Tonal Mapped Landscape Lake Cachuma

I used Photomatix to create this "tonal mapped" landscape of Lake Cachuma. This was the first time I used Photomatix which I read about it on Flickr.

Camera settings for original photograph:
Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture: f/20
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 200

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Across Lake Cachuma 2

Here's my second version of this photo taken across Lake Cachuma.


Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture: f/11
Focal Length: 160 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Across Lake Cachuma

The light for this photo was very low and dull so I had to play with the image to give it a lift. Since there was a lot of noise in the photo, I decided to try and make it appear like an old-fashioned toned photo and also tried to make something of the darkness of the scene.

The photo is taken across Lake Cachuma, California, from the Lake Cachuma Recreational Reserve.


Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture: f/11
Focal Length: 160 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Red-Tailed Hawk II

Here's a second shot of this red-tailed hawk at Lake Cachuma. Actually when I saw him land on the pole I got a good view of the feathers on the underside of his tail, and they really were red!

Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/11
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Red-Tailed Hawk I

A group of us went up to Lake Cachuma which is about 20 miles out of Santa Barbara this past weekend. We went in a 32-foot motor home that some friends are currently renting. What a great time we had. This red-tailed hawk happened to land on a high-voltage power pole right by our site and luckily I happened to see him. He was very used to people it would seem as he wasn't bothered at all by me walking around the pole taking his photo. What a high voltage bird!

Bird Photo Gallery - Broadband Flash Gallery

Bird Photo Gallery - Dial Up Optimized

Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1600)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 225 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Smokey Southern California Sunset

This is a photo I took tonight about an hour before sunset to show you the effect of the smoke on the sun here in Southern California where there are many wildfires burning currently. This was taken at the Irvine Ranch Water District's San Joaquin marshlands.

Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/9
Focal Length: 75 mm
ISO Speed: 400

Boat with Photoshopped Refection in the Water

This is 100% Photoshop practice and demonstration of the things that can be done with Photoshop. Starting with this photo of a boat on the water, I used Photoshop's "clone source" to create a reflection in the water. The hardest part has been to get it so that the reflection doesn't look totally fake and as if the boat is sitting in the water rather than on top of the water.

Yucca Bloom Arches National Park

I took this photo of this beautiful yucca glauca bloom (Great Plains yucca) in Arches National Park in May.

For interesting info on yucca plants see Wikipedia's yucca page. And also according to a Wikipedia post on edible flowers, yucca glauca (and several other species of yucca) make the list. Ask the yucca moth!

Polar Bear San Diego Zoo

This to me is a picture of bliss. This polar bear at the San Diego Zoo was frolicking in the pool, playing with balls and simply enjoying the feel of the water flowing over him as seen in this photo. Everyone was just enthralled watching the bear at play.

Red Boat at Shelley Beach

Shelley Beach is located on Waiheke Island a short 30 minute "Quick Cat" ferry ride from downtown Auckland, NZ. While staying there this past February I caught these seagulls availing themselves of this boat on the bay. It was early morning and the water had a beautiful glassy appearance.

Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 220 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Slideshow of Portraits of Madison

Madison Sucking Her Thumb - Toned

Here's the last tonal effect I did of this photo of Madison sucking her thumb. I think this is my favorite. This and the sepia one.

Madison Sucking Her Thumb - Blue

Same photo of Madison again but with a blue filter.

Madison Sucking Her Thumb - Sepia

I'm having some Photoshop fun now and creating some toned versions of this portrait. This is the sepia toned portrait of Madison sucking her thumb.

Camera settings for original photograph:
Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Portrait of Madison Sucking Her Thumb

Here's the classic kid pose - Madison sucking her thumb. Doesn't she just have the most amazing blond hair!

Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Little Angel Madison

Who doesn't think of their nieces as little angels...well, most of the time. I thought Madison would look kind of cute floating on some clouds, so here she is.


Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 400

Madison (Kid Portrait)

This is a portrait of my little niece Madison. She's a fantastic model to work with as she just loves having her photo taken and loves striking up all sorts of poses. Unlike her older brother who threw a major tantrum when I pointed my camera in his direction!

Madison is expecting a new baby brother or sister any day now.

Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 400

Walt Disney Hall Los Angeles - #6

I guess you could think of this part of the building to be like the curled up edges of the pages of a musical score.

Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1250)
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 400

Walt Disney Hall Los Angeles - #5

How did they manage to build a structure like this? It sure must be expensive to build something with curved surfaces like this. Of course, curves are a feature of Frank Gehry's architecture.


Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1250)
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 25 mm
ISO Speed: 400

Walt Disney Hall Los Angeles - #4

This is the photo you saw in the previous post. I didn't boost the contrast in this one as I did in the high contrast image of the previous post.

Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Walt Disney Hall Los Angeles - #3

No, not actually a night shot. I increased the contrast of this photo to give emphasis to the light and dark areas. Because of the very reflective nature of the stainless steel skin of the Disney Concert Hall it's a perfect photo for high contrast effects. Now it looks like a night shot in a Hollywood movie with the very dark blue sky. Photo #4 is the same photo without the high contrast adjustment.


Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Walt Disney Hall Los Angeles - #2 RGB Negative

RGB negative looks pretty cool too, don't you think?

Walt Disney Concert Hall Los Angeles

Walt Disney Hall Los Angeles - #2 Color Negative

I just can't help sharing with you how these pictures of the Walt Disney Concert Hall look as color negatives.

Walt Disney Hall Los Angeles - #2

What a coincidence! Tonight's edition of Huell Howser's "Downtown" series on the LA PBS station KCET featured the Walt Disney Concert Hall. After watching this show, I now know I have to go back again, and not just for a concert. I had walked up some side stairs to a garden level to the left of the concert hall, but it happened to be the intermission for the concert that was taking place yesterday and the garden was filled with concert-goers enjoying the autumn sunshine. With my camera in tow I felt intrusive and didn't linger for very long, but having seen tonight's Huell Howser show I now realize that this is a public space, and not only that, but there are walkways built into the outer skin of the building that Frank Gehry intended for the public to use to clamber over over the exterior of the building! It was a fascinating show, and as I said, I'll have to go back. (Huell Howser's website)

If you live in the LA area and haven't yet been to see the concert hall, make a point of going. You don't even have to go for a concert to have a ton of fun. There are free tours that will take you all over the outside of the building, and much of the inside too, but probably not the concert hall itself unless you have a ticket to a show. It seems that during the season from October to June, there are concerts night and day.


Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture: f/20
Focal Length: 25 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Walt Disney Hall Los Angeles - #1

Designed by architect Frank Gehry, Walt Disney Concert Hall, is home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and is designed to be one of the most acoustically sophisticated concert halls in the world. The curved exterior of the building is constructed in stainless steel and makes for an impressive sight that captures the light in a fantastic display. This view is taken from across Grand Ave so that you can get an overall view of the building. Following photos will capture the building up close.

Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 1/2500 sec
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 25 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Using Photoshop Blending Modes: Multiply

Time for a Photoshop tip. The last three photos I posted of a native American Indian warrior with a sunset background are a composite of two photos: this one of the Native American Indian performing at a pow-wow and this photo of a sunset over the Grand Canyon South Rim.

I used a couple of Photoshop's blending options called "multiply" and "darken" to create the various works in the series. The general principle that applies to these blending modes is that if the color of the pixels of the top layer are darker than the corresponding pixels in the lower layer, then you will see what is on the top layer, otherwise you see what is on the lower layer.





So keeping this in mind, white is always going to be lighter than everything else, so I started out by making a selection of the chief and masking him. Then I make everthing that was unmasked white. My intention here is that all the white will be replaced entirely by what is in the second photo when I change the blending mode from Normal to Multiply. To the left is what my lower layer looked like.




I then opened the sunset photo that I wanted to use as the background. I arranged my window in my Photoshop workspace to "Tile Vertically" and then dragged the sunset photo over top of the photo of the chief. (Hint: By holding down the shift key before clicking on the photo you want to drag, and then continuting to hold down shift while you do this, Photoshop will automatically center the photo over top of the one below when you let go of the mouse button. If you don't do this you might have to nudge the top layer around a bit if it ends up off-center. At this point in Photoshop I see only the sunset in my window. However, with the sunset layer selected and chosing Multiply from the Blending Mode dropdown as illustrated I end up with my beautiful blend.


So that's it. Just keep the principles in mind that the darker colors of the top layer will overlay the lighter colors of the lower layer, and of course, play around a bit.

Something to keep in mind to make this successful is to start out by not only considering how to make what you want replaced lighter than what you want to lay over top, but also make sure you resize the images you are going to use to to be the same dimensions and resolution otherwise they won't lay over top of each other perfectly.

Grand Canyon Colossus

This is my third rendering of this composite photo. I resized the Indian chief and moved the background a bit so that it appears as if he is a colossus rising up from the mountains of the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon Chief #1

This is the first of two composite photos I made using Photoshop and two of my photos: this Native American Indian performing at a pow-wow and this photo of sunset over the Grand Canyon South Rim.

I'd really be interested to know which of the two photos you prefer by posting a comment for either this photo or photo #2 of the Grand Canyon Chief. My favorite is actually this one, but an artist friend of mine prefers #2 because he thinks it's more abstract.

Grand Canyon Chief #2

This is the second of two composites made from two of my photos: this Native American Indian performing at a pow-wow and this photo of sunset over the Grand Canyon South Rim.

I'd really be interested to know which one you prefer by posting a comment for either this photo or photo #2 of the Grand Canyon Chief. My preference is for #1 - I find this one too washed out and wasn't even going to post it, but an artist friend said he prefers it because it's more abstract and ghostly. Who am I to argue with an artist? Anyhow, post a vote for one or other. Thanks!

Skateboarding at Venice Beach #1

This is the first shot in a series of 6 photos in an action collage of a teen skateboarding at Venice Beach, CA. Hands up in the air to lift the center of gravity for lift off.

Skateboarding at Venice Beach #2

Lift off and flying!

Photo #2 in a 6 photo collage of a teen skateboarding at Venice Beach, CA.

Skateboarding at Venice Beach #3

Photo #3 in a 6 photo collage of a teen skateboarding at Venice Beach, CA.

Safely on top of the wall! How do these kids get to do this!