Beach Dune

I think it’s time to go back to the beach.  It’s warming up out here (it never really got cold to be honest, although one evening a woman in a fur coat angrily asked me if I was cold because I was wearing a t-shirt.  It was probably around 55 degrees, and I was not, in fact, cold.) and there are great photo opportunities at the west coast beaches; especially the Orange County beaches.  This picture was not taken out here though; I took this one a couple years ago in Florida.  I described the beautiful Gulf Coast beaches in earlier posts here and here, so I’ll spare you another long winded description, but I really love this place.  Did I mention three generations of Jewell’s vacation at Long Boat Key?

Eventually I’d like to be able to look back at this blog and see an evolution of my photography.  You can already do this somewhat, but when I go around posting 2 year old photos here and there, it can be somewhat difficult.  I can see a slight evolution in my post processing style, so that is nice, although some of my earlier work isn’t too far off from my current stuff.  I actually like this though, because my earlier work wasn’t usually edited too strongly.  How much evolution can there be though; this site isn’t even a year old yet.  I can definitely see an evolution when I look at some of my older unpublished photographs, and I can happily say, I’m getting better.  I can also say though that I’m still trying new things and not getting complacent in a style I’m familiar with.  At least I think so anyway.

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2008:05:29 15:24
Exposure time	1/2500 sec
Focal length	18mm
F-Stop	f/3.5
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure Bias	0

Fishy Silverwood Lake

I took this picture at Silverwood Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains.  I went exploring one day, with one of the area’s mountain lakes in mind as my eventual destination and found myself at this dam (seen on the left).  It was a pretty area, and there were great wispy clouds in the sky that day (not so much seen in this particular picture), which are my favorite kind of cloud to photograph.  There were also a lot of annoying people with stereos fishing at the other end of the dam, taking up some good photographic real estate.

This photograph is a panorama comprised of three shots stitched together.  Each picture is a single exposure.  After stitching them together, I did some editing in Photoshop to get the exact look I wanted.  I titled this Fishy Silverwood Lake for a couple reasons.  First of all, it’s a lake and there are most certainly fish living within (see above for indirect evidence of this), and second, the angle of view is greater than my 10mm lens could achieve.  Whether or not it is 180 degrees from left to right as would be the case with a fisheye lens, I don’t know, but I do know it’s very wide.  There’s also no crazy fisheye distortion.  I felt fishy was a fair description.  Enjoy.

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2009:11:21 14:29
Exposure time	1/400 sec
Focal length	10mm
F-Stop	f/9
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure Bias	-1

Downtown from 169

I think this will be my last downtown Kansas City picture for a while; I have processed all the ones I have taken that I like.  I feel this is a pretty unique angle of downtown.  It was taken from north of the city on Highway 169 as I was walking home from the Downtown Kansas City Airport Air Show.  I lived north of downtown, so this is similar to the view I got from my apartment. This is also pretty much the reverse view of my Highway 169 photograph.

I’m not sure what the name of the apartment complex is, but if you notice on the left side of this picture, there is a large parking garage somewhat visible.  It doesn’t look bad in this picture, but in real life, that parking garage and the associated apartment buildings look terrible.  Pretty much all of the other buildings in the River Market area of downtown are old brick buildings.  Many have been renovated and are very nice on the inside, but the historic exterior remains unchanged.  Anyway, these new apartment buildings are architecturally completely different from the rest of the River Market.  They’re poorly constructed, much like many of the suburban apartments in Overland Park (all wood construction, cheap materials, build quickly), and look generally like a suburban apartment complex.  Because these apartments were built surrounding my old gym, I got to see construction progress every day, so I feel that I’m pretty much an expert on the subject.  What I’m really trying to say here is that these apartments are ruining the River Market, and I’m glad I moved away when I did.  I always hoped during construction that the building would ‘accidentally’ burn down and the project would be scrapped.  If you ever get the opportunity, please stop by their office, and tell them to go to hell for me.

Getting back on point, this was taken during my HDR period, so it’s a 5 shot handheld HDR.  Check out the EXIF info below for a little more information.

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2009:08:23 12:34
Exposure time	1/1000 sec
Focal length	18mm
F-Stop	f/8
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure	5 Photo HDR

Mormon Rocks

Also known as the Latter Day Saints Rocks, it has been said that these rocks were the site of a trip and fall that slightly inconvenienced Jules Verne during a hiking expedition in Southern California, supposedly leading him to criticize the Mormon religion in a small part of his book Around the World in 80 Days.  These rocks are also where a group of Mormons passed through the mountains on their way to Los Angeles in the 1850’s, after fleeing Utah and a homicidal Mormon Militia.

OK, so I may or may not have made parts of that up.  These rocks really are called Mormon Rocks, apparently because some Mormons Manifested Destiny through the Cajon Pass, between the San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountains, where these rocks are located.

I don’t have much experience with black and white photography, but I think this one looks pretty good in black and white.  I converted it to look like Kodak Professional T-MAX 100 black and white film.  Generally I like color photographs more because of, well, all the pretty colors.  Like I said though, I think this looks pretty good in black and white, and I wanted to try something different.  I will probably eventually post the color version as well, because I like it a lot too.

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2009:11:07 17:53
Exposure time	1/100 sec
Focal length	50mm
F-Stop	f/10
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure Bias	0

Corporate Fountain

Here’s an old one that I had intended to re-shoot after I got my wide angle lens.  I never got around to reshooting it before they turned off the fountains for the winter, so I decided to just go with this one for now, because I like it.  It isn’t as wide as I’d like, and now that I have a new filter that will allow me to shoot long exposures during the daylight, I believe I can greatly improve this image with a reshoot, but that probably won’t happen for a while.  I know you’re all disappointed, but that’s very insulting since I gave you this perfectly good picture to hold you over.

Anyway, this is a 5 shot HDR I took at the same time as Quick Turnaround, located in this corporate office park in Overland Park, Kansas called Corporate Woods.

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2009:05:23 19:59
Exposure time	1/500 sec
Focal length	18mm
F-Stop	f/22
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure	5 Photo HDR

Windansea and Rocks

I feel like the majority of my readers are probably in a cold place right now so I thought I’d share a little of the southern California warmth. I took a little drive down to San Diego not long ago to visit a friend and stopped at this beach before meeting up with him. I was looking for somewhere pretty that wouldn’t be crowded and based on descriptions on the internet, this beach looked good. It’s called Windansea Beach. I think that’s an appropriate name as there was wind and there was a sea, and then there was a beach. There were numerous rock formations on the beach and extending into the ocean, which on occasion made for some spectacular sights when large waves crashed into them.

Between the beach and the deeper water were some gnarly rocks but since the surf was up the local surfers were stoked and most certainly hanging ten while hitting the surf. I read online that the local surfers would act totally bogus towards anyone who wasn’t a local and tried to catch a wave without waiting their turn.

OK, that was ridiculous, but I believe everything I said was true. This beach was very pretty, as was the rest of San Diego. I’ve found that I really like these beaches with rocks around them for pictures, but I’d prefer a classic sand beach if I wanted to get in and go swimming. This photograph is a single exposure with some light editing in post.

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2009:11:14 9:59
Exposure time	1/500 sec
Focal length	50mm
F-Stop	f/8
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure Bias	-1

Back in Kansas City

No, I’m not back in Kansas City, but I am starting to miss the place.  I took this the last full weekend I lived there.  I had actually gone to that area to take a specific picture I had in mind, but that didn’t turn out well because I didn’t like how it looked with the cloudy sky.  I did like this one though, and a few others from that day.  For those of you not from the area, that is downtown Kansas City’s skyline, with the back lawn of the Liberty Memorial in the foreground.

I’ve been steering away from the HDR photos recently, but I took this one at the beginning of my journey towards primarily single shot photos.  There is something about a cloudy sky though that makes an HDR work very well.  As long as it’s not overdone, I think it’s alright.  This is a 5 shot HDR.  I strengthened some of the more subtle colors in the sky during post-processing, and of course combined the 5 images for the original HDR.


I've got a number of pictures I really like lined up for you all, and many more just waiting for post-processing.  I'm also out and about in southern California pretty much every weekend shooting, so stay tuned for a lot of posts in 2010!

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2009:10:10 14:26
Exposure time	1/100 sec
F-Stop	10mm
Focal number	f/16
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure	5 Photo HDR