La Quinta is just outside of Palm Springs, CA and this hotel is one of my favorites to stay for a day or so to relax and enjoy swimming in the pools. I think they have something like 28 of them! My kinda place! Time to take the drive out and take a few days off! Meet me there!
Tag Archives: photogrpahy
Munich, Germany – Rathaus (HDR)
This is from one early AM in Munich. I woke up at 4 AM this day to get the cool railway tunnels down below the Rathaus and as I was walking back to the hotel, I grabbed this shot. Nice long exposure creates wonderful cloud movement!
Frankfurt, Germany – Skyline (HDR)
I was in Frankfurt last week stopping over for the nite on my way home. My hotel was a few blocks from the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and 3 blocks from the bridge in the skyline shot. At this time of year…sunset is around 9:15 PM…I had to get up early in the AM…so I anxiously awaited blue hour to arrive. Finally finished at 10 PM. Always nice visiting Germany. The beer is the best!!
Peter Talke Photography Settings:
Camera: Nikon D300
Lens: Nikon 12-24 f/4.0
Setting: Aperture Mode
Focal Length: 24.0 mm
ISO: 200
Exposure: HDR 7 Exposures (+3 to -3)
Aperture: f/8
Gear: Tripod
Post Process: Adobe CS6, HDR Efex Pro, OnOne Software Photo Tools 2.6
Anaheim, CA – Disneyland: Space Shuttle Endeavour flyover
I took an early extended lunch today with my wife to go see the Space Shuttle Endeavour fly over Disneyland. The objective was to capture that iconic shot…Disney Castle + Jet/Space Shuttle. We arrived early and the park was filling up. I think most of CA today was taking off to see the last flight of Endeavour before it rests in Los Angeles. I heard streets all over were like parking lots and some businesses near the routes were charging for parking. Today was California’s fly over day. We arrived at the Disney Castle around 10:30 AM. We heard it would fly over at 11 AM. Time kept passing and no Shuttle. Luckily this one guy near us (NASA fan based upon his T-Shirt) had one of those special radios and gave us frequent updates. The past few weeks in SoCal has been hot and today it was another toasty one…so every passing minute…was not easy. I’d guess near the castle a couple thousand were gathered to see the shuttle. The kept announcing, “In a few minutes, the Shuttle will arrive and fly over the castle”…everyone clapped! 15 minutes after the first announcement, they said it again…everyone groaned this time. LOL People are classic. Finally we had news it was minutes away! No one had a clue which way it was going to fly over. Everyone prepped their cameras and looked toward the castle. How cool would have it been if the Shuttle flew right over the castle…what a picture that would be!! The all of a sudden the jet appeared! Not over the castle, but way in front of it! We all had to turn our heads over our shoulders to catch it! It was basically way in front of the castle. Ugh! You had to act fast. I think the min MPH of the jet had to be 375 mph. Probably in 5-7 seconds it was gone!! I zoomed in and grabbed the shot above. As it flew away I zoomed out and caught it flying over Space Mountain (below). Kinda ironic! LOL After waiting nearly 2 hours…the shuttle was gone. Everyone around could not believe the flight plan was to fly this way and hoped it was on its way back for a second flyover? We all waited and then heard the news it was already heading up north. Kinda sad. All the people were unhappy…we all wanted to get “that iconic shot”. No luck! I posted on my FB page…maybe Tinkerbell blocked the flight path over the Castle? Oh well…not the shot I was hoping for…but we did witness history!!! Hope to see the Endeavour up close in LA next year!!
Austin, Texas – Senate Chamber (HDR)
From the Capitol Building downtown in Ausitn…this is the Senate Chamber in HDR. Most days when you tour the Capitol Building this area is open. If you walk upstairs you have this great spot for an overview shot! Time to pass some bills!! have fun!
Talke Photography Settings:
Lens: Nikon 12-24 f/4.0
Setting: Aperture Mode
Focal Length: 12.0 mm
ISO: 200
Exposure: HDR 5 Exposures (+2 to -2)
Aperture: f/4
Gear: Tripod
Post Process: Adobe CS5, HDR Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, OnOne Software Photo Tools 2.6
Salisbury, England – Stonehenge (HDR)
From the mystical Salisbury, England you can find Stonehenge. I took a bus tour this day from downtown London and it was pretty fun. Unfortunately, you only get (if I recall correctly) about 30-45 minutes at Stonehenge and the bus ride was a few hours long (one way). My time was spent circling the monument looking for the cool pics…while dodging tourists. Is Stonehenge worth the trip? Yes, to mark it off the list. But just like the bus driver stated as we approached and you could see Stonehenge on the horizon…”There you can see the bunch of rocks”. LOL I guess if you drive there every day…that is what you see. Cheers!
San Francisco, CA – Street Car (HDR)
From the lovely city of San Francisco, CA – this was taken one early morning at Fisherman’s Wharf. It was parked and empty in front of the CVS Store. The driver must have ran into CVS and grabbed a coffee…it is public transportation, the door was open and I decided to go in and take these HDR’s. A few minutes later the driver came back and jumped when she saw me! I guess she had no idea I would be in the car. I felt bad and apologized, she said it was ok and let me continue taking photographs. All for the love of photography! This one is done in Fisheye! Enjoy!
San Francisco, CA – Alcatraz (HDR)
I have been watching the new show called Alcatraz. Cool show. I heard today that ever since the show started, tourists think there is a special “bat cave” room under the jail and have been wandering off the tours in search of it. No such room is there. Any prison is a great place for HDR. This one has tons of tourists so people dodging is the biggest issue.
Talke Photography Settings:
Lens: Nikon 12-24 f/4.0
Setting: Aperture Mode
Focal Length: 12.0 mm
ISO: 200
Exposure: HDR 7 Exposures (+3 to -3)
Aperture: f/8
Gear: Tripod
Post Process: Adobe CS5, HDR Efex Pro, Coloro Efex Pro, OnOne Software Photo Tools 2.6
HDR Composite
HDR’ing is now a favorite of many photographers…me included! I love also taking portraits and with the growing popularity of compositing…the two combined is awesome!! Now the tough part is to get it to work. I unfortunately do not have tons of time on my hands but gave this a try recently. My processing is trial and error. I am not a Photoshop Guy like Scott Kelby or Matt Kloskowski, but can do some above basic photoshop work.
I had seen some HDR Composites from the amazing Joel Grimes in the past and his work blew me away like the first time I saw an HDR. Compositing was omething I always wanted to attempt! Then recently, Matt Kloskowski released my favorite book of all time… “Photoshop Compositing Secrets“. Matt’s book is not only inspirational, but detailed and teaches you everything! Thanks Matt!!! You rock!
Now with my Photoshop skill limitations, above you will see my second attempt ever that combines a std photo and an HDR…an HDR Composite! Not perfect, but maybe with more practice and knowledge, I can get better. I asked my FB fans yesterday how to improve the shot from one version I posted online. Based upon their comments, I have since made slight changes and now the finished product is above. Here you can see what I used to get the final picture…
Wall: Bracket “0” of the 7 exposures used to create the HDR…
Wall HDR’d: 7 Exposures, HDR Efex Pro, Nik Color Efex Pro & then Topaz Adjust…cranked Saturation up a bit as well…
Model Shot: Taken with 2 Westcott Shoot-thru Umbrellas, 2 SB-700’s, Pocket Wizard’s…same location as the HDR, but shot different days!
Diagram for Model Shot…
Now I am far from an expert…but hopefully my second attempt looks good enough? I truly love all the options photography has to offer! Challenges make our ability grow!! The model is the lovely Roshni…she was great!! Thanks Roshni!!
Have A Drink on Me! (HDR)
From an ranch in California, here is a sweet rusty old drinking fountain for your viewing pleasure. Rust, mold, cobwebs = more HDR greatness! Where are the most rusty and decaying cities in the US? Time for a photo walk in those locations! I must admit to loving grungy pics!
Talke Photography Settings:
Lens: Nikon 18-200 f/3.5-5.6
Setting: Aperture Mode
Focal Length: 82.0 mm
ISO: 200
Exposure: HDR 7 Exposures (+3 to -3)
Aperture: f/16
Gear: Tripod
Post Process: Adobe CS5, HDR Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, OnOne Software Photo Tools 2.6
Places 2 Explore 