Best of 2012

I wanted to figure out which of my images would follow into the "Best of 2012" category.  I have shot a lot of crap, but I have also shot a few pictures that I am really happy with.  The following would be the top 15 based on visitor popularity and my own preference. They appear in no specific order.

HDR image of a train from the Western Railway Museum

Residence at Black Diamond Mine regional park

Old Oak at Sycamore Valley regional park

Round Valley regional park

Vasco Caves regional park. Access by guided tour only

Contra Loma regional park

Sunset over the Green

My best editing work of 2012- "Tiny Farm"

Mt. Diablo seen over Marsh Creek

Brushy Peak regional park

Rusty tanker in Brentwood CA. Love the flat tire.

This tree at Black Diamond Regional Park was a finalist for the 2012 calendar

Macro shot at Los Vaqueros Reservoir

Brushy Peak Regional Park

Old building at Black Diamond Regional Park

Las Trampas Park

I went for a hike in San Ramon to visit Las Trampas Park. My pictures are on flickr. The park was pretty huge and my 1.5 mile hike only scratched the surface of the park. The sky was really grey and I wasn't very happy with the photos overall.

When I hike, I try and track the path on EveryTrail which uses an iPhone app to follow my location over GPS and then overlay it on a map.  I know a lot of services exist to do this, but so far I really like this site.

While driving to Las Trampas, I passed 3 or 4 really amazing barns that screamed for photos, but once again, no safe place to stop and shoot a pic along the drive.

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.

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.

Hello World

I guess this is my first post to this new blog.

About me. I work for an East Bay software company and in my free time I am a landscape photographer with a little urban exploration thrown in.  Most of my photos are taken in in East Bay parks or on the back roads.

I currently shoot with a Nikon D5100 and mostly use a Tamron Ultra Wide Angle lens.  Photos are usually edited with Aperture on the Mac.

I have been shooting photos since high school but only really got serious about a year go with I picked up the Nikon.  I am still learning and building my skills. I once read a quote that your first 10,000 photos are crap. I am just over 5000 on this camera at the time of this writing. I will let you be the judge.

Your feedback and comments are always appreciated.