Untitled

I often do my best to find a good title for all the wallpaper images I post here but this time around I simply could not find one that felt quite right so for the first time I will simply leave this image untitled. As with the last beach photos posted I shot this while down south on the Gulf coast. The deep southeast in the U.S., despite its strange reputation, has some beautiful places to explore and discover. I love the big oak trees and the hanging stringy moss like plants on tree branches. Not to mention the marsh lands and their trees with roots poking up out of the water. I don’t get south as often these days but it would be fun to take a short road trip dedicated to shooting sometime in the future. Just one more thing on my, I should do that sometime list.

Those of you keeping track of such things, the photo here was shot wide open at f/1.4 with my 35mm canon lens and my 5D. The original color had a much more exaggerated yellow tint because of my crazy white balance setting I often jump to but I decided to cool things off to make it feel more like I remember it feeling while standing there. I remember walking out onto the pier here just as the sun was making its final move beyond the horizon and luckily my brother was willing to stop for a second so I could steal a couple of shots. I love the feeling I ended up capturing and could not help but want to share it with everyone as a desktop. I think my favorite part of the image, oddly, is the hint of flare there on the railing.

Golden Light

Due to the overwhelming popularity of my mnml beach wallpapers I could not help but make a couple more like minded shots while down in the Gulf coast shooting a wedding for a family member. We were exploring the roads near the coastline and completely lucked out around sunset and came across a gorgeous little stretch of beach we had all to ourselves. I noticed this great cliff-like formation in the sand near the water and knew I had found the perfect spot to shoot. It almost looks like a wave of sand, frozen there in time. I love these moments where a time and subject just suddenly click into place and gives you exactly what you want. There is some crazy saturation here I know but I did not add any in post. It is all the time of day + a nice white balance. Remember, you can do so much with just the basics within the camera. I find many readers think I do a lot of post work but I really do as little as possible as often as I can.

Unfortunately I totally blew a handful of great shots of this spot because of lazy shooting that lead to bad exposures. The sky was totally blown out at its brightest point and had a nasty looking band of white. If I have the time I will write a post specifically talking about the shots and write a little about why it happens and how to avoid it. To the best of my ability that is.

Light Falls

I made a stop by a state park near Raleigh the last time I was there to see what was around and managed to find a couple of nice spots to shoot. The park was pretty over run by locals so it was not a stop particularly full of solitude but hey, with the limited view of a camera and the right moment you can make anywhere seem peaceful. This shot ended up getting a fair amount of contrast tossed in and I decided to keep the white balance in a more neutral space for once so I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I would when I first shot it. This is the kind of thing that always manage to catch my eye, not particularly the fallen tree itself but the way the light was passing through the other trees and falling onto the ground. The overcast day caused a very subtle change in stops between the shadows and the cloud filtered sunlight making its way to the earth. It made for the subtle balance of exposure I was able to capture here. The contrast was simply added as a way to make things pop but I love discovering those perfect spots just begging to be photographed, it never gets old.

Café Noir

I have a lot of readers that love it when I take photos of coffee and I this weekend while at one of my favorite little coffee shops I decided to bring in my 5D for a few shots to share as wallpapers. The shop is called Third Place, in Raleigh, NC. It’s a small shop selling fresh and delicious coffee, sandwiches, and pastries and I always make a point to stop by when I am in town. I love the stone table tops and the atmosphere is not unlike a cozy room in your own home. At any rate, I ordered a simple drip coffee and a croissant and sat down to take a few photos. The combination of the artificial lighting inside and the wonderful light from the window ended up leading to some messy color temperatures so when in post I decided to make the lead desktop a deep black and white film noir looking image. Perhaps a bit heavy but I thought it was still nice enough to share. (desktop number 2 is the color version seen below.)

As Far As You Can

As spring approaches it’s hard not to let your mind wander off to days soon to come. Evenings spent watching the sun set, the warmth of the day starts to bleed into the night and the darkness gives space to quiet, warm nights alive with possibility. There are those perfect days, not too hot, not too cold, leaving you to want nothing more than to lay out in the shade with a book. Time slows down and emotions lift along with the flowers in bloom and young leaves stretching out into the sky. It’s coming and I for one am ready for it. Funny though, this image was from last fall but I thought it held that same sort of casual warmth that a great spring day can provide. I love seasons of transition, always inspiring and here’s hoping this will be a great one.