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Happy Labor Day!
Arriving in Albuquerque around 4PM, we picked up our rental car and headed towards Santa Fe, even though we knew we wouldn't have enough time to take in every sight. Because time was limited, I was tempted to skip the 10 mile diversion up to the top of Sandia Crest. Once again Nathan had the right idea, and insisted that we head up. We took the winding road to the park, paid our fee, and walked over to the almost 11000 foot summit. EVERYTHING was perfect. The lighting, the view, the dark clouds on the horizon, the wildflowers sprinkled about. We spent...
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We were finally coming into Taos after a long day on the "High Road to Taos". It was already after 4:00PM and we had to decide if we had enough time to see Taos Pueblo before it closed. We vacillated for a few minutes, until Nathan said "Let's just do it". We rushed over to the site, paid our entry and camera fees, and started to explore. It turned out to be one of the better decisions of the trip. The late afternoon lighting was phenomenal, and the dark clouds behind the mountains were in exactly the right position. After talking to a couple of locals while we ate a piece...
While working on my New Mexico photos, I went through the garden and noticed two dragonflies hanging out by the pond, I love dragonflies. So I raced into the house, scooped up my camera and took thirty or so shots of these beauties. This is one of them.
Randy's New Toy, the Canon EOS M -
I finally got to take out my new toy this weekend. I've recently purchased a Canon EOS M, with a new mirrorless, interchangable lens. It has the same APS-C size sensor as in Canon's other non full frame DSLR cameras, but is such a small camera compared to a DSLR. It has no view finder, so you have to work with the touch screen. But what a touch screen! It is as fast and responsive as a smart phone; very easy to use, and very useful. Maybe not quite as quick as the 2 dial system on my 40D, but still pretty good.
I'd taken some shots here in town,...
It's rare to see a panorama featuring people, because it's so hard to line everything up correctly. This is the third panorama in a series taken at Ocean Beach before a storm came in. Fourteen images make up this panorama, which took me many hours to accomplish, and resulted in a massive image size and took a few attempts to process correctly.
Here is a second photo taken from Sunset Cliffs on the second to last day of 2012. The inlaws joined me, waiting patiently in the cold as I simply couldn't pass up this photographic opportunity. It's all about the timing.
Luckily the storm stayed at bay until later in the evening at which time it thoroughly doused San Diego county. This picture is a panorama including 14 captures. I spent 2 hours developing it.
This is a top to bottom panorama incorporating 16 photos. We were at Sunset Cliffs, and the powerful clouds were a photographer's fantasy. Dramatic storm clouds on the horizon ~ this is what I live for! I took a lot of pictures and will post a gallery soon.
- Randy
Holiday Greetings from Randy Stetz Images!
A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of our friends and family from the staff of Randy Stetz Images. We are grateful to have you in our lives.
Randy Stetz Panorama Demo
There are 10 named waterfalls at Silver Falls State Park. This is Northern Middle Falls, and one of a few that you can literally walk right under. If you click on the photo below, you will learn more about the area and the process of capturing this panorama.
This is 6 horizontal photos, merged into a pano. Each one was run through Photomatix to create a quasi HDR. This was after each had been adjusted in Lightroom. I tried 2 different Pano options in Photoshop, before I got a version that I liked. The final pano was also run through Nik's Color Effects Pro.
Opal Creek, with its 800 to 1000 year old Douglas firs and Western red cedars is one of Oregon's newest wilderness areas: 'Opal Creek Preserved by Michael Donnelly' . At the turning point in the loop hike, we chickened out of plunging into the inviting Opal Pool and checked out Jawbone Flats, a fascinating former mining town, complete with rusting machinery and an education center run by the Friends of Opal Creek, with examples of the community's self sufficiency and living "off the grid", as well as cabin rentals.
Starting out in Photoshop Lightroom, this photo was run through Photo Matix...