Galveston Architecture

This is a detail from the front of the Railroad Museum building in Galveston.  Originally the Union Passenger station of the Santa Fe Railroad, the building was saved from demolition and restored by the Moody Foundation, completed in 1982.  Built in 1932, it sits at the head of the Strand and although still closed since Hurricane Ike, it houses the Railroad Museum and is slated to open again in the Spring of 2010.  The "X" details go up many floors and below the vase shapes are more colorful deco details, maybe tiles, as well as more graphic carvings and windows with the edges angled but I could not get all of those in the frame without some scaffolding or a cherry picker so chose to crop them out.  From a distance I thought the carvings on the vase shapes were leaves and seashells but after seeing the shot on the computer there are flowers and what looks like buttons instead of shells.

Perpective adjustment in CS3 and texture added.

Back to Galveston

We drove down a Galveston street with --- now picture this --- 3 very large dogs sticking  their faces out the windows, when we stop at a stop sign by these 3 cats.  I got out of the car which drove around the corner, got 2 quick shots of the cats, and since they seemed perfectly fine, started talking to them.  One sound out of my mouth and they took off like a gun had been shot.  And they were so cute posing on the logs...

Surreal Composite

Ever since my black and white film class assignment of in-camera Multiple Exposures when my arm miraculously lined up perfectly with a dead tree, I have thought about using my hand for the roots instead of the branches.  When BAPC's assignment of Surreal Composite came up I found this tree with interesting twisted branches and set about making a composite with it.  First I tried one hand and it didn't look right so I had to use both of my hands to match the spread of the branches.  The image evolved with the ghost of a bride, a young child swinging from a branch, and gravestones, all to symbolize the cycle of Life.

I added a texture to age my hands even more and then the water as a source of life.

All that compositing really tested my Photoshop skills and I am sure there are better ways that I do not know for making all the elements more realistic and less pasted on. I cannot imagine how Jerry Uelsmann does his composites in a film darkroom and not a digital one, his work is amazing.

Galveston Doors

These doors are on the left of the arch and window in yesterday's post.

In both images I added an "old leather" texture by Jerry Jones in PS. The texture darkened the edges but I added a mask and removed it from the center of the images.  If you download any of Jerry's free textures (and they are really nice) be sure to leave a thank you.  Many people have visited his blog and his Flickr sets but never left a message (myself included) so he was feeling very ill-used.

Nikon D700, 24 - 70 mm lens at f5.6 and 1/45th ISO 400

Galveston Arch

It was too cold for East Beach the last time I was in Galveston, so we drove around looking for interesting architecture.  SOME person I know called this image "rustic" and indeed it is.  However, it has some interesting elements and colors.  Maybe some cloning away of the pipes and the planks of wood would help give it a more European look.  So, would it help, or leave it real?

Nikon D700, 24 - 70 mm lens at f8 and 1/30th, ISO 400

Another Abstract

When I first noticed these ridges in the sand I thought they looked like tiger stripes. So taking Doug's advice to heart I attempted to pump up the constrast and color and move the image in the tiger direction. I used the Photo Filter adjustment layer in Photoshop, with the Warming filter (LBA) and increased the density in that menu to 83%. Then I duplicated that layer to make it more intense and added a Curves layer for more contrast.

Nikon D200, 70 - 200mm lens with 1.7 tc at f10 and 1/350th, -.67 exposure compensation, ISO 200

Water Ripples

Not nearly as impressive as snake ripples, but something about these wave ripples also appealed to me. 

Nikon D700, 24 - 70mm lens at f2.8 and 1/1500th, -.5 exposure compensation, ISO 200