Monthly Archives: October 2012
The Agile Fox Friday Foto – 10.19.2012
After a year and a half of including a ‘pic of the week’ at the end of my weekly training summary, I’ve decided to let it stand as a post of its own. I’m also implementing a rule that the Friday Foto needs to have been taken sometime in the last week. No recycling. I am doing this to keep me engaged in building my photography skills, and to make me work harder to get fresh shots. Click here to see my previous Friday Foto posts.
When I started doing this weekly Friday Foto feature/project I intended to use it as a way of pushing me to explore and learn new photography skills instead of just posting a picture I happened to have taken the previous week. Pick a technique or style and go for it. To some extent I have been letting that slip, and while posting about interesting subject matter, I have gotten away from my original intent.
I set out Sunday afternoon in search of 3 elements to photograph. Yellow leaves, blue sky, and dark water. I also wanted to practice using a Neutral Density filter combined with a small aperture. Each of these would cut down the amount of light entering the lens, and allow me to keep the shutter open for as long as possible in the daylight so I could let the water movement blur and also get the most color reflection from the water’s surface.
I used HDR (High Dynamic Range) technique to get the best exposure from all areas of the frame. In this particular location, the foreground was very dark and the sky was very bright. Which made it difficult to get a balanced look.
HDR can be a tricky thing to get right. And getting it ‘right’ is solely in the eye of the beholder. It’s very easy to overdo the tone mapping, and end up with that typical hyper-saturated ‘HDR look’ with white-ish halos around objects (especially where the sky meets the earth), and blacks that look smeared onto every surface.
Here is a before and after example from a few years ago:
That look can be cool. For a little while. Then you kind of burn out on it. Even more when every single photo you see looks like HDR (thanks, Instagram). Lately, I have been preferring to use HDR to create non-HDR looking photos. If that makes any sense…
I took 3 shots to make this composite image. One at normal exposure – which looked nice, but the foreground was a little dark, and the sky was a little washed out. Then one that was 2 stops underexposed. That made everything in the foreground super dark, but the sky looked great. Then one that was 2 stops overexposed. The sky was completely washed out in this one, but the foreground had all of the detail coming out of the shadows and the stream movement was nicely blurred since this was the longest of the 3 exposures at one second.
Then in post-processing you blend the 3 images together to get the best from each one. I used Photomatix software for that step. After that, I load the resulting file back into Lightroom and carefully adjust the individual saturation sliders (there are 8 – red, orange, yellow, green, aqua, blue, purple, and magenta) to hopefully end up where things are nice looking, but still in the realm of being realistic. It’s a process I have been refining for a while, but I am starting to get better at it and am happier with the results now compared to my earlier stabs at HDR processing. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes to create an image like this. Oddly enough, the trick is making it look like a lot of work hasn’t been done. I’ll keep trying as the occasion presents itself and hopefully get the technique fully dialed in at some point.
Bear Creek
-2, 0, +2 HDR; 10mm, f/14.0 @ ISO 100
2012 Training Log – Week 42
Awful start to the week, got a bit better towards the end. My training has been very hit-and-miss lately, but I’m still at it. I am in this for the long haul, so while I don’t enjoy weeks like this one and sometimes get very frustrated, I still remember the big picture. It’s all about making the deposits in the training bank. No matter how small.
I posted this before, but I still reflect on it during weeks like this:
Everyone loves the idea of success but few love the work it takes to get there. Passionately pursue the process and fall in love with the grind, success will follow. Josh Cox
I’m not hung up on the success part, but I do like the idea of falling in love with the grind. Taking the bad with the good. Every damn day.
Monday
6.7 miles
Had the day off work today. The weather was outstanding. Big plans were hatching in my brain…
I dropped the kids off at school and went in search of a sunrise shot. The location I had in mind didn’t work out, so I went for plan B. Shoot away from the sunrise. I hit the overlook in Daniels Park just in time to catch about 2 minutes of alpenglow on Pikes Peak. It was a very cool pink/purple color with a faint orange sky as the sun lit up the hazy air. This is from 44 miles away. It’s a big mountain…
After spending the morning taking care of things to do with real life, I got the green light to head out just after noon. What to do on such a beautiful day? I didn’t want to spend a lot of it driving, so opted to head to Red Rocks. I really like the loop there and wanted to get in a long steady run on that terrain. 4 laps would give me a perfect marathon distance.
I didn’t necessarily want to work too hard, but I did want to go at a consistent pace from start to finish. I also planned on not making any stops, and even went so far as to fill up four bottles in advance so I would have one for each lap and be able to grab one off the car as I ran by.
Guess how long it was before I stopped?
.7 miles
What a disaster.
My calves were so angry it just became impossible to run anymore. They get so pumped and tight I couldn’t even let my heels touch the ground. How long have I been doing this?? Sometimes it seems like I just started running last week.
I sat on a rock and contemplated how badly I suck at this stupid sport.
Then I reminded myself to take the good with the bad, remember that it is a process, a lifestyle, and that I loved simply being outside and moving.
I gave it one more serious attempt that lasted all of 1/2 mile before the calves shut me down for good. I jogged and walked the remainder of the loop, ending up with a grand total of 6.6 miles in 1:20. Not quite what I had in mind.
I happened to still have all of my camera gear in the car from the weekend, so I thought maybe I could salvage the day by heading up to Golden Gate State Park and shooting some of the fall color. That was a bust, too. Leaves were gone, everything was brown and barren. Ugh.
Coming back through Golden, I decided to hike up to the band of cliffs on North Table Mountain and check out the climbing possibilities. It’s a fun looking little crag with a lot of short 3-5 bolt routes. I still have a brand new pair of climbing shoes that are two years old and have never been worn…
I got off a few nice shots with the camera as well, and that helped my mood improve a great deal. Something about finding a subject and firing that shutter just feels good.
I thought this was a cool composition with the city in the background. The climbers look like they are miniature people because I was actually quite a distance away and the closeness of the rock on the left exagerrates the perspective.
Tuesday
6.8 miles
Good rebound after yesterday. Worked the calves over on the foam roller last night and that helped a little. Still extremely blown out, but I was able to manage better today.
Wednesday
6 miles
Just a jog. Bleh.
Thursday
5.1 miles
Wanted double that, cut short. Still feeling like garbage.
Friday
10.3 miles
A little better. Seem to be finally crawling out from under whatever has been holding me down.
Saturday
10 miles
I would love to go out for a 20+ mile run today, but 10 is probably all I have in me. If even that much. Just don’t know what to expect after this up and down week. My calves continue to be a huge problem.
Did some yard work in the morning and then headed for Green Mountain (Lakewood). I was itching for some dirt, rocks, and hills – without anything too extreme.
When I pulled up it was cold, windy, grey, and just starting to spit rain. Perfect. Sometimes I enjoy things more when there is a little adverse weather element.
Surprisingly, I felt decent as I rolled up and down the hills and even made it all the way up the biggest climb at a steady jog. My calves were definitely limiting me, but at least they weren’t shutting me down.
The skies let loose when I topped out and I was soaked and loving it. I had the whole place all to myself and imagined I was running through the Scottish Highlands (land of my ancestors).
Ended up with satisfied with a very nice 10 miles on the trails. Just what I needed.
Sunday
0 miles
Day off. Spent the afternoon driving around doing a bit of hiking with the camera. Beautiful day!
Found a good spot for the tripod… Tune in Friday to see the results.
Total: 45 miles / 7:04
The Agile Fox Friday Foto – 10.12.2012
After a year and a half of including a ‘pic of the week’ at the end of my weekly training summary, I’ve decided to let it stand as a post of its own. I’m also implementing a rule that the Friday Foto needs to have been taken sometime in the last week. No recycling. I am doing this to keep me engaged in building my photography skills, and to make me work harder to get fresh shots. Click here to see my previous Friday Foto posts.
I spotted this cool old trestle-like thing above I-70 a couple of months ago and made a mental note to stop and check it out sometime. I had about 30 minutes to spare on a drive up to Leadville last Friday, so I took a break from driving and went for a little hike.
At the time, I didn’t think any of my photos would turn out very well. It was hard to get a good angle, and I was trying different things to hide the freeway in the background. After I looked at the results, I ended up liking this one the best – because it did show the freeway. It presents a cool contrast between old and new.
I haven’t had any success in finding out what it is/was, though. I first thought a railroad spur to a mine, but the turns seemed a little tight for that. Maybe something for logging? There were some sawmills in the area. Then I checked a topo map (thinking I might find some mine symbols) and noticed that the intermittent stream shown below the 9400′ contour was right where the trestle was. Some sort of aqueduct??
If anyone knows, I’d love to hear more about it. This is right above the Frisco exit. The part in the photo was in pretty good shape, but the rest was in ruin and falling apart. It was well built, though! Sturdy stuff.
Frisco Trestle
1/160, f/9.0, 55mm @ ISO 200
The Scene Begins 