When Dynamic Range Is Nice

I try to get the photo right in camera, but sometimes it isn’t possible. This isn’t the best photo, but it is an historical account of an incident in Santa Monica. This photo is an extreme case as the super bright white wall and the firemen in the shadows are about five stops difference. I have my camera set to highlight weighted metering and 1 stop underexposed as it’s a monochrom camera that easily blows the highlights. The first photo is raw straight out of camera and the second is after a lot of tweaking.

Five Frames From January

You know GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) is bad, a symptom of consumerism. I’m envious of people who do not suffer from this disease. I have a Leica Q2 Monochrom and I’m somehow doubting it. Not because of it quality, but because it’s “not fun.” I mean it’s a pretty lame excuse. The camera is awesome. Maybe I’ll take it out today to reinvigorate my excitement for it.

These photos were from early January of 2023. After running the photos through Silver Efex Pro, I was reminded by how nice the images are after processing. The light in all these photos was horrible (besides the second one), yet the images still have a nice pop.

My High Contrast Black and White Look

I’ve been experimenting with a high contrast look. Some days I like a lower contrast look, and others I like a high contrast look. That’s the beauty of shooting in raw. Maybe the following photos look a bit like pushed Kodak Tri-X 400. For some photos, this probably wouldn’t look the best, but I like the way these turned out. These were made earlier today when I was on my daily photo walk in Santa Monica.

The Best Way To Lose Weight

Biking makes your feel so good. I’m fortunate to live in a place with so many bike lanes. This is from a bike ride earlier. It’s estimated to lose one pound, you need to burn 3,500 calories. You could do nothing to change your diet, still eat all the crap you know you shouldn’t eat and still lose weight if you did three of these bike rides a week. That’s roughly 26k calories burned or around 7 pounds in one month.

When Life Is Good

Ya know we are all pretty lucky to live in the USA. Its not perfect as no country is but there’s so much opportunity here to advance your life. This life is what we make of it.

This weekend, my better half and me went on an amazing seven mile hike in Malibu. Went on a great road trip through the mountains and overlooking the ocean. I manged to also make some good photos and advance my photography.

It’s a simple, yet fulfilling life. I feel extremely lucky and blessed to live this life.

Get away from toxic people who complain about everything. Their goal isn’t to change the world, it’s to make YOU miserable a long with them.

Life can only be good once you’ve weeded out the bad influences.

Good Things Come In Pairs

As long as I’ve been walking around this cliff side park, I don’t ever think I’ve seen two people sitting on each bench. As luck would have it, another pair of people walked into the frame and into the light. Blessing their face with a splash of light. I had to lay flat on my back to take this photo so the people’s heads would be silhouetted against the sky. I went with a high contrast look and black frame which I think looks nice against the sky. A simple composition that’s easy to look at.

15 Frames From Cinco de Mayo

I attended the Cinco de Mayo parade and festival in Venice Beach today. My first time since living in Los Angeles. It was better than expected and I’m happy with the photos. It was a nice sunny day but the sun was harsh. I processed these photos to give them an Ilford HP5 Plus look pulling the shadows and dropping highlights. Perfect for photos in less than ideal light.

I also made a YouTube slideshow with more photos.

iPhone Photography Is Intriguing

I’d love to shoot street photography with an iPhone. I tried it briefly last year with my basic iPhone SE. I liked the results but the ergonomics bothered me. It’s nice to have a camera that feels good in my hand and is always ready to go. My Leica M8 is the best for this. It’s on all the time and ready to shoot and feels great in the hand.

Eric Mencher has some great iPhone photography. I’m not sure which photos are made with an iPhone but looking through his photos is a real joy.

Process Your Photos In Silver Efex Pro

Silver Efex Pro is the best for black and white photography. It’s easy to use and gives me many different looks. I’m sure I could get similar looks in Lightroom fiddling forever but why bother. I usually spend about one minute per photo, sometimes less and I’m done. I’d love to shoot JPEG only but I can never get the files to look as good as Silver Efex Pro.