Washed Swifty yesterday, our hard water sure leaves spots!

 

Took a little detour hoping for a nice sunset. All I got was this sunrays past silver-lining stuff. Tried to improve with the computer.


Telephoto detail of rays.




Some recent shots from my Flickr collection.

 

This is kind of a pet peeve of mine, since I like to be able to click through to Flickr to see more info (and maybe comment) on your photos... The Flickr Community Guidelines state
Coincidentally I wrote a little JavaScript bookmarklet that generates the vB code for NAM, so you can just paste it in.

I did finally find my way to the page for this image:

It looks like your camera doesn't support screw-on filters; if it did, I was going to suggest using a Graduated neutral density filter to darken the sky, which would help you to retain some of the contrast and also have the non-darkened section of the frame less underexposed. Being able to use filters is one of the main reasons I bought a dSLR...

Since that doesn't seem to be an option, what you could do is merge multiple exposures, a la High dynamic range imaging, so that you can build a single image from several independent exposures, assembling an image from the regions that have the best exposure. For example, in the shot above you could keep this shot as the "base" image, and use another shot that's exposed more on the clouds and sky as another layer so that the light rays and cloud/sky transition aren't blown out. You did a pretty good job of that with the next shot in your photostream, by the way. I assume this would work best by putting the camera on a tripod and not moving it around between multiple exposures.

Nice work as always, Kurt!

 

1. Thanks for the heads up. I need to learn how words become links, and then plant in my signature?
2. I'm familar with a polorizer filter.
3. This was on-the-fly photography! Didn't use a tripod, or bracket several shots. This camera's lens end is a smaller size than my ancient Olympus OM-2 (which has the nifty idea of letting you control functions like focus, aperature, time, cable release).

Thanks for your input!

 

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Last night's sunset. I didn't expect much, but took the camera anyway. I broke one of Dave's rules, about high camera position. The background would have been blocked!

 

I motored up to Mt. Union to find the gate was closed near the top. So I tried Spruce Mt. Road, turned off at a trailhead. This will be the only picture of a MINI at this spot.:impatient

On the way up Spruce Mt. Road. A much nicer, graded in the past century, prime for a rally stage road.


I think was worth the drive!

 

Just had to get a shot with Swifty in it!



I should have motored to a lake or something tonight.

 

Wow.

 

That's what I was thinking.

My You Tube:
<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="<A href="http://www.youtube.com/v/cyj0X6cdqqE"></param><embed">http://www.youtube.com/v/cyj0X6cdqqE"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cyj0X6cdqqE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="600" height="350"></embed></object>
For the lack of a wide angle lens.

 

Well it's been a while but I finally found a decent location nearby to get some sunset photos

 

After a perfect weekend for the Prescott Antique Auto Club's show, I washed Swifty. Of course it rained today, and quite a bit.
Thought I would combine a rainbow with a sunset tonight.


Motored to a nearby hilltop for this.

 

Very nice. Nicely captured. That had to have been an awe inspiring sight in person.

 

WOW Kurt, very well done. You're capturing some amazing sun[rise|set]s lately. Keep 'em coming!

 

I'm trying!!:impatient Thanks Dave.

I like the natural glow on the car, for some reason.

Going vertical got the blue sky.

Wasn't as good to the west.

 

My long overdue contribution to this thread. The sunset wasn't so great tonight - featureless with no clouds... again

So here it is, with no real sunset feature. Taken at sunset though.

 

Take one!

Take two!

This cloud to the southeast brought the Chili Red to life!

 

Why do the sunsets have to suck so much in SoCal?

Kurt,

Nice work on the photo processing. Also, I really like seeing the car parked on the ground, and not on concrete or pavement.

Just a thought: I've noticed in a lot of your pictures you have the headlights and the fogs on, what about taking a some with them off to capture the detail in those areas. Right now, while the lights one, matches with the "dusk" feeling of the photo, those areas in the photo are getting blown out.

Dave

 

I did not post edit this batch. Yea! I have lots of dirt around here.

Early on I tried no lights, Depending on the lighting, the car seemed too dark. I feel like a dork running back and forth turning on, then off, then on, then...:impatient

 

I had to get to a meeting, so didn't get any color. Note on the running lights are on. Used the Level and Enhancement button on this.

 

I just wanted to show that I can't always take a good picture.
Thought a cruise night would give me some subjects, but the parking lot with many of people and clutter made it difficult.

Pontiac hood ornament.

The couple with this '56 Chevy were nice enough to move their car for me. I mentioned that I have been taking lots of sunset pictures of my MINI, and they lit up and said they love MINIs, and wished they could afford to get one (do I need to explain cost of restoring a car?). They thought my photo (in the viewfinder) looked good, but I'm my worst critic.

 

Yes, why do they?


The first shot:


The view north:


An old rock cairn can be in your very own backyard! I would love to have this lot!


I confess... oops wrong thread:


Dave: notice my lights?

 

Very nice work, recently detailed?

Be sure to put a few in the reflections thread

 

Used the 'enhance' feature, didn't fall apart so much. For some reason I had trouble getting the exposure right.

This cloud to the north lit the car okay.

Later to the west.

This was rainbow #2 Sunday. I'm posting #3 elsewhere.
Dave: notice I'm not having the headlights on?

 

Part of the problem may be that you need a longer shutterspeed. From what I could find, the longest shutterspeed on the S3100 is 1/4 second in a normal shooting mode, and 2 seconds in the night scene mode.
If you tripod mount the camera and then try the night scene mode, that may get you a better exposure due to what looks like a longer shutterspeed being available.

Being able to get a longer shutterspeed would even out the exposure of the entire image and would mean you wouldn't have to use flash, which highlights just one area of the image.

I'm not positive that night mode will get you a longer shutterspeed, but report back and let me know.

Another option would be to slightly elevate the ISO, so you could get a more even exposure with the longest shutterspeed available, while not using flash.

I have been noticing that.

 

Well, this is kind of near sunset.