Past Pools and Rock to Strom

Another image from the rainy day visit to Cabrillo National Monument’s Tide Pool area. The storm moving over the coast certainly provided drama in the sky, and the wet rock and surly ocean echoed the mood. This is definitely a “from under the umbrella” shot.

Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F4 @ 1/500th @ ISO 80. Landscape Program mode.

Recovery for the sky and Fill Light for the foreground. Blackpoint right slightly. Added Clarity and just a touch of Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.

From San Diego 2010.

Ornamentals over the Pacific

Happy Sunday

This shot is appropriate to the day. It is a rainy Sunday in Maine and this was taken on a rainy Sunday in San Diego exactly a week ago. An I am not letting the rain dampen my spirits today either!

An ornamental hedge that surrounds the Visitor Center at Cabrillo National Monument. I sat the camera more or less on top of the hedge, using the flip out LCD and Super Macro,  and shot across the top to frame this cluster of  blossoms against the stormy Pacific sky. I would have used Exposure Lock and Program Shift for better depth, at 1/250 I had plenty of room for a slower shutter speed and smaller aperture, but it was raining and I did not want to risk the camera out from under cover for more than the time it took to grab this shot.

Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent and Super Macro. F2.8 @ 1/250th @ ISO 160. Programmed auto.

A bit of Recovery for the sky in Lightroom. Fill Light for the foreground. Blackpoint right. Added Clarity and some Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset. Cropped from the bottom to eliminate out of focus foliage and for composition.

From San Diego 2010.

Tide Pools Area: Cabrillo National Monument

Cabrillo National Monument sits at the point of Point Loma, overlooking San Diego Harbor on one side, and the Pacific on the other. There is a lighthouse there, and little pocket park, with some of the best views of the coast you are likely to see. You have to drive through a section of the Naval Base and the National Cemetery to get there, so access is limited to 9 to 5 (when the military gates are open these days) but it is always worth a visit, in any season and any weather.

The day I had available dawned, as promised, with rain, and I debated going at all. I did get out, and had about 3 hours there, shooting from under my umbrella and in brief intervals in the drizzle, before a steady driving rain drove me off the point and back to the hotel.

This is the Tide Pool area, which is reached by a well paved and graded road that serves both the modern lighthouse and a water treatment plant. They have been working here in the last year, making improvements on the short trail system, and I enjoyed exploring further from the parking lot than I have ventured in the past.

The challenge in this weather is, of course, to capture the authentic drama of the rainy coast, cliffs and ocean. The contrast and exposure (EV) range is surprisingly broad on such a day, dull as we might think it, as the lighter sky tends to dominate the dark, rain soaked, landscape. More on that in a Point & Shoot Landscape post (coming soon).

I took a couple of different shots of this view before I got the balanced rocks where they needed to go. This image required some creative work in Lightroom…or maybe I should say, a bit more work than my usual 1 minute adjustments.

Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F4 @ 1/250th @ ISO 80. Landscape Program. (For more on Landscape Program see the P&S piece mentioned above.)

In Lightroom, Recovery for the sky, Fill Light for the foreground. Blackpoint right. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Reduced Brightness overall. Reduced Contrast. Graduated Filter effect pulled down diagonally from the top right corner across the top half of the image to reduce exposure even more for the bright area of clouds. Sharpen landscape preset.

From San Diego 2010.

Pepper Tree

Last year when I was in San Diego I asked what this flowering tree was, and was told it was a Pepper Tree. Research since has shed some doubt on that id. It is a large tree, maple size at full growth, and the flowers come out before the leaves. This is a shot of one of the flower clusters, which form at the ends of branches. This cluster is about 4-5 inches in diameter. I could only get this close due to the 560mm equivalent lens on the Canon.

Canon SX20IS at 560mm eqivalent. F5.7 @ 1/60th @ ISO 160. Programmed auto.

Blackpoint just barely right in Lightroom. Added Clarity and a touch of Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset. Cropped slightly for composition.

Here are a few more images. If anyone can positively identify the tree, I would appreciate the info.

Bird of Paradise against the Boats

An alternative view of the Bird of Paradise bloom, this time framed against boats in the marina, taken at a longer focal length from further back to isolate the bloom and turn the boats into interesting bokeh. Late afternoon light on the plant brought out the orange of the petals in particular.

Canon SX20IS at 250mm equivalent. F5 at 1/250th @ ISO 80. Programmed auto.

Added Clarity and just a bit of Vibrance in Lightroom. Blackpoint slightly right. Sharpen landscape preset.

From San Diego 2010.

And here is an image taken from the same spot, using a wider lens setting (95mm equivalent @ f4). As you can see, the boats become more sharply focused and battle a bit with the blooms in the foreground, but I still see it as an interesting shot, and as a contrast to the longer/closer shot above. Processing similar to above.

Bird of Paradise on the Sky

One of my favorite things about visiting San Diego in March is the Bird of Paradise display. They are everywhere around the Marian Village Convention Center and the various hotels I frequent. For this shot, I used the flip-out lcd on the Canon to get low and shoot up, isolating the bloom against the blue sky and white clouds. Other stuff around the bloom dictated the placement in the frame if I wanted it isolated, but I think the leading placement (facing out the frame and closer to the exit edge than the entrance…if you follow what I mean) works for this shot, mainly due to the strength of the subject.  It gives it a dynamic tension which I find interesting. In general, of course, I attempt to avoid the leading composition when I can.

Canon SX20IS at about 55mm equivalent. f3.5 @ 1/250th @ ISO 125. Programmed auto.

A bit of Recovery in Lightroom for the sky. Fill Light for the underside of the bloom. Blackpoint slightly right. Added Clarity and a tiny amount of Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.

From San Diego 2010.

Flower with Bokeh

Playing with the super macro on th Canon SX20IS. The bush itself and the clouds and bit of blue sky make for an interesting background.

Canon SX20IS at 28mm and Super Macro. F3.5 @ 1/250 @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.

A touch of Recovery in Lightroom for the petals. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Blackpoint slightly right. Sharpen landscape preset.

From San Diego 2010.

Mouth of the San Diego River

Going from one coast to the other, just about as far away from Maine as you can get.

I attend the San Diego Birding Festival each year in early March. It takes place at the Mission Bay Marina Conference Center which is next to the flood-wall that keeps the San Diego River in its channel the last mile or more to the sea. It is a good area for birding and bird photography, but, given the right San Diego weather, I always find a vista or two there as well. For this shot I got down low, behind the purple grasses and shot across the shoulder of the wall toward the sea. The clouds and the bird in the air add the final touches. I used Exposure Lock and Program Shift to get the smallest possible aperture for maximum depth of field.

Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F8 @ 1/250th @ ISO 80. Programmed auto with Exposure Lock and Program Shift.

Some Recovery in Lightroom for the sky. A touch of Fill Light for the foreground. Added Clarity and just a tiny bit of Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.

From San Diego 2010.

Bend in the Little

Happy Sunday!

My favorite bend in the river, in any season and any weather. I have hundreds of photographs taken from the little observation deck over the back edge of this river bend…in all seasons and every weather! I never get tired of taking this shot, and it is, of course, never the same twice.

Here is its the sky, just breaking up after a major storm, and the liquid light of a late winter afternoon that makes it for me.

Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F2.8 @ 1/60th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto. I am coming to trust the Canon’s iC (extended contrast) setting to handle scenes like this without much intervention on my part. The camera is able to achieve a good balance between the sky and land tones except in the most extreme situations.

Some Recovery for the sky in Lightroom. Just a little Fill Light for the foreground. Added Clarity and a touch of Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.

From Around Home 2010.

Liken Lichen!

We had a major blow-down with the storm last week. The short trail at Rachel Carson NWR Headquarters was littered with branches, and quite a few of the tall pines lost their tops. They had chain-sawed the bigger trunks and moved them aside by the time I got there, but there were many examples lying along the trail. These were all living trees with good green heads, but what was interesting to me was the rich growth of lichen on the upper reaches of the trunk, from just below were the green branches began, on up to the crown. This growth is high up and largely invisible from ground level…and certainly there is nothing like it on the lower section of the trunk. It must be something to do with light levels. There is a whole micro world up there. Who knew?

Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent and SuperMicro. F2.8 @ 1/60th @ ISO 80. Programmed auto.

A touch of Fill Light and Blackpoint just slightly right in Lightroom. Added Clarity and just a tiny amount of Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset. Color temperature adjusted slightly to offset the shadow light.

From Around Home 2010.

And here are two more shots, with vary similar particulars. The second shot is cropped slightly from the bottom of the frame.