Rio de Janeiro

HDR attempt from Rio de Janeiro

Portfolio Pics - Part 6

"Fresh Air"EXIF Data
Location: Virgin Islands
ISO: 200
Exposure Time: 1/640 sec
Aperture: f/13
Focal Length: 17 mm
Exposure Program: Aperture Priority

'Bama's Chi-Town

And no, I don't mean Ala-Bama. I got lucky and happened to travel for work to Chicago the week of the election and I was there the night of Obama's rally/acceptance speech/victory party/drunken people fest in Grant Park. It was amazing to have the opportunity to be there. Now for some pics.

Bikes lining the fence around Grant Park:

One of the many big screens:

"The Hottest New t-shirt Design"

Looking from Grant Park down Jackson St. across Michigan Ave.:

"Rivets"

I also got lucky enough to hang with some high school friends, Lanny and Adam, which was great. Not to mention seeing Andy (I want that pic of us, please). And, while I was sitting down to lunch at Giordano's at the Prudential Tower, none other than Scott W. and his fam walked in. They were driving a natural gas GMC Jimmy home from New York (how cool is that?!) and happened to be eating at the same place in Chicago that I was, small world? yep.

Zion's HDR attempt

Steve and Liz invited us to St. George with them this weekend with no kiddies. We couldn't pass up a free place to stay and the classic Anderson hospitality so we headed down. The weather was perfect and some of the trees were starting to change. Now for the pics... With all the shadows, it was very hard to get the detail in the sky along with the colorful trees. So what did I do? I tried my hand at HDR again.

Here are the originals

In this one the sky looks great but the trees are blacked out

This one the trees look good but the sky is washed out

Here's an attempt at a happy medium, but the trees are still a bit dark and the sky lost some detail

Here's the HDR Version

Now you can see the High Dynamic Range (HDR) in this version. The trees keep their true color and the sky is a rich blue with whispy clouds. Not bad since I'm still figure the HDR thing out. In hindsight, I should have taken about 5 images instead of 3. Now I know.

More pics to come!

Lake "Pal"

Thanks to the Wildings and the Bennetts for making the second annual trip to Lake Powell an absolute blast! Now for some pics...

"Relationship Building"

"Sunrise at 'Pal'"

"At the Helm"
"The Gang"

"Surf's up"

Experimenting with stroboscopic flash

"Houseboat Livin'"
"Sweet Dreams"

Early Autumn Uinta Backpacking

It just doesn't get any better, crisp mountain air, chilly alpine lakes, the girl I love, and a night in the mountains. Far, far away from any of the worries of life. Now for some pics, since I do still call this blog "Two Wheel Photos".

A few "artsy ones" first:

"Glass"

"Lichen Fetish"

"andiamo"

"Grass Swirls"

"Star Trails"

"Leading Lines"

And, of course, the ones of my babe:

"Here Goes"

"Wall Lake"

"Pensive"

"Take a Deep Breath; ahhh"

Panorama-bama

Since I got back from Chicago, I've been swamped with tests. Tonight I could finally breathe for a bit so I decided to do some Photoshop stitching. Here are two panoramas from the sun deck at the Thomas' condo building in Chicago. As has been posted by Gina and Alex, me and Andy were a bit camera happy while we were there. It was great having Andy there because he actually understands the whole bit. So on to the panoramas. Click on the thumbnails for the full effect.

Day Time

Night Time

More pics to come as I get more time to look them over and blog about them.

Fine Print: Remember, these photos are copyrighted and can not be reproduced without my permission.

Virgin Islands trip

Ahoy! Gina and I returned a few weeks ago from a 10 day sailing trip with her family to The Virgin Islands. We chartered our own 40 foot Catamaran named "Clarity." Gina's older brother Tom captained our vessel and the rest of us, okay mostly us guys, worked hard as the sailing crew. We really loved the sailing and I think we got the hang of it pretty good. We had great food, okay amazing food, that we prepared right on the boat. We spent our days sailing, swimming, snorkeling, eating...you get the idea. Needless to say, we had so much fun! It has been slow getting back into work and day to day life and my mind keeps drifting back to the awesome memories we have made. Take us back to paradise...