Photos 4U2C

This Blog Has Moved (sort of)

2009-02-05T19:46:00.001-08:00

I moved my blog. All 8 readers please se my new blog at photos4u2c.wordpress.com

The reason I moved my blog is the small image size on blogger. At my new blog you will that my photos are much bigger. I think it looks a lot better.

I started the new blog a month ago. It was running in parallel with this one for awhile, but it was too much work updateing both sites with the same posts.

I'm not 100% sure if this blog will die off, or if I'll morph it into something else.

It's Too Cold for Dogs

2009-01-16T14:29:00.001-08:00

Jack in Hobbs Woods, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Winter is in full force here in Wisconsin. Yesterday I took the dogs and my camera out to Hobbs woods to take advantage of the fresh snow. Thanks to the zero degree thermometer reading the dogs and I had the woods all to ourselves. Maria (my girlfriend) said it was too cold to bring the dogs out. The dogs disagreed. I think they would have stayed out all day. Too bad the weather had all the rabbits and squirrels hidden away.

Technical note: I have been experimenting a lot with getting pictures of my black dog Jack in the snow. Here's the technique I've developed over the last two months.

1) Shoot in RAW.

2) Set the the camera to manual and find an exposure that puts the snow on the far, far right of the histogram without over exposing. A few over exposed specs are OK. They can be recovered in the RAW converter. Also, snow is white. A couple little overexposed white areas are OK.

3) Using the photoshop RAW converter set the white balance using the white balance dropper. Click the dropper in a neutral area in the snow. Click around some different spots until you find a good looking white balance.

4) Set the black point slider to zero. You need as many pixels as you can muster to render a black dogs fur.

5) Open the photo into photoshop and make a duplicate layer. Use the shadow highlight adjustment on the new layer to bring out details in the black dog and the bright snow. Mask the layer to taste, or keep the adjustment global.

6) Do some sharpening to the dog's face, and add a little saturation to the dog. This makes it pop out.

7) Your done

Nobody is Looking

2009-01-14T08:56:00.003-08:00

Winter Over the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Out the right side of the aircraft you can see the Grand Canyon.

Lake Havasu

2009-01-14T08:56:00.001-08:00

Lake Havasu, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Since I am on first year first officer pay right now I’ve had to substitute orders from amazon.com with trips to the Library. Yesterday we went to the Fond du Lac public library to get some books for Ella. I picked up a couple photography books also. One of the books was by the photographer Eliot Porter. This might reveal my compete ignorance; I had never heard of him before. Here’s a Wikipedia link for those readers as undereducated as me.

The book is full of gorgeous color prints. As I looked through the book I began to notice that none of the photos had a pure white tone. Even photos of snow didn’t have a single speck of white that matched the white of the paper the photos were printed on. The pictures still looked marvalous. This set me to thinking about my own photo editing techniques. I always strive for the white areas in my pictures to be pure white after post process. For me figuring out a white point and a black point is the starting point for setting the correct contrast. None of Elliot Porter’s photos had a pure white and they still looked perfectly natural and realistic. Many of his landscapes feel like you could walk right into them. Maybe I don’t need a pure white either.

That brings me to the photo at the top of this post. It’s lake Havasu, Arizona. I took this picture three days ago, but I didn’t edit it until this morning. During the post process I did my best to make this photo look like an Elliot Porter print. Notice, there is nothing pure white in this picture.

Buddhist Fish Offering

2009-01-08T10:13:00.001-08:00

Walleye in a Bucket, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

I talked to my dad on the phone yesterday. He said an eagle ate the remains of the Walleye that we left on the ice.

OK, the story is actually more complicated than that. We didn't leave the Walleye on the ice. We put the head skeleton and tail in a grill that was next to an ice shanty across the lake. The fillets are safe in my dads freezer. Why would we leave a fish carcass in our neighbors grill? First of all, it was my dad's idea. I was just along to verify the story.

The people across the lake run a mechanized ice fishing outfit. They set up twenty tip-ups with the aid of a snowmobile and motorized ice auger. Then, once they are set up they do their fishing from the comfort of a heated ice shanty and they cook brats outside on their grill. It's all peachy for them. My dad does his fishing in the open air with the cold north wind howling. He drills his own holes with an ancient man-powered ice auger. And, he only puts out his legal limit of three tip ups.

If you caught the biggest Walleye in the lake would you tell your competitors across the lake about it, or would you sneak across the dark-frozen lake in the middle of the night and leave the remains of the trophy walleye in their grill? Imagine their surprise the next afternoon when they went to cook up some Johnsonville Brats and watch the Green Bay Packers in their heated shanty. The leader of their outfit opens the grill and takes a step back in horror at the first site of the frozen carcass in his grill. After a few seconds his reeling mind begins to comprehend that he has been outfished and outsmarted. He looks around for tracks in the snow. Where did these people come from? But, we were too smart for that. We walked confusing circles around the ice shanty and ended or mission backtracking down a packed snowmobile trail. There are no tracks to follow.

In the end the bald eagle got to eat the fish remains. The guys with the shanty left the fish on the ice and the hungry eagle found it a couple hours later. My dad said the eagle carried the fish into the tree above our cabin and ate it.

Rocky Mountain National Park Locked in Winter

2009-01-07T10:15:00.001-08:00

Rocky Mountain NP Locked in Winter, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

I took this photo two days ago while flying high above Rocky Mountain National Park. The sun had set a five minutes earlier, but enough alpine glow remained for me to get this shot.

I've spent some time in Rocky Mountain National Park so I can give you a little tour via this photo. The ridge on the left bottom is where Trail Ridge Road crosses the mountains. The main ridge in the center of the frame is the continental divide. At the end of the center ridge is Long's Peak, the highest mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park. This is me on top of Longs Peak.

I photographed these guys two summers ago. They're probably sleeping somewhere under all that snow right now, or maybe they're in a coyote's belly?

More Las Vegas Real Estate

2009-01-07T08:59:00.001-08:00

Las Vegas Trailers, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Here's another photo from my walk around Las Vegas. This storage lot is located walking distance from The Strip.

Tehnical note: When taking photos in bright midday sun it is easy to get tricked by your camera's LCD into underexposing. Under exposed shots look better on the LCD when viewed in a sunny area. If you're bracketing and don't pay attention to the histogram you could easily fool yourself into underexposing a whole series of pictures. I've done that a few times in the past. Now whenever I shoot in the sun I pay close attention to the histogram. For this photo I based my exposure off the white in the trailers. I made sure there was a spike on the right side of the histogram as close to the edge as possible without overexposing. This spike was the white trailers. I took a few bracketed shots over and under just to be sure I got a workable image. And of course, the underexposed frame looked best on my LCD. However, when I got back to my computer and downloaded the photos the image with the whitest yet not blown out trailers looked best.

Why do underexposed photos look best on the camera's LCD? I am not sure but I have a theory. First of all underexposed photos are darker so they are easier to see in bright sun. Secondly, I think the camera actually does a little post processing of its own when it displays the photos. I could b wrong, but I think most cameras set a white point and black point, kind of a rough levels adjustment, to the photos displayed on the LCD. This is used strictly for the LCD display and isn't saved for to the file data. That's why your images always look contrastier on the LCD than they do once they're downloaded. This white point setting adds saturation just like it does in photoshop. That's why the underexposed photo has more saturation. A sharper correction was made to create a white point and black point in the underexposed image. Therefore there is more saturation in the underexposed photo in the LCD display and it still looks good because it has a black point and a white point. You don't notice the image is messed up until you download it onto your computer or take a second to analyze the histogram n camera.

The State of Utah Should be Paying Me

2009-01-05T06:00:00.001-08:00

Sunset Above Utah , originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Is this Utah week? I have to admit that I am getting tired of scrolling down my blog and seeing one after another aerial photos of Utah covered in snow, but I can't resist posting another. I got this photo yesterday while flying from Las Vegas to New York (again). The sun was setting and our jumpseat rider was yammering on and on about how he once stood up to the base chief pilot. Blah Blah Blah. Meanwhile, I was getting some great shots of the desert ridges below.

I have one more shot from yesterday that I want to post, and we are flying to Vegas again today. Look out for more Utah shots.

Apocalypse or Las Vegas?

2009-01-04T21:02:00.001-08:00

Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Do you remember that guy that told you to invest in real estate because they aren't making any more land? Remember when he told you about how he got in on a new condo project in Vegas for only $40,000 down. He said it was a can't miss money maker. Well, the construction on his condo is now finished, and he has one month before he has to start paying the full mortgage on his unit. If only he could find a buyer things would be OK.

Are you interested in luxury living only minutes away from the Las Vegas strip? This unit is conveniently located near miles of low rise nondescript office buildings. The homeless people living in the adjacent vacant lot promise to not build their shanties taller than two stories which means your view of the strip will not be blocked. Owner will consider short sale or mortgage take over.

The Sun Rises on Bruce Springsteen

2009-01-04T08:51:00.001-08:00

The Sunrises on Bruce Springsteen, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

This is sunrise on the coast of New Jersey. Somewhere down on the shoreline is Asbury Park, home of Bruce Springsteen. This is what the end of a red eye flight looks like. Bruce Springsteen may have been born to run, but when I took this photo I felt born to take a nap at the JFK Double Tree.

For me flying the east coast at sunrise feels like coming home. I plowed these same skies while working at PSA for 8 years. As much as I love the American west I must admit that the east coast offers prettier aerial sunrise photos than the west. Many mornings in the east there are broken layers of cirrus clouds that create a gentle pastel sky that contrasts nicely with the dark blue Atlantic Ocean. I guess I dont have to choose sides -- I can like both the east coast and the west coast. A fan of the visual arts can like both Ansel Adams and Winslow Homer. Have I just lost my small amount of blogger cred proclaiming my admiration of those two guys?

Electronic Flight Bag

2009-01-03T13:52:00.001-08:00

Electronic Flight Bag, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

This gadget is one of the joys of working for my new airline. It's an electronic flight bag. Basically it's a tablet PC with all of our maps, charts, and company manuals loaded into it. Because we have these EFBs installed on all of our aircraft the pilots no longer have to carry heavy chart cases. The best part is we no longer have to do manual and chart revisions. In the old days pilots would have to spend an hour or two each week doing revisions to their charts. Now, all that is done by the maintenance department with a simple upload to the electronic flight bag.

I took this photo this morning on at the top of our descent into New York JFK. We were just finishing the red eye flight from Las Vegas. The chart on display is the LENDY5 arrival to JFK.

Kolob Canyons, Utah

2009-01-02T16:55:00.001-08:00

Kolob Canyons, Utah, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Last week I promised more aerial views of the Utah desert. I come through on my promises. This is an aerial view of the Kolob Canyons region of Zion National Park. The red rocks are the Kolob Canyons. If you visit Zion National Park I recomend spending a day at Kolob Canyons. The area is as spectacular as Zion Canyon, but it lacks tourists, and there are some great sunset photo opportunities for all you landscape photographers. Here is a photo I took in the Kolob Canyons a few years ago. If you look hard at this enlarged view of my aerial photograph you can spot the rock formation that I photographed so many years back.

When the Wolves Don't Eat You

2009-01-02T14:52:00.001-08:00

Outagamie county Airport, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

We made it through a week at the Cabin in the wild north woods of Wisconsin and none of us were eaten by wolves, including the dogs. A pack of wolves moved into the woods behind our family's cabin two years ago. Walking in the forest has taken on a new level of excitement. None of us has seen a wolf yet, but we have seen tracks, and my brother, a certified wolf howler, has gotten the wolf pack to howl a response. They are out there.

As you can see from the photo leading this post, I am back at work now. The picture was taken at Outagamie County Airport in Appleton. I commuted out of there this morning. The snow plow was out cleaning up the endlessly blowing snow. As I write this post I am listening to the endless chiming of the slot machines at McCarran Airport here in Las Vegas. In a few hours we depart for New York.

Most of the Blood is From Me, Not the Fish

2008-12-31T13:44:00.001-08:00

Walleye!, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

We spent a few days at the cabin in Eagle River, Wisconsin. This is my dad holding the largest Walleye he has ever caught in his six decades of fishing. The fish is estimated to be eight years old and measured 25 inches. While taking the hook out my dad cut his finger pretty deep and left a bloody mess all over the cabin's deck and front door. My dad said the fish was greedy and ate one too many minnows -- that's why it was caught. However, he allowed that it is hard for a hungry Walleye to pass up a wounded shiner minnow. Either way, this jumbo Walleye will not be menacing the perch in our bay anymore.

How Dumb Could a Person Possibly Be?

2008-12-26T11:00:00.001-08:00

Inglewood Sidewalk, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

The title of this post is a quote I lifted from my family's Christmas dinner which we ate on Christmas Eve. This morning, the day after Christmas, I woke up in the LAX Westin once again feeling hung over from my Christmas day travels. My Christmas started at 4:00 am with a -5 degree F car refuel in the dark frozen wastes of Fond du Lac Wisconsin and ended with me marveling at the palm trees that line the streets leading out of LAX airport. While we checked into the hotel Flavor Flav was standing next to us at the check in counter talking to the other desk clerk. Flavor looked a lot older than the guy having convulsions in the video for "911 is a Joke".

While laying in bed this morning recovering from exhaustion I turned on the TV. I love to watch the crazy local news in Los Angeles. Today, the all white news team was on location at area malls reporting on the day after Christmas deals that could be had because of the current economic crisis. Apparently if you have money this is a great time to buy designer shoes.

After a cup of coffee I decided it was time to go look for some photos to feed to this blog. I set out on a little hike around Inglewood. Inglewood doesn't look like the greatest place to find post holiday bargains on luxury items. Most every business was boarded up. Shortly after I took the photo at the top of this post a guy jay walked across six lanes of traffic and walked right behind me for a block and a half. I started to feel a little paranoid about carrying $4500 worth of camera equipment over my shoulder. Who'd rob me on a busy street in broad daylight?

I started back towards my hotel. On the way I ran into the usual panhandlers that hang out on the border zone between Inglewood and the airport hotels. It was easy to say no to the beggars today because I am completely broke. It's either you eat with my money or I eat with my money. Call me greedy, but that choice is easy for me to make.

When I finally got back to the Westin the driveway in front of the lobby was lined with expensive imported cars. At that point I felt like the sole member of the shrinking middle class.

Ella Floating

2008-12-25T13:12:00.001-08:00

Ella Floating, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

We survived Christmas! This is Ella enjoying the pool at the Fond du Lac Comfort Inn on Christmas Eve.

High Above Planet Hoth

2008-12-22T09:40:00.001-08:00

Desert Snow, Utah, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Remember the snow they got in Las Vegas last week? The snow in this photo came from the same weather system that caused the snow in Vegas. This photo was taken high above the Colorado Plateau in south central Utah. Because I am a child of the 1980s the first thing I think of when I look at this photo is the planet Hoth from "The Empire Strikes Back". If you're trying to spot the reckage of Luke Skywalker's snow speeder click here for a larger version.

I have more photos of desert snow from this same trip waiting for editing. Hopefully I have time to post them soon.

A Magical Time of Year

2008-12-18T11:26:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas!, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

We took Ella to see this very realistic Santa in Forest Mall, Fond du Lac. She had a great time. I was bit bit disappointed with the mixed lighting. It's hard to color correct incandescent, mixed with fluorescent, mixed with flash.

You Face a Life of Increasing Disappointment

2008-12-15T11:04:00.001-08:00

Travelodge, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

I can’t claim rights to the clever title of this post. It is a quote I lifted from Doug Menuez's article about transforming your photography career. I also can’t take credit for finding that article on my own. I got the link from Mark Tucker’s blog. However, I did take the above photo of the Travelodge located on South San Francisco Airport Boulevard. Don’t worry, this is not going to turn into another hotel review post.

When I took the Travelodge picture I knew I had a seed for a blog post. The photo is where I am in life right now. I stay at that Travelodge when I commute into SFO to start trips. On hotwire you can get a room there for $38, and they have airport shuttle service. The downside of staying at the Travelodge is that several San Francisco pimps are running a thriving business out of there. They stay out of your way, but the door slamming all night is a bit annoying.

So I got this photo and I had a day to think about what to write about it. With three cups of coffee in me I took a jog around our hotel in Inglewood, CA. As a white guy from the Midwest I was feeling like a tough guy jogging through Inglewood. This is the same Inglewood that Snoop Dog and Dr Dre rapped about back when I was in high school. Full of caffeine, and endorphins I tried to think up a good blog post. The two ideas that I couldn’t shake out of my head were the Myth of the Phoenix and the last chapter of “The Odyssey” when Ulysses returns home. The Phoenix rose from the ashes. Wasn’t that like me? I sold everything I owned on Craig’s list last month, can’t afford lunch, and don’t have a pair of jeans without a hole. That’s like ashes, right? And like Ulysses I just returned home after 15 years of battling demons and storms(sort of like working at PSA Airlines). And, didn’t I just read two days ago that society is based more upon common myths than religion or media. That’s some smart stuff. It would really impress my 8 regular blog readers. And of course they will never realize that I lifted the stuff about Ulysses from a short story I read in the New Yorker a few months back.

My head was buzzing with the ideas that founded our western culture and I was on the home stretch of my jog -- starting a little sprint to the finish. Coming the other direction on the sidewalk was another runner. He was wearing a hooded sweatshirt pulled over his head, jeans, and an old pair of basketball shoes. As he ran he was punching the air like boxer in training. Maybe he was a boxer -- a west coast Rocky Balboa. Or maybe he was just another Inglewood crackhead getting deep into his fix. As we passed each other he smiled at me and said, ”Get your money. Yeah boy, get your money!”. I think the crackhead has it all figured out.

Coming Home

2008-12-14T13:46:00.001-08:00

Galloway House, Fond du Lac WI, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

This is a photo of the Galloway House in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. The home was built by a lumber baron in the 1800's and now it is a museum. I grew up in Fond du Lac, and the Galloway House is located about three blocks from the house I lived in from age 13 to 19. In grade school my cub scout den toured the Galloway House. The only thing I remembered from the tour was the dog that the Galloway family had stuffed and kept in their living room. While living in Fond du Lac I must have driven past the historic house 1000 times. I never gave the house much thought beyond some mild teenage scorn towards things I considered nerdy.

Fast forward 15 years and I (and my family) have made a triumphant return to living in my mother's basement three blocks from the Galloway House. Since moving back a month ago I have become a little bit fascinated by the giant Victorian house that sits at the top of our neighborhood.

First of all the house looks amazing. Driving past for the first time in a year I noticed the big oaks framing the yard and all the details in the architecture of the house. My photographer's brain started racing with a bunch of ideas.

Secondly, I like to ponder what it must have been like to live in Fond du Lac in the 1800's when things were still wild. Imagine standing up on that widow's walk 130 years ago.

When I got into photography six years ago my main reason for shooting was to show my family back in Wisconsin all the exciting things I was seeing in my modern airline pilot lifestyle. After some limited success shooting I started to develop some crude ideas for a personal style -- a kind of dimwitted artistic vision. Photography quickly became a serious hobby, some would say obsession. I remember wanting to build a gallery over at pbase.com filled with bright colors and contrasty light. That was the extent of the emotion I was looking for. My photography could have been best described as "Heavy Metal Nature Photography". Over the course of a year or two I learned how to play photographic power chords.

The next step in my photographic growth came when I joined istockphoto.com. Istock gave me a chance to sell my photos and learn how to create an image that someone else values or could put to use commercially. The unexpected consequence of joining istock was an enormous attention to detail and technical quality of my photos. The photo inspection process is brutal at istock. The slightest technical flaw and your photo is rejected. This caused me to reevaluate everything about my shooting and post processing in Photoshop. Over time I developed a complete vision of the technical process of taking a photo. Every technical aspect of my shooting was obsessed over -- from equipment, to the nature of light, to each little Photoshop tweak. It was no longer enough for me to shoot and process with blind gut feeling. I wanted to know the algebra behind each choice. Switching back to the musical metaphor; I was learning scales, minor chords, dynamics, and timbre.

And next came a period of disillusionment. One day I was looking at my pbase.com gallery filled with colorful, bright, contrasty images and realized I was shooting nothing more than visiual cliches and I wasn't a genius. About that same time I started to notice that while I was successful at istock some other people were much more successful. What was I doing all this work for if I was only going to be average?

I started to look in a new direction. I started reading photography blogs. And I started this blog as a kind of outlet and method to sort things out creatively.

That brings us up to today and the point of this long rambling post. Photography made me interested in something I wouldn't have otherwise cared about, in this case the Galloway House. I stood in knee deep snow for a half hour with a -15 degree wind chill for this photo, and I was happy the whole time. I now realize my home town is full of amazing old oak trees and the sky in Wisconsin is always interesting. I used to hate this place. Now, I can't wait to get out and photograph everything before it's gone. Imagine if you could have set up your tripod and Canon 5D high up on that widows walk in 1880. Those pictures would be something to see even if they were cliche.

Frustration

2008-12-13T08:41:00.000-08:00

Here I sit in the LAX Westin again. I have some free time this morning, some interesting photos to post, and the cheesy internet connection at this hotel won't let me upload photos. After years of travel I have come to the conclusion that the fancier the hotel the worse their internet service. The Westin seems to believe that it is normal to charge for internet service. Who does this anymore? I stayed at a dodgy Travellodge two nights ago. I was kept awake there half the night from all the hookers and pimps slamming doors, but I at least had free, blazing fast wireless. The Westin makes you hook up to an ancient wired network and they charge $10. What kind of customer service is that? At least as airline crew they wave the charge for me, but if I was a business traveler I'd be fuming. The hotel business center charges by the minute for computer use. Want to check your email? That will be $20. I'd rather stay at a Holiday Inn Select, spend half the money, have free internet, and get a free stale bagel breakfast in the morning. But, I shouldn't complain. Someone else is paying for this hotel and they do have a nice pool.

Sorry for the rant that was probably better suited for a hotels.com review. I'm just frustrated.

It is hard keeping a blog. When I started out I had great intentions to post almost everyday. Unfortunately it is not all that easy. A month ago we made a transcontinental move and that sucked dry any free time I had for blogging. Then, a week after moving my computer got a nasty virus and completely died. Now, today with a spare working computer in front of me I can't get a photo uploaded. Hopefully things will settle down over the next week and I can get a posting rhythm going.

I have a new respect for the bloggers out there that can post new well written and well thought out posts on a regular basis. To my eight regular readers; I ask you to check out some of the links in my blog list. The blogs listed there have some great content, and somehow their owners find time and resources to make great, regular posts.

Teeheehee

2008-12-07T13:37:00.001-08:00

HaHa, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Ella figured out how to turn on our car alarm today. It was pure joy to her. I don't know what the neighbors thought. This is a picture of her at the front door playing with the car keys.

Alpha Male

2008-12-07T12:49:00.001-08:00

Alpha Male, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

It was zero degrees outside this morning when I took this picture. Our dogs didn't seem to mind the cold. The cold weather makes them play harder. This photo might remind you of a pack of wolves fighting over a carcass, but really our boys were just fooling around. Jack is the black dog. He weighs about 45 pounds. Gatsby, the other dog, is a brute. He weighs 90 pounds. To make up for his size disadvantage Jack has to show lots of teeth and make a lot of noise. Jack is still the boss between the two dogs even though Gatsby could bite him into two pieces if he wanted to. After their walk both dogs curled up together in front of the fireplace.

Snowy Morning in A Swamp

2008-12-05T10:07:00.001-08:00

Dad, Snowy Morning in Manitowoc, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

It's been snowy up here in Wisconsin. A few days ago I took a walk with my dad in the swamp behind his house in Manitowoc. I brought my camera along, but only brought my Canon 135mm f/2.0 L lens. I thought I was only going to try for pictures of our dogs. That was a mistake. The tangled trees were coated in fresh snow and the long lens was too narrow to get a landscape shot. Making the best of the situation I took a few shots of my dad from a distance. I managed to get some of the snow covered trees into the scene. For this shot I made sure my dad was standing in sunlight. Most of the forest behind is in shadow.

Most Difficult Photo Possible?

2008-12-03T09:12:00.001-08:00

Jack Loves the Snow, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Is there anything harder to photograph than a black dog running through snow with bright sun? For this shot I set my exposure to manual bracketed until I found an exposure that worked for shooting this direction. I then called Jack and I got one high speed pass. This was the best shot from the burst. I'm determined to get the perfect "Jack in the Snow" photo before winter is over.

We moved to Wisconsin from California a couple weeks ago and our dogs love it. I was afraid they would miss hiking around east bay, I think they like Wisconsin better. They like the snow for sure.

Ella Attacks Bay City!

2008-11-29T12:53:00.001-08:00

Ella Attacks Bay City!, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Innocent and unaware of her destructive potential baby Ella rises from the cold, murky depths of San Francisco Bay.

I don't normally play around with these heavy handed photoshop techniques, but I've been immobilized with a cold for the past three days. It's good to try something new now and then. I played with the Transform Perspective tool for over an hour trying to create realistic shadows across Ella's body.

How did I do?

Inspired By Donnie

2008-11-28T14:31:00.001-08:00

Fantastic Voyage, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

I've been stuck in the Hyatt in Dulles with a cold for the past 30 hours. Without anything to do I started watching photoshop tutorials on youtube. I came across the "You Suck at Photoshop" series. It's the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. It inspired me to make the "Fantastic Voyage" photo illustration you see above.

Here's the first Video from season 1:

You can see all of Donnie's videos here.

Modern City

2008-11-28T11:29:00.001-08:00

Modern City, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Here's another sunrise photograph of downtown Seattle. This photo was taken about ten minutes before the sun cracked over the horizon. There was enough light in the sky to illuminate the skyscrapers, but it was still dark enough to get nice light trails on the highway. This was shot at ISO 50, aperture f16, and 25 second shutter speed. The Canon 5D ISO 50 setting is awesome. Even with a 25 second exposure I didn't get any sensor noise.

You can purchase the rights to or a print of this photo of downtown Seattle at istockphoto.com

How to Find a Photo Location

2008-11-26T18:42:00.001-08:00

Seattle Sunrise, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

This is a photo I have wanted to take for years. It's Downtown Seattle from Beacon Hill. I don't live in Seattle, and I've only stayed overnight there a few times. However, I once saw a photo of Downtown Seattle with a twisted mass of interstates entering the city. After a long time spent on Google maps I found a probable location for this shot.

Last week I had two overnights in Seattle. On the first overnight I took a scouting jog towards beacon hill. It was surprisingly easy to find. The next morning I got up before sunrise and set out with my camera and tripod. I had two locations for the shot scouted. One from a bridge and this location in a park. Because I had scouted the scene the day before I had time to shoot both spots during the brief period of good light.

Double Capped Mount Rainier

2008-11-26T17:59:00.001-08:00

Mount Rainier Aerial, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

It's been a while since I posted an aerial photo. What can I say -- the weather hasn't been good lately and this time of year the nights are a lot longer than day.

This is a photo of Mount Rainier taken late last week at sunset. There is a fresh layer of snow on the summit. It had snowed the day before. The little cloud hanging around the top of the mountain is called a cap cloud.

San Francisco Skyline

2008-11-21T08:06:00.001-08:00

San Francisco Skyline, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Yesterday I had a free afternoon in San Francisco. I took BART into the city, got off at Civic Center, and took a hike around the city. I ended up on Telegraph Hill near Coit Tower for sunset.

This photo was taken through a rare vacant lot looking down into downtown. In the center of the frame is the Trans America Building. If it wasn't for the vacant lot I am sure I never could have gotten this photo. I imagine the real estate on Telegraph hill is some of the most expensive land on earth. Selfishly I am hoping they build on this lot soon so I have a unique (more valuable) photo on my hands.

When composing this photo I purposely left some of the messy lot in the frame to contrast with the well ordered sparkling skyline. Also, you might notice the subtle lead in lines that help create a nice single point perspective. On the left side of the frame the lines of the foreground building point towards the center, and on the right side of the frame a well lit street also forms a line pointing towards the skyline.

To the bus driver and other bus passenger I met on the drive down the hill-- I'll have this photo up at my stock site in a few days. If you are still interested in a print email me at gamutedge@gmail.com for details.

Dad and the Boys in Nebraska

2008-11-20T06:26:00.001-08:00

Dad and the Boys in Nebraska, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Here's a photo from our move from San Francisco to Wisconsin. That's my dad and our two dogs romping around a rest stop off Interstate 80 in Nebraska. The light was great at this rest area so I took my camera along when we let the dogs out to run.

Moving across the country with five pets is a challenge, but it is possible. Our animals made it intact, and we got away with sneaking all five pets into our hotel room each of the three nights we were on the road. The Quality Inn in Lincoln, NE was our biggest challenge. The only hotel entrance other than the lobby was a stair well that opened up directly behind the check in counter. We had to carry the three cats and the litter box up four flights of stairs. Jack our black border collie mix liked that hotel best, because he found a ton of rabbits to chase in the warehouse district behind the hotel.

Perched Above the City

2008-11-19T10:40:00.001-08:00

LA Sunrise, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

It seems like I have been shooting a lot of photos from high vantage points lately. This is another sunrise shot from the Roof of the LAX Weston. The building has to have the red aviation hazard lights because it is very close to the airport. I put the lights in the frame because I think it helps give a sense of scale and height to the picture.

San Francisco from Twin Peaks Park

2008-11-18T07:39:00.001-08:00

San Francisco from Twin Peaks Park, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

I'm not living in the bay area anymore, but I am commuting there once a week. I took this photo last week week in Twin Peaks Park. It's a panorama stitched together from five photos. The original image is 7200x4000 pixels. That's pretty big. I think this photo could be printed about 8 feet wide without using any upsizing software.

This was my first visit to Twin Peaks park. It was very hard for me to find. I think this would be a great location for sunset or sunrise photos f the city.

Back to Work

2008-11-17T07:21:00.001-08:00

LAX Westin, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

This is only my second post for the month of November and it is already the 17th -- pretty pathetic. Things are starting to settle in after our move and I should be able to get back to regular posting soon. I had plans to do some work on this blog during my last trip, but I forgot half of my computer charger at home. I also forgot my running shoes. However, I didn't forget my camera and tripod. I got a bunch of cool pics.

This is the view from the roof of the Westin Hotel at LAX airport. I took this photo at sunrise. An advantage to being on central time is sunrise on the west cost feels like mid morning to me. The aircraft landing is a Skywest Brazilia. It's on final approach to runway 25L at LAX.

A techincal note: This photo was one of the rare times I ever use ISO higher than 100 while using a tripod. I used ISO 400 with this picture to keep the aircraft from blurring. I also opened the aperture to f/8. Normally for a picture like this where I want lots of depth of field I would have shot at f/13, but because the airplane is such an important (even if small in size) part of the photo, I wanted a speedy shutter speed to keep it from blurring.

Wendover Rest Stop

2008-11-12T08:00:00.001-08:00

Wendover Rest Stop, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

If you have been wondering why I haven't made a post in awhile it is because we moved from California to Wisconsin last week. I've been too busy to post. Our two dogs, three cats, and 13 month old daughter all made it safely across the country.

This photo was taken in Wendover Nevada/Utah (it's right on the border). I had time to take a few photos on the trip. I'll post them as soon as I get some more free time.

Saddest Dog Ever

2008-10-30T21:25:00.001-07:00

Saddest Dog Ever, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Is it wrong to put your dog in a cage to make a photo for istock?

We're trying to sell this crate on Craigslist and I needed a model. Once Gatsby was in the cage I decided to try to get a stock picture. The lighting is simply camera mounted strobe bounced off a wall camera right.

My shoot couldn't last long because Maria made me let Gatsby out after a couple minutes.

HDR Without the HDR Look

2008-10-29T19:53:00.001-07:00

Scrub Oak, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Take that stuck in customs blog! Here's an HDR image that doesn't look like a nuclear disaster area.

HDR is great for scenes like this where there is too much contrast for a single exposure. This is a composite of three different exposures combine into one HDR image in Photomatix Pro.

I grow tired of super saturated fake looking HDR photos, but I do like when it is used subtlety.

BTW, this photo was taken in Shell Ridge Open Space in Walnut Creek, CA.

Ella In a Wicked Vengeful Mood

2008-10-21T19:45:00.001-07:00

In a Wicked Vengeful Mood, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

What to do when I don't have any new photos to post?

I had some fun with Photoshop on my train ride into work this morning.

Desert Mountain Morning

2008-10-20T10:28:00.001-07:00

Desert Mountain Morning, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

It was another beautiful morning in Las Vegas when I took this photo. This is the time of year when I get jealous of people that live in the desert southwest. The mornings are crisp and there is always a chance for nice photogenic clouds.

The mountains in this photo are on the edge of southwestern Las Vegas. Maybe someone who lives out there can tell me the name of this small range.

Don't Forget to Vote

2008-10-17T18:36:00.000-07:00

I lived in Ohio for 3 and 1/2 years. People like the ones in this video really do exist.

Red Eye Sunrise

2008-10-15T11:10:00.001-07:00

Red Eye Sunrise, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Time to wake up. The first light of morning peeks over the horizon and it's almost time to start our descent into New York City.

Virga Over Vegas

2008-10-14T12:52:00.001-07:00

Virga Over Vegas, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Here is another aerial photo from the Las Vegas area. The strange weather you see in this photo is called virga. Virga is when precipitation falls from a cloud and then evaporates before reaching the ground. In this case the precipitation is a snow shower that drifted off the peak of Mount Charleston. The snow melts and evaporates high above the Las Vegas suburbs.

Conservatives Bail On McCain

2008-10-13T14:18:00.000-07:00

It's easier for the conservatives to blame McCain rather than their own failed ideology.

Red Rocks Descent

2008-10-13T08:26:00.001-07:00

Red Rocks Descent, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Arriving in Las Vegas from the west is always spectacular. I took this photo two days ago while we descended over the mountains west of the city. The mountains are jagged on top and descend steeply on the Vegas side.

There was a lot of moisture in the air for the desert. Clouds were forming over the mountains and then blowing across the city. We did two Vegas round trips. During both flights Mount Charleston had a snow shower hanging over the summit. As always it was a bump descent into Vegas.

Here is a large version. You can see Red Rocks Park.

Breaking Habits

2008-10-12T16:08:00.001-07:00

Cleared to Land!, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Sometimes I like to look through my old pictures. I’ll open up a folder from six months ago and view it as a slideshow. However, the last time I checked out an old folder I noticed something about my style of photography that I didn’t really like. I think I am using the camera as a cropping tool. Way back when I first got into photography I did a lot of cropping in Photoshop to correct or enhance my compositions. Over time I got better at making the crops with the viewfinder. Now I rarely if ever crop a photo in Photoshop. A problem with my style becomes apparent though after flipping through a couple hundred old photos. With all my concentration on level horizons, vertical lines, and clean edges my photos start to look like they were all taken through a well aimed cardboard tube. All the excitement and motion in sucked out. That’s fine for a landscape that’s supposed to portray a sense of calm, but for many other photos a perfect crop doesn’t create the right mood.

That brings me to today’s photo. This picture was a direct attempt to break all my photographic habits. First off, the horizon isn’t level. Also, I put a little bit of the nose of the airplane in the lower left corner. The combined effect makes it look like the airplane is turning, even though we were on a long (15 mile) stabilized final approach. The LasVegas Strip is also visible, but not completely. Normally I would either have all of the strip in the frame or none; such is my flawed way of thinking. With the strip half cropped out it feels like the photo was taken in a hurry. That’s the effect I was going for. But ,to prove this is a photograph and not a snapshot I kept control over the upper left corner of the frame. I purposely left blue sky (mostly) all the way around the cloud and didn’t cut any of it out of the edge of the view finder. I did bring the cloud close to the edge -- that’s my usual control freak cropping style. Also, I used the diagonal nature of the clouds in the frame as a lead in line.

I think the overall effect of this photo gives the viewer a sense of flying even though they are looking at a static view. I could be wrong. After so many hours looking out aircraft windshields I might have a scewed viewpoint. If I see an airplane nose, a tilted horizon, and a runway my brain says, “We’re turning final, better double check that the gear is down and locked.” Who knows what a non-pilot thinks about this same view.

Photos That Pay the Bills

2008-10-10T12:30:00.001-07:00

Grain Elevator, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Here is a photo from Seattle. This is a grain elevator that is next to the harbor. Why am I posting such a boring picture? 1) because I didn't shoot anything interesting today 2) to show you how I shoot my bread and butter shots for istockphoto.

To make money at istock you have to have some hero images that get downloaded over 100 times, but you also have some slow and steady earners. This picture falls into the slow and steady category. I bet this photo will sell 3 to 5 times a year. That's not much money, but considering the work involved in taking this photo it is a pretty fair return. I took this photo on the way to get a much better shot. I already had my equipment with me, saw the clear blue sky and an industrial building, and thought there is a quick $5. It's as easy as finding a $5 bill on the sidewalk.

Shooting stock photos like this won't make you rich, but having 100 photos like this in your portfolio means an extra $500/year in income. That's a couple speedlights, or maybe a Carbon fiber tripod. Not bad for five minutes work here and there.

Birthday Merry Go Round Ride

2008-10-09T09:57:00.001-07:00

Birthday Merry Go Round Ride, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Yesterday was Ella's first birthday. We took her to the Oakland Zoo. More pictures to come...

Cold Front Over the Mojave

2008-10-08T10:18:00.001-07:00

Cold Front Over the Mojave, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

All my flying photos from the past week have been all about the cold front that passed through. Here is the cold front making its way across the Mojave Desert west of Las Vegas. The second valley in this photo might be Death Valley.

This photo was inspired by Alfred Stieglitz's series of equivalents. I suppose anytime I take a picture of moody, complicated clouds I could say it is inspired by Stieglitz's equivalents and I'd sound really pretentious.

Is the Economy Really That Bad?

2008-10-07T23:03:00.000-07:00

For those Americans that are sure we have fallen into the abyss take a look at this video. This is 24 hours of worldwide air traffic. Compare the United States to Africa. Things could be worse.

Now imagine if each pilot had his own photo blog.

First Snow for the High Sierras

2008-10-06T19:58:00.001-07:00

f
First Snow of the Season, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

I took this photo yesterday morning while flying from San Francisco to Washington Dulles. These are the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The view is looking south. Mono Lake is on the left side of the frame. This is the first snow of the season to hit the area. You can see fall colors on some of the lower altitude trees.

The storm that brought this snow was the same cold front that brought the bay area rain I talked about in my previous post.

Check out this highly detailed version. I love the delicate little clouds that are hanging over mono lake.

Perfect Light Missed

2008-10-04T12:41:00.001-07:00

Walnut Creek BART Station, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Wow, what spectacular light. I am typing this as I ride BART into work today. Overnight we had our first rain in the bay area since May. The sun just came up. Everything is dripping wet and bright sun is cutting holes through the gray clouds reveling pacific blue sky.

This is my favorite type of light for outdoor photography -- bright low angle sun coming from one horizon and the other horizon blanketed with dramatic clouds. Anyone with the slightest photographic experience would look at the scenery today and realize it is a beautiful morning for photography.

I just had a technical understanding epiphany while rolling though the hills of east bay and looking at the light. The reason why this lighting works so great for landscape photography (besides the obviously dramatic sky) is the sunlight reflecting off the background clouds. The direct sun from one side creates intense highlights, the same as it does every cloud free California morning, but the presence of the clouds today on the opposite horizon makes a diffuse fill light for the shadows. This fill light brings details to shadows and helps separate objects from their background.

I wish I could have taken a shot of this wonderful light through the window, but I already got hassled by BART security this morning for taking the photo at the top of this post. Right now there are two security cameras mounted in the ceiling of this train car with flashing red LEDs pointed my direction. It is illegal to take pictures of BART or on BART without a permit I was told by the BART police. Since I was on my way to work when the cop talked to me he saw my airline ID badge. He mentioned the name of my company with a chuckle as if to warn me that he knew who employed me. It is a shame that such paranoia is alive on such a optimistic looking morning.

Little Bit of Fall Color in Colorado

2008-10-03T09:17:00.001-07:00

Colorful Colorado, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

This photo was taken last week over western Colorado. If I remember correctly we were abut 50 miles west of Eagle when I snapped this. You can see the bright fall colors even from 36,000 feet.

Here is the big version.

Owens Valley

2008-10-02T09:44:00.001-07:00

Owens Valley, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

As promised, here is an aerial photo of the Owens Valley in California. This picture was taken yesterday around 8:00 am from 29,000 feet. We were flying from San Francisco to Las Vegas. This view is looking south down the valley. The Sierra Nevada mountains are on the right side of the frame.

Owens Valley is a favorite spot for outdoor/nature photographers as well as Hollywood directors.

If you're location scouting for your next film check out this larger version for a detailed view.

Superfly Sunrise

2008-10-01T21:02:00.001-07:00

Superfly Sunrise, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

I took this one this morning while doing the first walk around of the day. This was taken at gate A5 in San Fransisco. In the background you can see airplanes taxing out to runways 1L and 1R.

We flew to Las Vegas. I got a good shot of the Ownens Valley on the way across. I'll post it tomorrow.

The airplane is named "Superfly". Hence the title of this post.

At the Park Again

2008-09-30T21:43:00.001-07:00

At the Park Again, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Sorry if this bugs my few regular readers that enjoy the aerial photos. My New York to Las Vegas photos didn't turn out as planned. I couldn't get them to color correct. I'm slowly figuring out the nuances of taking photos through Airbus windows. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to remove the color cast from the windshield when there is haze in the air. On a clear day removing the color cast is easy -- add some yellow and red in LAB colorspace. With haze in the air the color cast is not even across the frame and global adjustments don't work. Which brings me to today's photo and a color cast that I know how to fix.

I took this picture of Ella in the shade of a tree. The original had a nasty blue color cast. Shade on a sunny day is always blue because shady areas are lit by the diffuse light reflected out of the blue areas in the sky. To remove the blue I went into LAB colorspace and created an curves adjustment layer where I moved the B channel more towards yellow. To make this change only effect the shady blue cast parts of the photo I built a mask based on a high contrast, inverted, duplicate of the B channel. Pretty tricky huh? If you want to learn how to do this type of thing check out The Canyon Conundrum by Dan Margulis.

Video Shot With Canon 5D Mark II

2008-09-30T11:35:00.000-07:00

Here is yet another reason to lust after the new Canon 5D Mark II. Check out this HD video shot with the 5D Mark II. The video was created by photographer Vincent Laforet.

And because Vincent Laforet is having a hard time drumming up traffic for his blog here is a link. There are some really interesting behind the scenes videos there.

The Power of Indy Rock

2008-09-29T10:35:00.000-07:00

Since when does indy rock get involved in presidential politics? I'm not sure that a single Wilco fan would have voted republican anyways. I suppose you have to rally the base. Whatever the motivation, I think this is the coolest Youtube video I've ever seen. Barak Obama and Jeff tweedy on the same stage -- how awesome is that?

Western Colorado

2008-09-29T07:31:00.001-07:00

Western Colorado, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

This photo was taken about 80 miles further east than my last post. This is western Colorado near Dinosaur National Park. Notice the bright fall colors on the edge of the plateau. Some small thunderheads were forming in this area and we were doing a lot of dodging and weaving to keep our passengers in the smooth air.

For a closer look at the fall colors check out this huge version.

Desolation

2008-09-28T07:36:00.001-07:00

Eastern Utah, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

This photo was taken in eastern Utah. I think this area might be the most desolate area in the lower 48 states. Other than a road, there are no signs of human deveoement in this swath of desert.

This picture was taken on the same flight as the photo in my previous post. I have one more good photo from that flight to edit, and then I got a whole bunch more that I took yesterday while flying from New York to Las Vegas. If you're an nature photographer living in Colorado I recommend going outside this weekend. The leaves in the Rockies looked like they are at there peak.

For all the conspiracy theroists and Ron Paul supporters here is a link to a large size version of this photo. You'll notice there is plenty of space for you to build a compound and the IRS will never find you. Here is a name recomendation; "Freedom Canyon".

35,000 Feet Above Zion National Park

2008-09-26T20:45:00.001-07:00

35,000 Feet Above Zion National Park, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Here is a new aerial view hot off the sensor of my Canon 5D. This is Zion National Park in Southern Utah. I took this while en route from Los Angeles to New York City. If you want to take a closer look at the canyon see this nearly 100% size view.

There were great clouds and lots of breaks in the haze as we cruised over the desert southwest. I could see lots of bright fall colors on some of the higher peaks.

It's getting late and I have an early van tomorrow so there is no time for more photos tonight. Maybe I'll get some more stuff edited and posted in the coming days.

Advantage Raw Files

2008-09-25T15:05:00.001-07:00

Seattle Skyline, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Today I dug through some of my Seattle photos from a week ago. This one seemed worthy of editing and uploading to istock. Lately I have been shooting in jpeg format because my hard drive is bursting at the seams. When shooting Seattle I shot in raw because I figured the night time photos would require a lot of editing and raw would offer more flexibility

While completing the edit work on this file I realized why I like shooting in Raw.

1) Color correction in raw is easy. The raw conversion dialog box in Photoshop is faster and easier to me than creating a color correction layer later in the edit.

2) Using raw you can keep the image in 16 bit mode for the entire edit. When I open a raw file I make sure to open it in 16 bit format (check the box at the bottom of the raw converter to open in 16 bit mode). A normal jpeg is an 8 bit file. Editing in 16 bit means there are less rounding errors/changes for each photoshop adjustment you make. 16 bit files seem to hold up a lot better when I do heavy duty edits.

Baby Blue Eyes

2008-09-22T22:11:00.001-07:00

Baby Blue, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

I took this one of Ella out on our back deck. She gets crabby between 4:00 and bedtime. The only way to keep her happy at that time of day is to do something outside. We took her toys and a blanket onto the back deck.

I used my best lighting skills to make this portrait. I metered the scene for ambient light and set up my camera in manual mode for one stop underexposed to the ambient light. I then set my spare strobe with umbrella reflector high and right (right side of frame) and maybe a little behind Ella. There is a solid fence just outside the left side of the frame. I bounced the camera mounted strobe off that fence. I had set a 2:1 ration between the umbrella flash and the camera mounted flash. You can see the umbrella lit side is slightly brighter.

If you want to learn how to do this sort of thing you should read strobist.

Oregon Forest Fire

2008-09-21T10:14:00.001-07:00

Oregon Forest Fire, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

I took this photo a couple days ago while flying between San Francisco and Seattle. We were over southern Oregon. I think this is the Royce Fire. This is the biggest forest fire I've ever seen from the air -- even bigger looking than the Big Sur fires from earlier this summer.

Apparently upon first seeing this fire a Delta flight crew called Air Traffic Control to report "Hey, I think one of your volcanoes is going off". They were completely serious.

Last Day of Her First Summer

2008-09-20T21:31:00.001-07:00

Last Day of Summer, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

We took Ella to the Park today. It is the last day of summer. You can see the greens are starting to turn a bit more yellow. Ella loves the swings, and she also likes to sit on a bench eating Goldfish Crackers while dad takes her picture.

I took this shot with my Canon 135 L f/2. I've said it before and I'll say it again, this lens is great. This shot is at f/2. How do you like that bokeh?

Seattle Panorama

2008-09-18T09:18:00.001-07:00

Seattle Panorama, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Here is something new for me -- a panorama created in Photoshop CS3. I haven't made a panorama in years. The last time I did a pano the software was very clunky and the frustration level high. Using CS3 this panorama was a piece of cake. It is made from three raw files shot with my ultra-sharp canon 135 L f/2 lens. It took my old laptop about 15 minutes of number crunching to stitch the photos together. When it was all done I took a look at 100% and couldn't find a flaw in the stitch. The full sized file is 8733x2791 pixels.

I took a few other panorama series of images from this overlook in Seattle. Hopefully they all turn out this good.

BTW, if you don't know how to make a panorama in photoshop go to file -> automate -> create photomerge

Seattle Sunset

2008-09-16T18:38:00.001-07:00

Seattle Sunset, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Here is another photo from the other evening in Seattle. I am not sure what this neighborhood is called, but it is very nice. I climbed up through a drug addict infested park and arrived in this amazingly rich neighborhood with great views of the city.

This picture was taken specifically for istock. I made sure to get all the elements of Seattle in the frame; The Space Needle, Stadiums, Harbor, Mount Rainier, affluent neighborhood, and I left plenty of copy space at the top of the frame.

This was shot with Canon 5D and Canon 24-70 f2.8 L.

Seattle at Night

2008-09-16T11:59:00.001-07:00

Seattle at Night, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Add another cliche scenic photo to my collection -- I shot downtown Seattle two nights ago. The weather was great with clear sky, and I brought my tripod along. This proves that a prime lens works great for scenics. I took used my Canon 135 L f/2.

This shot was taken about 30 minutes after sunset. You can see the glass towers still glowing from the sun reflecting from the sky, but it's dark enough that window lights glow. The settings for this shot were shutter speed 30 seconds, aperture f13, and ISO 50. I love the ISO 50 setting on my Canon 5D. There was absolutely no noise in this picture even with the long exposure.

There were about 20 other photographers taking photos from this overlook so I can't say I captured an original image, but I am still a sucker for this type of photo.

Mount Diablo Sunset

2008-09-12T22:19:00.001-07:00

Mount Diablo Sunset, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Tonight I made a jail break. I was able to get out with my tripod for all of 20 minutes. Luckily I know of a few nearby overlooks. This is a view of Mount Diablo and Highway 24 between Lafayette and Walnut Creek.

I love setting up my tripod.

When I got home dinner was ready. I am a lucky guy.

Hmm, What is That Jingle I Hear

2008-09-12T14:38:00.001-07:00

Hmm, What is That Jingle I Hear, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Yesterday I set up to take some photos of Ella. She turned eleven months old and I have been trying to get photos of her each month. Our dumpy rental house doesn't offer much for background so I was using a plain white sheet and one of Ella's blankets for a backdrop. I hate the plain white sheet. It looks worse than a JCPenny's portrait, but I am more sick of our ugly red furniture in every photo.

We started taking pictures and our big dog Gatsby got Jealous and decided to get in the frame. Ella is obsessed with Gatsby's dog tags. She always tries to grab them. You can see the concentration on her face in this pic. You can also see the ruins of my ghetto photo set in the background.

Ella eventually got a hold of Gatsby's tags -- see here and here

The strobist would not be proud of me. This photo was lit with camera mounted flash bounced off the ceiling. I do have a second slave strobe, but all my rechargeable AA batteries are be used in Ella's toys. Living in California sucks. I can't even afford an extra set of batteries.

Thunderstorm at JFK International

2008-09-11T14:54:00.001-07:00

Thunderstorm at JFK International, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Here's another one from my big delay at Kennedy International Airport two days ago. Kennedy is backed up even when the weather is nice. This picture was taken as a late summer thunderstorm was rolling through. There were at least 25 aircraft parked out on runway 13R waiting for the weather to pass. We were near the end of the line. The airplane in front of us was a Jetblue A-320. In this picture I captured its beacon reflected in the wet concrete.

The windshield angles away from me so only a small part of this photo is in sharp focus, the area where the bead of water goes all the way across the frame. If I try a shot like this again I think I'm going to try to get parallel to the window and get more of the beads of water in focus. Hopefully I don't have an opportunity for a reshoot anytime soon.

My Favorite Photo Blog Has Moved!

2008-09-11T12:48:00.000-07:00

With the demise of the Photoshelter Collection the best photo blog on the net, Shoot the Blog, is closing. The good news is Shoot the Blog author Rachel Hulin is starting a new blog here.

I discovered Shoot the Blog a few months ago, and I have become a habitual Shoot reader. Hopefully Rachel is able to keep up the great work at her new blog. If you aren't familiar with Shoot the Blog I recommend checking it out. Everyday Rachel somehow finds new and interesting photos and photography stories to post.

Snow Comes Early to Wyoming's High Country

2008-09-10T10:29:00.001-07:00

Snow Comes Early to Wyoming's High Country, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Winter is coming. It can be seen in the high country of the western United States. Last week while flying over Utah I saw fresh snow dusting the top of the High Uintah Mountains in North Eastern Utah. The above photo was taken yesterday. It's the Bighorn Mountains in north Central Wyoming. I don't think this snow will stick around all winter, but it is a sign of what's to come. The elk have probably started to move down out of the mountains into the more protected valleys. I wish I had some free time and money to take another trip out to Yellowstone.

September Over Door County, Wisconsin

2008-09-09T21:05:00.001-07:00

September Over Door County, Wisconsin , originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Because of weather near New York, we flew a slightly more northerly route than usual to San Francisco today. This photo is a view of the Door Peninsula in Wisconsin. Lake Michigan is on the right side of the frame and Green Bay (the bay, not the city) is on the left side of the frame.

Do you live in Door County and want to see your house? See a larger version of this photo here

Waiting for the Weather in JFK

2008-09-09T20:56:00.001-07:00

Waiting for the Weather in JFK, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

This is what a three hour ground delay looks like at JFK international. A thunderstorm shut down all departures for two hours. Two runway changes and another hour later we finally took off.

Capitalism Rules the Land

2008-09-05T10:37:00.001-07:00

Capitalism Rules the Land, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

This photo was taken mid afternoon over Los Angeles. You can see a full size version here.

Is this landscape anyone's dream come true? In an area as geographically gifted as Los Angeles it surprises me that after 150 years of human development this cityscape is the best we could come up with.

Sara Palin and Aerial Wolf Hunting

2008-09-04T11:16:00.000-07:00

Bush is trying to tamper with the endangered species act, and he supports shooting the Wolves of Yellowstone National Park. Is this what we get for the next four years:

Learn to Take Photos That Stand the Test of Time

2008-09-04T10:45:00.000-07:00

Lately I have become interested in taking pictures that have historical qualities. So much of my photography work in the past has been fine art and nature. After looking through my backup hard drive I realized that most of my photos could have been taken at any point in history. There is no evidence of place in time, in fact I usually made sure to keep anything modern out of my pictures. That's what you do as a nature photographer. I don't plan to quit taking nature photos, however I also want to start taking photos that create a record of our present time. Which brings me to the point of this post...

How does one learn to take pictures that will be interesting 100 years from now? I found a place to start learning: Shorpy the 100 year old Photography Blog

Here is how Shorpy describes itself: "Shorpy.com is the 100-year-old photography blog that brings our ancestors back, at least to the desktop. What do they have to tell us? The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a boy who worked in an Alabama coal mine near the turn of the century"

Looking at other peoples photography is one of the best ways to learn the art. By looking back and seeing what is interesting about the old photos at Shorpy one can learn what to take pictures of today that will be interesting 100 years from now. I take a look at Shorpy every few days and find the site very inspiring. The photos posted there are always interesting, and you have the ability to view them at full size. The detail in Shorpy's images is amazing.

Mono Lake and the Sierras

2008-09-03T21:06:00.001-07:00

Mono Lake and the Sierras, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

OK... so in my last post I said I didn't want to edit any more through the window photos for a long time. Well, this morning I got this shot as we passed over Mono Lake, California, and I liked it enough to spend 45 minutes editing it tonight.

Here's a breakdown of my aerial photo editing process using CS3:

1) Convert to LAB color

2) Create two curves adjustment layers -- one of them I use to adjust lightness/contrast and the other to adjust color. I play back and forth between the two layers, a contrast adjustment might reveal the photo is too green so I slide towards red in my color correction curves layer. After the color is correct I am then able to really crank up the contrast without making the sky look like a green and yellow mess.

3) Once the color and contrast is correct I create a third curves adjustment layer where I crank up the color saturation (the LAB color way) by evenly steepening the a and b channels curves. I completely overdue this layer and dial back the layer opacity until the saturation looks correct.

4) After flattening the above layers I create a duplicate layer and do some heavy duty noise reduction. By this point in the editing process noise has been created in areas with no texture or details (in this photo the lake had a lots of noise in it). If the noise is really bad I revert to Gaussian Blur at 1.5 pixel radius. I then completely mask the noise reduction layer and brush through the mask at the problem areas; sky and lake in this pic

5) Flatten the image again, create a new layer, select the lightness channel only, and sharpen at amount 20 radius 50 and threshold zero. Once again completely mask the layer and brush in the areas that need more sharpness. In this picture I brushed in the mountains and area around the lake.

That's it... you're done. If you have fancy supercharged computer (I don't) you can substitute all the image flattening with merge visible (ctrl+alt+shift+E) and keep the layers separate till the end. If I ran things that way my old compaq would crash or start on fire. Also, you can avoid some of the color correcting problems by shooting in raw and fixxing color in te RAW converter. My hard drive is too full for me to shoot RAW. Maybe I'll do some house cleaning tomorrow.

Hotel Seattle

2008-09-01T22:06:00.001-07:00

Hotel Seattle, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Today I got the corner room at our Seattle hotel. The view is great. If you're from Seattle you can try and guess which hotel we stay at.

If I have to edit one more photo shot through a window I think I will puke. Airplane windows and hotel windows steal contrast and leave a color cast.

I'm submitting this one to istock. We'll see if it makes it past the harsh gaze of the istock inspectors.

What do you think this photo will earn in two years on istock? I'm betting two downloads totaling $5.50. If the Space Needle or mount Rainer were in the background I'd guess a photo like this would bring in over $40.

I took a jog around downtown Seattle and scouted out some good photo locations. Next time I overnight here I'm bringing my tripod.

Gatsby Meets His Match

2008-08-31T21:38:00.001-07:00

Gatsby Faces Off With a Mastiff, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

We took the dogs and Ella to Point Isabel again. At the end of our walk Gatsby met this Mastiff. Gatsby is a big dog, 80 pounds, half Pitt Bull and half German Shepherd. As you can see, the Mastiff dwarfed him.

Mountains Outside Las Vegas

2008-08-27T15:06:00.001-07:00

Mount Charleston View, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Flying in and out of Las Vegas always offers up some great views. I took this photo several days ago while climbing out of Las Vegas and flying towards the west. The highest peak in the distance is Mount Charleston.

One of the things I like about Las Vegas (perhaps the only thing) is how far out in the middle of no where the city is. When you leave Las Vegas you're in the middle of the empty desert. If you're ever in Veges I recommend renting a car for a day and driving out to Death Valley. It's only a few hours away, but it feels like you're driving across the moon.

Sprawling Los Angeles

2008-08-26T16:48:00.001-07:00

Sprawling Los Angeles, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Los Angeles is massive! I'll let the photo do the talking.

Here's a 100% size view . Amazing detail!? My thanks to the Canon 5D, Canon 24-70 L, and Unsharp Mask.

For the geograhers ... this picture was taken over Inglewood looking Northwest towards Santa Monica and Beverly Hills.

Pixel peepers let me know what you think of the edit job. I'm always trying to tweak my Photoshop skills. Aerials photos taken at 180 mph, through 5 pains of heated Plexiglas are a tricky edit.

Ruin Your Day -- Press Play

2008-08-24T23:13:00.000-07:00

28 months - Daily George W Bush Photos - Presidial.org from Jeremy Tubbs on Vimeo.

Magic of the Canon 135 f/2 L

2008-08-24T22:13:00.001-07:00

Point Isabel Park, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

The Canon 135 f/2 L is a legend in the photo forums. It is sharp, fast, and small. I bought one last year after a long debate in my head between the 135L vs Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L. I'm glad I picked the 135 L!

The #1 reason I picked the 135 over the 70-200 is size. The above photo was taken at Point Isabel with my Canon 5D and 135 f/2 L. I had to hold the camera with only one hand because I was squatting and had our 25 pound baby in a backpack. My other hand was on the ground for balance. I don't think I could shoot one handed with a 70-200.

This photo also has the legendary 135 L sharpness. Check out this 100% crop:

The dogs were jumping around so I had the ISO up at 320 and a shutter speed of 1/2000th. I set the aperture to f/5.6 so i would get a good amount of dog in focus.

The black dog in the photo is our mutt Jack. We took him and his dog brother Gatsby to Point Isabel for some excercise. I walked around with the baby in a backpack and carried my Canon 5D with the 135mm L f/2 attached for almost two hours. When we got home I had a ton of keeper images and I wasn't in a bad mood from carrying a bulky lens around all afternoon.

Tubular Belle

2008-08-23T09:59:00.001-07:00

Tubular Belle, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

This photo was taken early in the morning at San Francisco International. I love this type of lighting -- bright sun with cloudy background. The light is like this at SFO many mornings. The sky in the east is clear and fog creeps in from the ocean.

If you look closely you can see the aircraft is named Tubular Belle. Richard Branson made his first fortune off the album "Tubular Bells". At Virgin Atlantic he has a 747 named Tubular Belle. The aircraft in this photo is an A-319. Richard Branson is a 1/4 share owned of Virgin America.

Here is the song Tubular Bells

Los Angeles Basin

2008-08-22T09:36:00.001-07:00

Los Angeles Basin, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

When arriving in Los Angeles from the east the suburbs seem to start impossibly far away from the airport. The sprawl begins unrolling 70 miles out in the desert. The above photo was taken during a rare clear morning. We were arriving around 9:00 am from Washington Dulles.

You can see that the L.A. suburbs are in a steep valley. Afternoon heating pulls moisture in from the ocean. Most days the valley is filled with a thick haze, especially by late afternoon. The mountains surrounding L.A. also trap the exhaust from all the vehicles traveling the sprawl. This creates the famous L.A. smog. However, there was a recent study released that said Los Angeles residents create the least CO2 per person than any other region in the nation. The Southern California climate causes the least amount of home heating and cooling. The famous smog is mostly the result of geography.

I can't wait for winter to sow cap some of the higher peaks around Los Angeles. Look for some cool pictures on this blog in January!

Morning at SFO

2008-08-21T10:35:00.001-07:00

Morning at SFO, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

This is a sunrise view of the drop off area at the international terminal at KSFO. In the background you can see the ever present San Francisco fog creeping over the ridge.

Here's an aerial view of the bay area fog bank.

I took this photo at the start of a long day of flying. I have several more shots from this day that I'll be posting throughout the week. This blog is updated during baby naps. That might explain the short posts. Well, I have to go clean sippy cups now.

Summer Forest Path

2008-08-20T09:15:00.001-07:00

Summer Forest Path, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Just when my blog was starting to get some traction and readers -- bam, I borrow out my laptop and can't make a post for five days. The key for a successful blog is regular posts. Luckily while my laptop was away I was able to take a lot of photos so I'll have some material ready to go all week long.

The above photo was taken in Claude Moore Park in Dulles Virginia. Our Dulles hotel is 1/2 mile from this park. I took this photo in the late afternoon, almost sunset. I was walking the trails of the park looking for a good photo when I came across this section of trail. I liked how the branch in the upper right corner was back lit causing the leaves to glow, the trail was dark, and at the bend in the trail there was light. The little bit of light at the trail bend created a "light at the end of the tunnel" look. I think this might be a good stock seller.

Bath Time Photos

2008-08-15T15:36:00.001-07:00

Baby Brown Bear Likes the Water, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

I've been meaning to take some bath time photos of our baby for the last few months now. Last night I finally got around to it. The setup for these shots was simple -- Canon Speedlight camera mounted and bounced off the wall. The white bathroom walls and shower door made nice reflectors.

I didn't want these photos to look too nice; no fancy bubbles. Also I wanted to capture some of the crumby tile in our bathroom. Because I just started a new job, we are renting right now. I want to be able to look back in a few years remember how our place looked. Hopefully we'll be living somewhere else. For now, our rental house makes for a nice grungy photo set.

LAX Car

2008-08-14T13:45:00.001-07:00

LAX Car, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

This is another from my project to document the area surrounding LAX airport. The hotel in the background is my home away from home. The car was the only car parked in a couple acre parking lot on the east side of the airport,

Does this Apply to Photography as Well?

2008-08-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

Here's a great video that should stir your creativity, or at least be a manifesto to originality.

Night Over Los Angeles

2008-08-13T11:25:00.001-07:00

Night Over Los Angeles, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

This photo was taken shortly after sunset. We were flying at 36,000 feet, and were about 20 miles off the coast southwest of Los Angeles. If you look at the left side of the frame you can see coastal fog creeping into the city.

Normally I shoot nighttime aerials at ISO 3200, f/2.8, and 1/30th sec. I also normally shoot wide angle, >35 mm, at night to reduce blur from camera shake. We were pretty far from the city when I took this picture so I had to zoom in to 70mm. I tried using a faster shutter speed to reduce camera shake blur. What do you know -- it worked! The lights came out a little darker than normal, but they were still pretty sharp, and there was actually less noise in the dark areas than I normally get with a night aerial. I was able to pull the lights up to a normal level in photoshop and I did my usually trick of sending everything dark to complete black to reduce the noise.

Let me know what you think.

LAX Country

2008-08-13T09:12:00.001-07:00

LAX Country, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Maybe this empty parking lot is a sign of the slow economy, or maybe there is a really strong parking planning committee for LAX. The airplane flying over is a Delta Airlines 767.

To get this photo I had to loiter around waiting for an airplane to fly over. I was expecting the department of homeland security to swoop in at any second. This parking lot is probably the best secured vacant square mile of sun-baked pavement in the world. There were security cameras everywhere. Amazingly, I wasn't harassed.

Sunset Over San Diego

2008-08-12T17:03:00.001-07:00

Sunset Over San Diego, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Yesterday when we landed in San Diego the sunset was amazing. This is a view of the southeastern suburbs of San Diego and the desert on the south side of the city.

West coast flying is great. I see something gorgeous everyday.

I wish there was a way to video the descent from the dry desert east of San Diego into the coastal fog at the airport. Maybe I need to rent a Cessna. Anyone have money to donate?

LAX Country

2008-08-11T12:46:00.001-07:00

At The Proud Bird Restaurant, LAX, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

I'm in LAX country again. It seems like I overnight in LAX at least once a week. Am I stuck in LAX world for a reason?

To make things more interesting I have decided to start a photo project documenting the area around LAX airport. The landscape surrounding LAX is strange to say the least. There has to be some interesting photos hiding around here.

The above photo was taken in the parking lot of the Proud Bird Restaurant. It's a restaurant/airplane museum located on the east side of the airport -- tasty and educational. I had to take a photo of the German car and American World War II fighter.

Hotel LAX

2008-08-09T14:28:00.001-07:00

Hotel LAX, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Ever wonder what us airline crews do on overnights? This is it for me -- run the stairs at our hotels.

Staying in shape and flying are two things that don't go well together. Flying involves a lot of sitting around and eating airport food. On overnights I always try to fit in a jog to counter act the sedentary lifestyle. One of the good things about jogging is I get to see our overnights from a new perspective.

In LA we stay at the airport Westin. There aren't many places to go running except Inglewood (Inglewood Inglewood always up to no good). When I am sick of running past the characters that walk the mean streets of Inglewood I run the stairs in the hotel instead.

The above photo is taken from the outdoor portion of the Westin's stairs to the roof. If you look close you can see the LAX control tower and some airplanes taxiing out.

On the roof of the hotel is a helipad. Makes me think of a 1970's hotel fire movie.

Quick Adjustments

2008-08-08T19:40:00.001-07:00

Ride the Tiger, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Here's an experimental shot. I set the flash to second curtain, and purposely set a slow shutter speed to blur the background while panning. I think it worked out OK. Ella's face is a little blurred, but the tiger is pretty sharp. With a faster shutter speed the merry go round doesn't look like it's moving. I like the blurred look. The photo is more exciting.

Getting a Photo vs Getting "THE" photo

2008-08-08T09:09:00.001-07:00

Pier One in San Francisco, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

I often find that I don't pull out my camera unless the light is just right, or I have the time to engineer a shot with my strobes. I decided to break that bad habit. I'm shooting with a Canon 5D and lenses that open to f/2.8. Why not push the envelope and shoot more low light/high ISO photos?

The above photo is a picture of our baby girl taken at Pier One on the waterfront of San Francisco. I am making an effort to get lots of photos of Ella that capture the styles and signs of our times. My favorite pictures from my childhood show old cars and wacky clothes styles. In this shot I tried to capture lots of people in the background so Ella can see herself and what other people looked like in 2008.

Technically this photo isn't the greatest; Ella's face is blurred and there is some noise in the background, but who cares. Thirty years from now I am sure this photo will be 100 times more valuable to Ella than a perfectly lit portrait taken against a white backdrop.

Bay Area Fog

2008-08-07T19:13:00.001-07:00

August-2008-Bay-Fog, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

This is a common sight in the Bay Area of California. Fog blows in from the ocean and is blocked by the coastal ridges. Some days the fog makes it over one ridge and is blocked by the next. This photo was taken near Half Moon Bay.