Saturday, February 28, 2009

Out and about in Montreal - Part2

Outdoor Terrace
Outdoor Terrace in mid-October

Montreal is a colourful town. With its love of outdoor terraces, its mix of architectural styles, its French/European flavours, there is something to catch your interest.


workmen
Workmen on break

I lived here for over 35 years now, and I never grow tired of it. Language issue not withstanding, Montreal is one of the best cities to live in. Or in my case, live near.


  One of my favourite buildings along
  Cote-des-Neige Blvd

A good deal of my time in the city is centered around Guy and Ste-Catherine. This is largely due to the fact that most of my medical Specialists are at the Montreal General Hospital. And because after taking the Metro from the south shore and getting off at Guy, you can grab a bus that takes you up to Mont Royal park.

Here are few more shots taken along Cote des Neiges, heading up to the park.


Dr Penfield
Looking west along Dr Penfield from Cote des Neiges


Old Nurses' residence

Old Nurses' residence at the Montreal General


Cote des Neiges Blvd
Looking west along Cote des Neiges Blvd in front of the Montreal General


There are still the images taken on Mont Royal. But they'll be the subject for another blog.

Remember that clicking on any image on this page will open a larger version. Use your browser's "back" button to return to the Blog.

Other photos taken on this walkabout can be seen in my Walkabout Montreal - 17 October 2008 gallery.

Please feel free to leave comments here on the blog or in any of the photo galleries.

Thanks for looking. And stop by again.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Orton-izing your images

Something a little different for today's post. A while back in one of the newsgroups I participate in, we had fun Orton-izing images. Orton-izing images or applying what is called the Orton Effect, is a technique originally created by Canadian photographer Michael Orton.

Mr. Orton has published a book called "Photographing Creative Landscapes". A very interesting preview of the book including some of his photos and explanation of how he created them can be found on Google Book search. Click here to see the preview.

A small portfolio gallery of his images can be seen here.

There are a number of sites found on the web that talk about the Orton Effect and how to reproduce it on your own images. One of the better ones in my opinion can be seen here.

The hard part in creating an Orton-ized image is not in the creation process but rather in finding a image where the process works.

In most photo editing software that supports layers, you can Orton-ize your image as follows.
  1. duplicate original layer.
  2. set blend mode of duplicate to 'Screen'.
  3. merge down.
  4. duplicate layer, setting blend mode to 'Multiply'.
  5. apply Gaussian blur to duplicate layer using a value between 15 to 50. I tend to use 35 for my images.
  6. Create an HSL adjustment layer. Here you can increase or decrease the saturation until you achieve the desired effect. Again from personal experience I find I like increased saturation (15-30 values). The main exception to this is when there is a great deal of Red in the image. This is when I will decrease the saturation a bit.
There are times when the resultant image looks dark. The quick and simple fix is to duplicate the lower layer (the one that was a result of merging the two layers with Screen blend mode) and set its blend mode to 'Screen'. A second and more precise method would be to add a Curves layer where you can tweak just the darks and shadows.

The following are some of the images I have created following the above steps.


Orton Effect

Orton Effect

Orton Effect

Orton Effect

Orton Effect


Hope you found today's topic interesting and enjoyable.

Remember that clicking on any image on this page will open a larger version. Use your browser's "back" button to return to the Blog.

Other photos that I've applied this process to can be seen in my Digtal Effects - Orton-ized gallery.

Please feel free to leave comments here on the blog or in any of the photo galleries.

Thanks for looking. And stop by again.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Out and about in Montreal

Ste Catherine street
Ste-Catherine street looking west towards Mackay

I love Montreal. I love walking about the city capturing its buildings, its people, its character.

Along Rene Levesque
      Along Rene Levesque Blvd

I had some time last October to spend a good part of the day in Montreal. One of the purposes of this trip was to take some 'street photography' photos for a photo newsgroup challenge.

Dorchester Square
Dorchester Square

While I enjoy looking at this type of photography, it is not a form I feel comfortable doing. So it was for me a bit of a stretch.
Having only a vague idea of what I was looking for, I started snapping 'people shots'. I was lucky that it was early in the morning and most people were intent on getting to work.


Ste Catherine street
Jogging at the light - Ste-Catherine street

Ste Catherine street
Heavy load - Ste-Catherine street

Ste Catherine street
Ste-Catherine Near Guy

Ste Catherine street
Ste-Catherine and Guy

There were a lot more images taken that day. But they'll be subjects for other blogs.

Remember that clicking on any image on this page will open a larger version. Use your browser's "back" button to return to the Blog.

Other photos taken on this walkabout can be seen in my Walkabout Montreal - 17 October 2008 gallery.

Please feel free to leave comments here on the blog or in any of the photo galleries.

Thanks for looking. And stop by again.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Lighthouses I came across in Maine

Goat Island Light
Goat Island Light off Cape Porpoise near Kennebunkport, Maine


Cape Elizabeth Light
Cape Elizabeth Light

I left off last year in this blog with our trip to Old Orchard Beach. During that trip I managed to visit a few light houses in the area. The Goat Island Light off Cape Porpoise, was just a bit too far way for my longest reach - 200 mm. But at least I did record seeing it.

Cape Elizabeth Light
      Cape Elizabeth Light

There are actually two lighthouses on Cape Elizabeth. But one of them is now a private dwelling and not accessible to the public.
There is a restaurant and an adorable souvenir shop near the Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse. If you ever have the chance, you must stop and check out the many interesting and unique gifts and souvenirs that can be found in that little shop.

Goat Island Light
Portland Head Light with Ram Island Ledge Light
in distance, Cape Elizabeth, Maine


Portland Head Light
Portland Head Light, Cape Elizabeth

One of the prettiest lighthouses we came across was the Portland Head Lighthouse, also located in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. The sun had been playing tag most of the day, so the challenge was trying to grab a shot with the light shining on the lighthouse, but not so that it caused the whites to blow.

If you looked out into Casco Bay, you could see the Ram Island Ledge light. It was also a bit too far away for my 200 mm reach.

Ram Island Ledge Light
Ram Island Ledge Light in Casco Bay, Portland

The last lighthouses we saw were in Portland harbour -- the Portland Breakwater (or "Bug") light and the Spring Point Light.
Portland Breakwater Light
Portland Breakwater "Bug" Light, Portland, Maine

Spring Point Light
Spring Point Light, Portland, Maine



Thanks for coming along on our Old Orchard trip. Hope you enjoyed it.

Remember that clicking on any image on this page will open a larger version. Use your browser's "back" button to return to the Blog.

Other photos taken on the trip can be seen in my Trip to Old Orchard Beach, Maine - October 2008 gallery.

Please feel free to leave comments here on the blog or in any of the photo galleries.

Thanks for looking. And stop by again.

Monday, February 16, 2009

My apologies


It's been some time since I last posted to this blog. It is my hope to start posting again at least weekly.

For today, I leave you with this image.
Roses

Please feel free to leave comments here on the blog or in any of the photo galleries.

Thanks for looking. And stop by again.