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On The Road
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#1 Wings Away! ... This trip was a perfect opportunity for
me to bring my family On The Road and enjoy a little vacation
along with work. I have many pictures of my travels over
the years and I have made great use of the images I have
captured from my window sit. Nikon D200, ISO200, 1/500 at
f8, Nikon 17-55mm Lens, WB 5000K, Lexar 4G Flash Card. |
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#2 Bambi and Bambi II ... After landing in San Francisco my
wife Susan took the wheel of our rental car while our daughter
Haley formatted a Lexar Flash Card in her Nikon D70 and the
three of us hit the road and drove off to the Muir Woods (
Raul, the Hertz man, told us they had big trees there). Fantastic!
...and a wonderful place for us to begin our California adventure.
We had never seen trees like this before. They were magnificent.
The mid day sun that usually draws scorn from photographers
was streaming in through the thick forest so Haley and I had
a short course on highlights and shadows. We decided to expose
all our Muir Forest images for the highlights. The shafts
of sunlight that reached the forest floor through these giant
trees provided an almost lightpainting quality to our pictures.
Here are two young deer as they carefully walked into a pocket
of sunlight. Nikon D200, ISO 100, 1/80 at f8, Nikon 17-55mm
f2.8 Lens, WB 6700K, Lexar 4G Flash Card, Hand Held. This
natural lightpainting was all around us during our two hour
hike through the Muir Woods just outside of San Francisco. |
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#3 Meanwhile, Back In Town .... It was an easy drive from
the Muir Woods to our hotel in the city and my daughter
and I took full advantage of Susan's offer to continue driving.
This gave Haley and I the opportunity of taking more pictures.
The late afternoon sunlight, unique architecture and wonderful
color made the trip through San Francisco a real joy and
a photographic challenge at 30mph as Susan explored as many
one way streets as possible en route to our hotel. With
the windows rolled down and shutter speeds set high I demonstrated
to Haley the recreational past time of "Drive By Shooting"
out the car window. Nikon D200, ISO 200, 1/1000 at f4, Nikon
17-55mm f2.8 Lens, WB 10,000K, Tone Compensation set on
MORE CONTRAST and Saturation set on ENHANCED, Lexar 4G Flash
Card. I set the Tone Compensation on MORE CONTRAST and the
Saturation setting on ENHANCED to give the image a brilliant
punch of color and contrast. |
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| Well, ...... The next day was my day to speak at the FBI Photography Conference. I had a great time. As the first speaker of the day my program addressed many aspects of photography ranging from sports to portraits to lightpainting to strobes and event coverage. My hope was to communicate some new ideas and techniques to the variety of photographers in the audience as well as entertain everyone present. Following my presentation I answered questions from the participants for about 90 minutes . After the lunch break I joined the attendees and was fascinated and entertained by the wisdom and wit of Scott Kelby. Scott is a terrific talent both photographically and with Photoshop. He addressed the task of post processing digital images using Photoshop using Photoshop "Channels." I learned a lot and was given Scott's new book "The Photoshop Channels Book." His book is great and a must for those who want to improve their post processing skills. The conference was wonderful and I found the FBI photographers to be full of enthusiasm and have great desire to learn about their craft. | |
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#4 Make My Day ... With my responsibilities to the US Government
completed my family and I set out to explore and photograph
northern California the next morning. We began with more
"Drive By Shootings" as we left the city and headed
south. The skies became overcast by the time we reached
Carmel so we stopped for lunch and .........well, .........more
pictures of course. Haley is really growing in her love
for photography and has plans to study it in college next
year. She has many interests and tends to gravitated towards
different subjects than me, most of which make beautiful
Black and Whites. I'm more than a proud father speaking
here, I see a strong photographic talent within her and
look forward to see what she does in the years to come.
After shopping and shooting in Carmel we saw a sign to Clint
Eastwood's Mission Ranch ................. "Why not"
we said, and drove off to find Clint. He wasn't home but
this old wagon was near by and made a beautiful picture.
Simple and clean, it was a reminder of days gone by when
the property was an old missionary ranch. Nikon D200, ISO
200, 1/400 at f10, Nikon 17-55mm f2.8 Lens, WB 7700K, Lexar
4G Flash Card. Here again I set the Tone Compensation on
MORE CONTRAST and the Saturation on ENHANCED. |
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#5 Spyglass ... Last year I had the opportunity to spend 3
days at Pebble Beach Golf Links working for Golf Digest. Our
drive had taken us to the famous 17 Mile Road that winds along
the coastline of not only Pebble Beach but Spyglass Hill and
Spanish Bay as well. The late afternoon sunlight bathed the
landscape of Spyglass with warm tones of gold. The cypress
trees that skirt the fairways on the edge of the Pacific Ocean
are lovely. Susan drove along at about 25mph while Haley and
I shot out of the car window (drive by shooting) using slower
shutter speeds. The resulting image has a perfectly sharp
cypress with the surrounding grassy areas blurred with camera
motion that seemed to accentuate the windswept feel of the
golf course. Nikon D200, ISO 200, 1/125 at f 10, Nikon 17-55mm
Lens, WB 7700K, Lexar 4G Flash Card. This image was my favorite
of the trip. |
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#6 Coastline Silhouettes ... Our hotel for the night was in
Monterey so we headed north out of Pebble Beach and stopped
at the Lone Cypress Overlook for one last picture. The Lone
Cypress looked beautiful with the setting sunlight but I turned
around to face the setting sun for this silhouette of the
cypress lined coast. I used a WB of 10,000K to increase the
warm golden tones of sunset along with MORE CONTRAST and ENHANCED
saturation in the D200 custom settings. Nikon D200, ISO 100,
1/125 at f16, Nikon 17-55mm, WB 10,000K, Lexar 4G Flash Card,
Tone Compensation MORE CONTRAST and Saturation on ENHANCED. |
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That was a whirlwind of shooting and teaching, but it was great fun. I used the Nikon D200 and 17-55mm f2.8 Lens for the entire trip. Very lite and easy to use with all the quality of a D2X. This camera is so impressive that I use it interchangeably with my Nikon D2X cameras unless I require the D2X High Speed Crop Mode of 8 Frames per second. Sometimes the simplicity of one body and one lens allows the photographer to concentrate on their subject and composition to a greater degree.
Well, I hope you all enjoyed this little trip along the northern coastline of California. Drive by Shooting can be fun (make sure someone else is driving) .... and perhaps Clint will be home next time we drop by his ranch.
See you next time On The Road .................................... Adios. Dave
May,
2008 (click here)
A Southwest Tour
April,
2008 (click here)
The Endless Winter
March,
2008 (click here)
PMA Show in Las Vegas!
February,
2008 (click here)
At the Ballet
January,
2008 (click here)
One Week of Work
December,
2007 (click here)
A Look Back at 2007
November,
2007 (click here)
Traveling
with the New Nikon D3
October,
2007 (click here)
High Country Journey
September,
2007 (click here)
Walking
On The Road
August,
2007 (click here)
Speedway
Thunder from PA
July, 2007
(click here)
"Arlington National
Cemetery"
June, 2007
(click here)
"Kentucky Derby Day"
May, 2007
(click here)
"Mexico Trek"
April,
2007 (click here)
"Egypt Trek"
March,
2007 (click here)
Transit Mix
"Images From the Air"
February,
2007 (click here)
Ice Climbing in Ouray
January,
2007 (click here)
2007 Year in Review
People of Willoq, Peru
Lexington, Kentucky TREK
Training for the Mr USA Title
"The International Golf Tournament"
"Tour of Champions Documentary"
"Northern California, the FBI and Clint Eastwood ..."
"The 2006 Kentucky Derby"
"Off the Road Picture Sales"
Ladies Olympic Figure Skating
Torino Italy and the 2006 Winter Olympic Games
"Hey Dave, are you going to the Winter Olympics in Torino and What Equipment Do You Take?"
The Holiday Tea with Tchaikovsky
presented by Colorado's Classical Youth Ballet
Landscapes at Pebble Beach:
a look back at 2005
Lightpainting Landscapes
NFL Football
3 Day Photography Workshop
Gardner-Webb University, Boiling Springs, North Carolina
Michelle Kwan
International Gymnastics Camp
the Men's US Open Golf Championships
The Kentucky Derby
Nevada Photojournalism Day
John Bolin's "The Thorn"
Indoor Track and Field
UC Irvine's Paul Spittle and
the Sports Shooter Academy
with Nikon's new DX2
Broncos Football:
Denver vs Indianapolis
the US Figure Skating Nationals
Portland, Oregon
College Basketball:
Colorado State vs Air Force
Broncos Football:
Broncos VS. Dolphins
Assignment work:
Wrestling
A look back at 2004
Rich Clarkson's Photography at the Summit Workshop &
Moose Peterson's Digital Landscape Workshop Series
Whitewater Kayaking
Gymnastics and more
The 2004 Summer Olympic Games
Athens, Greece
A look back at some wonderful Olympic moments
USAFA Graduation flyover
US Olympic Training Center - Swimming and Gymnastics
Last Month the Masters, this month The Kentucky Derby......I love my job
Masters at Augusta National
The American Cup Gymnastics
NIKON COLLEGE WORKSHOP
Indoor Track and Field
Women's Freestyle Wresting
Rhythmic Gymnastics Nationals
The Glass Flower Ceiling at the Belagio Hotel in Las Vegas
College Basketball
Women's Waterpolo
Olympic swimmers on their way to Athens
NFL Football
The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Finals
A look back at The Greenbay Professionals
Monday Night Football the Sports Shooter Workshop and Luau in LA
Photography at the Summit workshop
Portraits to workshops to stock image sales
Lightpainting in Banf
The World Gymnastics Championships
International Gymnastics Camp
Thunderbirds
Gymnastics
The Sports Photography Workshop with Rich Clarkson
Velodrome Cycling, More
The 129th running of the Kentucky Derby
White water kayakers
The Champions on Ice tour
PBR Rodeo
Chris Shivers and Little Yellow Jacket ride for $1 Million
Nikon's featured speaker at PMA in Las Vegas
American Cup Gymnastics
USAFA Women's Basketball
USAFA Swimming
USAFA Boxing
NCAA Fencing Championships
USOC's Titan Games
Air Force Basketball
Pro Football Pre-Superball Stock Sales
Swimmers train at the Swim Flume at the USOC
Much more!
Diving at the Air Force Academy
Denver Broncos VS. The Arizona Cardinals
Olympic Hopefuls Lenny Krayzelberg and Tom Molchow practice at the USOC
