Sunday, January 31, 2010

Lily leaf in black & white


b&w leaf, originally uploaded by Rob Weiher.

While out today I was attracted to a young lily plant. What most attracted me was the lines and curves. I went with a black and white conversion because I felt it really brought out those lines and curves.

Thinking back on the benefits of doing the 365 last year the one thing that has been the most cool has been how I see the world now. My creative eye has become far more developed and it came as a surprise. I find myself looking at just about everything now in a different way...especially how light falls on objects.


Sunday, January 24, 2010

Elkhorn Slough


elkhorn slough, originally uploaded by Rob Weiher.

We have a rather large nature preserve not far from where we live and today was the first time I've taken the time to visit it.

Elkhorn Slough

I had to laugh earlier while looking through my shots I took today. I've said a few times in the past year that I'm not a landscape or wildlife photographer yet I find myself continuing to shot both. I think subconsciously I'm not allowing myself to give up on styles I've told myself I don't have an eye for. I think at least for landscape my saving grace is light. I've become very much attracted to light and how it interacts with the landscape. So to steal what has been said many times by other photographers I guess for me to get better at landscape photography I just need to focus on capturing the light. Still working on wildlife...sitting in one place in hopes of a bird or other animal crossing my path is a little more work than I'm ready for.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

My Journey into Black & White


artichokes b&w, originally uploaded by Rob Weiher.

I've been wanting to play with black and white for a while so you'll probably be seeing more as I explore different techniques to get the look I want. I'm hoping that finding something to focus on to learn will get me motivated again. I've only picked up my camera a handful of times since finishing my 365.

I converted this shot to black and white in Adobe Camera Raw using a develop setting called class split tone (black and white). In Photoshop I did a little work with levels and masking and to pull a little extra texture out I made a copy of the background layer and used a bas relief filter and lowering the opacity and adding a layer adjustment to that layer.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

No favorite of the week


Marina beach sunset, originally uploaded by Rob Weiher.

Since I posted other shots already for the week I can't really do my Sunday post of my favorite shot of the week. I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing blog wise right now. I'm currently trying not to go backwards creatively since finishing my 365 project. So with that...here is a shot I took today at sunset. I wanted a different perspective from my previous sunset shots so I went to a beach a bit more north and where I could get down to the water a bit easier. I wanted to be able to do a longer exposure so I used my ND filter and my polarizer together.

This particular shot has the Accented Edges filter on it for a little extra texture to the water and clouds.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Monterey Sunset

There are more nice sunsets here over the Monterey Bay than not but the last couple of nights they have been really colorful. I raced out to the beach right after work and got there with a few minutes to spare before the 10 minute window of color opened.

These shots have been edited in Photoshop. A bit of a levels adjustment and some noise reduction since I can't seem to figure out how to limit it when taking these types of shots. I'm guessing it may have something to do with cheap glass. Any tips would be welcome.



18mm, 1/50 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100


25mm, 1/100 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100


50mm, 1/100 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100

Monday, January 4, 2010

Just how many photos did I take?

When I first started my 365 Project I counted up my photos for the first two months but didn't do it after that. Well I was curious again so I dug through my entire 365 catalog. Here are the results.

Jan - 1009
Feb - 1041
Mar - 1419
Apr - 887
May - 1679
Jun - 1294
Jul - 2008
Aug - 2021
Sep - 1540
Oct - 871
Nov - 1236
Dec - 1045

Total = 16050
Avg by month = 1338
Avg by day = 44
Single day high = 311 (Scottish Games)
Single day low = 1 (a few times)

I'm now digging through all those photos and decide which are worth keeping and what ones to delete. There are lots of duplicates from making minor corrections to settings or lighting trying to get it to look just right. If I was to be so bold and guess how many actual decent photos (I may be able to use after some post processing work or in compositions) are in there I'd say around 10%. So of those roughly 1600 I'd probably say only another 10% are what I would consider good. Of those 160 probably another 10% are what I may consider excellent and worth putting on the wall. So that leaves 16 worth putting on the wall as is. Well maybe a little sharpening and selective cropping but not much else in my opinion.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

My 2010 Goals


basket b&w, originally uploaded by Rob Weiher.

I've had a few days to recuperate from my 365 project and come up with new ideas. My 2010 goal is to do a weekly project instead of daily. I will post my best/favorite photo of the week most likely on Sunday and this time I will include some post processing to my work flow. This may mean I change it to black and white or something more creative. This year is about being even more creative, not just behind the camera but as a final output. I'm also trying a new background color for the blog. Black & white photos kind of disappear with a black background.

My other goals for the year are too see about getting some of my work presented somewhere. Even if it's just the local coffee shop wall...I would really like to see it on a wall. This of course means that another goal is to create a portfolio and have printed work available for viewing. My biggest goal is to open up a Zenfolio account and start putting my work out there for purchase. Once I have this setup I'll see about having some MOO cards created.

I also intend on writing up a little more about my 365 project. I'm interested in seeing how many photos I took the entire year with monthly breakdowns and such. Well I'm interested...not sure if you are but I'll put it up in case a few of you are. I also have selected my favorite 15 photos and will post them and why I selected them over the other 350 I took.

Have a great 2010 everyone.