Monochrome Processes Redone (Multiple Places)

Today I have some monochrome (black and white) processes of photos I've taken in the past. They are from various places. Hope you enjoy. If you enjoy monochrome and abstract photos, you can view more at my gallery here.

First photo is of Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park. This was taken back in 2010 on my road trip to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park from the SF Bay Area. 

Original blog post here. 

Full resolution photo and prints here. 

This is a photo of a Pacific-slope Flycatcher (Empidonax difficilis) in silhouetted against the bright white clouds. Photo was shot at Quarry Lakes Regional Park in Fremont, CA. 

Original blog post here. 

Full resolution photo and prints here. 

Photo is of a hummingbird silhouetted against the bright sky. This actually happened by accident as the bright sky threw off my exposure reading. As Bob Ross used to say "Just happy little accidents". Photo was shot in Augustin Bernal Park in Pleasanton, CA.   

Original blog post here. 

Full resolution photo and prints here. 

 This is a photo of rock formations at Point Lobos State Reserve in Big Sur, CA. 

Original blog post here. 

Full resolution photo and prints here.

Photo shot on drive driving from Reno, NV to Truckee, CA. Photo is of winter scenery. 

Original blog post here.  

Full resolution photo and prints here. 

Photo shot near the trail head at Mission Peak (Stanford Entrance) in Fremont, CA. 

Original blog post here.  

Full resolution photo and prints here. 

Another photo from Mission Peak in Fremont, CA from the same trip as the photo above. It is a photo of a rock. 

Original blog post here.  

Full resolution photo and prints here.  

Here is a macro shot of a flower on a peach tree shot in my backyard in Pleasanton, CA. 

Original blog post here.  

Full resolution photo and prints here. 

These are all the photos for today. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

HDR/Monochrome/Photos Redone - Lake Tahoe/Reno 2012

As I learn more RAW photo processing techniques, I get better and better with my results. Recently I went back and redone some of my photos that I felt I didn't adequately process the first time through that was worth reprocessing. I also recently went back and redid some of my old HDR compositions into 32-bit ones for a more natural look. 32-bit HDR compositions usually look more natural and gives better color than a 16-bit HDR (which was what I was doing before) so I went ahead and redone all of them. The other thing I have done is that I did monochrome (black and white) photo processing. I have went back and redone some of my old photos into monochrome (black and white) photos. These photos for today are from my 2012 Lake Tahoe and Reno trip. You can see those original photos here.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best Lake Tahoe/Reno/Donner Lake photos from 2012, use this link. To see all of my photos from this trip, use this link.

I think this was on my trip from Truckee, CA to Lake Tahoe. Where exactly I don't know. I found a place on the road and turned out because it looked beautiful covered in snow. It seems to be some kind of hiking trail head. Not too sure because everything was drowned in snow. This is an HDR composition I redid.

HDR composition next to Lake Tahoe.  

 HDR composition at Lake Tahoe. 

This was at the hiking trail from the first photo. I tried to redo this HDR, but it failed, so I just processed one of the exposures.  

A black and white process of the photo above. 

A stream of water flowing into Lake Tahoe. This was another failed HDR I just ended up processing 1 exposure on. 

These are all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Monochrome Process - Lake Tahoe/Reno 2012

I have only recently started going into monochrome (black and white) photo processing. I have went back and redone some of my old photos into monochrome (black and white) photos. Here today, I have photos from my 2012 trip to Reno and Lake Tahoe. You can see those original photos here.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best Lake Tahoe/Reno/Donner Lake photos from 2012, use this link. To see all of my photos from this trip, use this link.

Message from the Photographer: If you have been following me, you know that I am planning to open up a portfolio for my photography. I plan on doing so after I am done with my road trip photos from the SF Bay Area to Vancouver, BC, Canada. I am almost done with those, therefore I already started planning for the portfolio. There will be several changes coming up. My photography business name will be "Naturetastic Photography" and I have already purchased my own domain which is "https://www.naturetastic.com". This blog will get it's own "subdomain" and will also be rebranded as Naturetastic Blog and the main domain will be linked to my portfolio. The Facebook page will be also rebranded, but my Twitter account will not change. Right now, the domain just redirects you to this blog because I haven't finished setting up the portfolio yet. I will continue providing you guys with blog posts here, and the old URLs will still work so there isn't anything you have to do on your end. I hope you guys enjoy these changes!

This photo was shot after sunset. I stopped at the Vista Point on I-80 to see Donner Lake. This photo was a 30 second exposure. This photo was from Part 1. 

 This was from my trip from Reno to Truckee, CA to go see Donner Lake. This photo is from the Hirschdale Road Exit (bridge) on I-80 near Truckee, CA. This photo was from Part 7. 

I think this might be Donner Creek? Not too sure though. Photo taken on the bridge on the east side of Donner Lake facing east. At approximately +39° 19' 25.31", -120° 14' 13.41" (Thanks Google Maps!). On the mountain in the distance is the Abandoned Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) Tunnels. This photo was also from Part 7. 

I think this was on my trip from Truckee, CA to Lake Tahoe. Where exactly I don't know. I found a place on the road and turned out because it looked beautiful covered in snow. It seems to be some kind of hiking trail head. Not too sure because everything was drowned in snow. This is an HDR composition I turned into a black and white. This photo was from Part 10. 

These are all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed them. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Lake Tahoe/Reno 2012 (Part 11)

If you live in the SF Bay Area, you probably know it never snows here. Many people like me who live in the SF Bay Area love snow. The nearest place that does get snow is in Lake Tahoe and Reno. Many of us go there in the winter to go ski and snowboard, but for me, I don't like any of that. I enjoy taking photos of snow and playing in it. :) Here are photos of Lake Tahoe and Reno I took during my trip in Christmas of 2012. I will be splitting them into several parts as I took a lot of photos there. Hope you enjoy.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best Lake Tahoe/Reno/Donner Lake photos from 2012, use this link. To see all of my photos from this trip, use this link.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 

Okay, now let's get started with today's photos. :) The photos for today are from the 4th and last day of my trip. These photos will be divided into 2 blog posts with this one being the 2nd one. You can find the 1st one (the 10th post) here. I don't have the exact location of my images, but I can tell you the route I took. So I started off in Reno, NV driving over to Truckee. Then I took SR-89 to Lake Tahoe. Then I went east toward Incline Village traveling around the bigger half of Lake Tahoe. Afterwards I headed back home toward SF Bay Area via US Route 50. Also, if you are wondering why I am posting today instead of following my regular pattern of a blog post every other day, it is because I want to get my Reno/Lake Tahoe photos over with so I can start and showing you guys photos from my trip to Death Valley National Park! :) The other reason is I am a bit busy this week, so I don't know if I can keep my regular pattern of blog posts. So I will do one today and try to do one on Wednesday if  possible.

Here is a long exposure on the shore of Lake Tahoe at the snow covered beach. 

Another shot of the snow covered shore. 

A person removing snow.

HDR composition of the shoreline. The colors make it look animated doesn't it?

Spotted a pine cone in the snow. Thought it makes a great composition. I just wish there was enough light for me to stop down my aperture far enough so the bottom of the hole would not be blurry. I couldn't because I was hand holding and it was in shade. 

Photography Tip: Your len's aperture can be controlled in Aperture Priority (Av or A), Manual (M), or Bulb (B) modes. The f-stop number is your aperture and is generally represented by f/## with "##" being the number. The rule for aperture is the wider the aperture, the shallower the depth-of-field and the less depth you can get in focus. The narrower the aperture, the deeper the depth-of-field and the more depth you can get in focus. Here is the funny thing about aperture. The smaller the number, the wider your aperture. The bigger the number, the narrower your aperture. Try it out! If you still don't get depth of field, check out my great tutorial video here. 

HDR composition of a creek running into Lake Tahoe.

Here is an HDR composition of the creek facing the other side. 

Here is another shot of the shore line. 

Close up photo of a tree's bark. I focus stacked this to achieve greater depth-of-field.

On my way home, another shot of Lake Tahoe. 

Lake Tahoe

Snow covered tree near Lake Tahoe as the sun was setting. 

I decided to do a night time long exposure of a tree on US Route 50 on the way home. Here are some snow covered trees on the side of the road at night. 

This is all the photos I have for today! I hope you have enjoyed them! Next time, I will begin my Death Valley National Park photos! :) Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

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Lake Tahoe/Reno 2012 (Part 10)

If you live in the SF Bay Area, you probably know it never snows here. Many people like me who live in the SF Bay Area love snow. The nearest place that does get snow is in Lake Tahoe and Reno. Many of us go there in the winter to go ski and snowboard, but for me, I don't like any of that. I enjoy taking photos of snow and playing in it. :) Here are photos of Lake Tahoe and Reno I took during my trip in Christmas of 2012. I will be splitting them into several parts as I took a lot of photos there. Hope you enjoy.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best Lake Tahoe/Reno/Donner Lake photos from 2012, use this link. To see all of my photos from this trip, use this link.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 

Before I get started on today's blog post, I would like to tell you about a rechargeable battery I own. The battery is called the Sanyo Eneloop XX 2500 mAh AA Ni-MH Rechargeable Batteries. These are Sanyo's new line of batteries which holds up to 2500 mAh compared to the original ones which only hold 2000 mAh so it will last you longer per charge. The company claims the batteries do have a slow self-discharge rate with it still holding 75% of its charge even after 1 year in storage. The only downside to the new XX series is that the batteries can only be recharged 500 times compared to 1500 charges on the original Eneloops, but at its low price, easily replaceable. These batteries are the only batteries I use in my Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT. I have noticed they do great and I can get more flashes out of each recharge compared to my original Eneloops. I also found that these batteries do give out a bit more kick so my recycle times are a bit faster than with the originals. If you are a serious  photographer that use your flashes a lot, I would recommend you to get several pairs of the Sanyo Eneloop XX 2500 mAh AA Ni-MH Rechargeable Batteries.

Okay, now let's get started with today's photos. :) The photos for today are from the 4th and last day of my trip. These photos will be divided into 2 blog posts. I don't have the exact location of my images, but I can tell you the route I took. So I started off in Reno, NV driving over to Truckee. Then I took SR-89 to Lake Tahoe. Then I went east toward Incline Village traveling around the bigger half of Lake Tahoe. Afterwards I headed back home toward SF Bay Area via US Route 50.

View of Donner Lake from the Vista Point on I-80. 

I think this was on my trip from Truckee, CA to Lake Tahoe. Where exactly I don't know. I found a place on the road and turned out because it looked beautiful covered in snow. It seems to be some kind of hiking trail head. Not too sure because everything was drowned in snow. This is an HDR composition.

I shot a portrait panorama of the snow covered trees there. My fans really liked it on G+.

Then I went to the trail head and did an HDR composition there. Nice trail head. The only issue was after I took the shot and I tried to walk out of there, the snow was so high and loosely packed, I fell waist deep in it and had some trouble getting out! HAHA It was so cold and I got half of my camera wet. Gotta love Canon's weatherproofing, nothing broke, but I was like completely wet and cold. Managed to get out at the end after like a minute. 

So I arrived at Lake Tahoe. 

Another shot of Lake Tahoe.

Icicles! 

I forgot what city this was, but sure loved the look of the buildings.

Snow covered benches in a park. 

Snow covered beach at Lake Tahoe.

Snow covered beach at Lake Tahoe. 

Lake Tahoe's clean and clear water. 

Another shot of the snow covered beach. 

These are all the photos for today. Next time, I will post the rest of my photos from Lake Tahoe and on my way home. Next blog post will be the last one for this chain. After the next post, I will start on my Death Valley National Park photos. I hope you have enjoyed these shots! Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

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Wingfield Park - Lake Tahoe/Reno 2012 (Part 9)

If you live in the SF Bay Area, you probably know it never snows here. Many people like me who live in the SF Bay Area love snow. The nearest place that does get snow is in Lake Tahoe and Reno. Many of us go there in the winter to go ski and snowboard, but for me, I don't like any of that. I enjoy taking photos of snow and playing in it. :) Here are photos of Lake Tahoe and Reno I took during my trip in Christmas of 2012. I will be splitting them into several parts as I took a lot of photos there. Hope you enjoy.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best Lake Tahoe/Reno/Donner Lake photos from 2012, use this link. To see my best sunset and night photos of 2012, use this link. To see all of my photos from this trip, use this link.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 

Before I get started on today's blog post, I would like to tell you about a great product that I own. Let me ask you first: Do you have a device like the Canon EOS 7D that only takes Compact Flash cards? Hate the big prices on the Compact Flash Cards? What if I tell you that you can use your current SD cards lying around your house in these devices? Well you can with the SD-CF II: SD to CF Type II Adapter. This little adapter will adapt all your SD cards (SDHC and SDXC) into a CF card! Unlike other brands of adapters, I can shoot 1080p video on my camera with no breaks! Other cheaper adapters sometimes don't have the speed to support 1080p video, this adapter is not one of them. If you are tight on your photography budget and have a bunch of SD cards lying around, this adapter is definitely a must have for you!

Okay, now let's get started with today's photos. :) The photos for today are from the night of my 3rd day. That night I decided to do some night long exposures, mainly in Wingfield Park in Downtown Reno of the Truckee River. After thinking about it, I have decided to leave the photos from the 4th day of my trip for next time.

Truckee River facing east. The mountains off in the distance was not visible to the naked eye that night but the camera picked it up in the long exposure. Sure surprised me! 

Now facing towards Harrah's hotel. The direction should be southwest.  

 Another shot facing southwest from a different angle towards Harrah's hotel. 

Now just facing west. The city's lights really cast a great color on the clouds!

Another shot facing east. Again the mountains were only visible to the camera when I exposed for the shot. 

Facing south. 

Facing west. 

Then I did a shot from my hotel room of Downtown Reno. The reflection you see is my camera lens. I turned off all the lights but some reflections still showed up. 

These are all the photos for today and I am done with photos from my 3rd day. Next time I will begin the photos from my 4th and last day of my trip. I hope you have enjoyed these! Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

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