Tag: reflections

Back to the Distillery Again

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Horizontal old taylor springhouse_Panorama1_HDR
The Old Spring Revisited

Click on the image to open it at a larger size in another window.

I got up this morning and all I could think about was going back to the abandoned distillery I found last week. I had some ideas I wanted to try out using my 12-24 mm lens to shoot a panorama of this structure. I think I’m beginning to become obsessed with this place and the other unique buildings on the property but that may be coming to an end. Today I was discovered by one of the caretakers of the property who asked me to leave. Since I was trespassing I didn’t argue with him and to be fair he was very polite about the situation. He explained that a couple of weeks ago some vandals had set a fire in the road outside the property and the owners had instructed him to call the police and have anyone found there arrested. He said he wouldn’t do that today but he did let me know that I had been warned about trespassing and that he might not be so understanding if he found me in there again.

I shot this panorama as a four shot bracket set at five different camera angles horizontally. The 12-24 mm lens has a little too much distortion for this technique so if I ever get back in there again I think I’ll shoot it at 50 mm. I merged the five frames in Photoshop CS5 and then cropped the final image before taking it into NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 for tone mapping. I then took it back into Aperture 3 when I slightly reduced the saturation and boosted the vibrancy and structure before sharpening the final image.

I also rendered a copy in Black and White using an orange filter in aperture 3. Please take the time to comment and let me know which version you like best and why.

Horizontal old taylor springhouse_Panorama1_HDR - B&W Version 2

Click on the image to open it at a larger size in another window.

1956 Chevy

Posted on by Nick Roberts
1956 Chevy
1956 Chevy

Click on the image to open it at a larger size in another window.

I had a tough time shooting this year at the Streetrod Nationals due to the weather and time constraints of my own. The opening morning there wasn’t a cloud in the sky so the light was very harsh which as most photographers know makes things difficult. The second morning it was raining almost the entire time I was there which left me pretty much consigned to shooting closeups and detail shots with waterdrops on everything. I threw in the towel by noon and wrote off the event for this year.

I di manage to get a few images that I liked and this is one of them. One of the toughest factors I face when photographing at this event is what I refer to as the “visual pollution” that is created with all the tents and popups that the participants erect. Due to the tents and the folding chairs that are everywhere; it is nearly impossible to isolate the cars from the clutter. Another problem arises when the owner decides to open the hood on the car to show the engine; this act usually destroys any hope of getting a decent shot of the car no matter how interesting the car is.

Today’s image is from the first morning I was there and even though the whole car was incredibly well done, the place where it was parked was so cluttered with tents and the attendent items such as BBQ grills, lawn chairs, coolers and stacks of “stuff” I could not cet a clean shot of the whole car. I opted to shoot the front end and framed it as well as I could to remove those distractions. I shot a five exposure bracket set that I then edited in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and Aperture 3 to produce this image.

 

Exploring an Abandoned Distillery (Part 4)

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Temple of the Whiskey Spirits #3
Temple of the Whiskey Spirits #3

Click on the image to open it at a larger size in another window.

I thought I would end the week with a couple more shots of the distillery I was exploring. This first image was processed in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 using the Realistic 2 setting from a five shot bracket set. After merging the five shots and adjusting the Tone-Mapping and Tonality sliders I returned the image to Aperture 3 for some minor straightening and cropping as well as sharpening it for output.

I cropped into the image slightly to make the column on the right a stronger foreground element and to direct the eye into the frame. The repitition of the columns unifies the scene and also creates movement within the frame.

I decided to do a Black and White version as well which is the image below. I used NIK Silver Efex Pro to convert the photo to B&W and applied an orange filter to punch up the contrast slightly. I chose the Kodak Panatomic X ISO 32 film setting to get the dramatic blacks that I used to get from the same film in the darkroom.

Temple of the Whiskey Spirits #3 (B&W Version)

Click on the image to open it at a larger size in another window.

Exploring an Abandoned Distillery (Part 3)

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Looking Back to Another Time

Click on the image to open it at a larger size in another window.

I can’t stop working with these images. I’m so intrigued by the architecture and the way nature is slowly taking back the place. I keep trying to understand what this place is and why it was allowed to fall into ruin. It is highly unlikely this property will ever be restored and therefore in time nature will completely consume it and the stories it could tell.

The image here is another bracketed set of five exposures that I merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 before applying the Realistic Deep preset. I made some adjustments to the tonality and tone compression sliders and then returned the image to Aperture 3 where I added a vignette, adjusted the saturation and vibrance and finally sharpened the photo.

The composition is a symmetrical composition which I don’t often use but in this case it seemed to be the best choice to capture the scene and convey the mystery and stillness of the place.

Exploring an Abandoned Distillery (Part 2)

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Temple of the Whiskey Spirits #2

Click on the image to open it at a larger size in another window.

This image is another from my exploration of the abandoned distillery I talked about yesterday. I am very curious about the purpose of this structure and will probably go back there soon to further explore the site to see if I can figure out it’s purpose.

This is a bracket set of +2, +1, 0, -1, -2, that I merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and then used the Deep preset as my starting point before adjusting the black and the white points, the contrast and the structure sliders. I then took it back into Aperture 3 where I boosted the vibrancy and details slightly before adding a vignette and some sharpening.