Petaluma River

I haven't taken many photos for a couple of weeks - none I've been especially happy with anyway. I was looking at some pictures I took two years ago underneath the Petaluma Bridge, between Novato and Sonoma. Here's the first one:

Someone asked me if I had used Topaz. I hadn't heard of Topaz then, I was just learning Lightroom, but I did recently get Topaz Adjust, and so I thought I'd try it out on that old picture. The new Topazed version is this:

Over processed? The Topaz version certainly has something extra, although it also has more chroma noise (see the white superstructure of the boat). I'm not sure which one I prefer. Opinions?

Here's one more from the same day - just basic LR:

Sansome Street, San Francisco

One Sansome Street is a building owned and managed by my employer, Barker Pacific Group, in partnership with Prudential Real Estate Investors. It's hard to get realistic pictures of these tall financial district buildings without them all looking like they're falling over, so I gave up with the attempts at realism and turned the wide angle lens directly up. Here are a couple:

The first was processed in Topaz Adjust to pull details from the building in shadow. The second was made from five bracketed exposures shot handheld in burst mode, combined in Photomatix.

Christmas Snowmen

Taken at Cornerstone Sonoma

Shot with the RX100. Processed in Topaz Adjust. I've been trialling Topaz (30 day free - ends Dec 23rd) and I haven't been that impressed - it gets some interesting effects but it's a bit gimmicky. Are the photos really any better, or has Topaz just made a boring photo look better? It definitely made this photo, though. Shot in dull light, it now pops. I think I used the Topaz surreal filter - don't exactly remember to be honest. It helps that it's a rather surreal subject to start with. I think I'll use this as my Christmas card.

Raindrops

The Sony RX100 can focus pretty close - not quite macro (although I think they claim it is) but close enough in this instance. I saw this leaf out of the window this morning after the rain had stopped, and liked they way the light caught the raindrops.

A Couple From My Street

Just to show some fall colors against the blue sky. And to show that it does rain in California. Not much, but it does.

The Camera You Have With You – Sony RX100

It’s said that the best camera is the one you have with you. You can own the best camera in the world, but if you don’t have it with you (because, say, it is too heavy to cart around everywhere), it won’t be taking any pictures. With that philosophy in mind, I just bought a Sony RX100 – a pocketable camera with a large(ish) sensor:

This camera has been called the best pocket camera ever made  and and The best pocket digital compact of the year…actually…EVER! Hyperbole aside, its large sensor and fast Zeiss lens makes it a camera worth having, unlike most pocketables.

Anyway, the “best camera is the one you have with you” meme proved true this week. Here in northern California, the sky is usually clear blue from horizon to horizon. (Or occasionally gray horizon to horizon, like now.) Very nice, but boring in photos. This week I arrived at my place of work to the sky you see below.

Before I took the shot, I pictured the scene in black & white. Conversion done in Silver Efex Pro, with heavy use of the red filter.

Ordinarily I wouldn’t have had a camera with me and therefore wouldn’t have this shot. Which do you prefer? Is the B&W over-processed?

Sausalito, California

I took a stroll through Sausalito last weekend with the OM-D my old kit 14-45mm zoom for a change. The harbor has millions of dollars of boats just sitting there unused. Where are the owners of these boats and why do they sit there unused week after week? Hardly seems worth it. Anyway, here is one shot of the harbor.

Then I came upon some sort of custom car show in the parking lot. Not quite the scale of the Bad Ass Car Show Sonoma last month, but it had some interesting vehicles / works of art to look at. As usual, the difficulty in photographing these well is in isolating the cars from the busy backgrounds. And in avoiding getting your own reflection in the highly polished paint and chrome. Here are a couple I was happy with.