time lapse on longfellow bridge boston ...

catching the sun, always catching the last rays of sun. setup camera on westbound side of the longfellow pointed at the zakim bridge just as the sun was setting ...

before, during, and after ...

a bit more of hawaii ...

i was going to process through all my pictures and then post some, but i realized that will take forever, so why not just post a bit at a time. it'll probably be better for my sanity as i'm cooped up inside these winter months as it's freezing and continuously snowing outside. seriously, it's snowed almost every week now. there's nothing but dirty snow everywhere. this is the hdr set.




























of course the obligatory this is what it looked like before i left ...

nyc hotel view hdr's ...

here are a few hdr's i processed from last week's trip to nyc. there's definitely some sharpness missing in each photo, need to shoot at a bit higher f-stop. colors are terrific, these are all straight out of the camera into photomattix, no post processing required.

f/2.8 @ 18mm, 1sec-exposure, iso200, -1/3 :: 0 :: +1/3ev


f/2.8 @ 18mm, 1sec-exposure, iso200, -1/3 :: 0 :: +1/3ev


f/2.8 @ 18mm, 1sec-exposure, iso200, -1/3 :: 0 :: +1/3ev; sharper than the previous but mildly de-saturated in the buildings


most people ask, are these images artificial or rendered? no. it's just the beauty of hdr.

catching the light ...

i have my camera almost every day, but a lot of the times, the clouds aren't that interesting, or the lighting is off, or frankly i miss that block of time during sunset where the moment can be caught with just the right lighting as the sky teeters between early evening and night. i got lucky tonight and as i was leaving the building, i caught the last glimpses of light, a great orange, pink, then blue sky. very happy with the results as i composed eight, yes eight, actual usable hdr shots.

also note, none of these images were processed in photoshop. these images were shot directly from the camera raw, exported onto my mac and then run through photomatix hdr processing (to combine). no tweaking, no changes in ps. click on image for larger version.

first four shots were from the top floor of the parking garage of my building. the second four are from memorial drive looking across the charles river into boston.

f/22 @ 32mm, 1/80sec-exposure, iso200, -2/3ev :: 0/6ev :: -2/3ev


f/22 @ 32mm, 5/8sec-exposure, iso200, -2/3ev :: 0/6ev :: -2/3ev


f/22 @ 18mm, 5/8sec-exposure, iso200, -2/3ev :: 0/6ev :: -2/3ev


f/22 @ 18mm, 5/8sec-exposure, iso200, -2/3ev :: 0/6ev :: -2/3ev


f/22 @ 38mm, 2sec-exposure, iso400, -2/3ev :: 0/6ev :: -2/3ev


f/22 @ 38mm, 6sec-exposure, iso400, -2/3ev :: 0/6ev :: -2/3ev


f/22 @ 38mm, 6sec-exposure, iso400, -2/3ev :: 0/6ev :: -2/3ev


f/22 @ 18mm, 8sec-exposure, iso400, -2/3ev :: 0/6ev :: -2/3ev

nyc at night ...

i've always loved being in nyc, regardless of what i say out loud, secretly it's a great place to be at night, during the day, there's always something to look at and it's amazing the diversity that can be seen from one block to the next. i can't say i was in the nyc for fun, as it was a terribly hectic weekend of which i spent a total of 22.5 hours behind the wheel hurling from boston to dc area back to nyc and then home back to boston. all for the sake of some digital data.

i was able to take about 20 mins to snap a few shots from my hotel room before completely passing out ...

two-frame stitch out the window (original is very very wide)... lighting dramatically changes as the camera is turned from one angle to the other side of the window ...

both shots of this composition were taken at f/8 @ 18mm, 30sec-exposure, iso200, 0/6ev


at the same time, i decided to also try a long exposure hdr shot ... i like the result, may be my new background for the week ...

f/8 @ 18mm, 30sec-exposure, iso200, +2/3ev :: 0/6 :: -2/3ev

a drive up to lynn at sunset ...

it's been a crazy weekend, but in keeping with my previous post with boston at night, this afternoon i took a ride into boston for dinner and brought along the camera gear. after dinner, i took a ride up through nahant and up to lynn right in the nick of time for sunset. i was able to take a number of non-hdr as well as hdr shots and am very happy with the results. a few notes:

• not specifying settings for each shot ... posting a lot of pics today, you can see the full-sized images as well as additional images in my flickr set
• the wides with a slightly blurred background is probably due to me swapping out the sigma for the straight nikkor 50mm. it's all manual, and the highest f/stop i can get with the d300 and the lens is f/13 ... am thinking about getting a 2nd one, or maybe a 60/65mm to supplement
• the last of the non-hdr images are long-exposures with the shutter on bulb and released for 1-min+; streaks of light in the sky are ufo's ... aka ... flights landing at logan
  
• hdr images are 3-shot bursts, -1/3ev, 0, +1/3ev ... all shots at iso200, f/22 (or f/13 on the 50mm), various shutter times
• no ps post-processing was done on the hdr's (before or after hdr'ing) ... photomattix took the raw images and this is the result ... i tried a second attempt at photo-adjusting and then hdr'ing and the results were an /epicfail (over-saturation, highlights and shadows were all off, it was an utter mess) ... don't mess with perfection
  

this shot is a tribute to my cousin lan ... 'cuz thats how she rollz






(there's even one taking off)




and then similar shots, except this time with 3-frame hdr ...

streaming lights in boston ...

i took a walk last night with a few friends and snapped some shots of two of boston's major thoroughfares, storrow drive from the bu cross-bridge and mass pike from atop the king's garage.

while waiting for mike to show up ... messing around with f-stops, this is f/11 @ 34mm, 30sec-exposure, iso200, 0/6ev


a few shots of storrow drive east bound, with john hancock waay in the back.

f/16 @ 27mm, 30sec-exposure, iso200, 0/6ev


f/22 @ 50mm, 20sec-exposure, iso200, 0/6ev


the citgo sign above fenway isn't an easy shot anymore, they replaced the bulbs with led's ... which requires a relatively fast shutter speed to capture the sign properly, but that won't capture anything else. will need to go back and take possibly a multi-shot set of it, one capturing the sign, and then long exposures capturing everything else and see if hdr will merge it even with the off-steps in settings.

f/22 @ 23mm, 55sec-exposure, iso200, 1/3ev

boston, cold winter night ...

pictures from a walk home one cold boston night ...

charles mgh t-station ... f/10 @ 18mm, 6-sec exposure, iso800, 1ev


liberty hotel ... f/2.8 @ 18mm, 1/8-sec exposure, iso800, 1/3ev


one of my favorite shots ... charles river overlooking storrow drive, north station, and zakim bridge ... streak in the sky is airplane taking off from logan airport ... f/8 @ 24mm, 8-second exposure, iso800, 1/3ev