All that brings us to tonight's topic:  Bracketing and then processing with multiple frames.  I will be honest in saying that I haven't done any bracketing work except to find the best exposure, focus or flash for a particular subject and delete the rest. 

Oak Creek near Sedona - 5 Exposure composite from P7000 and processed with Photomatix Light

Recently I picked up a Nikon P7000 as a smaller camera to take with me on those quick trips out the door, and when I travel for my day job.  I always want to bring the D300 with me, but then what lens was I going to pick and I want to carry all my bags on... and it goes from there.  So Far the P7000 has done nicely with the niche I wanted to fill.  There are better small body cameras out there, but for the price I think I have done pretty well.

So one of the features of the P7000 is a bracketing setup where you can pick either 3 or 5 exposures and then either use Shutter, ISO, or White Balance to create your set.  You can also pick whether your intervals are 1 Stop, .7 or .3.  

The Lego "Dune Hopper" series that Peyton and I put together today. 5 Exposures -2,-1,0,+1, +2

For the two examples here I used the "TV" (Shutter Speed)  bracketing mode on the camera.  I chose the 5 exposure mode and kept it at 1 Stop increments.  I had the camera on a hard surface in both instances and no tripod (mistake but you use what you got).  Then I combined those frames using Photomatix Light using the tone mapping mode for the shot in Sedona and Exposure Fusion for the Lego Trike.  I have not found my flow yet with tone mapping and it looked like crap on the Lego model.  The reflections and color in the rock formations definitely benefitted from it.

All this is free to download for try before you buy, and I highly suggest that.  In fact I love software makers who put their versions out there first and let you decide the value.

From the first few experiments I think it will benefit some of my landscapes in general because the overall benefits are definitely more apparent.  The next subjects will likely be some of the downtown buildings, and night shots that I see from the photographers like Trey Ratcliff, and others.

 Alright its 11pm on a Sunday - time to get back to my day job.  Thanks for stopping in.

Now to the photo part.  On the way home we drove almost the entire length of the Mogollon Rim near Payson, AZ.  Great views to be had here (Forest Road #300 for those looking for a trip soon), and it had been a couple of years since we had been there.  

Two versions of the same view for this one. I used the Virtual Copy option in Lightroom  Although it rarely happens, you can critique or vote on the treatment you like best.

And then the virtual copy in B&W...

Here's hoping that the weekend brought you some great places to stop and take a few pictures on your way home.   Till the next time. 

For your consideration - The PVC tube of air pushing the ping pong ball.

50mm f2.0, ISO 1600, 1/500th

Follow that up with the Rube Goldberg Ball Machine where the balls track around the room making bells and in this case keys move and jingle.  Its really some hours of fun there and a great resource for the community. 

50mm f1.8, ISO 3200 1/1000th

I need to get back to my portrait exercises soon, and I think I have a couple of friends who are going to help me out with that.  More on that adventure next time. 

Thanks for checking in. bjones

Fountain Hills Rotary Splash Pad

A kids birthday party at a location we have been to before.  Kids don't want to pose for art so I frame a blasting fountain, bucket drop, two spraying tubes, and a random snake's head into the shot.  lots of freeze action goodness.

But enough of that noise - today was Adventure Saturday. We decided to get me out of the house, and on some trails with my camera.  Weekends have become the only day where I am really shooting with some seriousness.  I could still do a 365 project, but the pictures would come from Saturdays and Sundays.

Stop 1: Dreamy Draw Recreational Area:Ocotillo have really sharp thorns that can be hidden by leaves, but man can they leave a mark.

Lots of blooming Ocotillo along the trail and its amazing how something with nearly dagger-like thorns can be so pretty at the same time.  I hiked one of the trails around the west side of the park, and then up and over some of the smaller hills.  Midday sun and the water I left back at the car didn't help, but I got some great pictures which you can click on over in the Flickr feed on the site.

Next Stop: Mexican food place to re-energize and let my wife watch the Bulter Univeristy Bulldogs upset Florida in OT no less.

 Last Stop of the day: Cave Creek Recreational Area around sunset.

 Looking up at the Go John Trail. I made it up to the lookover to the back side; Going back soonWe hiked the Go John trail tonight, and I think I could have done the whole 5.8 miles if I had more light and water.  They run trail rides through here as well.  I think my 4yr old booked himself a trip soon with the folks we passed on the way up.  I live less than 5 miles from this park, and this is the first time I have spent any amount of time there.

Find a spot in your town where you haven't been in awhile. 

Thanks for dropping by.

I am not great or even average yet with flash photography by my estimation, and probably everyone who has seen me do it lately has seen my attempts at working on not making it harsh and producing shots that came from my high school parties.  I have invested in some modifiers, triggers, etc that some days I get to practice with.  The day job has been a bit intense lately, so I need to get off my butt and start practicing. This class was a great kick starter.  Its was also a lot of fun.  I took the day off with my brother and another friend of ours and all of came away with some good stuff.

By Joe McNally - from the Phoenix Flash Bus Tour stop. Shot of big screen.Hopefully I don't get in trouble for posting this picture that Joe McNally created with a ton of Nikon Flashes and a guy in a kilt....as they haven't blogged it yet (yes I checked this morning) and here is the Flickr Shot from a different angle .  Its was pretty amazing to see 40+ flashes going off at once. 

My confession off the bat is that I haven't been a book reader for a long time as the web has generally become my place to read, research, compare etc.  But since I don't own a Kindle/Pad/Nook the manual version is going to work out just nicely.  Lucky for me there is big print and lots of pretty pictures in the ones I picked up.  I am also not a good manual reader when it comes to buying and using electronic equipment of any kind.  I only go back to the book after I spend lots of time not doing it right. 

The Digital Photography Book (Vol 1-3) from Scott Kelby is a great book for almost any kind of photographer and is written with good examples of good and bad results.  I found that its information about camera settings made me realize how much I didn't use/know/utilize on my own D300 which I have had for 2 years.  I can already see some overall quality improvements in how I am using the tool now which is always a bonus.

Understanding Shutter Speed  and Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson also made it into my stocking this year and I highly suggest getting both books at the same time as they play very nicely when you start to understand the relationships of both on the camera.    The images are great looking and it doesn't take you long to start looking at your own gear and messing with the dials to see if you can create the same kind of effects and lighting control.

 Any Book that has a page titled "Key To My Really Bad Icons" pretty much has me hooked there.  The funny thing is that Dedpxl Onelight Field Guide Vol 1.0 by Zack Arias really makes good use of those icons to get you going for lighting setups.  Their big, easy to read (see upper paragraph about my need for that), its in a magazine format so I was able to crack it open , pop up my light stand and umbrella in the living room and make my family walk through the setups that I could do in my house on the first night I got it.  As a companion to his Onelight training sessions and DVD, its great to pack into the bag when you are going out to shoot.  It might have made me less afraid of screwing up pictures of people I like. 

Ok..time for me to read more and type less for now.

Tonight however I took some good advice that I have heard from a number of photographers I follow.  Look at other people's work, and look at lots of it.  Somewhere in those pictures is the spark that you might need to make your next great picture. So I surfed some great pictures and read a bit of some photo books I need to spend more time with.

That's it.  Two paragraphs and a good night to see something new.

The best part about the purchase is that I bought it using the money I have made off my only successful stock photo on fotolia.com .  I actually bought it here in Phoenix as I didn't want to wait on the shipping and I could just activate the code right away and still have the box copy.

I have spent the afternoon running through some pictures that I had imported during my non LR weeks since the free trial expired.   I am going to catalog thoroughly so that I can have a good start on my workflow for pictures to come. 

Maybe I can buy that 18-200 VR II with the next stock picture.