Well, I sat down at the beginning of the evening thinking that the board had been kind of quiet, so I thought I might put up some work from Thanksgiving, when I flew out to San Francisco to visit family. Now I come back and there are half a dozen new topics...
At any rate, as some of you know I'm a high school (physics) teacher. I got the whole week off, so I flew out on the Saturday before Thanksgiving and headed north to Marin County to check out some beaches and trails. I'm happy with the results, although I don't think any of them are quite portfolio-quality except possibly for the foggy shot of the falls (below). The beach shots are good, but technically lacking since the ISO's were so high that the Sony 850 that I shoot with was just too noisy for print-quality shots. I was definitely wishing I'd had a Canon 5D mk2 or mk3 for those shots, but I'll have to look into noise-reduction software in the meantime...
Here, the first evening out on the coast. Golden Gate Nat'l Recreation Area/Marin Headlands.
Creek along the north side of Mount Tamalpais, Marin County. I was actually out during a light drizzle/heavy fog, and it had rained early in the day while I was driving north to the trailhead. It was wonderful to be out in those conditions, as it really brought out the greens in the ferns and foliage. It was strange, to my eyes, to see the combination of redwood-like trees (they're actually cedars, for the most part, I think), and the few deciduous trees in color.
Night #3 on the coast, still chasing the same type of image. I think I like the first version the best of the beach shots, though. I should be a better editor, commit to it and not show the other versions. But I thought it might be interesting to see three variations on different days since the light and weather makes such a difference, as we all know.
I have to say, it was really fun to get out into a different environment than the mountains and desert that I usually shoot in. I still love them, and love photographing them, but it was a nice break -- both artistically and as a vacation.
Comments and critique welcome. Thanks for looking.
Posted by Monika Chace on December 4, 2012 at 12:14 PM
Mark , Very nice collection. I really like those soft colors & long exposure on the water. You might try Imagenomic's Noiseware http://imagenomic.com/ Way back when I first tried it, they didn't put a huge watermark or grids on the trial version, so you can actually see what your images look like.
Posted by Howard Cihak on December 4, 2012 at 12:18 PM
Mark, I really like the colors in the 1st image, and the "feel" of the Foggy Waterfall image. Nice work. It's been 31 years since I was last in Marin County coastal area, and I'd love to return again someday.
Posted by Paul Wegemann on December 4, 2012 at 10:22 PM
Really nice series, Mark. I love the colors and mood of the first image, but the blue hour version is also really nice. My favorite though is the foggy waterfall shot. I think you did a fine job composing that one.
Posted by John Mumaw on December 5, 2012 at 10:01 PM
This is a very nice collection! I also like #1 best of the nights on the coast and surely think it's portfolio worthy.
Same with the foggy waterfalls. Those two are excellent images.
The best noise reduction software I've ever used bar none is Topaz DeNoise.
Pricy, but they run half price sales all of the time. And the 30 day fully functional free trial should be enough to clean up #1.
Thanks, everyone! As I said, it was wonderful to be out there and try something different.
John, I like image #1, but I don't think I can print it right now, so that's what keep it away from "portfolio"-level, to me. While I love the Sony at ISO 200-400, it breaks down quickly after that, and this was ISO 1600. I'll have to look into a trial of DeNoise; it would be nice to at least play with it for a while to see if it's worth it. The foggy falls, on the other hand, was 2-seconds at ISO 320, so it should very nicely.
To get on to a minor gear rant, I wish Sony would go ahead and release a camera for its own users that has the delightful 36mp sensor that Nikon's d800 gets to use. It's Sony's sensor, they manufacture it; why won't they make a camera that uses it? Massive detail and low-light capabilities? Please!
A beautiful selection of photos from Marin County - both at the coast and inland. Looks like you had a very productive trip photography wise.
Reading your comments about poor high ISO performance with your camera I am curious to know why you chose such a high ISO setting for Coast #1? It doesn't appear to be hand held and there is sufficient blurring of the water already.
It's at 30 seconds in deep, deep twilight. I needed to crank up the ISO just to get anything on the sensor. I couldn't go any wider on the aperture and still keep enough depth-of-field, and I didn't have a cable-release with me to go for a bulb exposure. It wasn't that I wanted more blur on the water -- I just needed more light -- but the colors were best when the light was the faintest.
Discussion
13 repliesAt any rate, as some of you know I'm a high school (physics) teacher. I got the whole week off, so I flew out on the Saturday before Thanksgiving and headed north to Marin County to check out some beaches and trails. I'm happy with the results, although I don't think any of them are quite portfolio-quality except possibly for the foggy shot of the falls (below). The beach shots are good, but technically lacking since the ISO's were so high that the Sony 850 that I shoot with was just too noisy for print-quality shots. I was definitely wishing I'd had a Canon 5D mk2 or mk3 for those shots, but I'll have to look into noise-reduction software in the meantime...
Here, the first evening out on the coast. Golden Gate Nat'l Recreation Area/Marin Headlands.
I have to say, it was really fun to get out into a different environment than the mountains and desert that I usually shoot in. I still love them, and love photographing them, but it was a nice break -- both artistically and as a vacation.
Comments and critique welcome. Thanks for looking.
Same with the foggy waterfalls. Those two are excellent images.
The best noise reduction software I've ever used bar none is Topaz DeNoise.
Pricy, but they run half price sales all of the time. And the 30 day fully functional free trial should be enough to clean up #1.
John, I like image #1, but I don't think I can print it right now, so that's what keep it away from "portfolio"-level, to me. While I love the Sony at ISO 200-400, it breaks down quickly after that, and this was ISO 1600. I'll have to look into a trial of DeNoise; it would be nice to at least play with it for a while to see if it's worth it. The foggy falls, on the other hand, was 2-seconds at ISO 320, so it should very nicely.
To get on to a minor gear rant, I wish Sony would go ahead and release a camera for its own users that has the delightful 36mp sensor that Nikon's d800 gets to use. It's Sony's sensor, they manufacture it; why won't they make a camera that uses it? Massive detail and low-light capabilities? Please!
Okay; gear rant over. Again, thanks for looking.
Reading your comments about poor high ISO performance with your camera I am curious to know why you chose such a high ISO setting for Coast #1? It doesn't appear to be hand held and there is sufficient blurring of the water already.
It's at 30 seconds in deep, deep twilight. I needed to crank up the ISO just to get anything on the sensor. I couldn't go any wider on the aperture and still keep enough depth-of-field, and I didn't have a cable-release with me to go for a bulb exposure. It wasn't that I wanted more blur on the water -- I just needed more light -- but the colors were best when the light was the faintest.