23 Nov12. Today's image was taken on an overcast/rainy day in Seattle last year as a part of a NWCCC outing. We all met at the aquarium on the water front and then dispersed out all over the downtown area meeting at Fisherman's Terminal in Ballard to complete the day. While I was waiting for the group to assemble (I was the leader of the outing) I took a few images of the art work in the vicinity of the aquarium. Just outside the main entrance is a small fountain comprised primarily of a coppery material with water flowing over it. With the cloudy conditions the fountain recorded less brilliant than it should have, so I tried doing something a bit different with this image to get the result I had originally desired. First I opened it up in Nikon's NX2 digital editing program, placed a control point on the copper and adjusted just that portion of the photo to get the copper looking how I wanted it. Then another control point was used to turn the water to its proper white. The NX2 software is matched exactly to the color model (Nikon rgb) used in the Nikon cameras, so it allows for better control of the colors and in this case it was just the ticket. Then I opened it up in Photoshop and used a plugin to add a structure layer to being out the detail in the metal, followed by a curves adjustment to get the balance I wanted, and then finally did a serious cropping to remove a couple features that I was unable to deal with appropriately in the original. Of course all this was flattened and saved out for presentation on the web. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/13 sec @ f / 25 on a tripod.
26 Nov 12. Several years ago - well about 40 - I came upon a small orange fungi growing on a friends alpine property not to far from the location of the filming of Northern Exposure. I hadn't seen this particular fungi since then until about two months ago when a crop of them suddenly sprang up parallel to the patio in the rear of the house. While they are not anything really special, I appreciate their intense orange color, which gives them their name of Orange Cup. The specimens I saw 40 years ago were about the size of a $0.50 piece, but these range in size from maybe a $0.25 piece to 3-4 inches across. They hug the ground, so it is difficult to do anything really creative with them. So, to show them off as best I can, I started with a base layer, duped it and selected just the fungi. These were given a detail enhancement, then that layer inverted and the ground, mostly evergreen needles, blurred, and the the combination was sent to a filter for a sparkle effect. That effect was reduced from its full application to about 60% giving what you see. For a size comparison, note the needles resting inside the cups. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 500; 1/60 sec @ f / 9 with fill flash.
