Archive for the ‘Andrew’s Favorites’ Category
It’s not often I get a chance to shoot an HDR with deliberate, planned lighting. I filled in for a friend of mine today by being the gaffer on a music video shoot downtown. It’s a nasty area to be in at night… At any rate though, the surrounding three or four blocks all appeared to be empty buildings like our own, devoid of furniture and clearly angled at small productions in need of a gritty-looking flat. It was a stop-motion shoot so progress was slow and tedious. Lighting changes were fairly spaced out and so I fulfilled my other role on set by taking production stills for them. Set photography has gotten to be one of my favorite hobbies because you aren’t tied down as a coffee-grabbing PA, you generally aren’t asked upon by the camera department to move anything you don’t want to, and you basically have free reign to simply strut around the set and take pictures wherever you want. Everyone involved in the production wants to walk away with some great shots of them working a music video shoot so it’s generally fairly easy to get along with everyone. It’s a good gig and I hope to photograph several upcoming student films this semester… That being said, set photography is an excellent place to shoot HDRs because of the deliberately constructed visuals all around. It’s a naturally cinematic place with things that are pleasing to look at and because HDR works best in environments where there are really dark darks and really light lights, sets are an excellent place to shoot thanks to the many lights that selectively stylize the scene. I took several HDRs on set here, and this is definitely one of my favorites…
Deliberate lighting makes a world of difference… Because he was playing the guitar while I was taking these, I masked in his hands from the middle exposure to prevent ghosty appendages: Downtown Los Angeles CA
Posted in 24-105mm f/4L IS, 7D, Andrew, Andrew's Favorites, Handheld HDR, Indoor, Los Angeles | Like our work? Be the first to comment! »
I’d never been to the Getty Museum before this past Sunday. What a place! The architecture is breathtaking and essentially offers a limitless field of things to take pictures of. I took a little over 100 pictures while I was there but will probably only choose three maybe four to finish on the site. It will be tough deciding which angle is best on many of the amazing structures at the Getty, but there was no doubt in my mind that the fountain in front of the South Pavilion was a great place to start.
The Getty Museum is drop dead gorgeous. They've got a ton of amazing art but I like the design of the buildings even more: Beverly Hills CA
Posted in 16-35mm f/2.8L, 7D, Andrew, Andrew's Favorites, Architecture, Los Angeles, Outdoor | Like our work? Be the first to comment! »
Today was my roommates’s birthday so we knew we needed to celebrate in style. We spent the day at the J. Paul Getty Museum (some incredible architecture there, hopefully some stunning shots from my visit to come in the very near future) and took a leisurely drive up the PCH to Gladstones. Ordinarily, we try not to come here too often so as to keep it a “special occasion” when need be; our first choice for the evening, “Tart” near The Grove, closes early on Sundays and we unfortunately had to find out the hard way. However, Gladstones never fails to please and we of course had an excellent dinner overlooking the beaches of Malibu. Of course, in the few minutes before our table was available (and luckily in the last few before the sun completely disappeared behind the Malibu coastline) I nabbed the tripod and attempted my first 5-image HDR. What a place…
My first 5-image HDR. Awesome place to be when the sun's going down… Malibu CA
Posted in 16-35mm f/2.8L, 7D, Andrew, Andrew's Favorites, Landscape, Los Angeles, Outdoor, Sun in frame, Sunset | Like our work? Be the first to comment! »
From the same evening as the above post, I stepped out into the sand on the beach that runs alongside and under the Gladstones restaurant and grabbed another 5-image set. Amazing place to be at this time of day. I used to think I preferred the sun’s position in the winter months (see my post from earlier) but in seeing how gorgeous a sunset looks from just about anywhere out here, I’m not so sure anymore…
The Malibu beaches tend to be awesome. Nuf Sed: Malibu CA
Posted in 16-35mm f/2.8L, 7D, Andrew, Andrew's Favorites, Landscape, Los Angeles, Outdoor, Sun in frame, Sunset | Like our work? Be the first to comment! »
So we got our day started off bright and early with a character breakfast at 7 am, sneaking in before the park actually opened at 8. Just before going inside I figured that 6:45am would be as good an opportunity as any to catch the entrance of California Adventure with as few people as possible…
Don't know how much longer the entrance will look like this, the whole front will be redone in an old Art Deco style before too long… Anaheim CA
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It’s been way too long since I’ve been able to get anything new on here, a full time job is just so time consuming. In fact, you could almost say it’s occupying my full time. At any rate, I wanted to get this guy on here at some point. In my opinion, USC doesn’t have a ton of really amazing architecture, a lot of it is old, but the wrong kind of old. Ugly old. 70s old. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful campus and I love it but there are several buildings you just have to look the other way when you walk by. This is not one of them. After a hefty donation from a certain Mr. Lucas, the School of Cinematic Arts got busy and, instead of building a new teaching facility, decided to plant a lavish Italian villa on the northeast side of campus. It’s big, ornate, unwieldy, and above all else excessive… but I’m proud to be a part of it.
The USC SCA at night. A sabered Douglas Fairbanks stands faithful watch from atop the fountain: Los Angeles CA
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While we were at Venice we happened across a group of street performers that was performing all manner of acrobatics. I’ve been lucky with the 7D: I’ve noticed that a very small percentage of my favorite HDR’s have come from tripod shots owing mostly to the fact that I rarely have a tripod on hand when I find something I want to shoot. The 7D’s rate of fire has been extremely helpful in minimizing the time needed to take three individual exposures — the slightest difference between shots can really mess up a potentially fantastic HDR. However, for action shots like the one below, not even the 7D could squeeze out 3 quick ones before the subjects would have moved. This is a tribute to the RAW format, to allow me to choose a single shot from the dozen or so I snapped off while they were in this position. Making two copies, sending one down two stops and another up two stops, and treating them as three separate images allows you to HDR action scenes. It’s not the best way to make an HDR, but if you’re looking for a way to experiment with HDRs of action, the RAW format is your best friend 
These guys were awesome, not bad for free entertainment.
Posted in 50mm f/1.8, 7D, Andrew, Andrew's Favorites, Handheld HDR, Los Angeles, Outdoor, Single-Shot | Like our work? Be the first to comment! »
So I went to Disneyland on Sunday in high hopes of getting plenty of stuff to keep me busy for weeks to come. I got to the front gate with camera in hand and noticed it felt a little light. The battery was of course still charging on the wall at home… What did I learn? Move “batteries” farther up the list of things to do. In the meantime, I will be retouching some old favorites that haven’t yet made it to the site yet. This is Malibu #1, taken in mid-January earlier this year. We had dinner at Gladstone’s last night, an excellent restaurant right up the beach from here, so I figured I should retouch this one and get it on the site. One interesting thing that I guess I knew but never took the time to think about was how the sun changes position in the sky depending on what season it is. Back in January the sun set well out into the ocean but last night it set well behind the land that makes up the unique coastline. More on that in Malibu #2.
In all honesty, it really can't get too much better than this: Malibu CA
Posted in 50mm f/1.8, 7D, Andrew, Andrew's Favorites, Los Angeles, Nature, Outdoor, Sun in frame, Sunset | Like our work? Be the first to comment! »
I saw this one when I was here a few days ago and knew I’d have to come back for it. Right now I’d say that it’s my favorite if not a close second to Roy and Minnie, but Legends Plaza is such an excellent little place. The full range of color in this one was surprising to me; I only really appreciated it when it came out in the HDR process. It’s all in there, but Photomatix lets us see it all at once. I know, I know, this one is getting borderline cartoony, but then again, this is Disney we’re talking about.
The Epic Legends Statute on Legends Plaza: Burbank CA
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Threepeat.
About halfway down Legends Plaza is a statue of Roy O. Disney and Minnie Mouse. The statue is a tribute to the combined efforts of Roy O. and his son Roy E. to keep the focus of the company on its foundation in animation when it seemed as if the animation department would be overgrown by the advent of live action programming in the 80s. It now seems impossible to think that animation would ever be anything short of Disney’s mainstay… Through Roy E.’s guidance as the head of the animation department, Disney made a string of box office successes including “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin,” and “The Lion King” (ever heard of them?) to prove the importance of animation to the company’s repertoire. About a month after his death, the studio’s Animation Building was renamed in his honor this past January.
Roy Disney seated alongside Minnie Mouse on Legends Plaza: Burbank CA
Posted in 16-35mm f/2.8L, 7D, Andrew, Andrew's Favorites, Disney, Handheld HDR, Los Angeles, Outdoor | 3 Comments »
While I was in between housing situations a few weeks ago I was crashing on the couch at my friends place with no plans or pressing matters for an entire week. And no wheels. So I was grounded to the immediate north-of-campus area for a few days and let me say that much Taco Bell and Subway was had. A couple days in though, I decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood to see if I found anything HDR-worthy. That’s when the purple hit.
Get the Purple In On It: Los Angeles CA
Posted in 16-35mm f/2.8L, 7D, Andrew, Andrew's Favorites, Flowers, Los Angeles, Nature, Outdoor | Like our work? Be the first to comment! »
Maine Update
On the beach
Stone Lion on Piazza Navona
Australian Wildlife