Monthly Archives: April 2012

Image of the week #17

Spring is a fun time of year, here in L.A. it can mean anything from hot spells, to rain, to grey overcast skies, and this year it was a little strange. First we got hardly any rain during our normal rainy season and had heat instead, the lack of rain and heat really messed up the normal wildflower prospects. So you have to wonder to other places to find some flowers. This weeks image is from the Huntington Library gardens. They have a very nice cactus section and a lot of them were in the processing of blooming.  This weeks image was also taken with my new camera, the Fuji X-Pro 1. I really like this new camera, a very nice and compact, well at least more compact than the dslr I normally use. Great optics, great image quality and all packaged in an interesting retro kind of case. A nostalgic trip back to rangefinder type cameras, although not a rangefinder per se, the handling is very similar. Great camera. Since Adobe has not released the raw file processing ability I have been using the in camera jpgs and it is capable of generating great images. This weeks image was taken with the Fuji 35mm f1.4 lens and using the Velvia film simulation mode. I bracketed the exposure and blending the files using exposure fusion. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Image of the week #16

I was watching this sunset and really liked the clouds and the layers so I grabbed the Fuji X-Pro1 and fired off a few shots. Originally I was hoping that the setting sun would illuminate the clouds and light up the sky, but it turned out it was a more subtle sunset. Even though my original thought was to get something more dramatic I am quite pleased with this sunset as the storm clouds were beginning to break up and the storm was clearing. Taken in Laguna Beach, CA. Lens was an 18mm. Enjoy.

 

Image of the week #15

Spring is here, flowers are out and the weather is definitely getting warmer, and warmer. Since we seem to go into extremes, cold then hot, it can make it rough on finding spring flowers. So when the wildflowers are not producing, the gardens get worked. This is from Descanso Gardens, they always have a nice display of tulips.  The was taken in a patch that was partially shaded and what I did was accentuate the shadows and the highlighted areas.  The translucent appearance of the tulips when backlit caught my eye. Taken with a Canon 5DmarkII and 70-200mm f4 at f4 and 163mm. Enjoy.

 

Image of the week #14

This weeks is a view of the Japanese Garden at Descanso Gardens in La Canada on a nice sunny spring afternoon. Taken with a Canon 5DmarkII and a Tokina 16-28mm lens at f11. Beautiful garden but very difficult to capture, lots of different light zones. Hope you enjoy it.

 

 

Image of the week #13

This week’s image was taken at the San Juan Capistrano Mission, this was the first time I have visited that Mission and found it to be quite an interesting place. There is a lot to see and especially to photograph, lots of textures and a nice garden as well as lots of history to be seen. Quite an interesting place and one I think I will be returning to sometime soon. It was a cloudy day with a slight drizzle which made for dull grey skies but makes for nice diffused lighting. I was surprised at how large the grounds were and how nicely they have been maintained. The Chapel is still active although they have built a new modern Basilica at the far end of the property and is really mostly isolated from the older historic mission.

Well it was hard to pick a single image for use, so I decided to throw up a few more images from the trip. The nice thing is that they did allow tripods so that was really nice. The textures of the brick and adobe were really nice, I never did see the whole grounds so it will definitely get a second visit. The last two shots below are not technically from the mission grounds they are from the railroad depot across the street. I met a few other photographers from google+ there and had a great time meeting them and seeing what they were shooting.

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