A Fall Sunset on a Mendocino Beach

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Twilight

Just because I can :)

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Late Afternoon in Paradise

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Lightroom, Culling, JPEGs, TIFFS and all that Sort of Thing

All my early shooting was in JPEG. I knew that was something I would have to do something about eventually. Well, eventually is now. Choosing from 8k or so JPEGs and saving the survivors as TIFFs.

In culling I came across a lot of pictures that did not look all that good, including this one. (It is best seen in large size.) The hills were black and the sky colorless. so I fired up Lightroom.

First I darkened the exposure to bring some color to the sky. Then I used fill light to bring up the hills. There was a red of the setting sun in the cliffs there I did not even know was in the image. I upped the black pixels for some contrast, and this is what I got.

In Photoshop this would have been major surgery. In Lightroom it was done all on one screen in 3 or 4 minutes. A remarkable tool that I highly recommend.

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Along a Mendocino Beach

Returning to the theme of the trip to Northern California, Will and I wandered along this beach south of Eureka for 
several hours.  It was a splendid experience not to mention location.  
This is a remote part of California and pristine.  We were the only folks there.  
Nearer to God to be sure.

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A Room with a View

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I couldn't help but wonder where this house will be ten years from now.

More Mendocino County Beach

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As I go back through my shots from the trip up north, I continue to pull out some gems of Mother Nature. All I had to do was set the exposure. She did the rest.

Son Will on a Mendocino Beach

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Another shot from the vast collection accumulated when my son Will and I paid a visit to far northern California. Between the two of us, we shot up over 900 images. (A thousand monkeys and a thousand typewriters?) Anyway, we got some pretty good stuff. Will has been posting a few over at his site that are quite good. You can see them here.

Still fighting the flu... good grief. I can not remember being this sick for this long. It is getting very old. But, I am doing better today, so I hope I'm on the mend.

Serenity by the Sea

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People and Dog on a Beach on a Fall Afternoon

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More from Mendocino County.

Anita and I are both still sick, The only one in the house who isn't sick is the 91 yr old Alzheimer's patient. Go figure.

After the Starfish Office Party

Finally Blogger image upload is working... for the moment.

Still wrestling with the flu, but a bit improved.

Mendocino County Beach in the Fall

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Still fighting a bug, feels like the flu. Arrrrgh.

This is similar to a previous post, but from a different vantage point. I like the sky in this shot.

Along Route 1 in Mendocino County, Northern California

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A fantastic stretch of coastline.

Yesterday I was dealing with a few more medical issues. This skin cancer thing is pesty. SPF 5000, sombrero and a burka are the only way I see to deal with it. In the meantime I have multiple biopsies, freezing with liquid nitrogen and the occasional surgery. Maybe guys of Irish extraction were not meant to be photographers :)

Anyway, this is another shot from Will's and my trip up Eureka way. I love shooting here in the fall and winter. The light is far more interesting than it is in the summer when the sun is more directly overhead. This stretch of coast, with its rock formations on the beach, begins to look more like Oregon and Washington.

More to follow.

Pebbles on a Beach

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I almost named this Artsy Schmartzy II. I took this on the beach up in Mendocino County near sunset. There were many interesting things to see on this beach including rather spectacular rock formations, huge flocks of gulls and pelicans, star fish in profusion and much more.

Down to the Sea

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My son Will and I took a rather long tour of Northern California. We left Sacramento early in the morning on a Saturday. By the end of the day we were in Eureka about 100 miles south of the Oregon border. We went up the 5 for one hundred miles or so, crossed over the mountains to the 101 and went up to Willits where we crossed the coastal range over a twisty winding road through the redwoods to a section of Route 1 on the coast that was just amazing. We spent the night in Eureka and toured this town where time has stood still since the 1890s. Our trip back brought us through the Humboldt Redwood Forest. (Ever wonder where all the hippies from the 60s went? They are in Humboldt County.)

The next several posts will be related to what we saw along the way.