Lakeside Sunset

Tempe Town Lake is a wonderful local spot to go to when I need to experiment with technigues in a place that offers a variety of visual opportunities. I set up two cameras on the north side of the Lake just before sunset. The front coming in from the west gave me a wide range of interesting cloud shapes but muted the normally dazzling colors seen as part of the December desert sunsets.

One camera was set to do a time-lapse of the sunset. I will post that video later. This image was captured with the Sony A77 and the 16-50mm F2.8 Sony lens that is currently shipped with the A77 body. I have come to really love taking pictures with the A77. The electronic viewfinder is exceptional and lets me dial in the exposure through the viewfinder. This sunset image has been slightly enhanced with Nik software's Color Efex 4.0. I added some contrast and enhanced detail with this outstanding set of filters. 

To the Victims and Heroes of 9/11/01

My tribute to those lost on this tragic day and to the heroes whose courage inspires us on this day and every day. 

 The Healing Field

Tempe Center for the Arts (Another Look)

Here is a second image of the TCA taken later in the sunset. This two image HDR had fairly long exposures (one of 8 seconds) that gave the water a soft feel. Contrast this to the feel of the water in the image below and you can get a sense of the impact of longer exposures.

Art Center Sunset

A short cold front brought some clouds to Arizona and the chance to capture the drama of a December sunset. The Tempe Town Lake is no longer the Tempe Town Puddle since the repair of the damn and refilling. The Art center is a very impressive building that always captures my attention as I drive by on an adjacent freeway. I  waited for the ideal combination of clouds and lighting to capture this image. I was also very excited to try some of the techniques I gained by attending a webinar by Joe Brady on adding drama to HDR images. This image is a three shot HDR process in Nik's HDR Pro Effex software. I used a Sekonic meter to evaluate the range of light from the setting sun through the shadows within the building. I prefer this method to just shooting a bracket of five images which sometimes leaves gaps in either the highlight or shadow areas.