Young and old...Sea World style!

Today's post features two shots that I took over the long Memorial Day weekend during a trip to Sea World San Antonio. The first features a dolphin (I can't remember his name, as soon as I do I will post an update!) swimming in Dolphin Cove. What is notable about this particular dolphin is you might notice that his jaw is a little crooked and his teeth don't look all that good. That is because this dolphin is in his mid-40s, which is really old for a dolphin. BUT..there is an even OLDER dolphin in the Cove as well! She is a great-grandmother and is estimated to be in her early 50s.

Elderly Dolphin

The next shot is of a young blue-billed duck. It isn't as young as some of the ducks that we saw this weekend (some of the young ducks by the zoo were walking ON lily pads in the San Antonio river!!). Those ducks did not have the prominent blue bill like this one though, so this duck made a much more fitting subject for a photo.

Young blue-billed duck

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In the bottle

Today's photo is another example of how a common object can look very different when you toss a macro lens and flash combination into the mix. The subject of today's photo is a bottle of beer (Beverageous Intoxicatious) with the camera positioned over the top of the bottle looking down and the focus being in the interior contents rather than the bottle itself. I think this shot creates a pretty interesting perspective and I don't recall ever seeing a shot like this before (that is not to say that it has not been done, as I am sure it has, I just don't remember seeing a shot from a vantage point like this before with beer in the bottle).

I thought about trying to get the bottle and coaster perfectly centered in the shot to give it a sense symmetry, but I think that would actually detract from the photo and the slightly off-centered look ends up creating a much better looking shot. I used a single RAW image for this shot and used DPP to create a total of three shots of +1, 0, and -1. I am really enjoying the macro flash and lens combination (I honestly don't know why I waited so long before getting the flash) and still have quite a bit of learning to do, but as long as I manage to get a shot like this every once in awhile that really impresses me, the learning curve of macro photography is definitely worth it!

In the bottle

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Snake!!!

The subject of today's photo is a rattlesnake that is on display at the San Antonio Zoo. This one stuck out in my mind because it is very fat compared to the other snakes and the rattle is very long.

I used a touch of AlienSkin Software Bokeh on this shot to help make the snake stand out a bit more from the background (similar to what I did in the Marvel Superhero Island photo from a few days ago). I took this shot with the Tamron lens so the color and clarity are not what would be if I had taken this shot with one of my "L" lenses. Our zoo trip yesterday was primarily to test out my new macro flash as well as the new carry bag that I got. The bag is much smaller than my previous bag, but I only have the option to take a few lenses (two, three at the most) so I chose the 100m macro and the Tamron 28-300mm as that would give me the widest possible option to shoot with (and since it is the zoo, a high zoom lens is really important). I really like the new bag (Clik Elite Impulse Sling) (it is very light and very small) for around the area but when I travel and I need more lenses my tamrac Expedition bag will be back in service again.

Snake!!!

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Old-Fashioned Friday - Tower of Terror

Welcome back to Old Fashioned Friday! It has been a few weeks since I made my last post on this theme and this Friday is as good as any to start it back up again!

The subject of today's photo is of the seemingly innocent looking Hollywood Tower Hotel. If you have visited Walt Disney World (specifically Hollywood Studios) you know that "innocent" is a term that you would likely never associated with the "hotel". This building is the exterior of the ride the "Tower of Terror". Riders are buckled into an elevator with seats and go on a very short tour while seeing the ghosts of passengers that were in an elevator in the same hotel when it was struck by lightning, which sent the elevator and occupants plummeting to their demise. Then, everything goes black and the ride plummets (the drop is supposed to be 13 stories but it didn't really feel that far). You bounce up and down a few times, arriving at different "floors", then the ride ends with an exit through the obligatory gift shop (Note: I have heard that is actually a law in Florida. All rides must exit through a gift shop!).

This photo was a combination of 6 bracketed shots and one +1, 0, and -1 shot from a RAW image (to counteract the blurring/ghosting from the trees due to a slight but persistent breeze), standard processing, and then I added my normal "old" style processing using Silver Efex Pro 2.

Old Fashioned Friday - Tower of Terror

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Superhero Island

Today's photo was taken on Superhero Island at Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida (the same park that also has the "Wizarding World of Harry Potter" attraction). Right after eating lunch we saw the cast of superheroes arrive to pose for pictures and interact with park guests. An "alert" siren sounded and they rushed back to their vehicles so they could "save the day" (although I am not exactly sure what they were "saving", more on that in a bit!) I decided to get some shots as they were ready to ride off and didn't even realize that Spiderman "posed" in the first shot until I got home (I took about a high-speed series of about 15 shots in roughly 4 seconds to be sure that I captured some good shots).

Shortly after they left Dr. Doom appeared to also take photos and interact with the crowd. I understand the excitement of seeing comic book heroes in real-life, but I can't understand why so many kids wanted shots with the evil Dr. Doom. I was the only one booing him. Oh well!

The processed HDR shot is taken from one RAW photo, with the processed image consisting of -1,0, and +1 shots. I added some bokeh to an entire layer in Photoshop using Alien Skin Bokeh 2, then desaturated that shot using Silver Efex Pro 2. I used the masking tool to "carve" out the original saturation (and clarity) of the superheroes, ATVs, and flags (unfortunately the flags on the back of the ATVs were old and faded, I tried to make them look "new" but it ended up making the flags too "fake" and I didn't like the outcome), then merge the layers together to give the background a fuzzy and black and white look. I then merged that with the original to create a slightly "ghosted" look to the crowd, so it sort of looks like a mono-chromatic background like a comic book scene.

Superhero Island

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It's a Trap!

Today's shot is one that was inspired by our vacation to Florida. We had a few chances to visit downtown Disney during our trip (it was a short boat trip away from the Port Orleans Resort where we were staying after all!) and one of the most interesting stores that we visited was the Lego store. There was a Lego knight and dragon as well as an interesting Lego sea monster at the store, but the item that I was really impressed with was the Lego Imperial Shuttle. The detail was so impressive that I thought it was a model when I first saw it. That got me on my current idea of taking macro shots of a few Lego playsets and characters in hopes of producing some pretty cool images.

Today's shot is courtesy of the Home One Mon Calamari Star Cruiser set (#7754). Admiral Ackbar has had a special place in my heart for some time and I jumped at the chance to acquire the set and construct the bridge. I was slightly concerned about the proper backdrop, but it turns out a perfectly placed light actually created the perfect backdrop (the blue-ish glow behind him is the light reflecting off a Puffs Plus tissue box of all things)! Admiral Ackbar was a trooper throughout the photo shoot, I don't think he moved once, although I thought I did hear him muttering something about my camera lens being unable to "repel good looks of this magnitude".

I have plans to construct at least one more Lego set (sorry, no hints on what it might be!) but I am so happy with the way this shot turned out I have a few ideas for some more interesting Lego Star Wars photos that I will be shooting and sharing in the near future!

It's a Trap!

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Hamilton Pool Nature Preserve - May 2011

Today's photo is another shot from what may be my favorite place in Texas to shoot, the Hamilton Pool Nature Preserve near Dripping Springs, Texas. I had hoped to get up there on a partly cloudy day, but unfortunately it was clear blue skies. Instead of using Photoshop to put in the cloudy background, I took several underexposed shots of just the blue sky in order to make the differential between the sky and the vegetation less noticeable (personally, I think it came out very good!). I am still hoping to get up there a little bit later this year when there is more of an actual waterfall as well as even more vegetation. I have a season pass, it is just an issue of trying to find the time to account for shooting and about 3 hours of round-trip traveling.

Hamilton Pool Nature Preserve - May 2011

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Apollo 8 Mission Control

Today's photo is a shot that I took while touring the Apollo/Saturn V Center during our visit to the Kennedy Space Center. After witnessing a short video presentation that detailed the beginnings of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union, we shuffled into a room that was set up to mimic mission control during the launch of Apollo 8. We managed to get a seat in the second row and I had enough room to set up my tripod and take some long exposure shots (long enough to capture enough light to create a good photo anyway).

I ended up deciding not to take bracketed shots for this scene because there were too many different lights and countdown clocks and the brackets would have come out looking terrible. The fact that I didn't have much room for the tripod also contributed to my decision, as I could not guarantee it would remain stable during the period of time that I would need to create a set of bracketed shots. So, this image was created from a single RAW shot, the different exposures were created using DPP, then processed using my normal methods. As the last step I then converted using Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 and decided that I liked the black and white look more than the color version, so I decided to keep it and make that my final processed shot.

Apollo 8 Mission Control

Canon 60D, on tripod, 1 RAW shot, Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM (@10mm), Aperature f/8

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Remember the gator that got your hand?....

Today's photo is another that I took while playing around with the 100mm macro lens. I managed to sneak up quietly on a napping gator during our trip to Florida and managed to snag this shot before running away screaming and crying like a little girl because the ordeal was terrifying!!!

Ok, ok. So none of that is true (except for me taking the shot with the macro lens). About 4 years ago on the way back from a trip to Florida from visiting my wife's family we stopped at a little tourist trap shop along a highway. Only because they had a sign proclaiming "see live gators", as seeing live gators is totally fascinating to me. One of the "momentos" that were available for purchase were gator heads, which I gladly purchased (although I will admit it did smell a little funny the entire trip back to Texas!). I subsequently purchased an autographed football display case to store the head in, and it has resided in my computer room ever since.

I took it out of the case for this shot, but I had trouble getting the exact angle and lighting that I wanted. It probably took me about 2 hours total before I finally got the shot that I was looking for. I am still learning about macro photography, I really think that I am going to have to get one of the macro lens specific flashes at some point to capture more of the shots that I want, but for now random objects that I have around the house make pretty interesting subjects to say the least!

Gator Head

Canon 60D, on tripod, 3 bracketed shots (-2,0-2), Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro (@100mm), Aperature f/8

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PS: Yes, the title of today's post came directly from the classic golf movie Happy Gilmore, in case you were wondering!!

Hyatt Hill Country Dusk

My original plan for today's post was going to be a couple of shots that I took while touring the Kennedy Space Center, in honor of this morning's launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour (which, while I am disappointed that I did not get to see it live, based on photos of the launch, the low clouds made the prime photography window VERY short so that would have had added some disappointment to witnessing the launch). I took these shots last night and was really impressed with how they came out so I decided to share them today at KSC/NASA photos will wait a few days!

The first shot was taken after a long journey (about 2134 jelly beans *) from my back door to the back fence line, which borders the 6th fairway of the Lakes Course at the Hyatt Hill Country Resort. When I investigated the cause of abnormal barking by our three vicious attacks dogs (Pomeranian, Chihuahua, and Pug), which turned out to be our neighbors in their backyard (which, for whatever reason, still causes the dogs to go bonkers), I saw the sunbeams bursting through our own low cloud cover and rushed to get my camera. This was actually the first set of bracketed shots that I took. I took a few more but none captured the sunbeams as vividly as this photo so I settled on this set for processing.

Lakes Course Sunbeams

Canon 60D, on tripod, 3 bracketed shots (-2,0-2), EF 17-40mm f/4L (@40mm), Aperature f/8

The second shot is the entrance to the Wild Oak Ranch, which is part of the Hyatt Hill Country Resort. I have wanted to take a shot of the entrance for awhile (especially since the flowers have started to bloom) but never really had a good day to take the shot until yesterday, which was just the right amount of cloud cover, relatively calm winds, and actually having some time to set up for the shot. I took this shot on the corner of the sidewalk bordering the entrance after taking several from across the street. I decided that I liked this angle the most and processed it. I might end up working on the across the street shot at some point, but there is something that I just really like about this shot but I cannot put my finger on exactly what that is.

Wild Oak Ranch Entrance

Canon 60D, on tripod, 3 bracketed shots (-2,0-2), EF 17-40mm f/4L (@17mm), Aperature f/8

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* Roughly 35 feet

Disney Castle Fireworks

Today's post contains three photos, but all were taken during the same time frame so I included all of them in one post. The very first day at the Magic Kingdom we got to experience the Electric Light Parade as well as the show "Wishes" which contains a pretty extravagant firework display. Unfortunately the first night the vantage point that I picked out was not prime for taking shots of the fireworks so I scouted out a few possible locations to set up at for when we went back a few nights later. I finally decided on a spot across from the castle that had a nice viewing angle and, most importantly, no obstructions. I got to the spot at about 7:30 and waited until the fireworks show slated for 10:00. I probably could have set up around 8:00, but by 8:15 people were already trying to get a prime location for watching the parade, day in the park photo/video presentation, and the fireworks, so I think arriving on the early side was a much better approach.

The first shot is of the castle itself illuminated in one of the many colors that it can be seen in starting shortly before sunset. I like the way that this color turned out the most, but the clouds in the background also made the photo a little more complete in my eyes. I cranked up the aperature to f/13 a bit to try to get the motion more blurred to help the stationary people pop out a bit more from the motion in the background.

Green Disney Castle

Canon 60D, on tripod, 3 shots (-2,0-2), EF 17-40mm f/4L (@17mm), Aperature f/13

The next two shots are from the "Wishes" fireworks display which was pretty impressive to watch (although the best overall show we saw at Disney was Fantasmic!, held at Hollywood Studios, which I didn't bring my camera for). I managed to get several shots (around 75 I think) of the fireworks but these two are by far what I consider the most appealing. These photos are once again not really HDR (HDR firework shots really don't come out looking that good) but I modified them using the Nik Software suite and other tweaks such as selective coloring and curves to try to bring out the photo more vividly than the way it was captured with my camera.

Capturing fireworks are tough, you have to be quick enough to get the shot, but you don't want to let too much light in and oversaturate the rest of the photo. There is a very fine line and I think every setting is unique, you just have to try a few different approaches early in the display to hopefully get the details just right so you can capture most of the show.

Disney Castle Fireworks I

Canon 60D, on tripod, 1 RAW shot, EF 17-40mm f/4L (@17mm), Aperature f/8, manual 3.2 second exposure

Disney Castle Fireworks II

Canon 60D, on tripod, 1 RAW shot, EF 17-40mm f/4L (@17mm), Aperature f/8, manual 3.2 second exposure

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Daytona Beach Beach

Today's photo is one of the last shots that I took on our vacation, it is a shot of Daytona Beach, but quite a bit south of the "beachfront" located in the city. We drove for about 20 minutes to a spot to the south to find somewhere that was inundated with people, fortunately this spot ended up being perfect. I set the tripod up very low to the ground to take this shot from through the seagrass. I am really happy with how this shot came out even though it is a "psuedo" HDR, as it is generated entirely from one RAW image (the grass blew way to much to try to get a good handle on de-ghosting so I just did it from one shot).

Daytona Beach beach

Canon 60D, on tripod, 1 RAW shot (-2, 0, and +2 through DPP) EF 17-40mm f/4L (@32mm), Aperature f/8

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Star Wars At Disney

Today's photos were taken at Disney Hollywood Studios during our vacation to Florida. The first day that we visited the park I didn't take my camera, thinking that there would not be much there that I would be interested in shooting. Boy was I wrong!

The first photo is looking up at a recreation of the Ewok Village on the Forest Moon of Endor. As you wait in line for the ride "Star Tours" (which was unfortunately closed during our trip) the queue wraps around the Ewok Village. I purposely took the shot with the sun casting some glare because I think it adds to the overall feel of the shot. I did a small bit of touch-up brightening on the base of the tree in the center of the photo, but I only modified that small little bit from the resulting image in Photomatix.

Even though the area was closed off I managed to slip in during one of the parades and get enough shots to compose this photo before I was asked if I was "lost". Yes, I definitely was "lost", but it was in the wonderment of being able to actually photograph something that I had seen in Return of the Jedi growing up!

Ewok Village

Canon 60D, on tripod, 9 total shots (-4 through +4), EF 17-40mm f/4L (@17mm), Aperature f/8

The second shot is of an AT-AT that was located near the village. This was a pretty difficult shot to process because it was quite windy when I took these shots, so despite my best efforts the trees are slightly blurred, although once again I think this enhances the centerpiece of the shot, the very menacing AT-AT. I thought about adding a little emphasis to the shot like a glow around the barrels as if it had just been shooting at me, but ultimately decided against it.

AT-AT

Canon 60D, on tripod, 9 total shots (-4 through +4), EF 17-40mm f/4L (@32mm), Aperature f/8

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Endeavour on launchpad

Today's photo was taken during the Discover KSC: Today & Tomorrow tour at the stop which is closest to the launchpad itself, approximately 5000 feet away. Before the launch there is a security buffer a mile in diameter that prevents any individuals from getting any closer, and the tour actually provides the closest vantage point that you can visit before a launch. I took this shot with the Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6L lens which I rented from borrowlenses.com (thanks guys, the lens was great!!). At this site there is also a small bunker which was constructed to protect a generator (from the sound waves (and anything else that could happen in a failed launch)) that powered cameras placed near the site to monitor a launch. The front of the shuttle was protected by the Rotating Service Structure (RSS) that protects the shuttle and is usually pulled back about 24 hours before the launch. That was not the case for the launch attempt on Friday as severe weather rolled through Thursday night and it was not retracted to just before midnight. And then the issue with the heaters on the APU scrubbed the launch so the pictures that I took during the tour are the "space" highlights from our vacation to Florida.

Endeavour on the launchpad

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Hogwarts - Day and Night

Today's photos come from Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, the theme park that is located next to the original Universal Studios Park near downtown Orlando. The "Wizarding World of Harry Potter" is one of the newest and most heavily promoted attractions at the park. The area includes three roller coasters (two of them are the same ride) and a recreation of the town of Hogsmeade, complete with shops and attractions. The center piece is the castle itself, which contains a ride that takes visitors on a ride around the "world" of Harry Potter. Visiting was pretty interesting, but I think the castle itself was by far the highlight of attraction.

It was a little windy when I took the day shot, so the trees have a little bit of ghosting, but once again I like how that looks, especially compared to the stationary castle. I managed to Photoshop the floodlights out of the day shot, but I wasn't able to remove it from the night shot as I would have to had modify the castle and I feel that would detract from the overall quality of the shot.

Hogwarts - Day

Hogwarts - Night

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