Isleton Main Street

This is Main Street in Isleton California its one block long and has many interesting buildings. The buildings shown here are covered with galvanized roofing material to keep out the water and for its long life because of its ability to resisit rust. Obviously it has been there for a while. The building on the left had a balcony that has fallen off, you can still see the door. Above the door is something written in Chinese. I wish I knew what it says, let me know if you know what it says. Every year Isleton has the Isleton Cajun Festival (June 18-19) on Main St. I talked to a local and he made it sound like Mardi Gras.

When I was in Isleton I could not get Stevie Ray Vaughn's song Tin Pan Alley out of my head. Maybe it is because when he sings "alley is the roughest place I've ever been" in one part is sounds like "isle is the roughest place I've ever been".

Pacific Coast Dream Machines Automobiles

This is my favorite from the Pacific Coast Dream Machines show in Halfmoon Bay. HDR made the finish of the car take on a really deep shine while showing the metal flake. Make sure you click the thumbnail to take a look at the larger picture, even that does not do it justice a large print shows so much detail.

I love this old truck from another time. A time when you could put the tools on the outside of the toolbox and no one would steal them. I also like the repairs to the fender of the truck, it looks like they bent the fender back to its original shape and welded it back together.



I was not going to process the image below as an HDR until I saw the American and the Rebel flag through the grill. I wish I could see the whole emblem, I can tell it has writing in the lower part of it. I took the photo because I like the AAA emblem on the bumper. I noticed the AAA emblem says Nevada Division, the frame on the license plate says Pomona. I assume California since the license plate is California. The writing on the door says Lisbon Iowa. It makes me wounder where the truck is from and if it is all original?

The cut out flame is very creative in the images below.

There are two other posts from Pacific Coast Dream Machines Show the first post is called Pacific Coast Dream Machines Unimotorcycle Racing it is an interesting look at one wheeled motorcycle racing. The second is Pacific Coast Dream Machines Aircraft.

Pacific Coast Dream Machines Aircraft

I went to the Pacific Coast Dream Machines in Half Moon Bay. The first image is the Super Tug in HDR owned by Bill Newman. I love the dog wearing doggles.

The second image is a plane that was taking people for rides and included a pilot dressed in period clothing, I tried to get his attention so he could be included in the shot. I wish I would have been more patient. I decided to distress the image and make it look like an image that had been around for a while.

The helicopter below was used to retrieve the wreckage from Low Speed Chase a boat that recently crashed into the rocks on the Farallon Islands. The crash killed one, four are missing and presumed dead and three were rescued. For more about the accident go to this link, for more about the salvage check out this link and to see the helicopter in action watch this video.

The image below is a C-47B called Betsy’s Biscuit Bomber in HDR.

The image below is a P-51D Mustang called the Red Dog XII in HDR.

Although I did not get a shot of Eddie Andreini's plane I love his video make sure you check it out! I also have another post from the Pacific Coast Dream Machines Show the post is called Pacific Coast Dream Machines Unimotorcycle Racing it is an interesting look at one wheeled motorcycle racing. There another post called Pacific Coast Dream Machines Automobiles. 

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.