Tag: Topaz Adjust

Thunder Under The Bridge

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Fireworks under Clark Memorial Bridge
Thunder Under the Bridge

This image was taken during Thunder Over Louisville which is billed as one of the largest fireworks displays in America. Thunder Over Louisville occurs every spring as the kickoff event of the Kentucky Derby Festival. For this shot I went under the Clark Memorial Bridge to get a different vantage point from the typical fireworks shot. By including the bridge’s architecture I was able to take a rather mundane subject and give it a sense of scale.

I processed this image in Aperture 3 and Topaz Adjust which really added punch to the texture of the stonework and enhanced the colors in the fireworks. The composition is balanced by the strong diagonal line of the underside of the bridge deck and the curve of the arch on the left which also reinforces the arc of the fireworks as they stream down from the sky.

 

Tri-Five Beauty

Posted on by Nick Roberts

Among the lovers of the 1955 through 1957 Chevrolet the term “Tri-Five” is used to differentiate these models from the rest of their General Motors brethren. This gorgeous 1955 Chevy was parked at the Streetrod Nationals last year. I thought the overall restoration and modernization  of this car was outstanding. Even though it has been completely refitted with a modern driveline and custom wheels it is so well done it could fool most people into believing it is a stock 1955 Chevrolet. The interior was all reupholstered in new old stock factory seat covers and interior panels. The radio was hidden somewhere in the car but the controls looked like the original radio knobs and tuning dial.

I like this composition for it’s repetition of the forms that occur in the roof behind the car and the sky bridge at the left side of the image. The strong diagonals of the buildings reinforce the the placement of the car in the frame while the colors in the scene are harmonious and intensified. I used Topaz Adjust and Aperture 3 to process the image.

Mighty Mercury

Posted on by Nick Roberts

This 1946 Mercury coupe is the same car I used for my self portrait shot last week. I composed the image with the car coming at the viewer as if it were rolling out of the frame. Since one of my criteria for this shoot was to accent the reflections in the cars I really liked the way the reflection of the other cars showed up in the door on this car.

I processed this image using Topaz Adjust and Aperture 3 to intensify the color of he car and sky.

Reflected Beauties

Posted on by Nick Roberts

As I posted yesterday sometimes a photographer needs to try a different approach to a familiar subject. I attend several car shows every year in search of memorable images of automotive art. Given that there literally thousands of photographers who share my passion for early automobiles it is a daunting task to find a fresh way to showcase these vehicles. For this particular photo shoot I decided to focus on using reflections to capture the essence of the Streetrod Nationals.

This image shows the beauty of a traditional 1940 Ford coupe and a 1938 Chevrolet reflected in the side of a 1940 Graham sedan. The Graham is a nontraditional vehicle for the streetrod scene which is the reason I chose it as the main subject for this image. I found the juxtaposition of the reflected cars with the beauty of the lines of the Graham to be compelling enough to warrant exploring using the reflections as the main theme of the image.

I processed the image in Aperture 3 and Topaz Adjust to saturate and intensify the colors and details in the scene. The composition is another case of using the rule of thirds to balance the image. The strong foreground elements of the Graham fender and the reflections in it help to draw the eye into the image while the repetition of the Ford and Chevy in so many surfaces unifies the composition as well. As you view the image try to see how many times the Ford and Chevy are represented in the image.

Self Portrait with the Devilhog

Posted on by Nick Roberts

This self portrait was taken a couple of years ago at the entrance to the Bonneville Salt Flats International Speedway. I used Topaz Adjust bring out the details and colors in the scene.

I’m still feeling my way through this startup of the Speeddemon2 blog and trying to wrap my head around the WordPress analytics that show how many visitors the blog gets each day. There have been days where over 200 people viewed the blog and there have been days when as few as 30 people have stopped by. I’m trying to correlate those numbers with the posts from those days to better understand how I can deliver photos and information that will lead people to return each day or each week. I truly want to be a resource for photographers and ordinary folks to learn more about the work I produce and to find help, or inspiration, to further their artistic vision.

I would really appreciate hearing from you, the visitors, about what worked over the past few weeks and what didn’t. I studied fine art in a school that valued critiques as a way to grow and expand an artist’s thinking and inform his or her work. I’m asking anyone who has something constructive to say to post it in the comment section. I’m sitting here writing these word though and I’m wondering how I’ll deal with the possibility that no one will say anything. Oh well I can’t control the universe so I’ll take my chances with this post.