New travels. New pictures. New home.

So. I’ve been transferred to San Francisco. Technically, just outside San Francisco. Not really in the mood to deal with semantics though. There’s many, many more positives than negatives. But, its still not the easiest thing to pack up and move away from some people I really love. 

That said, the West Coast is going to provide an s-ton of opportunity. I recently spent 11 days out there exploring, and I guess, working. Visually, its insane. Just beyond gorgeous. I checked a huge number of sites off my ever-growing list. I could probably write a blog about each image. Maybe I’ll do that from now on?

In particular, the first image below is a 13 second exposure. Shot raw, as always. It’s probably the most I’ve ever processed (or over-processed) an image. HDR or, “High Dynamic Range” photos aren’t really my thing, unless the photographer/editor can make it extremely subtle. I don’t think I’ll be editing too many more images to look like that, but, it was fun to try. 

Heres’s a few favs from the trip. All images were shot using either the Canon 5Dmk3 & 16-35 2.8L combo, or the Fuji x100T set to Classic Chrome film simulation. 

More to come. 


Gutentag.

Just got back from six days in Frankfurt. Unfortunately, most of the time was spent working, with limited shooting time. So, I grabbed what I could. Frankfurt, among so many other cities, was just about flattened in WWII. Unlike Prague, which has retained so much of its original beauty, Frankfurt needed a rebuild, and therefore looks like much more current. And as a financial hub…a lot of it kind of just looks like New York. 

The first shot is of the Alte Oper, or Frankfurt’s old opera house. Inaugurated in 1880, it was mostly destroyed in 1944, and then rebuilt in the 1970s. It used to be known as “Germany’s most beautiful ruin.” Standing in front of the rebuilt version is still pretty incredible though. 

Most of the other shots are from the Romer, which is the town square. Its pretty amazing on its own; seeing it with the Christmas market taking place made it even more amazing. A few beers and a pretzel, and I felt like I was starting to blend in. I got there just in time for the blue hour, and by exposing for the sky, some of the images light up pretty nicely. 

Most shots are taken with the Canon 5D MKIII, shot in manual, using the Canon 16-36 2.8L. Minor post processing was completed in Camera Raw and Photoshop. 


A Year Later…Roughly

Who takes a year off from a brand new blog? Well, this guy, clearly. 

I’m going to get a head start on January’s resolutions and start blogging again. In the past year, too much has taken place to get into. But, here’s some of the important parts. New job, and new gear. The new job will take me to new places, the new gear will -hopefully- help me do a better job capturing what I see. 

In the meantime, here are a few photos from a recent trek through Brooklyn. All photos taken with the somewhat recently acquired Canon 5D MkIII. I’m in real love with the 5D and all of its full frame goodness. As someone who exposes for the brightest highlights and recovers shadows later, I’m loving the reduction in noise when I boost shadows…and wishing I’d made this move much sooner. And yes, I’m aware that other cameras do a much better job with noise reduction, and offer a much higher dynamic range.

The long exposures are 30-second brackets; technically 90 seconds of exposure time went into each of those images. However, each one is a 30-second increment. The 5D outputs them as jpgs, which still have “enough” flexibility in Camera Raw. The other photos are standard manual exposures. The successes of those shots are more about capturing them in the middle of busy, busy, busy NYC / 5 boroughs locations, and making them look “empty” afterwords. Thank you, Photoshop. 

All images shot raw on Canon 5D MkIII, with 16-35L. Bracketed shots were individual raw images, outputted as jpgs. Processing/editing completed in Photoshop. 


Surprise! - In Classic Chrome

Took the x100T to a surprise wedding this weekend. No, not “that” kind of surprise wedding. It was a clever set up by the bride & groom to bring all of their friends and family together, and then announce, “surprise, we’re getting married tonight!”

Great times, with great friends.

And very, very challenging light.

All in all, the x100 performed well, and the images are passable for having been shooting at ISO 5000 all night. Shooting center point focus, the x100 couldn’t quick grab focus at times, but if there’s one consistent thought I always have, it’s that I love the files I get from it at the end of the night.

All shots from Fuji x100T, F2 at ISO 5000, using “Classic Chrome” film style.


Bridge Views

Actually had some time to wander and shoot this weekend. I finally got to a spot I’ve been interested in for a while, but unfortunately got there a little too late. The sun had already started to break through the clouds, and it was a battle to shoot directly towards the
light. Thank God for being able to shoot raw, and fix in post.

I’d been interested in taking this exact shot, but from under the Williamsburg Bridge, for a while. Pretty happy to have hit up the George Washington Bridge first though. It’s a Jersey thing.

All shots with Canon 70D, using the 10-22 ultrawide, or Fuji x100t (which has a fixed 23 mm 2.0).

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