being able to see clearly I was able to get the camera in Exposure Priority and dial up what I thought might have been a higher ISO (I got both right) But I could tell the exposure would be way to slow (ie 1/4 second) to be hand held (click on the image on the right to see how blurry the resulting photo turned out). I didn’t even check the screen and cranked the aperture wheel down a few notches (not knowing or being able to see). These sounded better, possible quick enough, and I took a couple of overlapping images to make a panorama..

The image above is just a quick collage created with picasa. I think my beloved Pentax has done a great job even though I wasn’t able to visually check the setting or button I was pressing. Naturally I could see enough where to point the camera in the right direct and could hear the autofocus tracking my lens back and forth.
This story continue (I took a few sets of bracketed), after using my muscle  memory to select my user programmed mode on the main dial (which is preprogramed to create a series of EV values)

I had breakfast and put my lenses in, upload the photos and like the initial pano set. So I have taken it though Autostitch and used Perfect Enhance to hold down the digital noise.

The exercise of using your camera without looking at the dials, and just taking the picture is highly recommended. (Even in the Dark)

Indian Ocean Dawn

Taken at altitude as the sun rose over the Indian Ocean.

PhotoFriday :: Sunset Collage

A collage based on a series of photos of the sunset taken at Venus Bay

as posted on imageo.withknown.com

For PhotoFriday‘s topic Orange

PhotoFriday :: Sunrise

For PhotoFriday‘s topic Sunrise

First Fruit

I have an orange tree which is in a very exposed area and has had to suffer a series of very hot summers while it got established, and this year a very wild winter but after not fruiting for 5 years it is finally covered in very small oranges. I had to try just one. Shows promise but bigger would be nice.

 

PhotoFriday :: Solitude

 

For PhotoFriday‘s topic Solitude

PhotoFriday :: The Ibis arrive through the smoke haze

After the bush fires at the weekend just north of Melbourne, a thick haze has settle on suburban Melbourne and the Ibis flew into an orange brown twilight.

For PhotoFriday‘s topic twilight

The Making of Patch Submission II

I took these photos back on the first of January principally as an illustration of New Year and Renewal, the first challenge for the Patch. Hopefully they tell the story of one of my new year resolutions, to clean up my studio. Then I re-read the challenges and realised it was more appropriate for the second week theme Resolution and Renewal. Sounds good, just wait, and in waiting I thought it would be good to create a montage/collage with a new page showing the messy floor being turned to reveal a clean floor. That was a good idea until +Laura Rivera  posted a very good new page turning on her diary for her first submission. Great photo nicely execution. Back to the drawing board for me! My next idea was just to have an overlapping collage. Looks ok but… the story seems back to front. So then I came up with the idea of printing out the photos, shredding them, collecting the pieces and reassembling a composite image. A bit more abstract this time Fair bit of work but I needed to convince myself this is a resolution I’m going to keep. Just in case your wondering yes I have cleaned up and things are “mostly” still tidy. If you want to see the final submission you’ll find it here.

PhotoFriday :: Fiery Sky

For PhotoFriday‘s topic Fiery

PhotoFriday :: Temperature

For PhotoFriday‘s topic Temperature

PhotoProject :: Colour My Day

Over the past week I have been trying to take a coloured themed photo each day, and it was harder than it might seem. Yet colour is everywhere, pretty much anywhere with light starts to deliver a spectrum of wavelength that we see are colours. The photographic challenge here was to see those situations where one colour dominated.

Not a Flower

Bougainvillea in the morning light. There are two interesting things about this plant. First the bright "petals" at the end of new shoots are not flowers at all, they are juvenile leaves, the actual flowers are the two very small white/yellowish dots (you will need to zoom in). Second whilst it is a tropical rainforest plant it isn't from New Guinea or Bougainville Island. It was named by a grateful botanist who accompanied Bouganinville on his circumnavigational voyage of discovery. The thorny but colourful plants originate in South America.