The Bike Rack

When I was in Austin the last time, I was testing out my HDR capabilities on a various amount of different items. While walking through the campus of UT, for some reason, a bike rack caught my attention and screamed to be photographed. I really liked how the red and blue seemed to just pop from behind the chrome spokes of the bike.

This is a 3 exposure HDR taken with my Canon 40D at f/5.6, ISO 200, and 17-85mm lens.

Coming up this weekend is Via Colori, in downtown Houston. A friend of mine, Roberto, will be out there showing off his artistry skills. So if you get a chance go and check it out. For more information go check out the Houston Via Colori website at: http://www.houstonviacolori.com/

Friday Night Lights

On Friday, I was able to get down on the field and shoot a Texas high school football playoff game between Friendswood and Lamar Consolidated. I have never shot sports at any level besides my little brother and for the most part I cant say I was happy with everything that I took. At about half time the auto-focus on my lens stopped working and it showed me how nice it was to really have it when its around.

Learning to photograph sports is something that I have been wanting to learn to do and I figure the best place to learn is at my local high school. It will definitely be a learning experience and hopefully with time I will be able to provide better pictures. All of these were taken with my Canon 40D on Manual Settings and a Sigma 70-200mm @ f/2.8 and have been cropped.

ISO-1600 @ 1/400 sec

ISO-1600 @ 1/400 sec

ISO-3200 @ 1/800 sec

I tried out my 40Ds ISO at 3200 on this shot and it turned out to be way to noisy.

ISO-1600 @ 1/400 sec

ISO-1600 @ 1/400 sec

One of the hardest lessons I learned Friday was about lighting. Shooting from the endzone provides very poor lighting and half the time you can't even see the players faces.

ISO-1600 @ 1/320 sec

ISO-1600 @ 1/500 sec

ISO-1600 @ 1/400 sec

ISO-1600 @ 1/400 sec

ISO-1600 @ 1/400 sec

In Photoshop I went ahead an added a little vignetting to see if it helped give the picture anything extra.

ISO-1600 @ 1/400 sec

ISO-1600 @ 1/320 sec

Ties That Bind

While in Austin, I did not spend all of my time wondering around parks and viewing nature, but Catherine also took me to UT's campus to take a look around for interesting photographs. My original plan was to actually focus many of my pictures on the UT tower, but while walking around the plan changed and many opportunities came about.

This picture is an overhang that can be found just outside of Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, at the Alumni Center. The way that all of the colors worked together with the lines of the wood, metal and brick just caught my eye. This is a 3 exposure HDR taken at 56mm.

Ties That Bind, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

A Little Green Left

While in Austin, we went on a short hike to enjoy the beautiful weather. This hike followed a small stream for a good majority of the trail that we walked. Among the trail I came across a small plant that seemed to be growing almost by itself. It was funny to me because fall is almost in full swing and everything is starting to wither away, but all while this small plant was thriving in the rocks on the walking trail.

Original picture was taken at 17mm with f/4 and taken into Photoshop for some fun post processing.

A Little Green Left, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Weekend in Austin

I recently went to Austin to visit Catherine for the weekend. As always it was a great time and this weekend we spent a majority out and about in a few of the many parks Austin has to offer. One of which I was really excited to see was Bull Creek. I had recently viewed a picture of Catherine and her dog Teddy next to a small waterfall in the area and requested that we go there. I thought it would make for some great shots and captured a great panoramic of the scene while I was there.

This panoramic was composed of 14 individual shots at 17mm.

Bull Creek Panoramic, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

The other side of Friendswood

Continuing on the beautiful weather that has been around, I went out to a local park and decided to go on a little nature photo walk. I decided to give nature HDR a go and see how well it went. For the most part, the breeze was a pain to work around, but the overall results came out fairly nice.

This photo is just inside 1776 Park and it is probably a park most people don't even realize exists. Despite the creek being full of crystal clear water, i think it really helps make the park stand out from the rest around the town.

1776 Park, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Golden Fall

On Friday I went out and met some friends as they were fishing in a pond near one of their houses. There was quite a bit of good photography and this is one of my favorites from the day. I am heading off to Austin here this next weekend and hope that it brings just as many opportunities as these last few days have for some more great photo's.

Golden Fall, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.