Thursday (05-August-2010) — California

Gone to See America August 2010 Road Trip. Day 5: Eastern Sierra Photography Workshop with Michael Mariant.

A few images from the first day of the Eastern Sierra Photography Workshop with Michael Mariant. I actually missed the first locations that Michael took the group to earlier in the day since I was traveling from San Francisco (visiting my group as part of my day job). Michael provided me with the GPS coordinates for the Red Canyon Petroglyphs so I could meet up with the group for the petroglyphs and then sunset over the Owens Valley. I took the following images of the petroglyphs soon after meeting up with the group. You can tell that there has been vandalism as folks try to add their own “art” or have taken parts of the ancient art away.

Red Canyon Petroglyphs. HDR Composite of 5 images taken with a Nikon D3s and 24 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/2, various). HDR Processed using NIK HDR Efex Pro (David J Mathre)
Red Canyon Petroglyphs. HDR Composite of 5 images taken with a Nikon D3s and 24 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/2, various). HDR Processed using NIK HDR Efex Pro (David J Mathre)
The Hand. Red Canyon Petroglyphs. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 24 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 1/80 sec). Raw image processed using Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5 (David J Mathre)
The Hand. Red Canyon Petroglyphs. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 24 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 1/80 sec). Raw image processed using Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5

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The Hand. Red Canyon Petroglyphs. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 24 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 1/80 sec). Raw image processed using Capture One Pro 6, Nik Silver Efex Pro 2, and Photoshop CS5 (David J Mathre)
The Hand. Red Canyon Petroglyphs. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 24 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 1/80 sec). Raw image processed using Capture One Pro 6, Nik Silver Efex Pro 2, and Photoshop CS5

Thursday (03-June-2010) — Trinidad

Gone to See the Caribbean Islands. Semester at Sea Spring 2010 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop with Michael Mariant. Day 8: Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Blue Crowned Motmot at a Feeder. Asa Wright Nature Center, Port of Spain, Trinidad. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 1600, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/200 sec).

Blue Crowned Motmot at a Feeder. Asa Wright Nature Center, Port of Spain, Trinidad. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 1600, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/200 sec). Semester at Sea Spring 2010 Enrichment Voyage. (David J Mathre)
Blue Crowned Motmot at a Feeder. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 1600, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)

Two-Years Ago (01-June-2008) — Colorado

Springtime Nature in Colorado.

Male Broad-tailed Hummingbird at Lily Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E II 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/8, 1/160 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CS5.

Male Broad-tailed Humming Bird at Lilly Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. Image taken with a Nikon D300 and 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E II 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/8, 1/160 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Male Broad-tailed Hummingbird at Lily Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. (David J Mathre)

Thursday (15-April-2010) — California

Gone to See America 2010. Big Sur Photography Workshop with Michael Mariant. Day 1: Afternoon/Evening.

For the Afternoon, we spent time at Redwood Gulch Falls. The light levels within the forest near the falls ranged from very bright to very dark — well beyond the capability of DSLR sensors. Here I used Singh-Ray filters (to smooth out the water flow) and HDR (took 5 images under and over exposed) which were then combined using Photomatix. Later on we traveled to Sand Dollar beach. Our first exercise was to use filters at the beach to give the waves a soft ethereal effect. As the sun set over the Pacific ocean, I used HDR again to adapt to the wide range of light.

Redwood Gulch Falls, Los Padres National Forest, Central California Coast. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/16, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 30 sec). Singh-Ray Filter. HDR Composite of 5 images using Photomatix Pro. (David J Mathre)
Redwood Gulch Falls, Los Padres National Forest, Central California Coast. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/16, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 30 sec). Singh-Ray Filter. HDR Composite of 5 images using Photomatix Pro.
Redwood Gulch Falls, Los Padres National Forest, Central California Coast. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/16, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 30 sec). Singh-Ray Filter. HDR Composite of 5 images using Photomatix Pro. (David J Mathre)
Redwood Gulch Falls, Los Padres National Forest, Central California Coast. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/16, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 30 sec). Singh-Ray Filter. HDR Composite of 5 images using Photomatix Pro.
Long Exposure Exercise at Sand Dollar Beach, Big Sur Central California Coast. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 50 mm f/1.4G lens and Singh-Ray Filter (ISO 100, 50 mm, f/16, 5 sec). (David J Mathre)
Long Exposure Exercise at Sand Dollar Beach, Big Sur Central California Coast. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 50 mm f/1.4G lens and Singh-Ray Filter (ISO 100, 50 mm, f/16, 5 sec).
Long Exposure Exercise at Sand Dollar Beach, Big Sur Central California Coast. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 50 mm f/1.4G lens and Singh-Ray Filter (ISO 100, 50 mm, f/16, 15 sec). (David J Mathre)
Long Exposure Exercise at Sand Dollar Beach, Big Sur Central California Coast. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 50 mm f/1.4G lens and Singh-Ray Filter (ISO 100, 50 mm, f/16, 15 sec).
Long Exposure Exercise at Sand Dollar Beach, Big Sur Central California Coast. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 50 mm f/1.4G lens and Singh-Ray Filter (ISO 100, 50 mm, f/16, 15 sec). (David J Mathre)
Long Exposure Exercise at Sand Dollar Beach, Big Sur Central California Coast. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 50 mm f/1.4G lens and Singh-Ray Filter (ISO 100, 50 mm, f/16, 15 sec).
Long Exposure Exercise at Sand Dollar Beach, Big Sur Central California Coast. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 50 mm f/1.4G lens and Singh-Ray Filter (ISO 100, 50 mm, f/16, 8 sec). (David J Mathre)
Long Exposure Exercise at Sand Dollar Beach, Big Sur Central California Coast. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 50 mm f/1.4G lens and Singh-Ray Filter (ISO 100, 50 mm, f/16, 8 sec).
Long Exposure Exercise at Sand Dollar Beach, Big Sur Central California Coast. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 50 mm f/1.4G lens and Singh-Ray Filter (ISO 100, 50 mm, f/16, 15 sec). (David J Mathre)
Long Exposure Exercise at Sand Dollar Beach, Big Sur Central California Coast. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 50 mm f/1.4G lens and Singh-Ray Filter (ISO 100, 50 mm, f/16, 15 sec).
Sunset at Sand Dollar Beach, Big Sur Central California Coast. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 50 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 100, 50 mm, f/16, 1/5, 1/10, 1/20, 1/40, 1/80 sec). HDR Composite of 5 images using Photomatix Pro. (David J Mathre)
Sunset at Sand Dollar Beach, Big Sur Central California Coast. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 50 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 100, 50 mm, f/16, 1/5, 1/10, 1/20, 1/40, 1/80 sec). HDR Composite of 5 images using Photomatix Pro.

Sunday (31-January-2010) — New Jersey

Troll Family Portrait: Helicon Focus

Macro focus stacking study using Helicon Focus. This is a composite of 30 stacked image where the focus was adjusted near to far using Helicon Remote and then combined using Helicon Focus. The images were acquired using a Nikon D3x camera and 5o mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 100, f/1.4, 1.3 sec) and ambient light.  The distance between nearest and farthest focus point was ~5 inches, and the camera was ~24 inches from the nearest focus point. The Helicon Focus settings used to process the images were mode B, radius 8, smoothing 4. Other settings increased the halo.

Troll Family. Composite of 30 stacked images using Helicon Focus. Nikon D3x and 50 mm f/1.4G (ISO 100, f/1.4, 1.3 sec) (David J Mathre)
Troll Family. Composite of 30 stacked images using Helicon Focus. Nikon D3x camera and 50 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 100, f/1.4, 1.3 sec) (David J Mathre)