Halloween

Pre-Halloween Eve photos taken with the Leica D-Lux 4 during my daily excursions into the haunting season. A floating ghost and his shadow flying low in anticipation of all those little ghosts and goblins inhabiting the neighborhood. Photo processed in Adobe Lightroom 3 and Silver Efex Pro.

 A interesting pumpkin sitting on the fence showing the ravishes of time. Lots of mold gives the pumpkin some natural hair contrasted by some scribbled eyes, nose and mouth. The glow was added with the use of Nix Software Color Efex Pro and then was further enhanced with the use of Topaz Labs Detail plug-in.

 Have you seen the black and white version of Nosteratu ? A great move from 1922 well here I may have spotted him lurking in the shadows of the valley. Actually the picture is of my shadow and was refined with the use of Nik Color Efex Pro Glamor Glow filter and then processed into black and white using Silver Efex Pro.
Happy Halloween and have fun getting those scary party and trick or treat pics.

Gazo Creek Cutoff

More beach pictures this week in color plus some interesting apps for your I-Pad. LFI the international Leica photography magazine has just updated its free I-Pad, I-Phone app to include not only a great photo database but also now you can read the current issue of the magazine for free on either device. The other interesting app is Air Display which will allow you to use your I-Pad as a 2nd monitor. I have been using this app to watch video blogs etc. while I work on my photos. It works great but is expensive for a I-Pad app at $10.00.
Now back to Gazo Creek Cutoff which is located on the San Mateo County coast in California. The day was comfortable for a Northern California Beach, meaning the temperature was in the middle 60's. There was sun, fog and very little wind. The sun, water and fog all tend to intensive the light and not always in a good way which calls for shooting at higher speeds and f stops than normal (f-11 to f 16. The camera was the Leica M-9 fitted with Summarit 35 mm lens, post processed in Adobe Lightroom 3 and Nik Software plug-ins.

Looking north towards the Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

 Fog rolling in towards shore.

 Fog bank in the distance contrasted by the blue sky.

Light peeks through the overcast and highlights the white water.

Manresa Beach

Manresa Beach is located south of Santa Cruz, California and photographed on a foggy morning in October 2010. Today I'm sharing all black and white images that seem to work well in depicting the mood of the beach on that day. Next week I will share some color photos taken up the coast at Gazo Creek Cutoff in San Mateo County which were taken on the same day.
All photos were taken with the Leica M-9 fitted with the Leica Summarit 35mm lens processed in Adobe Lightroom 3.0 and Silver Efex Pro for conversion to black and white.

The view as you walk down to the beach.

Surf Fishermen

 A look down the empty beach

Light attempting to break through the fog.

A friendly Dachshund comes to see what we were doing.

Solitary Log

Black & White

I had the occasion to go to the local pumpkin patch & haunted house along with my Leica D-Lux 4. There were plenty of interesting subjects to photograph and I processed all of these pictures to black and white using Adobe Lightroom 3.0. Halloween as a theme seems to just scream for the use of black and white, you get that old feel to the pictures and the ability to add some eerie effects to complement them.
The first picture of the pirate skeleton was taken inside the haunted house and was converted to black and white using the new 64 bit version of Silver Efex Pro. I then used Color Efex Pro to add some glow to the image.

This kind fellow was similarly processed and looks more malevolent in black and white.

Apparitions are always a good subject for Halloween pictures.

What fun would the visit be without some photos of children enjoying the experience.

Making new friends is part of the fun this picture was enhanced with Color Efex Pro using the tonal filter.

As the light fades it is time to leave for home.