Another portrait of Larin and Jason from last Saturday's engagement shoot at Dunvegan Keep.]]>

Another portrait of Larin and Jason from last Saturday's engagement shoot at Dunvegan Keep.

Time for another racing picture, I think, given that the Aussie V8 Supercars are in town this weekend. This is one of my favourites from MotoGP weekend at Circuit of the Americas back in early March. The rider here is Andrea Dovizioso of Ducati.]]>

Time for another racing picture, I think, given that the Aussie V8 Supercars are in town this weekend. This is one of my favourites from MotoGP weekend at Circuit of the Americas back in early March. The rider here is Andrea Dovizioso of Ducati.

Last Saturday morning, our photowalking group decided to try something different. Chris brought a bunch of fancy lights, Julie brought her friends Larin and Jason who had recently got engaged, and we all shot portraits.

Our location (not that it really mattered for this particular shot) was Dunvegan Keep, a fascinating wedding venue tucked away in a suburban neighbourhood of south Austin. The owner has spent the last 20 years transforming his large back yard into a fantasy land containing medieval-looking structures, follies and other wonderful photo backdrops. Add to this a large swimming pool, a wedding chapel and an amazing little suite with stained glass and frescoes and you have a superb location for a very memorable shoot.

This picture was taken inside the gazebo seen on the Dunvegan Keep web site. It was a bit busy, so I chose to use a long lens and grab some tightly-cropped shots. I wasn't using Chris' mega-lights here, just a single off-camera SB900 bounced off a Rogue Flashbender acting as fill.]]>

Last Saturday morning, our photowalking group decided to try something different. Chris brought a bunch of fancy lights, Julie brought her friends Larin and Jason who had recently got engaged, and we all shot portraits.

Our location (not that it really mattered for this particular shot) was Dunvegan Keep, a fascinating wedding venue tucked away in a suburban neighbourhood of south Austin. The owner has spent the last 20 years transforming his large back yard into a fantasy land containing medieval-looking structures, follies and other wonderful photo backdrops. Add to this a large swimming pool, a wedding chapel and an amazing little suite with stained glass and frescoes and you have a superb location for a very memorable shoot.

This picture was taken inside the gazebo seen on the Dunvegan Keep web site. It was a bit busy, so I chose to use a long lens and grab some tightly-cropped shots. I wasn't using Chris' mega-lights here, just a single off-camera SB900 bounced off a Rogue Flashbender acting as fill.

Fernando Alonso, who ended up the home-town hero on winning the Spanish Grand Prix last weekend, is seen here in his 2012 Ferrari heading towards turn 11 at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas during Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend, November 16-18, 2012.]]>

Fernando Alonso, who ended up the home-town hero on winning the Spanish Grand Prix last weekend, is seen here in his 2012 Ferrari heading towards turn 11 at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas during Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend, November 16-18, 2012.

What surprised me most about the abandoned buildings in Cisco was the fact that so many of them still contained appliances. This cabin proved the prime example with a TV and a stereo (with integrated 8-track player) sitting just inside the door.

I wonder what happened that caused people to leave and not take their stuff with them? I assumed the owners of these buildings had moved elsewhere but I suppose they could have been rented and the tenants moved on while the owners lost interest after being unable to lease the property?]]>

What surprised me most about the abandoned buildings in Cisco was the fact that so many of them still contained appliances. This cabin proved the prime example with a TV and a stereo (with integrated 8-track player) sitting just inside the door.

I wonder what happened that caused people to leave and not take their stuff with them? I assumed the owners of these buildings had moved elsewhere but I suppose they could have been rented and the tenants moved on while the owners lost interest after being unable to lease the property?

One of our sunrise shoots while in Moab was at Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park. I posted an image of this arch last week. That one was taken after the crush of photographers had left. This one shows my vantage point in the line of people that built up prior to sunrise.

The excitement, and the reason behind there being the closely packed line of people there at such an ungodly hour, is that a shot showing the sun peeking over the horizon underneath the arch can be spectacular. Thanks to an eroded, red amphitheatre immediately below the arch, the underside of the arch glows wonderfully at sunrise. Couple this with a nice starburst from the sun itself and you can end up with a real winner of a picture (but, albeit, a real winner that pretty much everyone who has visited the arch has taken).]]>

One of our sunrise shoots while in Moab was at Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park. I posted an image of this arch last week. That one was taken after the crush of photographers had left. This one shows my vantage point in the line of people that built up prior to sunrise.

The excitement, and the reason behind there being the closely packed line of people there at such an ungodly hour, is that a shot showing the sun peeking over the horizon underneath the arch can be spectacular. Thanks to an eroded, red amphitheatre immediately below the arch, the underside of the arch glows wonderfully at sunrise. Couple this with a nice starburst from the sun itself and you can end up with a real winner of a picture (but, albeit, a real winner that pretty much everyone who has visited the arch has taken).

I need your help on this one. I took this image in Cisco, Utah, the ghost town where we didn't have a run-in with the local sheriff. I was happy with the colour version but reckoned it would be fun to go for a totally different look and ended up with this low key, monochrome picture. I think I like it but I would love to know what others think. Did I go too far in making this mean-and-moody or does the super-dark atmosphere suit the subject?]]>

I need your help on this one. I took this image in Cisco, Utah, the ghost town where we didn't have a run-in with the local sheriff. I was happy with the colour version but reckoned it would be fun to go for a totally different look and ended up with this low key, monochrome picture. I think I like it but I would love to know what others think. Did I go too far in making this mean-and-moody or does the super-dark atmosphere suit the subject?

Ah, the power of focal length! This shot was taken from pretty much the same place next to Mesa Arch as yesterday’s but using a far longer lens. If you look at the centre of yesterday’s picture, you can probably pick this scene out from just beneath the arch.

Yesterday’s image was shot with a 15mm fisheye lens but I swapped this for the 28-300mm and zoomed in to get this picture.

As you’ve heard me say several times before, I love tonal recession and this is another of my favourites. Whereas the earlier shot of Justin setting up a picture probably has more layers, I love the diversity in the shapes in this composition. This picture is also a lot closer to the actual colour of the scene than the earlier one where I toned it to a cool blue instead of the native brown/sepia.

I think the sunrise shoot at Mesa Arch was the highlight of the NXNW trip for me. The view here was spectacular!

Like Delicate Arch (which I have yet to post a picture of), this place is very popular but unlike Delicate Arch, there isn’t much space for photographers to set up at Mesa Arch. The area directly in front of the arch is only about 25 or 30 feet wide and by the time we got there at 5:30am or thereabouts, it was already pretty well filled with tripods. I had hoped to get this shot, or something very similar, using my fisheye lens to catch the sun peeking over the horizon under the arch but, because of the slot I managed to find to set up my tripod, it wasn’t possible – there were too many other tripod legs encroaching on the frame. As a result, I waited until everyone else left (about 2 minutes after the sun appeared) and got the composition I had wanted, albeit without the sun visible. I suppose I could have waited and got a sun flare version when it rose above the top of the arch but other locations were calling by that time.

For the technically inclined, this is the first HDR I’ve posted which I generated using a new workflow. The Photomatix ”Merge to 32-Bit HDR” plugin for Lightroom allows me to generate a 32-bit TIFF from my brackets without going through the Photomatix GUI at all. Thanks to improvements in Lightroom 4, I can then edit this TIFF directly in the Develop module and use all the normal camera raw settings only with vastly expanded range. The result is a wonderfully realistic looking image that, in my opinion, beats Photomatix Exposure Fusion hands down.

We're back in the ghost town of Cisco, Utah again today with another infrared shot of two of the deserted cabins there.

After being a water refilling stop on the rail line, the town was deserted some time in the early 20th century as steam trains were phased out and water stops were no longer needed.]]>

We're back in the ghost town of Cisco, Utah again today with another infrared shot of two of the deserted cabins there.

After being a water refilling stop on the rail line, the town was deserted some time in the early 20th century as steam trains were phased out and water stops were no longer needed.