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.

 

Chemung and Masonic abandoned California gold mines

I visited Masonic and Chemung mines - two old abandoned gold rush era mines in Mono County, east California. It was an 1½ hour drive up a 15 mile dirt road to get there, with just latitude and longitude coordinates for my GPS to follow. And when I got there I found this old upturned car and a large propane gas cylinder both full of bullet holes (hundreds of them) – someone had been using them for target practice, with numerous empty shell casings everywhere. Not a great photo artistically, but it shows the number of bullet holes:

I wandered in cautiously, hoping I wouldn’t alarm the hillbilly who might be living there with a machine gun for protection. Luckily, no one there.

Here is another car at the same location. Not quite so many bullet holes:

See the full gallery of the Chemumg and Masonic abandoned gold mines.

Bodie, California Ghost Town

Last week I went on a trip to Mono County, eastern California (right on the border with Nevada). I took many pictures of Mono Lake, Bodie (an old wild west ghost town, now a State Historic Park) and of two old abandoned gold mines in the hills beyond Bodie. So far I have only processed the Bodie shots. Here are four examples. The two of the car are tone mapped in Photomatix (five exposures, handheld, burst mode).

The most difficult part of photographing Bodie was to avoid getting any of the numerous other photographers in the shot. The whole “ghost town” atmosphere is rather ruined by stuff like that, especially as some people insist on wearing bright red shirts! (Photographers, at least have the courtesy to wear a color like brown, gray or black.) With patience, you can get a clear shot most of the time, but I would advise anyone else thinking of going to Bodie, not to do what I did, which was arrive at 1pm. For one, the light is at its worst at that time. But also, it is the most crowded. By 4pm, most of the other people had gone. (The park is open until 6pm, May 15th - October 31st.)

See the rest of the pictures in my Bodie gallery.