25 Jul 19 We spent days 3 and 4 in Eureka making several side trips to see the local sights. One of these was to the historic Victorian village of Ferndale, a community nestled between the Lost Coast and the California Redwoods. Its main attraction is the Victorian architecture featured on all its buildings. We spent a couple hours wandering around the downtown streets while I attempted to get some architectural shots but pretty much failed in that effort as that's definitely not my forte. But it was fun to see all the buildings. As it turned out there were several more such buildings a few blocks walk from our motel in Eureka and I had much better luck shooting those. One in particular caught our eye, the Carson Mansion, so we put in an offer for it. Waiting to hear back. The home was built for William Carson, a lumber baron in the height of the San Francisco lumbering days. We thought it might be the perfect location for a winter retreat from the grays of Puget Sound and just the right size for entertaining. We had a lovely Victorian home in PA during our second tour there and this one sorta reminded us of it. I was thinking of removing that annoying shingle in front but didn't have enough information to reasonably attempt it. I had to straighten the original some and, as it is Theatrical Thursday, I elected to add a couple clouds into the boring blue sky. Our New Abode Nikon D500; 12 -24; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1000 sec @ f / 4.
01 Jul 19 Back from 11 days and 2300+ miles of travel from our home in Eglon to Berkeley and back. Traffic was a bit much, at least half of what we wanted to see was closed, and the class was a total bust! To be fair, the instructor was excellent, his material very good, and he went out of his way to be extremely helpful! But the class taught me nothing new. I had communicated with him prior to taking his class and inquired about the advanced class vice the beginners class. He strongly requested I take the beginners class - even though after having reviewed my portfolio and stating that it was one that anyone would be proud of - he felt that as I didn't have a single image in it that was identical to what he is doing, I would be a drag on the advanced students. So I took the beginners class and wound up helping other students. His technique has been demonstrated by him in several videos and almost step by step in several of his books. So my interest was in the advanced stuff NOT in the books and videos, NONE of which was provided! Very expensive lesson learned; no more classes from so called experts. So just what is it that he does and in which I am interested. He makes very high key images of translucent flowers and other things, but mainly flowers. Sample attached for today's image. The technique for a basic type image is simple; the more complex I'm thinking not quite so. Frustrating part of all this is he stated he is writing a book that will include all the info, step by step, for everything he does. Price will likely be under $50! The method for creating such an image is to take a series of shots on a light box each shot being twice as bright as the former starting from a "normal" exposure and continuing until the last shot is basically white. You now stack each of these frames on top of one another in a graphics edition program starting with the brightest at the bottom and the darkest at the top. On all but the bottom layer you add a black mask and paint with white on the black mask to reveal just that portion of the individual layer you want to show through to the bottom layer. Stated differently, you paint on the bottom layer with ever darker colors until you get the look you like. It is very simple and I use this approach all the time but not in the manner he does for these flower images. In truth the hardest part is the initial flower arrangement. That I do need to master as well as eventually learn the tricks employed for the far more complex designs. I'll wait for the book. This is of course a many layered shot as explained above. Translucency Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Manual mode; ISO 100; 1/60 - 3 sec @ f /13.
31 Jul 19 Our first evening on the return leg having departed Berkeley was to provide us with several nice sights as we traveled north finally ending up in Botega Bay for the night. All of you Hitchcock fans will recognize that location. A couple hours before calling the driving quits for the evening we were driving through rolling hills of farming country with little bits of fog thrown in every now and then. At one point as we were oscillating up and down along the roadway with farms on both sides, we came to a spot where the mowing had left the field in stripes of two shades of green, bright and dark. Lying parallel to the stripes were bales of hay that appeared to have just been bailed that afternoon. The combination of greens, fog, hay bales, and the sunset were simply irresistible so I pulled off when I could and walked back to get the shot(s). Jan - surprisingly - decided that this creative version did the best job of evoking the setting so I'm going with it. We were fortunate to have such a lovely evening to end an otherwise disappointing day. It was to get better before night set in. I've straighten the original and then converted it using Topaz Impression 2. A Turner Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f /11.
