Brian Moran HDR Photography: April 2011

Friday, April 29, 2011

Saturn Rockets - Kennedy Space Center

Hello from Florida! As most of you know, my wife and I have spent the past few days here in Florida with the ultimate goal of viewing the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-134 that was supposed to occur today at 3:47PM. Unfortunately, there was an issue with two heaters on Auxiliary Power Unit 1 and the launch was scrubbed. The absolute earliest that a launch can occur now is Monday, which (if it happens) will be good, but that is the latest date that we will be able to stay as we are slated to fly back home the following day. Delays are bound to happen, although I think the words of John Glenn sum it up perfectly:

"I felt exactly how you would feel if you were getting ready to launch and knew you were sitting on top of two million parts -- all built by the lowest bidder on a government contract."

So, here are two photos from our trip to Florida of two of the massive rockets in the Saturn family. The first is the Saturn I-B that is on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex "Rocket Garden", while the second is the end of the massive Saturn V rocket that is on display at the Apollo/Saturn V Center, located at a different portion of the Kennedy Space Center. It is really astonishing to see just how massive these rockets are in person, no photo can truly do either of them justice!

Saturn I-B

Saturn V

If you are so inclined, please feel free to leave any comments or feedback. Also remember that clicking on the photo takes you to my online gallery hosted over at smugmug where you can view this (and my other photos) in various sizes. If you enjoyed this post, please take the time to pass my post(s) on to others whom you also feel would enjoy my work. Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

I'm Batman!

Today's photo is one of the most unique shots that I have composed to date. The shot is of one of the miniature statues that I have (Batman Black and White, produced in 2005) that I took with my new macro lens. I played around with some lighting from an LED flashlight and finally got the perspective that I wanted. I thought about creating a backdrop to shoot against but decided instead to add in a blurred city perspective as a part of processing.

To me it looks like something almost out of a video game, comic book, or advertisement and I absolutely am THRILLED with the resulting photo. I think the angle and perspective that I shot the miniature figure blends well with the background so it stands out, but not terribly much so.

I am still experimenting with different options and opportunities with the macro lens but I might just have to create a few more shots like this in the near future!

I'm Batman!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

San Antonio Botanical Garden

Today's photo is a shot taken slightly before dusk of one of the courtyards at the San Antonio Botanical Garden. I took this photo prior to the "Flowers and Fireworks" presentation last Sunday night. It was a little windy, and instead of cleaning up all of the ghosting like I normally do (I am a stickler for details, after all) I decided to keep some of it because it creates a slightly blurred look to the branches. I think it actually captures the movement of the trees in the wind as if it were a longer exposure taken with less light and I really like the resulting look. If you have never been to the Botanical Garden I highly recommend paying a visit, there are a LOT of interesting photo opportunities, ranging from macro to landscapes, and just about everything in between!

San Antonio Botanical Garden

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Flowers and Fireworks

This past Sunday I attended the "Flowers and Fireworks" presentation at the San Antonio Botanical Garden. Fireworks are launched from Fort Sam Houston (located next door) and the vantage point from the garden is excellent. I had hoped that the fireworks would be higher in the air (to get some reflections in either one of the large lakes or the small pond) but I ended up settling on this view from the lower courtyard. The tops of the two buildings did a decent job framing the fireworks in the photo, so I just took photos trying to time the shots perfectly. As you probably know if you have shot fireworks, it can be difficult getting the timing just right to capture "the" shot you are looking for, but the shots below are what I feel are the best. Neither of the images are "true HDR" images, although I did blend portions from an overexposed and underexposed version together then did some work with the curves and other effects using Nik Color Efex Pro and Silver Efex Pro.

Flowers and Fireworks I

Flowers and Fireworks II

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Trying out the macro lens

This weekend I was fortunate enough to procure the Canon 100m f./2.8 L macro lens, specifically so I can start to learn the art of macro photography. I have a lot to learn but I figured one of the best places to start would be the San Antonio Botanical Garden, located on the east side of town. I was surprised by the size of the gardens and just how many plants/flowers/exhibits are on display. I took quite a few photos of various flowers, but the three shots below are the ones that I think make the best examples to talk about in today's post. All of the shots were taken at f/8, although I know that I am going to need either an extreme amount of sunlight or a very good flash (though a combination of both would be the best) to do some of the extreme closeup shots that I want to take. However, f/8 worked pretty good to isolate the flower in each of the photos, although the background of the cactus flower shot came out a little more "clear" than I had anticipated. I am absolutely thrilled with this lens and it is going to open up a LOT of interesting photos, but I just need some time to mess around with the lens and lighting in order to create some really interesting shots!

(All of the images were made from one RAW shot and I blended the result with the original "middle" bracket to give the shot a touch more "realism lighting" than I normally do for my photos!)

Red Rose

George Burns Rose

Cactus Flower

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Green Fountain

Today's photo is another shot that I took just prior to St. Patrick's Day when the river was dyed green. This shot is of one of the decorative fountains along the Riverwalk that caught my eye because of the green water that was cascading through it. There was not much light as the fountain is located under a bridge, so the time lapse that was necessary to take the bracketed shots ended up smoothing the water very nicely.

Green Fountain

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Daytime Skyline

Today's photo is a daytime shot that I took at the beginning of March of the San Antonio skyline as viewed from the parking garage stairwell behind the Casa Rio Restaurant. The shot was taken on a partly cloudy day shortly before sunset so the sky looks a little more ominous than it really was. I really wanted to get a trolley in the shot and fortunately I only had to wait a few minutes before one of the trolleys was caught waiting for the light. I have posted several shots from this vantage point that were taken at night, but I believe this is the first one that I have posted that was actually taken during the day. Which one do you like more?

Daytime Skyline

Monday, April 4, 2011

Looking Through The Branches

Today's photo is another shot that I took while photographing the exterior of the Trinity Baptist Church. I came upon this view while trying to determine the best location to photograph the church, which I ultimately determined was the angle that I shot the photos in yesterday's post. I tried my best to time the brackets so the shot would be minimally affected by the light breeze that was blowing and I think that I got pretty lucky in my timing.

I added a touch of vignetting and some extra desaturation to the edges of the photo to help draw the focus more to the center of the shot. The branches and bushes did an excellent job framing the shot, but I wanted the focus to be the church, not the vegetation surrounding the church. I also did not take the step of "bleaching" the white columns like I did in yesterday's shot because it made this shot a look to unrealistic for my liking, so I kept the slightly "dirty" look to the columns which I think actually helps maintain the overall balance of the shot.

I also debated cropping the photo to make the steeple the center of the shot, but I felt it was best to have the steeple appear off-center, as the square white column on the left and the last round white column on the white are about 1/3 from the left and 1/3 from the right, respectively. This in a sense centers the visible portion of the shot and I like that look compared to selectively centering a portion of the church (in this case, the steeple).

Looking Through The Branches

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Trinity Baptist Church

The subject of today's post is the Trinity Baptist Church, located at 319 E. Mulberry Ave in San Antonio, Texas. I was not aware of this church until last night when a couple from the church stopped by the First Friday showing. That is truly one of the things that I enjoy most about meeting and talking with people who recognize my work, it usually ends up leading to locations that I had not previously thought of shooting (like Judson's Candy Factory). The prominent steeple and marble columns make this by far the most unique church exterior that I have shot to date and hopefully I will be able to able to take shots from the interior in the near future. It reminds me of a building that you would see in Washington D.C. or somewhere on the East Coast, not here in San Antonio.

Processing the shot turned out to be a little bit of a challenge, as I had to get very close and use the 10-22mm wide angle lens to capture the portion of the building that I wanted while ensuring that the view was not impeded by the power lines that ran along the sidewalk in front of the church. I was fortunate enough to think about the building leaning while I was shooting so I made sure to get the widest possible shot because I knew with processing some of the shot would be discarded due to the needed distortion correction. I used the DxO Optics Pro 6 software to ensure that the building appeared upright and vertical, rather than leaning backward. In order to do this I lost some of the foreground at the bottom of the shot, some of the sky, and some of the sides of the building, but since I had accounted for it while shooting I was able to retain the full steeple and marble columns, but not retaining much else from the shot.

I included the "original" version of the shot as well to show just how amazing of a tool DxO Optics Pro 6 really is! (If you are not using this tool to counteract barrel distortion you should be!!) Once again I was impressed with the black and white version of the shot that I use to help make the coloring appear more natural, so I included the black and white version of the final shot as well! One more note about the original compared to the final versions, I ended up cleaning the white of the shot quite considerably, so the columns and steeple look much "cleaner" than the original version.

Trinity Baptist Church - exterior

Black and White - Trinity Baptist Church - exterior

Original (pre-distortion processing)

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Reprocessed Parking Garage Skyline

First of all I would like to thank everyone that came by to visit the First Friday display on Thursday and Friday. It was great to meet so many people and I am truly flattered by all of the kind comments and remarks that were made about the photos that I was showing. And of course the biggest thank you goes out to Juan for letting me show at his loft during First Friday!

Today's post consists of reprocessing one of the most popular shots that I have ever taken from the parking garage behind Casa Rio on the Riverwalk (in fact, the photo won first prize in a contest held by Penn Camera in November!). I decided to re-process the shot because there were some elements that I though I could improve on by working on the photo again, primarily retaining more detail and making the colors appear more natural. In order to retain the detail I used the technique of "area noise reduction" (which I first learned of from Scott Frederick) which allows me to make the sky smoother while retaining details on the buildings (which also helps focus more on the buildings and less on the sky!).

The coloring I was able to enhance using Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 by creating a black and white layer of the shot, then blending it with the finished product to make the color appear more natural and less eye-popping.

I actually ended up liking the black and white version so much that I also saved it out and posted that photo as well. I am very satisfied with all of the tools from Nik Software, but I do not think any of them has enhanced my work more than Silver Efex 2 (and the original Silver Efex as well!).

Reprocessed Parking Garage Skyline