12 Hours in California

rddphotosrddphotos Registered Users Posts: 31 Big grins
edited February 20, 2008 in The Dgrin Challenges
I hope everyone enjoy's my entry in the finals...

p238307450.jpg

36.15852n, 121.67017w - Large Image

My journey started early 5am saturday morning from Los Angeles and knowing that I had a 6 hour trip to my final destination, I had planned multiple stops along the way that would extend this by about another 4-5 hours. When all was said and done, There was photos from the Santa Ynez Wineries, a 580 foot rock, a 1940's cherry buick, surf shoots, elephant seals, aqua blue shores from multiple locations, a squirrel and finally McWay Falls in Big Sur.

As the day finally closed and looking the day over there was about 750 photos taken (8GB cards are awesome) and as I made my journey out of big sur I realized that I was completely exhausted but thrilled by how the day turned out with limited over cast and no speeding tickets.

I would recommend this journey for everyone but instead of 12 hours I would recommend planning days instead of hours for the drive up to enjoy the true beauty of the area.

RD


ps
I will be posting the photos of the journey in the up coming weeks

Comments

  • Tessa HDTessa HD Registered Users Posts: 852 Major grins
    edited February 17, 2008
    what a breathtaking view. that waterfall in the distance is so cool being so close to the beach. it looks like a paradise and i wish could explore it.
    Love to dream, and dream in color.

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  • pyroPrints.compyroPrints.com Registered Users Posts: 1,383 Major grins
    edited February 17, 2008
    great colors
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  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited February 17, 2008
    rddphotos wrote:
    I hope everyone enjoy's my entry in the finals...
    Very nice image! thumb.gif
    McWay Falls is one of my favorite places on this Earth and I always dreamt to be there at the sunset. Thanks to you, now I know what I have been missing :-)
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
  • rddphotosrddphotos Registered Users Posts: 31 Big grins
    edited February 18, 2008
    @ Nikolai,

    It is an absolutely breath taking view and I am glad I learned about it a couple of weeks ago.

    the only part was missing was my wife joining me, since she was home tending to the baby with an ear infection and flu.

    RD

    Nikolai wrote:
    Very nice image! thumb.gif
    McWay Falls is one of my favorite places on this Earth and I always dreamt to be there at the sunset. Thanks to you, now I know what I have been missing :-)
  • tsk1979tsk1979 Registered Users Posts: 937 Major grins
    edited February 18, 2008
    Wow!
    Great photo.
    You are forcing me to write a journey report for my journey to Big Sur region from San Jose.
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  • rddphotosrddphotos Registered Users Posts: 31 Big grins
    edited February 18, 2008
    It would be great to see shoots taken from a travel route North to South. I hope to plan a trap like this some day.
    tsk1979 wrote:
    Great photo.
    You are forcing me to write a journey report for my journey to Big Sur region from San Jose.
  • tsk1979tsk1979 Registered Users Posts: 937 Major grins
    edited February 18, 2008
    rddphotos wrote:
    It would be great to see shoots taken from a travel route North to South. I hope to plan a trap like this some day.
    Your wish is granted.
    Check out Journeys:D
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  • wildviperwildviper Registered Users Posts: 560 Major grins
    edited February 19, 2008
    tsk1979 wrote:
    Your wish is granted.
    Check out Journeys:D

    Great shot! Amazing colors.

    I am wondering how much post processing did you do? It seems that I have to almost always do curve adjustments from my D70s.

    You mind posting a before and after perhaps of this pic? Just so that I can stop being paranoid that my pictures don't produce such colors and contrast.
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
    WildViper
    From Nikon D70s > Nikon D300s & D700
    Nikon 50/1.8, Tamron 28-75/2.8 1st gen, Nikkor 12-24/4, Nikkor 70-200/2.8 ED VR, SB600, SB900, SB-26 and Gitzo 2 Series Carbon Fiber with Kirk Ballhead
  • rddphotosrddphotos Registered Users Posts: 31 Big grins
    edited February 19, 2008
    The photos was a High Dynamic Range Shoot at 0 -1 +1.

    The colors came in on their own. But the one thing that I have done for PP is to use Capture 1 utilizing a profile I created for my camera. There's about a +10 contrast and +5 saturation in the images. Because it was HDR shoot, I didn't make any extra adjustments in capture 1.

    Then I used Color Efex Pro 3.0 - Tonal contrast, gently...

    Here are the three before's.

    http://desimoni.smugmug.com/gallery/2948187_BPvyU

    I used the current version of Photomatix Pro to combine them and without changing any settings the colors we're already about 95% there.

    Overall it took about 20 minutes from beginning to end.


    wildviper wrote:
    Great shot! Amazing colors.

    I am wondering how much post processing did you do? It seems that I have to almost always do curve adjustments from my D70s.

    You mind posting a before and after perhaps of this pic? Just so that I can stop being paranoid that my pictures don't produce such colors and contrast.
  • NomadRipNomadRip Registered Users Posts: 180 Major grins
    edited February 19, 2008
    Even though that's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, I don't think it looked as good as you made it look clap.gif
    -James
    Sign up for a SmugMug account and save!
  • wildviperwildviper Registered Users Posts: 560 Major grins
    edited February 20, 2008
    Phew! I feel soo much better now. My pictures turn out like one of your HDR images. I have not tried HDR...I should do.

    You did a great job. Your final picture is something that should be sold as prints....or to California Tourism board(if there is such a thing).

    Great job and thanx for sharing the secret.
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
    WildViper
    From Nikon D70s > Nikon D300s & D700
    Nikon 50/1.8, Tamron 28-75/2.8 1st gen, Nikkor 12-24/4, Nikkor 70-200/2.8 ED VR, SB600, SB900, SB-26 and Gitzo 2 Series Carbon Fiber with Kirk Ballhead
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