No, it isn’t Mars. The picture you see above is an area called Jumbo Rocks in Joshua Tree National Park just before sunrise. I recently had the opportunity to visit the park, and WOW… It really is one of the most amazing places I’ve ever seen. It has a huge variety of scenery and sprawls across a huge area where the Mojave and Colorado deserts meet. If you ever have a chance to go, I highly recommend it. All the photos and kit after the jump…

Luckily, Joshua Tree is the type of place you get from sight to sight by car, so I had the luxury of bringing lots of gear, and taking what I needed when we went for a hike at each location.

• Nikon D300
• Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8
• Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 Macro
• Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8 Fisheye
• Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8
• Nikon 2x Extender
• Nikon 77mm Circular Polarizer
• Canon 30D
• Canon 17-40mm f/4 L
• Manfrotto Carbon Fiber Tripod
• Acratech Ultimate Ballhead
• LowePro CompuRover AW

On return from the shoot, I approached my workflow a bit differently in terms of processing using a combination of Lightroom and Photoshop. After importing, sorting and filtering the nearly 700 images to a group of what I felt were my best shots, I did basic histogram adjustments in Lightroom, but then did the final retouching within Photoshop. I decided to do this mainly because I wanted to utilize the LAB color conversion method to really make the colors pop, as well as do some dodging and burning. I’ll post a bit more on both topics in the near future. And now for the photos:

Again, if you get the chance get to Joshua Tree. It’s definitely been one of my most fulfilling photo experiences to date. I’m pretty happy with the results, and as always I’d love to hear what you guys think.
]]> http://www.cameraporn.net/2008/02/28/photo-porn-joshua-tree-national-park/feed/ 9 http://www.cameraporn.net/2008/01/21/photo-porn-san-francisco/ http://www.cameraporn.net/2008/01/21/photo-porn-san-francisco/#comments Tue, 22 Jan 2008 04:44:00 +0000 rygood http://www.cameraporn.net/2008/01/21/photo-porn-san-francisco/

For a first visit to a city, I’d say it was a photographic success. Saw a good amount of the city, ate some good food, went on a photowalk, and even randomly ran into a protest… it is San Francisco after all.

Photos and kit after the jump…

I packed light this trip, knowing I’d be doing a lot of walking and wanted to keep the weight down. Here’s what I brought with me:

• Nikon D300
• AF-S Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8
• AF Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8 Fisheye
• AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8
• AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.4
• Giottos blower, extra CF’s, battery charger, and lens tissues.

And here’s the photo porn:

So I made it back safe and sound from my Trinidad trip, and it was great. No gear damage or theft to report, thankfully.

I didn’t shoot quite as much as I would have liked, but it was my first major outing with the new Nikon D300 and I would consider it a success. I shot a variety of things ranging from low-light portraits to sunsets, and I did some experimenting with long telephoto landscapes as well. I continue to be impressed with the quality of the images I’m able to capture with the D300.

Photos and a list of the kit I brought after the jump…

Here’s what I brought with me:

• Nikon D300
• AF-S Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8
• AF Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8 Fisheye
• AF-S Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8
• AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 (Thanks Peter! This lens is the SHIT!)
• AF Micro Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 Macro
• Nikon TC-20E 2x Teleconverter
• Giottos blower, extra CF’s, battery charger, and lens tissues.

And here’s the photo porn:

All of my favorites can be found on my flickr, and as always if you have any questions, leave them in the comments. I’m more than happy to break down any of the shots you see above.

• Sexiness Ratings:
• Subject quality
• 4 of 5 stars)
• Ease of travel
• 4 of 5 stars)
• Inerestingness
• 3 of 5 stars)
• Uniqueness
• 3 of 5 stars)
• Photo friendliness
• 5 of 5 stars)
• Overall Sexiness
• 4 of 5 stars)

Recently, the The Chris and I were lucky enough to travel to Seattle to represent our company at a conference we sponsor. Though officially we were there to attend and throw a party for the conference, we were able to spend a bit of time shooting the beautiful city of Seattle. Despite our worries leading up to the trip, Seattle greeted us with awesome weather, making the trip that much better. In fact, I was told by some locals that the "it always rains in Seattle thing" is a rumor they make up to keep the crowds from moving to their awesome city.

Being that it was our first time visiting, we squeezed as much as we could into the short period of time we had available to shoot. For me, the favorites of the trip included the Seattle Waterfront, the legendary Pike Place Market and the wonderful food. Read on to see the shots and learn a bit about Seattle…

The Pike Place Market

The Pike Place Market is the place we have all seen on TV, with the fish-throwing vendors and is probably one of the most popular attractions in Seattle. Its full of vendors peddling fresh produce, seafood, meats, freshly made pasta and flowers. There are also tons of food stands and restaraunts that make heavy use of the fresh products sold around the market. Its an awesome place to shoot becasue of its sheer size, colors and interesting people. On a street bordering the market, is the original Starbucks, which though kinda cheesey to be impressed by, was cool to see, considering the amount of money I’ve spent over the years on their overpriced but addicting product .

The shots above were all taken with the good ole Canon 30D and Canon 17-85 f/4-5.6 EF-S IS lens.

The Seattle Waterfront

Luckily enough, out hotel was smack dab in the middle of Seattle’s waterfront area. This is a stretch of land on Puget sound filled with hotels, restaraunts, the Seattle Aquarium, bike paths and parks. On the water side of the road, the buildings all sit on huge piers over the water. Shooting here was great, because we had a range of subjects from the Seattle skyline to waterfront parks, to a sculpture garden. We also took the opportunity to walk around at night and take some great long exposures of the marinas and piers.

Again, these were shot with a Canon 30D and 17-85 lens.

The Food

Yes, the shots here are a bit lacking, only because the food was so good, it didn’t last long enough to shoot. What can I say, I was food-blinded and forgot . Food in Seattle is downright awesome. Known mostly for the huge varieties of fresh seafood, most of the restaurants we visitied were not lacking in this department. From salmon pot pie to fresh dungeness crab cakes to oyster shooters, we took advantage of Seattle’s bounty of seafood options. The combination of the quality food and the friendly service is very impressive and makes Seattle my favorite U.S. city for eating so far. Definitley a foodie’s heaven.

For Seattle thats gonna just about do it, but I’ll take this opportunity to apologize for the lack of posts lately. The combination of travel and overall busy-ness has made it tough, but we have some awesome stuff on the horizon including some new interviews, guest posters, and the continuation of the "Ultimate Guide" series.

• Sexiness Ratings:
• Subject quality
• 5 of 5 stars)
• Ease of travel
• 2 of 5 stars)
• Inerestingness
• 5 of 5 stars)
• Uniqueness
• 5 of 5 stars)
• Photo friendliness
• 3 of 5 stars)
• Overall Sexiness
• 4 of 5 stars)

As promised, I bring you On Location: Trinidad. My apologies for the lack of posts as late, but returning from a long trip always warrants a bit of catch-up time. This time around “On Location” is going to follow a different, more interesting (i hope) format, to share with all of you the excellent photo experiences I had while visiting Trinidad.

Trinidad, making up one of the two islands of the country of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost of all the Caribbean islands, sitting only 10.5 degress north of the equator. I’ve found that of the populated Caribbean islands, Trinidad is one of the less well known, especially in the U.S. I would venture to guess that the reasons for this lie in the fact that, where most Caribbean islands are known as vacation spots with beaches and posh resorts, Trinidad thrives on its own natural resources, including natural gas and oil, and does not depend on tourism to survive. If someone does “know” Trinidad, then most likely they know it because of Carnival. Second in size only to Brazil’s, this is the time of the year the whole country “gets its sin on” with dancing, drinking and all all types of debauchery before the holy days of Lent.

Aside from Carnival, Trinidad has many other aspects that make it a wonderful place to visit, take pictures, and take in natural beauty, wonderful people and unique foods.

The Natural Beauty of Trinidad

For an island country, the vast range of scenery you can experience in such a small area, amazes me. From beaches to mountains to rainforests, there is a lot to see on a visit. Along with amazing settings, a huge array of wildlife, inluding unique birds, insects, and lizards, is usually just a stone’s throw away.

The Plants and Bugs

The above shots are just a few of my favorite plant and bug shots from the trip. Most were shot from my 30D with my Nikon Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 Macro, paired with my Novoflex Nikon to Canon adapter.

Asa Wright Nature Preserve

Asa Wright is a renowned nature preserve, known mostly for its many species of tropical birds, and the ability to get close to these birds. I spent a day at Asa Wright with Alex Smailes, a friend and photographer who lives in Trinidad. These images were shot with either a Canon 24-70 f/2.8 L, Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L IS, or Canon 75-300 f/4-5.6.

Lopinot Estate

The Lopinot Estate is a historical site in eastern Trinidad with French and British roots. The grounds hold an old cocoa plantation, a 17th century estate home and riverside nature trails. These shots were takes with a Canon 24-70 f/2.8 L and spiced up with a little HDR action.

The Beaches

Although Trinidad is not know for beachside resorts, it does have several gorgeous beach areas. The main beach areas of Trinidad include Maracas, Blanchiseusse, Mayaro, and Toco. The shots above were taken in Maracas, with a Canon 24-70 f/2.8 L and a Sigma 14mm f/3.5 Fisheye.

The People

The people of Trinidad range from a huge variety of different backgrounds including African, Indian, European, Middle Eastern and Chinese along with a large population of foreign workers brought in mostly by the oil and gas industry. To me, the people of the country tell a lot about it, and as a general rule the people of Trinidad are kind, fun-loving people who are always down to tell a funny story or have a lime (a Trinidadian word used always – means hangin out). The group of three guys in the shot above are Trini road workers we met at a roadside food stand on the way to Asa Wright. They spent their lunch break with us, told some funny stories, drank some beers and homemade cane rum, all before 11am. They do lunch right in Trinidad

The Food and Drink

Something about the food in Trinidad is magic. Its hard to explain why, but something about the mixing of cultures, the tropical heat and the natural ingredients come together to make the food unique and excellent. Now, I’m not talking about five-star gourmet here (which is available), I’m talking about down-home street food. Some favorites include: Shark and Bake, Roti, and Doubles. The beverage of choice for any of these would be a "beastly" cold Carib or Stag beer.

Well, that about wraps it up. If you get the chance to take a trip to Trinidad, I suggest going for it. Like I said, its not a beachy resort vacation type place, but the experiences, nature, people and photo opportunites beat sitting on a lounge chair drinking a mai tai any day in my book. Thanks again for supporting Cameraporn.net and let me know what you guys think of the new “On Location” format.

• Sexiness Ratings:
• Subject quality
• 5 of 5 stars)
• Ease of travel
• 4 of 5 stars)
• Inerestingness
• 4 of 5 stars)
• Uniqueness
• 4 of 5 stars)
• Photo friendliness
• 5 of 5 stars)
• Overall Sexiness
• 4 of 5 stars)

The CameraPorn crew hit the road again last weekend to the Spring Fling Mopar show in Van Nuys California. Are we serious car guys? No, not really, but the opportunity to shoot something new was there and we had to take it. Being that neither myself or CHL had ever shot cars before, this was an excellent opportunity to get out there and shoot something new and experiment with HDR photography.

The Spring Fling is a yearly car show, held this year at Woodley Park in Van Nuys, California and it showcases some of the hottest Mopars the west coast has to offer. “Mopar” originally represented Chrysler’s “Motor Parts” division which includes any Dodge, Chrysler, Plymouth, Imperial or DeSoto and later AMC or Jeep, and has become synonymous with the American muscle-car. Mopar people are so crazy for Mopar, they name their dogs after it

All in all, the day went well, and we came out of it with some excellent shots, and it was a great opportunity to shoot something different. It also gave me the chance to further experiment with HDR photography, which delivers some excellent results when shooting old cars. I’ll do a full post on HDR sometime in the near future to better explain the steps required for a great HDR shot. Check out the favorites below, or head over to flickr to view the whole set.

• Best time to visit: May 5-6th, 2007
• Best thing to shoot: Old Cars
• Gear I brought: Canon 50mm f/1.4, Canon 17-85 f/4-5.6, Sigma 14mm Fisheye, Canon 580EX Speedlite

• Sexiness Ratings:
• Subject quality
• 5 of 5 stars)
• Ease of travel
• 4 of 5 stars)
• Inerestingness
• 4 of 5 stars)
• Uniqueness
• 4 of 5 stars)
• Photo friendliness
• 4 of 5 stars)
• Overall Sexiness
• 4 of 5 stars)

From time to time, when we aren’t working or feeding our gear obsession by surfing B&H, we actually get out in the real world and take some pictures. That said, I bring you CameraPorn.net – On Location: Venice Beach, CA – the first of many posts where we take you to the places we shoot, for your viewing pleasure.

For those that don’t kow, Venice Beach is a down-to-earth beach community in the Los Angeles area. It’s known for its street performers and laid-back attitude. With Venice, comes the infamous boardwalk, a must-visit for any photo-obsessed people like us. A few favorites from the day are below, or check out the whole set on flickr.

• Best time to visit: Weekend days
• Best thing to shoot: People
• Gear I brought: 50mm f/1.4, 17-85 f/4-5.6, 70-200 f/2.8 IS L