Pacific Coast Dream Machines Unimotorcycle Racing

Last weekend I went to the Pacific Coast Dream Machines in Half Moon Bay. It is a car and airplane show with a lot of unusual events. They had an event called unimotorcycle racing, here is a short video to give you an idea of what unimotorcycle racing is like. I liked a racer that wore a viking helmet and called himself the Troubadour. The two images below are both HDR the top one is a clean realistic version and the bottom is a dirty gritty image. I prefer the dirty gritty  image to go with feel of the image. Let me know what you like in the comments below.

All these Images are made from a single image shot in RAW format and saved at -2, -1, 0, +1 and +2 exposure values then combined into a HDR due to movement.  There is a post called Pacific Coast Dream Machines Aircraft make sure you check it out. There is another post called Pacific Coast Dream Machines Automobiles. 

Taken To The Cleaners

Concord is not a huge city but it has grown up since I have lived here. I have been trying to find little pieces of past that give Concord a small feel. I am trying to give up the excuse that if I could only go somewhere else I could make a great image. I was having a discussion about this with my mother and she brought up a quote "bloom where you are planted" by Mary Engelbreit. I am trying to find interesting things in and around Concord to photograph. Dont get me wrong there are many places I would love to go for photography! But I am looking for interesting things that I pass every day.

About ten years ago I saw a neon sign that was in the shape of a shirt and said shirts inside and wanted to include in a photo. It was hard to get the neon and the rest of the scene to balance out then came HDR. I saw that same neon in another cleaners with all the racks up front. I thought that would make a great shot, judge for yourself. Make sure you click the photo so you can see the detail!

Here is the shot that "tries" capture everthing within range without HDR. Compare it to the HDR above.

I think the HDR looks much better. There are some people that don't like HDR because they say it looks fake. I'll admit the final outcome is open to artistic interitation. Some of my work looks like a Norman Rockwell paint (I've been told). Sometimes I want the image to look realistic and sometimes I like a little creative interpitation depending on the scene.

Barn in Washington on 97

This is a barn I have passed many times in my lifetime. I have seen it at all times of the day and  definitely had better chances to photograph it. My wife was driving and I had my camera in my hands so I had her pull over. I was mid day, when I saw the results I was less than impressed and forgot about it. Today I was looking for another image when I found it. It was taken in 2006 and a little over exposed and flat I don't know if it was the tolls in Photoshop CS or my lack of trying.  I started to play with it in Photoshop CS 4 and it started to come to life so I thought I would post it.

New Mesh From Grayscale feature in Photoshop

I have watched Corey Barker on Photoshop TV and got many ideas from him. He is the reason I bought Photoshop Extended for its 3D features. Today on Episode 297 he gave me an idea to experiment with the New Mesh From Grayscale feature. I took a picture of our dog Daisy wearing a happy new year hat and used the New Mesh From Grayscale feature on the layer. I thought the results were interesting because you could still read the type as you can see in the image below. The Idea of his tutorial was to create an interesting background.



Here is the original image below.

Abandon Hotel Concord Ca



I would not call this urban exploration, but it is an abandon building. Its an old Red Lion Hotel that closed its doors in April of 2011. I saw a news story that had just been purchased. I have wanted to get a shot of the mural on a cloudy  day that mimicked the clouds on the mural. When I heard the hotel was purchased I was afraid the would pain over the mural. Luck was with me I saw a cloudy day and grabbed my camera hoping the clouds would look the same when I arrived at the hotel. A better example of urban exploration is the Byron Hot Springs Hotel. I like exploring old buildings because of the history. It also brings back childhood memories of spending the day running from place to place poking around see what we could find. I think back to when I was a kid and I hope I did not send a historic site like the Byron Hot Spings Hotel to an early demise for an afternoon of fun.



In the photo below you can see a car that belongs to someone working on the hotel.

Chinatown 2012 Part 2

San Francisco

I had two security gaurds and one cop meet me to tell me that I could not take photos. If someone was breaking into my car I would have to wait 40 minutes to get one cop to take a report. They said I needed a permit to take a photo. This is the one I got before they made me move on.

Update here is a video of Carlos Miller Arrested at Occupy Miami Eviction for photography.

I have been past the Transamerica Building many times but I have never noticed the base of it. What a difference it makes to walk instead of driving.