Old Vasco Truck

Every day I drive home from work I have passed this old truck way off in the distance under a couple of trees. It has never moved. No obvious access roads exist. Just a truck and some trees.  I did once see some ranchers in the area...

Anyway, I have always wanted to get a photo but access is not very good and the road isn't very safe, but I did find a spot to safely stop and then walk about 1/4 mile with my tripod.

When I zoom in a little I can see that the windshield appears to have been replaced by either wood or painted metal.

I took these shots with my Nikon 70-300mm lens and I couldn't get in any closer to really get more detail from the truck.  I have no idea what model of truck it is.

To the right of the truck I managed to get a nice HDR image of Mt. Diablo

Learning to use my ND filter

46 second exposure time

I spent some time taking pictures close to home today.  I picked up a 10Stop ND filter recently and have only had a couple of chances to use it and this seemed like a good subject. The water running down the fountain itself isn't very deep, so it is hard to really get the full impact of the water.

I decided to go with color over B&W to highlight the flowers.

HDR or just Tonemaped?

Tonemapped

Someone asked me recently if the above image was an HDR image or just tonemapped. Sometimes it really is hard to tell. First to answer the question, the above image was tonemapped with the Photomatix Plugin for Aperture. I also used a circular polarizer when I shot the image.

Unedited version of the above image

Tonemapping is a pretty dangerous form of editing. You can easily go way too far and make an image look like a cartoon. For sure it is all about personal taste and I know some people really hate it. I enjoy how it can bring out the clouds and bring out detail in grass and trails.  I try pretty hard to find a good place that allows things to be bright but still realistic.  When it comes to urban exploration images, I really enjoy heavily tonemapped colors.

True HDR Image of Mt. Diablo

The above image was created using a true HDR process. 3 bracketed images were combined and then tonemapped in Photomatix.

Brushy Peak Regional Preserve

This photo was the first one I had published. It was featured in the East Bay Regional Park District activity guide a few months back.

Marsh Creek hillside

I took this HDR image a few days ago while driving through Brentwood. I have probably past this location 20 or 30 times and had never even noticed the rocks on the hill let alone the trees.  But I had pulled into a small side road to take a photo of the nearby ranch and saw the perfect hill for a picture.

This photo was featured this week by The Digital Visual.

HDR image shot from a tripod and a Marumi Circular Polarizer. Tamron Ultra Wide angle lens. Edited and in Aperture on the Mac.

Tubes and more Tubes

View from each direction at the top of the bridge

Earlier in the winter I was out on a drive out near the delta and came across a very narrow road with these long water pipes (I assume they were water) running parallel with the road. At almost the end of the road we found a bridge just wide enough for a single car. This picture was taken from the top of that bridge.

I love the depth of field and the overall grungy feeling of the sky and fields.  Any other day and it would have just been an ordinary photo. Timing is everything I guess.