A couple of Sacramento HDR photos

Here's a couple of HDR shots of the California State Capitol in Sacramento, California. Assembled in CS5, these photos were created with 20+ individual exposures each. Click to enlarge.

Joy!

A woman running through the waves of the Pacific for the first time. Click to enlarge.

Bay Bridge

A shot of San Francisco Bay Bridge. Years ago, I visited San Francisco on a clear, non-hazy day -- at the time, I had no idea what a rare thing that was! I wish I could go back in time and visit all these vistas on one of those crystal clear days.

Click to enlarge.

Tending the Vines

A worker in a small tractor tends the vines at the Opus One winery in Napa Valley, California. It's amazing how much effort they put into nurturing the vines to maturity -- but as it was explained to us, because Napa wine is so well known and expensive, they can afford to aim for low yield and high quality. Other parts of California (where the vast majority of California wine is grown) tend to have to take a much more industrial approach to viticulture and are expected to get much higher yields out of a similarly sized plot of land. Click to enlarge.

City on a Hill

Today's photo is shot from near Lombard street in San Francisco. This is actually a maaaaaaasive panorama, the original of which is around 15,000 by 10,000 pixels. I believe this is Nob Hill -- it looks literally like it's own city on a hill. Click to enlarge.

"Good Life" interview

I was interviewed on Nebraska's "Good Life" yesterday -- here'a link to the clip.

I'll be giving a presentation (with lots of pictures) at the Nebraska Nature and Visitor Center (right off the Alda interstate exit/interchange) on Wednesday at 7PM. Come one, come all!

Dancing through the waves

A woman plays in the foam of the Pacific near San Francisco. Click to enlarge.

Redwoods: They are Tall

Shot this on a recent trip to Muir Wood. Old growth Redwood forests are:

A: Really, really dark (the canopy soaks up a great deal of the light, even on a sunny day)

B: Unbelievably tall. Seriously, until you've seen them for yourselves, it's hard to imagine. When you see something taller than a football field is long that's also older than Julius Ceaser, it blows your mind.

Even the above photo doesn't really do it justice -- though the wide angle can pull them all in, you don't get the sense of scale. The only photo of redwoods I've ever seen that captured their size was a huge National Geographic foldout spread, in which the photographer shot a panorama of the tree by winching the cameras up on a pulley system and taking photos the whole way up.

Click to enlarge.

Keeping the Horizon Straight

Keeping the horizon straight is quite a challenge in San Francisco! Click to enlarge.

Sailing

Today's photo is of a sailboat near San Francisco. Shot from Hendrick point on a (sadly) hazy day. Click to enlarge.

Which do you like more?

Both of these images were edited with Photoshop CS5. Which do you like more? Click either to enlarge.

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2:


The photos are of the Leland Stanford mansion in Sacramento, California. While I'm not allowed to explain exactly how this image was made, they are composed of 17 images each.

At the Ocean

My wife meets the Pacific Ocean at Rodeo Cove near San Francisco, California. They get some surprisingly large waves out here -- much larger than I remember from the Atlantic beaches I've seen. Click to enlarge.

Corn Silo

Today's photo is a corn silo between Kearney and Grand Island, Nebraska. This is actually a panoramic photo of several photos stitched together in order to boost resolution. Nebraska has some amazing and towering industrial buildings, thanks to agriculture.

Click to enlarge.

Silver Oak Wineries

This is a CS5 edited image of the wine rack at Silver Oak Wineries in Napa Valley, California. Home of some of the darn tastiest Cabs in the universe, they've also got a rather beautiful display building. Click to enlarge.