Uploads from Dan Martinez Photography

Hebe

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:04:38 -0700

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

Hebe, the Greek Goddess of eternal youth, keeps watch over the clock tower in Manitou Springs, CO.

Hebe and the tower date back to the 1890s, but she was mis-identified as Hygeia - and remained as such until 2009!

Taken during a recent photowalk along Manitou Avenue. Best viewed larger on black, just click the pic!

Self Portrait - Growth

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:34:25 -0700

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

The self portrait theme for April was growth. My wife had these baby pics of me around the house for my 50th Birthday last year --- thought they worked well for the theme.

Taken with my old Series E lens attached to my D60 (renders the in camera metering useless) - then used my "Won Ton Soup" Lightsphere (a DIY & cheaper version of the Gary Fond product) on my speedlight to provide the light source. Only minor edits done in LR to balance the color, etc.

Best viewed larger on black, just click the pic!

Smoke Break

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 20:23:31 -0700

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

Sometimes we just need a break - a moment to relax and prepare to get back into the game. That was the (nonverbal) message we got from this guy as he took a break from working in a local Manitou Springs eatery. He was just enjoying his smoke, when all of us photographers come wandering up the street. He had no objections to his picture being taken --- I think he just wanted to enjoy his smoke.

I tried a few shots at various angles and perspectives, I liked this one the best, as I caught him exhaling. The curious look on the dog's face was a plus!

Best viewed larger on black, just click the pic!

Manitou After Dark

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 22:01:02 -0700

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

Manitou Springs is usually very busy and full of activity during the summer months. Here in Spring, before the tourists arrive, it is quiet and a great place to take some pictures.

Taken near Patsy's -- I left my tripod in the car, so I used a nice ,city provided, stone surface to hold the camera. Worked great!

Best viewed larger on black, just click the pic!

Abandoned!

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 19:51:53 -0700

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

Found this old building in late Feb when I was out for a drive in the mountains west of Colorado Springs. I had to shoot it from the road, as it was on fenced property --- would have loved to have gotten a closer look at this one!

Best viewed larger on black, just click the pic!

Light

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 18:03:45 -0700

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

In reponse to the 52 Week Challenge to capture great light with your phone --- the exercise was not about the camera, but about the light. This was captured with my Samsung Galaxy SIII, while I was waiting for some color to appear in the clouds. HDR effect applied in phone to balance the light. Photoshop only used to apply watermark and include additional metadata.

One critique ... I missed that the sign on the right was in the frame. Doh!

Best viewed larger on black, just click the pic!

Emergence of Color

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 21:37:59 -0700

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

The first signs of Spring are emerging along the Front Range of Colorado.

Processed in LR then pulled into PS to apply an Orton effect, except I didn't like it. So, then I had a little fun with it -- changing the blur layer to an overlay helped, then I flattened the layers and used the shadows and highlights adjustment to bring the photo back to life. It is a bit of a harsher effect, which some may not like, but I like how it ended up.

Added to the Colorado 52 Week Challenge -- the theme was ugly: "Make something ugly beautiful" Okay, little purple flowers are not necessarily ugly -- but the lack of color and drabness of the flower (in the original) was less than attractive. Now, it is much prettier! Ha!

Best viewed large on black, just click the pic.

Old Chevy Truck

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 21:59:17 -0700

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

This old truck was sitting on the corner in Bluff, Utah near and equally old Buick Eight I have in my stream from last summer.

Decided to pull this guy out, as I was working in Lightroom - instead of Camera Raw / Photoshop - and needed an image to work with, and I always liked this old truck. All processing work on this was done in Lightroom.

Best viewed larger on black, just click the pic!

Central Garden in Fog - HDR

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 06:19:38 -0700

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

The northern part of the central garden area of Garden of the Gods in an early morning fog. This is a 5 shot HDR -- with a very light touch of HDR tone mapping. I wanted to pull in details of the lower half of the image without destroying the fog effect near the top of the rock structures.

Best viewed larger on black, just click the pic!

First Buds of Spring

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 21:28:31 -0700

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

The first buds of spring are here! Taken during a creativity meetup - with a macro extension tube. Post-processed to provide an Orton effect.

Taken during a meetup on Creativity exercises this past weekend. I also had a 52 week project for Nature Bokeh pending, so there you go!

Best viewed larger on black, just click the pic!

Three Graces in Fog

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 21:48:37 -0700

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

We awoke to a fairly good fog and I could not get out of the house fast enough! I was really hoping the fog was going to be sitting a bit lower in Garden of the Gods, but it had raised a bit by the time I got there. It still provided for a unique soft light and an elegant white background. This is the Three Graces rock formation, which is in the Central Garden area of Garden of the Gods.

I tried a 3 bracket HDR of this, as well, but the properly exposed one worked so much better.

Best viewed larger on black, just click the pic!

Mission San Jose - HDR

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 20:58:23 -0700

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

A 3 image handheld HDR of the inside of Mission San Jose in San Antonio, TX. I had taken these shots last year with the intent of putting them together like this... then one thing or another came up, and I finally got back to them.

I have been wanting to try an indoor HDR for a while, but hadn't found a subject that would give me the depth I wanted. This mission is quite dark inside, as it is nearly entirely lit with natural light from the windows at the top. My 3 exposures were all fairly dark and I thought my search would have to continue. I was pleasantly surprised, however, when I actually put them together. Comments and feedback is appreciated.

Best viewed larger on black, just click the pic!

Mission San Jose

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 20:42:41 -0700

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

Mission San Jose is a historic Catholic mission located in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1720, but work on this church was not started until 1768. It was completed in 1782, and served as a mission until 1824. It is currently part of the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park.

I took a number of images of this mission when I was in San Antonio this past fall. Finally getting around to working on them. This is the rear of the church, as seen from the courtyard.

Best viewed larger on black, just click the pic!

Fishing Pop-up

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 21:20:48 -0700

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

Submitted for my 52 week project... the theme was this or that, with the option to select one of two tasks. This task was to create an "out of bounds" image. Yes, this picture was taken last year, but it seemed like the perfect image to try this effect with. It was fun to do, and I think is a good exercise to learn about some of the features of photoshop you may not normally use.

Best viewed larger on black, just click the pic.

Self Portrait - Spring / Hard Light

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 20:13:20 -0700

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

A good time to kill 2 birds with one stone, er, photo. My monthly self-portrait theme was Spring and I needed to get some catch up work on my 52 week project and there was Hard Light just waiting for me. So, I present... Spring Training in Hard Light! Ha! The worse part of this picture is what is missing... who took my Dodgers cap?!?

Had my flash to camera right, at about a 30 degree angle with no modifier between me and the flash. The rest of the light was natural shade in the latter part of the afternoon. A pretty straight forward setup.

I haven't been able to escape to get a lot of new landscape shots recently.... hoping all of that changes very soon. Stay tuned.

Best viewed larger on black, just click the pic!

Carly - 3 Light Sources

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 20:22:59 -0700

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

I got a new flash, stand and umbrella and was itching to try it out. My daughter said, "Daddy, you need to take a picture of me with my umbrella." Perfect!

This is a taken with my new Yongnuo YN-560 II setup in the stand, shooting through a white umbrella, about 30 degrees to the camera's left. Balancing that, was a natural light source, diffused by sheers to the camera's right. Behind Carly was my old trusty Vivitar 283, with a light bender attached, to provide some back light, as she was standing in front of a hall, and it was a bit dark behind her. Both flashes were triggered via an RF trigger. This was my first real attempt at multiple light sources, and trying to completely control the light. It took several goes at it to get the light where I wanted it.

I almost had her "fix her hair", but then decided I liked how the shadow played with her expression and actually made for a better portrait. Comments and feedback appreciated.

Added to the Colorado 52 Week Project Group for: Soft Light.

Best viewed larger on black, just click the pic!

Up Around the Bend

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 20:30:44 -0700

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

Blue Lakes Road leading up into the Ten Mile Range in Central Colorado.

Taken this past fall during the peak of the leaves turning. Finally got back around to it, as I was searching for some other pictures today.

Best viewed larger on black, just click the pic!

Fire and Ice

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:42:58 -0700

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

The 52 week challenge theme was opposites. I decided that fire and ice (hot and cold) would be a good representation of opposites, and might make a cool picture to boot! How does one make ice burn? Propellent, of course!

The trick for me was getting the lighting right while maintaining enough color with the flames. I ended up with a 1/8 second exposure, in a rather dark room to get this one. I may try some other runs later this year to see what else I can produce. The ice is a little softer (focus) than I wanted and I had the ice sitting on a shiny black tray - where I was hoping for some reflection. I ended up with the reflection, but also got some unexpected light reflections as well. Something to build upon.

Best viewed larger on black, just click the pic!

Madness

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 13:48:46 -0700

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

Created as a response to a 52-Week Challenge to simulate the character portraits for Season 5 of Breaking Bad. My son was the willing model, and was very game in getting the light as close as we could to the originals. The goal of this was to re-create the lighting and overall effect as much as possible.

Setup: Nick was standing in front of our TV, and I turned 2 lamps, with bright white florescents bulbs to the immediate right to harshly illuminate the side of his face and provide some glow off the TV. About 10 feet to the left, I had an off camera flash, with a diffuser, bouncing off the ceiling. This setup gave me a close enough approximation that I could fine tune and adjust the rest on post processing.

Post: In Camera Raw, I adjusted the basics and set the tone curve to a strong contrast. Most of the work was done using the Adjustment Brush in Camera raw, where I enhanced the glow off the TV, darkened the left side of the image, and adjusted the light on his face and below his chin. After bringing the image into Photoshop, I added a High Pass Filter to sharpen the overall image. Finally, I duplicated the background and added a grain filter to it, to "dirty" him up a bit.

Here are some reference photos to compare against:
blogs.amctv.com/photo-galleries/breaking-bad-season-5-cas...
blogs.amctv.com/photo-galleries/breaking-bad-season-5-cas...

Best viewed larger on black, just click the pic.

Eleven Mile Canyon

nobody@flickr.com (Dan Martinez Photography) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 09:01:39 -0800

Dan Martinez Photography posted a photo:

This is the far end of Eleven Mile Canyon, right near the dam. I was planning more of a panoramic shot when I took this, but it turned out I only used 2 images, and they were highly overlapped. I probably could have gotten this same shot with a single exposure. Oh well.

Best viewed larger on black, just click the pic!