Category Archives: Architecture
Hoover Dam
I usually spend a good deal of time planning my photo trips. I research locations, vantage points, weather, different lighting conditions and sun trajectories to make sure I’m in the right spot at the right time. I of course leave a considerable amount of time for wandering around and shooting what I see but I have found that I have gotten many more quality shots by spending a little more time planning. I knew I wanted to get this shot of the Hoover Dam during blue hour and I was able to pick a perfectly clear evening that didn’t disappoint.
For the processing on this image, I did something a bit different and decided not to use use Photomatix (or any tone mapping for that matter). I used Photoshop to manually layer the 5 exposures and mask in the parts of the image that I wanted. I was very pleased with the result – what do you think?
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 16-35
Processing: Photomatix Pro 4, Adobe Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5
Mill Avenue Bridge
I hope everyone had a great weekend. I had a really long day yesterday – I left my house at 5am and I got home at midnight. Needless to say, I’m exhausted. Enjoy today’s picture from Tempe Town lake and have a good one!
Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Nikon 18-105
Processing: Photomatix Pro 4, Adobe Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5
Bridge to the Mill
Just a quick post for today. I took this shot at the last photo walk in Downtown Tempe. Enjoy and have a great one!
Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Nikkor 18-105mm
Processing: Photomatix Pro 4, Adobe Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5, Topaz Adjust
The Haunted Mill
Here’s another shot that I took during the Photowalk this past weekend. This is a shot of the Hayden Flour Mill that was built in 1874! My mouth waters when I think of the Urbex potential of this building. Unfortunately, it on a VERY busy intersection and is only 3 blocks from the nearest Police Station. If that wasn’t enough, the place is well sealed and there are security cameras around the outside of the building. We have of course asked permission to get in a photograph is but were denied. I don’t think that even I would attempt to get in. As I said before, I may be crazy but I’m not stupid.
When I took this photo of the building I immediately thought of the movie “The House on Haunted Hill,” and that was the inspiration I used during processing. I tried a lot of different effects and finally came out with a result I liked. This is a single image which I did NOT tonemap for once. I used Topaz Detail to add a little extra texture to the building, then I used the 30′s Noire filter from onOne’s Photo Tools to convert this to b&w. Next, I added some horizontal grain using Photoshop to provide some interesting texture to the image. I finished up by adjusting the contrast on the image and this is the result.
A big thank you to Mike Olbinski who was awesome enough to hook me up with a promotional copy of onOne’s Photo Tools!
Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Nikkor 18-105mm
Processing: Adobe Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5, Topaz Detail, onOne Photo Tools
Tempe Town Lake
Happy Monday everyone! This past weekend was very good to me and I hope it was to you as well! We had a great time Friday evening at Mike Olbinski’s Photowalk. He’s very gracious to put these on every few months for all the Arizona Photographers, and I’m sure everyone who went had as great a time as I did. I’ll be posting a few more pictures that I took at the photowalk over the next few days so stay tuned.
Today’s image was taken at the photowalk shortly after the sun went down. It’s funny, here in Arizona the sunsets tend to be spectacular, or nothing. There are very rarely occasions in between. We spend so much time wanting clouds in our shots that sometimes we forget to look around at what mother nature is actually giving us. It might not always be what we’re looking for, but it nearly always is something awesome. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do!
Click the image to see it in the lightbox!
Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Nikkor 18-105mm
Processing: Photomatix Pro 4, Adobe Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5
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