Last post of 2011

Here it is the end of another year. I have these pictures taken near home on this last day of the year and the beginning of what appears to be a dry winter in Northern California. All pictures taken with the Leica D-Lux 4 and post processed in Adobe Lightroom 3.0.

Walking along this back trail a wide look through the trees.

I switched from holding the camera in lanscape position to portrait and you got a interesting different look. Next year I hope to highlight more of these type of photos by switching the position or the perspective in which the photo is taken.

Here I used the tree to frame the view through the garden to the house.

Out of the tree shrouded trails to blue sky and this lovely old oak tree.

Wishing you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year.  

Late Fall Light

I'm sharing three pictures that I took recently that highlight interesting late fall light.

In this first picture strong sun was filtering through cloud cover which added light highlighting the weathered wood of this old shack. (Leica D-Lux 4)

The inside of the same shack with strong light filling in the open spaces ranging from bright white to a sunny warm glow adding interest to the already strong contrasts. (Leica D-Lux 4)

The clouds have almost cleared away and another view of the shack. Converted to black and white with Silver Efex Pro to show the interesting contrast and soft light  of fall. (Leica D-Lux 4)

Two Pics

Two pics taken with the Leica D-Lux 4 on a recent walk with my dogs through the Windy Hill Open Space Preserve.

Black and white photo taken as the early morning fog was dissipating. The fog back lights the tree giving a interesting glow to the picture. 

Photo taken along a creekside path with light filtering through the trees and surrounding foliage. Lots of color contrast and range. The Leica D-Lux 4 is a versatile little camera that is easily carried in a jacket pocket and is easy to use even when you have two large dogs on leash. Shooting in RAW gives you good quality images that are easily fine tuned in Adobe Lightroom.

Dumpster Treasures

Walked by a home under going a renovation and thought that I would capture a few pics. Dumpsters sometimes contain some interesting material. These pics were taken with the Leica M-9 and post processed with Adobe Lightroom 3.0 and Silver Exex Pro.

Headboard, drapes and old carpet.

 Over flowing, even this lovely old chair had to go.

Side table showing lots of character. 

The moral of this posting is that you never know when you are going to run into interesting subjects to photograph. The more you carry your camera with you the more opportunities you will have to capture interesting pics.

First Day of Fall 2011

I've been real busy that last two months and have been remiss in adding new pictures to this blog. Today was the first full day of fall and here are a few pictures highlighting the changing seasons. All photos were taken with the Leica D-Lux 4 and processed using Adobe Lightroom.

Close up of a bronze statue processed using Silver Efex Pro. Note that selective areas of the statue have had part of the bronze color brought out using the add a point function and then selecting selective colorization.

 Looking through the gates into this beautiful estate flanked by trees starting to change into their fall colors.

 Colorful leaf lying on the pavement.

 Interesting colors highlighted by defuse lighting through the trees.

Natural sunlight highlights the interesting shape and colors of this fallen leaf.

Topaz Filters

Some examples of photos taken with the Leica M-9 and post processed using Topaz filters, Detail 2 and Adjust 4. Photo one is a crop with Topaz Detail 2 Applied. The absence of color works in this rendition with lots of highlight changes in his markings.

 Here is the same dog in color with detail enhanced using Topaz Detail 2 and Adjust 4.

 Fluffy clouds processed using Detail 2.

 One of the dogs balls sitting in partial light and shadow Topaz Detail 2.

 Nika my older female taking a break on her stack of dog pillows. Topaz Detail 2 brings out her coat detail.

Another day at the shopping mall with the Leica M-9. It seems that I go to the Stanford Mall to purchase fresh bread at least once a week. Even thou I usually go before the major stores are open there are always a few people around to photograph.
The little girl to the right was enamored with the chocolate goodies and the small toys in the window. All photos in this posting were post edited using Adobe Lightroom 3.0 and Adobe CS-5 with plug-ins from Nik Software and Topaz Labs.

 Lovely summertime flowers in bloom.

 A fontaine of fun with frog statues and water attracting all the little children.

 Mom saying its time to go.

 Outside the bakery waiting for there morning snack.

Covered walkway with interesting lighting effects from Nik Software Color Efexs Pro 3.0 .

Taking a break in one of the peaceful lounge areas of the mall.

Happy Fathers Day

Happy Fathers Day out there, I've been busy this week so here are a few quick pics I took with the Leica D-Lux 4.

 Windy Hill Pond

 Flower in macro mode.

 Water flow hand held at 1/5 sec.

 Wants to go every where with me.

Out for a stroll.

Typical June

June in my neighborhood is a mixture of sun, wind and cloudy cool to warm conditions. This makes for some interesting photographic opportunities. These pictures were all taken on Saturday morning and highlight how weather conditions may give you some interesting results.
Our friend Martin a lovely horse is in the shadows of the tree with strong back lighting caused by the sun being magnified through the foggy clouds. It makes for a interesting look with strong contrast between colors and strong light.


The next two pictures were converted using a solarizing filter and then converted to black and white. The picture was taken at the same time as that of Martin the horse and was your everyday shot of someone walking up the trail. Ho-hum I thought as I took the shot but it does have some interesting aspects when seen through a more artistic perspective.

The open field and hillside highlight the weather conditions and the ever changing colors exhibited at this time of year.

Flower with its paper like leaves is contrasted by the gravel background.

Macro mode was used to take this photo of a bright red of this bottle brush and then some glow was added in photoshop CS5. All photos in this post were taken with the Leica D-Lux 4.

Nik Software Response

Here is Nik Softwares response to my question about error code 151:

"Thank you for contacting Nik Software.  Error code -151 means that something has occurred in your system which disconnects our activation server.  Usually this is due to a system update.  This can be resolved by restarting your machine.  In some instances, you may need to restart twice after installing updates.  Restarting your machine will re-connect the activation server and resolve error code -151."
If you have any questions you can contact them here:

Nik Software, Inc.  |   Photography first®

7588 Metropolitan Drive  |   San Diego, CA 92108
Tel - 619.725.3150   |   Fax - 619.725.3151
supportus@niksoftware.com  |  www.niksoftware.com

Black and White Conversion

Sharing some black and white images converted in Silver Efex Pro 2. Photos take with either the Leica M-9 of Leica D-Lux 4. I have been very happy with the results using Silver Efex Pro 2. The only issue I have run into was after using the program for sometime now it suddenly said that the demo version time had ended and to enter in the product serial numbers to register. I did and the program said that it couldn't authenticate the serial numbers and gave a error code of 151. It was the weekend so no tech support was available form Nik Software. Sent a e-mail outlining the problem and then went on line and searched for error code 151.
It seems that there were a lot of others having similar issues with Nik Software. After reading a number of posts on on-line forums I decided to try to rectify the problem by uninstalling the software and re installing. This worked and hopefully it will take of the issue from here on out. I will keep you all posted on my experience with this software.

 Leica M-9 Stanford Shopping Center.

 Leica M-9 close up.

 Leica D-Lux 4 taken on a recent rainy day.

 Leica D-Lux 4 the rain moving in- interesting light

Porsche 912 processed to give a old film look accented with the use of negative space. Leica D-Lux 4.

Thought I would share a interesting Leica video I recently saw.


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M 9 and Errands

I was out running some errands on Friday and took some pictures with my Leica M-9 as I visited Stanford Mall and downtown Menlo Park. Some of today's pictures are in a 16x9 format, I'm experimenting with this format for use in video displays.

 A great bakery that serves sandwiches, goodies and custom coffee drinks. (16x9)

Local photographers checking out settings before capturing the display window.

 What a display of some very expensive purses.

The courtyard with all its spring plantings.(16x9)

Close up of some lovely roses.(16x9)

Early morning shoppers taking a break.(16x9)

No visit to the mall is complete without a stop at the Apple Store.

While downtown in Menlo Park I took a minute to grab a few shots of the Porsche 911T that has seen better days.

 Parked under a shady tree this old Porsche is still in daily use.

A rear engined car this black and white rendition makes for a interesting image. All of the photos for this posting were processed in Adobe Lightroom 3. Plugins used were Topaz Labs and Nik Software.