Preview

It’s funny how sometimes the shoots that seem to go the worst still turn out alright. My recent meeting with RJ DeVera at the Meguiar’s facility in Irvine to shoot this Wraptivo CR-Z he was commissioned to build was one such instance. The shoot caught me in the middle of possibly the busiest week I’d had yet at 2NR, time was limited, we were forced to shoot mid-day, and Irvine doesn’t exactly present many picturesque locations to the automotive photographer.

But I lucked out. We found an abandoned parking garage just a few doors down from the Meguiar’s facility (the kind of place I’d normally avoid), and thanks to its odd layout, cool-looking pillars, and the off-camera lights I’d thought to bring just in case (my opinion: black cars look better in natural light), it turned out A-okay.

This photo is a composite of several different images, each one shot with the camera secured on a tripod and my lights lighting various parts of the car differently. Since the car was flat black, I wanted to highlight its curves and flat texture with hot spots rather than avoid them. In post, I composited the areas of each image that I wanted to use with Layers/Masks, using the Brush and Gradient tools. A lot of people prefer to make selections with the Lasso or Pen tool; I find that this “less precise” approach blends better.

I also decided to desaturated the background for uniform color balance with a monochromatic finish, and the black areas of the car to help it fit better with the background and accentuate its red contrasts. It might be hard to tell, but I also added a 6% “soft light” blue cast to the car’s flat-black Wraptivo finish to set it apart from the background just a little.

Some of the RAW shots:

The rear shot above was actually the second one I edited. This front shot was the first. Looking back, I wish I’d have chosen a more side-prominent angle like the rear, and after a consultation with my good friend Steve Demmitt, I wish I’d have taken the time to smooth the side of the car a little better in post:

RAWs:

All in all, I’m pretty happy with how a little forethought and a lot of post processing were able to save this feature. You can see it in the Oct., ’11 issue of Import Tuner, which is on shelves as of press time. The bummer is that since the CR-Z isn’t the hottest platform out there (featuring popular cars is a cold business), it only ran three pages. No worries — that’s part of the reason I started this blog ;-)

The Miatarticles

So this is what I’m living with these days: The Miata on jackstands, the Integra on its last leg (making some sort of knocking noise—either a dying rod bearing or timing belt tensioner), a garage full of parts for both cars, and the neighbor’s cat who loves to climb all over it all. Go me :-/

The short story: I slid the Miata into a curb at the port of Long Beach one rainy night last year and bent its subframe. A few weeks later it developed a sudden death problem, shutting off at random and refusing to start, and all the while its rear main seal had been leaking. I put it down and have tried not to think about it ever since.

But then Charles mentioned that we should run something on the car in 2NR, and Gary from Design Craft sold me a COMPLETE drivetrain and suspension for super cheap. I had to take it. And I had to take this shot before getting started.

I set all this up, made a bunch of exposures with the camera tripoded and lights set up differently, then tore everything down, and later made a composite image in Photoshop that I was happy with, for the most part. But I’d left an ugly cardboard box in front of my Integra when I shot, as well as a bare spot behind the engine stand that irked me. I went out hours later, moved the Integra, lights, and camera back into the positions I thought they were all in before, set the same flash output, shutter, focal length, and aperture, tried my best to correct what I missed the first time around, and worked the necessary areas of the new shots into the final image:

RAWs:

The main shot:

What was used for parts of the engine bay and front of the car (notice the cat just barely in the frame on the left — I’m sure he did that on purpose):

The new shot, where the welder and Integra came from (I PSd out the light stand):

I still can’t find the original shot of the cat, but whatever. Here’s a pic of him earlier that day, sniffing the Intregra for a solid 5 minutes. Who does that?

I want one!!

I grew up skateboarding. From age 12 until 26, it was my life. The friends I made along the way are still the best I have today, many of whom, sadly, I left when I moved out here from Pittsburgh, PA, 3 1/2 years ago. On top of that, I’ve never fully recovered from the broken wrist I suffered two years ago (failed feeble to fakie), and with work regularly kicking my ass, I don’t get to skate as much as I’d like to. This weekend was a perfect break from all that.

Six months ago, my best friend from the old skateboarding era paid me a visit and crashed on my couch for about 10 days. Four months later, he moved out here and became my roomate full-time. It’s been fun reliving my youth a little. Even better, two days ago we discovered that another long-lost skateboarding friend of ours, Chris, was living in nearby Oceanside and had just finished building a four-foot miniramp in his backyard, and wanted to throw its inaugural sesh amidst an M-day BBQ with the old crew … only with some additions: his wife, Alyssa, and 2-year-old son, Nico.

I was so in.

I stayed busy trying to get my blunts to fakie back for most of the day, but I did manage to get some snaps in between.
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Daddy (Chris) and Nico, taking a break on the ramp. Nico actually came up with this technique, which he doesn’t hesitate to demonstrate:

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Chris and his bros work fast — they built the whole ramp in just two weekends, and it skates rock solid. Chris works with wood for a living, but I suspect he had a secret helper:

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Nico’s gonna be a shredder one day. He loves the ramp and is fascinated by the mechanics of skateboarding. Here he is making sure daddy’s bearings are in check:

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He’s not quite big enough to actually ride the transitions, but that doesn’t stop mommy from introducing him to the them little by little.

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Here he is with his regular axe: a Build-a-Bear toy skateboard…

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…That he flips in the air while jumping up and down in the flat bottom, yelling, “SPIN MOVE!!” It’s only a matter of time until he lands one of these.

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And of course, what would any M-day celebration be without a grip of good food? Not pictured: beer. We had plenty of it, which led to an old-man revert/below-the-coping session once we all had a few.

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As the day wore on I began to feel my age. I found myself rigid, weak-legged, and short of breath after only a few trips to the coping. Even as I write this, some slams I took hours ago are giving me pain that would’ve been long gone in my younger days (from even bigger slams). But probably most telling is how my attention gradually shifted from the ramp to Nico.

My young skateboarding days were pretty damn good, and as much as I hate to admit it, they’re slipping farther and farther away. I’m sure it’s the same for Chris, but watching him with his little guy was like watching him live those good days all over again. I’ve wanted to build a backyard ramp for as long as I can remember. After today, I’m realizing that I want a little guy of my own to build one for even more.
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Nico, challenging daddy to a game of “monkey balls”:

… And I did get those blunt-fakies back. Just sayin! ;-)

Weird Laguna

Google Earth/Satellite is a godsend for photographers. Doubly so for those of us who engage in landscape photography for fun. Finding a good location is the most important aspect of creating an impressive shot, and also the most exciting. Google makes it better. While Google Satelliting the Laguna coast for rocky outcroppings sometime last year, I came across this large, round, apparently man-made object on the coast. I knew I had to investigate.

What turned out to be a neglected infinity pool, so say the locals (which has over the years sunk far enough into the sand to be completely covered by the sea at high tide), is very, very cool to witness in person. But tough to make look like anything less than an eyesore — just a few feet behind it (to the right of it in this photo) is a white, wooden set of stairs that would just kill the shot:

I’m stoked with this one. The sunset was good, the shots turned out great, and thanks to the latest couple of tweaks I made to my setup to keep my camera and filters dry … they did. Even though I got soaked.

EOS 5D MKII
Tokina 12-24mm f/4 AT-X Pro
Cokin Z-Pro filter holder
Hitech 0.6 SE graduated ND filter, 0.6 HE graduated ND filter
Manfrotto tripod
Remote shutter release
Adobe Bridge, Photoshop CS4
20mm, f/13, 1.6 sec, ISO 100
Exposure, temp, clarity, vibrance, contrast, noise, saturation adjusted in PS Raw Converter
Manual composite of three images
Levels, curves, saturation adjusted in PS
Skewed, re-sized and sharpened

RAWs:

Calm among the storm

Made it down to Laguna amidst all the shitty weather of the past cpl days, and lucked out in finding these shots. This one’s a vert pan of two vert shots, but I have nearly 80 horiz/vert alternates — I’ll change it up before I’m 99% happy with it:

EOS 5D MKII
Tokina 12-24mm f/4 AT-X Pro
Cokin Z-Pro filter holder
Hitech 0.6 SE graduated ND filter, 0.6 HE graduated ND filter
Tiffen 77mm circular polarizer
Manfrotto tripod
Remote shutter release
Clear umbrella
Adobe Bridge, Photoshop CS4
21mm, f/16, 2 sec, ISO 200
Exposure, temp, clarity, vibrance, contrast, noise, saturation adjusted in PS Raw Converter
Manual composite of two images
Levels, curves, saturation adjusted in PS
Skewed, re-sized and sharpened

RAWs:

It’s mah birthday!!

This one’s from today. I was looking up some filters to buy earlier, and started thinking back to when I first discovered the magic of neutral grads and got my first set — just about a year ago. For nostalgia’s sake, I decided to revisit the very same spot where I first used them, as seen in this post. It’s definitely going to need a little more attention in post, but this is pretty close to how I’d like it to look:

EOS 5D MKII
Tokina 12-24mm f/4 AT-X Pro
Cokin Z-Pro filter holder
Hitech 0.6 SE graduated ND filter, 0.6 HE graduated ND filter
Manfrotto tripod
Remote shutter release
Clear umbrella
Adobe Bridge, Photoshop CS4
20mm, f/14, 1.3 sec, ISO 160
Exposure, temp, clarity, vibrance, contrast, noise, saturation adjusted in PS Raw Converter
Manual composite of three images
Levels, curves, saturation adjusted in PS
Re-sized and sharpened

RAWs:

And here’s one from yesterday. It’s in P.V., but a little far from the road; I finally got my bike fixed and was able to ride down. Not my favorite shot, but I think there’s more potential to be found in post with this one, too:

EOS 5D MKII
Tokina 12-24mm f/4 AT-X Pro
Cokin Z-Pro filter holder
Hitech 0.6 SE graduated ND filter, 0.6 HE graduated ND filter
Manfrotto tripod
Remote shutter release
Clear umbrella
Adobe Bridge, Photoshop CS4
24mm, f/20, .6 sec, ISO 50
Exposure, temp, contrast, vibrance, saturation, etc. adjusted in PS Raw Converter
Levels, curves adjusted in PS
Manual composite of two images
Re-sized and sharpened

RAWs:

Getting soaked

I found a new spot the other day. It’s in Laguna Beach, just south of an old favorite spot of mine I discovered last year. Pretty sweet too — a bunch of moss-covered rocks that make for awesome wave breaks during high tide. Only problem is that you get pretty wet trying to shoot them. I don’t mind; the new solution I’ve been working on to keep my camera and filters dry when I shoot stuff like this seems to be working, after a few disappointing failed attempts. Getting the shot and keeping the camera dry is a victory. The rest of me getting thoroughly soaked only makes it sweeter :-)

Next time, I go back on a day with something better than a shit sunset:

EOS 5D MKII
Tokina 12-24mm f/4.0 ATX Pro
Cokin Z-Pro filter holder
Hitech 0.6 SE graduated ND filter, 0.6 HE graduated ND filter
Manfrotto tripod
Remote shutter release
Adobe Bridge, Photoshop CS4
20mm, f/10, 1/6 sec, ISO 400 (thereabout)
Vert pan of two horizontal shots
Increased exposure, contrast, clarity, vibrance, color balance, contrast in PS Raw Converter
Manually composited in PS (sky from the first shot below, rock and B.G. detail from the second, water and foreground from the third)
Sharpened/resized

RAWs:

Laguna Beach one odd day

The last pic(s) I shot before my 5D MKII broke … again :-/

EOS 5D MKII
Tokina 12-24mm f/4.0 ATX Pro
Cokin Z-Pro filter holder
Hitech 0.6 SE graduated ND filter, 0.6 HE graduated ND filter
Manfrotto tripod
Remote shutter release
Adobe Bridge, Photoshop CS4
21mm, f/18, 4 sec, ISO 400 (each)
Vert pan of two vertical shots
Increased exposure, contrast, clarity, vibrance, contrast in PS Raw Converter
Manually composited in PS
Scaled shorter, skewed level
Sharpened/resized

RAW:

Before scaling:

Went to Sonoma last weekend

The weather was awesome, yet frustrating for photography: warm, for the most part dry, and cloudy enough to really light an interesting scene (especially coupled with NorCal’s endless rolling, green, hilly spring landscape), but fast-moving enough not to keep any interesting scene lit well for long.

I’ve just begun to pick through some photos from the trip, and so far this is one of the few that halfway turned out (foreground focus could be sharper). I pulled over alongside the 5 freeway and shot it through my car window (with the glass down, of course):

EOS 5D MKII
Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L
Cokin Z-Pro filter holder
Hitech 0.6 SE graduated ND filter, 0.6 HE graduated ND filter
70mm, f/6.3, 1/640sec, ISO 400
Adobe Bridge, Photoshop CS4
Manually adjusted for exposure, contrast, vibrance, color, noise in PS Raw Converter
Selectively adjusted levels, curves, and saturation in PS
Skewed center, sharpened/resized

RAW:

Just for fun

Just got done shooting a pair of Steel Wheels headpones from Pioneer for a P.R. in Import Tuner, and got a little silly with the editing, just for fun. I kinda like the results:

And it gave me an idea for a future set.

EOS 30D
Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 XRDi
54mm, f5/6, 1/80 sec, ISO 1600
Suspended from a tile in the office ceiling near a plain white wall, shot with ambient florescent light
Adobe Bridge, Photoshop CS4
Rotated canvas, manually adjusted levels and curves, desaturated, cloned, colored, cropped, sharpened

RAW: