Uploads from Dov Plawsky

Three little Ducklings

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 02:27:17 -0700

I found this really cool canal while walking through Regents Park in London. It was a beautiful sunny day and there was a walking path right along the water, so I took a nice stroll.

I came upon this mother duck with several ducklings resting beside her and took a few shots. At some point, someone walked past with a dog which made them decide to jump in the water. This image here is 3 of the ducklings that were steeling themselves up for the big jump.

It was very cute to watch them go up and down and stretch as they tried to figure out the best way to jump in. I like this one as two of them are fully stretched.

I believe that these are mandarin ducklings. They have really nice markings around their eyes.

As always, thanks for viewing and comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Bergen Central

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Fri, 31 May 2013 04:16:47 -0700

Dov Plawsky posted a photo:

This picture was taken on top of a mountain overlooking the city of Bergen in Norway. To get there, you take the Floibanen, which is a train that run between the town and the peak.

Once you get to the peak, there is this wonderful balcony that stretches for a good 100m with lots of folks taking and getting their pictures taken. While it is certainly a tourist spot, it's ok because it provides the best views of the city (I understand there is also a cable car that goes up to a higher peak on the other side of town but I didn't have time to check it out).

As I was looking at the town, there seemed to be a spot in the center that had a great old world feel to it. And I thought it would look really nice in B&W. So I converted it using NIK Color Efex and I really liked how it came out.

As always, thanks for viewing and comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Norwegian Fjord and Mountains

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Wed, 29 May 2013 15:51:56 -0700

Dov Plawsky posted a photo:

Just got back from a trip to Norway. The landscapes there are just amazing. Broad mountains, endless fjords and beautiful green grass. This is truly a great time to go to Norway. We also lucked out that the weather was basically perfect.

On the last few trips I've taken to Europe, I've decided to rent a car so that I could explore outside of the city I was staying in. I can't recommend enough, the merits of doing that. The cities and towns I've stayed in have been great but what's outside is so beautiful, that being able to drive around and stop wherever you want completely changes the feel of the trip.

Here, I was driving along and came upon the area that looked over the Hardangerfjord. I had to get out and take some shots and try to capture what I was seeing. For this shot, I stitched together several images to create what I think is a pretty good representation of what I saw. I know that when I look at it, it transports me back to that spot.

As always, thanks for viewing and comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Countryside

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 02:36:07 -0700

Dov Plawsky posted a photo:

While in Alberobello, Italy, we went on a little tour. It took us to a mozzarella plant, a masseria and through amazingly picturesque countryside. At one point we were going by this field filled with yellow flowers so I asked the guide to stop.

It was amazing. We were in this field with no one else around. There weren't any cars only a few buildings very far off in the distance. Having lived in a city for the last several years, it was so peaceful and calming to be out in quiet bit of nature.

What's strange about this image though is that it actually came out of the camera with a bit of an impressionistic feel. For some reason, the flowers almost look like dots as opposed to a field of flowers. It was a bright day and my ISO was low, so I'm not exactly sure why it is like that but I really like it.

As always, thanks for viewing and comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Otranto Beach

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 03:49:27 -0700

Dov Plawsky posted a photo:

Just got back from a trip to Southern Italy. It was my first time to the Puglia region and it was amazing. It's filled with olive trees, cacti, artichokes, flowers and awesome people.

We had a car and drove around the "heel" and this was one of our first stops. It is a town called Otranto which has a nice little beach and a really cool old town with a castle, or castle like, buildings. This image is essentially, the first thing I saw when we walked over to the beach. The sky was a perfectly flawless blue and the water had a great blue/green tint to it.

For this, I've stitched several images together using photoshop. Just looking at it makes me want to book my next trip.

As always, thanks for viewing and comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Lamp

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 16:40:18 -0700

Dov Plawsky posted a photo:

This one was pretty interesting. I have seen others produce this shape, very well I might add, but I hadn't actually intended to do this yet. I was working on some taller columns when I had changed my settings a bit further than normal and all of a sudden, I started getting this. I love it when I get lucky!

I was also working on getting a seamless transition from the dish to the backdrop as Leon Dafonte does so well. I think this one is somewhat close but it's still easy to tell where the horizon line is here. I'm getting close to it though and I think with a bit more fiddling I might just get it.

I decided to position the "Lamp" on the righthand side of the frame as I thought it would be a bit more interesting. What do you think? Does the partial reflection distract from the image?

As always, thanks for viewing and comments are welcomed and appreciated.

To purchase a print of this image, click here

Toulouse - From Pont Saint-Pierre

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 15:44:07 -0700

Dov Plawsky posted a photo:

This was during my trip to Southern France. One of the days we were there, it was on and off rain. One minute it was sunny and the next it was a downpour.

While crossing the Pont Saint-Pierre bridge and looking up the river Garonne, there was this great scene of dark clouds over the city and sunlight off to the side. I took several shots and stitched them together to create a panoramic view.

I decided to add some tone mapping to help bring out the drama in the clouds. It also ended up giving the buildings an eerie quality which I really liked so I kept it as it was.

As always, thanks for viewing and comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Into the Looking Glass

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:05:27 -0700

Dov Plawsky posted a photo:

This one came out better than I hoped. I took it while walking through Toulouse in Southern France. The day had been on/off rain showers and there were puddles everywhere.

On this one street, which was a bit torn up, there was quite a large puddle and a car had parked on the other side of it. I decided to capture the car, street and sky in the reflection.

When I got home, I decided to flip it around and place the main focus of the image as the reflection. So what you are looking at is actually the puddle on top and the real world on the bottom. That's why the top portion of the image seems to be a bit "cloudy".

This one was a lot of fun to do. Especially with the people walking by, giving me strange looks as I pointed my camera at a puddle :).

As always, thanks for viewing and comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Place du Capitole Toulouse

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 02:34:13 -0700

Dov Plawsky posted a photo:

Spent a long weekend in the South of France over Easter and stayed in Toulouse. Toulouse is a pretty cool little city. The old portion is made up of tons of little criss-crossed streets going in every direction. Although quite charming, I'm glad we have city planning nowadays. It's called "ville rose" or "Pink city" because of all of the clay brick used in the buildings.

It's a very beautiful city and at the center is the Place du Capitol. The big building on the left is the city hall (I believe). During the day, there is usually a little market there (farmers market and typical street fair products). At night, it's lit up and even more beautiful.

I set up for this shot in one of the corners of the square. Although, I could've used a shorter shutter speed, I opted to go for a longer one as there were still people walking around and I wanted to eliminate them from the image as much as possible. This is made up of 6 images stitched together in photoshop.

As always, thanks for viewing and comments are welcomed and appreciated.

To purchase a print of this image, click here

Chalice with a Drop

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 03:38:03 -0700

Dov Plawsky posted a photo:

This is another one in my Reflection series. I've put up 2 versions of this shot. One with a vivid blue drop falling into the Chalice and one without the drop. I'm interested to hear which one people like better. I have my favorite but I'd like to get some thoughts. I'm happy with how this one came out and that the sides of chalice are so smooth and glassy.

I called this one Chalice since I used Goblet yesterday. I think I may have to get my thesaurus out if I put more of these up.

As always, thanks for viewing and comments are always welcomed and appreciated.

-2 Yongnuo 560-II flashes were used behind the drop.
-Time Machine with Drip Kit

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Chalice without a Drop

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 03:38:02 -0700

Dov Plawsky posted a photo:

Goblet

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 03:32:33 -0700

Dov Plawsky posted a photo:

Here's another one in my Reflection series. Yeah, I just came up with that. I realized I have several I like with the reflection so...

I really like these goblet type collisions. I think they are always recognizable for that and they usually look pretty cool too.

As always, thanks for viewing and comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Orbit

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 04:53:06 -0700

Dov Plawsky posted a photo:

Decided to try out some Xanthan gum in this set. I usually use Guar gum and I definitely saw a difference. Specifically, that I didn't seem to need as much of the Xanthan.

Ultimately though, they seem to act fairly similarly. I'm pretty happy with this one. The thing that stood out to me on this were the two drops "orbiting" the top of the column. I like the vivid blues in contrast to the green.

I also finally got a couple of the Yongnuo flashes and I really like them. It is really helping to even out the lighting.

To purchase a print of this image, click here

Sash

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 04:48:59 -0700

Dov Plawsky posted a photo:

I've been wanting to get this type of shot for the longest time. I'm really thrilled with finally getting it.

It wouldn't have been possible without Corrie White. I was on the right track but was going in the wrong direction and her new book helped correct my course. Okay, enough with the train metaphors...

I call this one Sash because I see a beauty contestant with her country, state, city.. written across her body. Granted, it's a messy sash and I'm sure points will be deducted for that but that's what I see. How about you?

For this shot, I used 1 flash set behind the drop. The flash was placed behind a white piece of plexiglass. As a result of the one light source, I did have to do a bit of exposure compensation to brighten it up. I'm debating whether it's better with or without the reflection. I like it both ways.

As always, thanks for viewing and comments are welcomed and appreciated.

To purchase a print of this image, click here

Carnival Ride

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:02:25 -0700

Dov Plawsky posted a photo:

For a while, I've been admiring the low angle shots with that nice infinite looking surface. I finally bought myself a new tray to use and I'm pretty pleased with the results. I think the surface appears to go on for quite a while and the shape here is quite nice too. It kind of reminds me of the carnival ride called "Yoyo" where the chairs are attached my chains 30-40 feet above.

As always, thanks for viewing and comments are welcomed and appreciated.

To purchase a print of this image, click here

Trabajo

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 04:51:07 -0800

Dov Plawsky posted a photo:

This was taken in sunny Cancun. I was relaxing on the beach with the warm gulf air blowing and I kept noticing these guys walking up and down the beach selling things. It was pretty warm out and they had a fair amount of clothing on so I thought they must be slow roasting.

I took this shot because I thought it was interesting to see this guy working on the beach while everyone around is relaxing. Every time I see that water, I want to go back.

As always, thanks for viewing and comments are welcomed and appreciated.

NYC Rooftops

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 02:40:02 -0800

Dov Plawsky posted a photo:

I went to NYC this past Christmas and I had this really cool view through the hotel window. At first, the eye goes to the Empire State building then to the Chrysler building and then to some random other places. But for me, what was interesting was just how many of those great old water tanks there were on the roofs.

These tanks are so iconic, that even newly constructed building will put in tanks that look the same. Most of these appear to be older but it's really hard to say.

Believe it or not, there are 38 water tanks in this image. That's quite a bit. I thought it would be interesting to bring out the tanks in the image so I desaturated the colors in the buildings and pumped them up a bit in the tanks. Along with a little HDR to pump up the details too. For the most part I'm pretty happy with this but I feel that there is something missing. Is it too light or too dark? Do the tanks stand out enough? Please let me know what you think.

As always, thanks for viewing and comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Reflection

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 08:23:21 -0800

Dov Plawsky posted a photo:

This one is from a couple of weeks ago. To me it appears to be a person bent over looking into a pool and seeing their own reflection.

For this image, I had one flash positioned behind the drops (12 o'clock looking at the image). I think it created some nice lighting for this one as it really highlights the reflection.

As always, thanks for viewing and comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Sunny in Soho

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 01:20:05 -0800

Dov Plawsky posted a photo:

On my last trip to nyc, I was walking around Soho and happened upon this street. The sun was somewhat low in the sky and was casting some great light up the length of the street. I just loved the shadows and textures it was creating so I had to shoot it.

I took a few shots at various angles and this is one of my favorites. You can see the detail in the old cobblestone streets and the car, while not very pretty, creates a really nice perspective.

As always, thanks for viewing and comments are welcomed and appreciated.

To purchase a print of this image, click here

The face

nobody@flickr.com (Dov Plawsky) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 01:33:55 -0800

Dov Plawsky posted a photo:

This one is a fun one. I had gotten my settings to where I wanted them to be and was taking a few shots. When out of nowhere, this face is staring back at me. It always amazes me how the mind can make a face out of the smallest threads. But I challenge you to see anything other than that :).

As always, thanks for viewing and comments are welcomed and appreciated.