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Red Moon over Los Angeles-It’s all Perspective

06 Sunday May 2012

Posted by rdphotoservices in City Lights Sparkle Dreams!, Imagine! Nurturing your Passion!, Landscape, Sport Events

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California, Encouragement, Friendship, Griffith Observatory, Hike, Hollywood Sign, Los Angeles, Los Obos, Moon, night hike, RDPhotoServices, Rdphotoservices.com, Red Moon, The Greek Theatre

ImageOnce in a red moon…or is it once in a blue moon?

Luckily, I have a great friend Mike who is a great planner and organizer.  Several weeks ago, I got an email invitation to join the group for a sunset Hollywood Sign Hike.  Well I am horribly out of shape and only made it a third of the way last time I joined the group back in January.

In January I plugged up as far as I could before I quit.  I wasn’t ready for the view.  As a photographer you should be able to shoot as great an image with point and shoot or a cell phone camera as you do with your expensive gear.  I shot these with my EVO HTC, processed them with Nik Software’s Snapseed App.

Image

This time I motivated not by the opportunity to get to the top (but worse – the fear of failure and the photo opportunity to shoot the  red moon) So I psyched myself into joining in.  Mike offered to carry my tripod…so off we went.  Slowly I made it up the steep hill.  Other photographers flew up the mountain ahead of me.  A young mom hiker passed me quickly with a baby in a a backpack carrier followed by her husband also carry a small child in a carrier, as well as a camera bag and a tripod.

Focused on the prize…a photographic opportunity…I plugged on breathing hard…stopping every few minutes to rest.  Mike all the way encouraging me and distracting me from my pains.  Finally moments before sunset we arrived at the top and joined the other two couples in our group for wine, cheese and a the view of the glorious red moon, and the city lights below!  Serenaded by the sounds of the group Los Obos performing to a sold out crowd at the Greek.

Image

(Regrettably the red moon shone to the left of the city over a rather boring expanse of hills with a few lights.)

Last night was a magical night!  Was it the moon? Was it making it to the top? Was it the just a great group of friends?  Or the challenges to get to the top to shoot a magical image?

Thanks Mike and group for the encouragement!  Here is a link to some other great Los Angeles Hikes!

http://discoverlosangeles.com/play/activities-and-recreation/outdoors-and-sports/hiking-in-los-angeles-la-s-best-hiking-trails.html

Can’t wait for the next hike!

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Portrait Project 365

29 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by rdphotoservices in Portrait Project 365

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claremont ca, https://www.facebook.com/RDPhotoServices, Lifestyle Portraits, Portrait Project 365, RDPhotoServices, Rdphotoservices.com

Portrait Project 365 January 2012

January Portraits

What a great start to this project!  Now all I have to do is keep up.  Now that the blog is up I have to get everything up dated to catch up! So hang in there as I recommit myself to this project!

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Aside

Backroom Magic!

11 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by rdphotoservices in Action Sport Portraits, Backroom Magic!

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Action Portraits, action sports photography, Claremont, claremont ca, girls water polo, https://www.facebook.com/RDPhotoServices, Lightroom, Photoshop, RD Photo Services, RDPhotoServices, Rdphotoservices.com, Technical stuff made easy


Yesterday’s Portrait Project 365 image of Lauren listening to her coach is a beautiful portrait of this athlete.   But there is a lot more than just shooting a well exposed, realistic image to getting a great portrait that clients can’t wait to display in their home.

I shot several images of Lauren (mostly hoping that she would look over towards me) but she is an intense athlete that can not be distracted from listening to her coach.  Take a look at the top image.  It is a “raw*” image unprocessed directly out of the camera.  Sort of flat but an ok image.  The image below is the final processed image with a little extra work done in Lightroom and Photoshop to remove the distracting athlete behind her.  Nik software ColorEfex was used to soften the tonal quality of her face.  I like using it on portraits to create a glistening dew like complexion.

The Technical stuff made easy to understand:

*  Many cameras (available on consumer/pro cameras) allow you to choose the format that the image saved as.  Although many people use JPGs I choose to mainly shoot raw.  JPGS is a convention of saving certain data (throwing away the data that is not in it’s logarithms) to create a pleasing image from averages (average exposure, white balance etc.)  Shooting “raw” allows the camera to save all the data collected by the sensor.  The image is not viewable/printable without being “processed.”  There are many applications to process raw data images.  I discovered Adobe’s Lightroom several years ago.  It is an affordable application (approx. $200).  It is really easy to learn to use and there are lots of online free tutorials available.  The glory is that although you should strive to nail the exposure and control the white balance (enabling control of reliable color representation) you can adjust the exposure by several exposures up or down and adjust the white balance.

Did you realize there was so much work to prepare the images?

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Backroom Magic!

10 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by rdphotoservices in Action Sport Portraits, Backroom Magic!, Portrait Project 365

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Tags

Action Portraits, action sports photography, Claremont, claremont ca, girls water polo, High School, https://www.facebook.com/RDPhotoServices, Portrait Project 365, RD Photo Services, RDPhotoServices, Rdphotoservices.com, Varsity, water polo

High School Varsity Water Polo Player Lauren M intently listens to coaches instructions.  Portrait Project 365

Check out more images on Facebook!  “Like” me to receive coupons and specials!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Robin-A-Driscoll-Photography-Action-Sports-Senior-Portrait-Photography/258411135430

(Source: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Robin-A-Driscoll-Photography-Action-Sports-Senior-Portrait-Photography/258411135430)

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