Feeling the High Notes
Architectural/geometric BW photo series
Taichung, Taiwan City Council Building

May 16, 2008 - #1172
http://www.denisolivier.com/p_sets.php?pid=1172

If you are a dreamer, come in.
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hoper, a prayer, a magic-bean-buyer.
If you are a pretender, come sit by my fire,
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come in !
Come in !

~Shel Silverstein~

I love the C.S. Lewis series The Chronicles of Narnia. This lion lives 20 minutes from me and I visit him often. He reminds me of Aslan. Isn't he beautiful? Such a soulful face. When he looks at me, I swear, he actually sees...me.

It's #SepiaSaturday today, curated by +Renee Stewart Jackson . Thanks, Renee!

Songbird Saturday - Common Redpoll

With a major winter storm coming tonight, I thought it fitting to post a photo of the Common Redpoll, a songbird of winter time in Maine. This photo was taken in January during a snowstorm. Our feeders were over run with these birds and I captured some video and other photos that day.

It's that time again for #SongbirdSaturday. Over the last several weeks, this theme has drifted off the main point of songbirds. Please try to post songbirds if at all possible. It's not that I do not like other birds, I would just like this to stick to the theme. There have been some wonderful posts. Keep them coming. Thanks!

#SongbirdSaturday curated by yours truly, +John Briggs

Austria, Cattle
Resharing for the weekend G+ crew.
#PlusPhotoExtract

A new photo from my " Fire Eater " files
Certainly one of my soon upload in Flickr
Take care Guys & Girls :-)))

The Infrared Photographic Society
http://www.flickr.com/groups/irps/
Membership to the IRPS.org.uk is open to all interested photographers.

All IRPS members are invited to submit their work to the group’s infrared image pool. This pool will act as a permanent, but changing exhibition of members work, a showcase for the very best in near infrared photography.

Coming back from work, this morning, the sky was strange!At some point, the clouds seemed to take a curved shape just like was the road!
No time to waste, parking, tripod and some quick shots by the road.
Oh, and post proccesing for that dramatic look!
So, always carry your camera and your tripod, you never know what you 're gonna face in the next corner!!!
Have a nice Weekend!
#PlusPhotoExtract
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"The curved ones"

Sorry I haven't been around much lately. I'm writing an app for apple and Android devices about photographing the California coast! I'll be done in a couple of months.

Pigeon Point Evening San Mateo County, California
(Expand post for more)


Details

Canon 5D
Canon 17-40L @ 18 (super-wide)
8-second exposure @F22
ISO 50
2 Lee soft grad filters (4x6 inch, 100x150mm, 0.9, 3-stop)
No polarizer.
RAW file processed with Capture One by Phase One
TIFF file processed with Photoshop cs4
Small Slik Sprint mini II tripod
Manfrotto 322RC2 pistol-grip ball head

The Story

It is a short scramble down a crumbly cliff to get to the spot. But it is worth it because most photos you see of the Pigeon point lighthouse are made from the top of the cliff. It is almost always better to get down close to the shoreline. Your viewers will feel more connected to the scene in that way. This is a medium tide, which is best. Low tide exposes too much seaweed and high tide makes the waves break against the cliff. I used a long exposure to smooth the water and show off the beautiful rocks.

Other stuff

My pictures are featured on the front page of California Governor, Jerry Brown's website http://gov.ca.gov

Resources

I wrote a 325 eBook that describes exactly how I went about learning photography starting in 2006. I did not learn the usual way. I have studied the great masters of painting and hope to find that light in the real world.

http://www.patricksmithphotography.com/Photography_Book.html


A great weather mashup map of the world with local temperatures, weather and nice popups. See where it is hot and not! (Must wait for slow commercials first, but worth it!)
http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/

Google Earth
http://earth.google.com/

Simply the best way to scout out locations that there is. You can see sun angles and pre-visualize light under lots of different conditions. Sometimes you can actually pre-compose your shots! This has saved me many thousands of vertical feet of climbing by avoiding spots with blocked views etc.

Satellite imagery (choose 'National' for a local US region or use your fave website)
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/satellite/?wfo=mtr

Tide charting and preditions: (chose your area in US, other countries have similar websites)
http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tide_predictions.shtml?gid=235

Wave Heights (I choose 'North Pacific from Global')
http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/waves/index2.shtml

Or Here:
http://www.opc.ncep.noaa.gov/shtml/RP1bw.gif

Photos of every inch of the California coastline from a small plane. Excellent for close in detailed views.

http://www.californiacoastline.org/

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