![[My First Explore #439] Golden Gate Bridge](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3599/3413991448_45d386837d.jpg)
![[Explore #241] Niagara Falls Winter Festival of Lights](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3541/3425900974_3de1e79b27.jpg)
![[Explore #379] Eat Green!](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3556/3447415753_784edd931a.jpg)
![[Explore #435] My Dog Sees in B&W](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3555/3446377036_5cc10c1999.jpg)
![[Explore #311] Creative Challenge #2: Fragile](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3523/3457556441_8d5f8a5204.jpg)
![[Explore #367] Hands, Feet, and a Heart](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3407/3346064700_3112a208f5.jpg)
Most Interesting Photos
Slideshow by The Veiled Chamber Photography
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1 of 24
[My First Explore #439] Golden Gate Bridge
Best Viewed Large On Black
View Medium On Black
April 4 2009 Explore #439
This was taken on a boat tour on it's way back to Pier 39. In the original photo, the sky and water are boring blue and there wasn't much of a drama to it. Then I noticed the clouds and thought how it would look like in black and white. The first version wasn't so grand either. I needed to make the clouds standout. Played around with contrast and blacks in lightroom until I get this effect.
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
2 of 24
Niagara's Rainbow Bridge
Best Viewed Large On Black
The Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls is an international steel arch bridge across the Niagara River gorge, and is a world-famous tourist site. It connects the Cities of Niagara Falls, New York, United States (to the east), and Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada (west).
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
3 of 24
[Explore #241] Niagara Falls Winter Festival of Lights
Best Viewed On Black
Another shot of Niagara Falls during the festival of lights. I went closer to this one for a tighter shot.
Niagara Falls Winter Festival of Lights is a spectacular lightshow that includes an illuminated 5-km route of lighted displays.
Note: With the ISO kicked up to 1250, the noise is a bit apparent.
Seen in Explore #241 Apr 8, 2009 - Thanks everyone for all the comments and faves. It has just been about a month of flickring and you already gave me two explores. Couldn't have done it without you! :)
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
4 of 24
Niagara Falls Winter Festival of Lights
Best Viewed Large On Black
Niagara Falls Winter Festival of Lights is a spectacular lightshow that includes an illuminated 5-km route of lighted displays.
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
5 of 24
Another "Golden" Shot
As I mentioned from my first Golden Gate image, I'm really gunning for a golden look here while not sacrificing the realism of the capture. I have to tell you that it was an amazing feeling passing underneath this monstrosity. It was akin to being inside the belly of the beast as the boat passes underneath it's cold and dark shadow while the boat is tossed around by the ever swelling waves.
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
6 of 24
[Explore #379] Eat Green!
Seen in Explore #379 Apr 16, 2009 - Thanks everyone for the comments and faves!
Was suppose to go out and look for something green to shoot but work is such a drag. So... I just searched my Lightroom catalog for something abundantly green.
This was taken in a farm in Dutch Village down Holland Michigan.
HGGT!
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
7 of 24
Alcatraz Water Tower
With the waves tossing us about... the resulting RAW image wasn't really outstanding (you have to understand that I usually try to make it right in the camera... call it me being anal retentive when it comes to shooting... or simply just being plain lazy... hehe).
This particular image was nearly flagged as a "to be discarded" photo. But as I look at the other takes, the feeling that I didn't get any good shots of any part of Alcatraz up close is turning to be a disappointing realization. Apparently, this shot is the best I got and again if you knew me... i always strive to work with what I have.
Long story short, tried every bit of simple processing (in lighroom) to make it look better than it was (without resorting to photoshop). Cold tone look. Infrared. B&W. Sepia. Two-Tone. And dozen others. I realize then that I can't afford to lose the color of the sky because it will remove the sense of freedom outside of this island. But the resulting colored image left me with less than amusing buildings and more than boring structures. I needed to inculcate the feeling of loneliness and dreariness. That's when I decided to de-saturate all the lower part of the image (mostly the structures and the island itself).
Turned out nicely I think. Hopefully you agree.
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
8 of 24
Cherish the moments... For they too become memories...
The guys who fear becoming fathers don't understand that fathering is not something perfect men do, but something that perfects the man. The end product of child raising is not the child but the parent. ~ Frank Pittman, Man Enough
This is my daughter Katherine who's just recently turned 10 months old.
HBW!
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
9 of 24
'T' is for Observation Deck
This is part of my Project: Reprocess Series.
Project: Reprocess #3
Took this shot prior to embarking on the Maid of the Mist tour. Turned on my camera's AEB to give me the option of processing this in HDR. Processed this a while back in HDR color. Just thought of reprocessing once more but with a B&W look in mind.
Note: Photomatix used to generate HDR and tonemapping. Reverted back to Lightroom for further processing.
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
10 of 24
[Explore #435] My Dog Sees in B&W
Seen in Explore #435 Apr 15, 2009 - Thanks everyone for the comments and faves!
This is part of my Project: Reprocess Series.
Project: Reprocess #6
This reprocess is more like an experiment. It's a beauty with color but I was wondering if taking away the color will completely make the image unappealing. So I did the unthinkable. Convert this color gamut image into a monochromatic version by converting to gray-scale then manipulating the curves, fill, clarity, and contrast.
And now that it's done... I must say I'm a bit amazed that it became a completely different image by itself. I don't know how to explain it, but it feels that it's conveying something different now. Try it even on black background here.
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
11 of 24
[Explore #311] Creative Challenge #2: Fragile
Last Saturday (Apr 18), I joined a meetup group for a photowalk at the Evanston Northwestern University grounds. The organizer presented us with a creative challenge (the second one this year). She gave us a list of words and our task is to compose images that best describes those words.
This is my interpretation of Fragile.
This is the Northwestern Deering Library which is adjacent to the University Library. The Deering Library is housed in a modified Gothic structure modeled after King?s College Chapel in Cambridge, England. Charles Deering Library (1933) served as the main library until 1970. It honors Charles Deering of Deering Harvester Company. It's an antiquated building and it does look fragile from this take.
Best Viewed On Black
To my flickr friends: been very busy this weekend so I had little time to visit your stream. Once I get more time in my hands, I will give your streams more attention. I apologize for now.
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
12 of 24
Purple Sails, Invisible Sails
This is part of my Project: Reprocess Series.
Project: Reprocess #2
This was just an ordinary boat drifting by with it's sails rolled down (or whatever mariner term they have for it). I thought how it would be cool to have a sail that actually mimicks the color and texture of the sky. That would be like a stealth sailboat. It's silly, but it's something that I thought was cool that time.
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
13 of 24
[Explore #367] Hands, Feet, and a Heart
Seen in Explore #367 Mar 10, 2009 - Thanks everyone for the comments and faves!
This is my entry a while back for Digital Photography School's weekly assignment with subject framing in mind.
Subject is my newborn daughter's feet framed by her mother's hands which intentionally forms a makeshift heart. My daughter's just 5 days old when I captured this.
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
14 of 24
Happy Earth Day 2009!
This is part of my Project: Reprocess Series.
Project: Reprocess #9
Since yesterday afternoon, I have been preparing and thinking what I could post for today's Earth Day. Tried shooting some photos this afternoon on my way home from work (I actually started from within the car while driving) but didn't come up with anything that I think is worthwhile. This got me to scavenging my archives once more. Doing so brought me back to my Niagara shoot and to this particular image that was a real mess. It's actually an HDR gone bad (see first comment for original image).
And since I haven't posted anything for a while in my Project: Reprocess Series, I decided to just skip my whole Earth Day fiasco.
Knowing a bit more now than I know before, I set out to do the tedious process of convincing myself that I can turn this image around. After about 30 minutes into the process of trying out a bunch of techniques to save the rainbow, I threw my hands up in the air and gave up on it. There's only so much you can do to a bunch of pixels that were really miserable in the first place.
So if I cannot save the rainbow, I'd rather just save the image as a whole and perhaps I can then focus on turning it to a bearable photo. Another 20 minutes or so and through some miracle of Lightroom, I ended up with this image. I stood back and look at the final image full screen on black in my MBP.
Then it hit me... this is actually an Earth Day photo!
I started thinking of what can be compared to such beauty and power. Men can build the tallest highrises, or the largest malls, or even set out to design and build the perfect park with all it's natural looking amenities. All of them will fall short to this magnificence. God alone can do such and we as stewards of these amazing beauties should endeavor to take care of it more closely.
Nature has it's way of maintaining equilibrium with all it's resident living creatures to the exception of men. We just keep on consuming and destroying and abusing what in the first place we should be protecting. I stand guilty too of this very fact. Small things that we've taken for granted but in the bigger scheme would mean life or death.
Please enjoin me in raising awareness to our imminent failure. We are but a small community here in Flickr as compared to the entire human populace. But small as we are, that small piece is a part of the bigger picture.
It's a little late, but I do greet every one a Happy Earth Day!
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
15 of 24
Miniature Seats of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in the Millennium Park
This is part of my Project: Reprocess Series.
Project: Reprocess #7
Made this miniature seats by hand. It's the perfect copy down to every millimeter (ratio of 1in:1mm).
Nah! Of course not! I'm kidding. I know April fools long over. Just want to try my hands again on doing a tilt-shift effect. Please see first comment below for the SOOC image and the result of my first effort to post process it a while back (with no tilt-shift effect).
So what is tilt-shift? Well, basically, tilt-shift miniature style photos are pictures of real-life scenes that are manipulated to look like model photographs. That is what I was trying to demonstrate today with this new serving for my Project: Reprocess Series. If you wish to make your own, there's no need for photoshop. This very image was created using an online photo editor. Try it, it's called TiltShiftMaker. A lot of photographers (both Pro and enthusiast) are quite lucky nowadays. What took some effort before can now be done in an instant. Don't you love technology? =)
As for the subject of this demo, the paragraph below is taken directly from the Millennium Park Official Website:
Frank Gehry, winner of the National Medal of Art, applied his signature style to this revolutionary outdoor concert venue. The Pavilion stands 120-feet high, with a billowing headdress of brushed stainless steel ribbons that frame the stage opening and connect to an overhead trellis of crisscrossing steel pipes. The trellis supports the sound system, which spans the 4,000 fixed seats and the Great Lawn, which accommodates an additional 7,000 people.
Have a TGIF day you all! =)
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
16 of 24
Creative Challenge #2: Soothing
Last Saturday (Apr 18), I joined a meetup group for a photowalk at the Evanston Northwestern University grounds. The organizer presented us with a creative challenge (the second one this year). She gave us a list of words and our task is to compose images that best describes those words.
This is my interpretation of Soothing.
The Northwestern University's On Campus Lakefill as seen here gives me that soothing feeling. Always nice to have your own view of the lake. Gives the mind it's needed peace to learn more. Perhaps take a seat along the water and relax a bit. Really love this view.
Gotten a bit tired of blue skies so I processed this one differently for a change. Even prettier when viewed on black.
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
17 of 24
I See in Vibrant Color
This is the color original for my Project: Reprocess #6 image.
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
18 of 24
Underneath the Golden Gate Bridge
This was taken from a boat tour coming from Pier 39. Wanted to express the golden feeling of finally seeing this bridge with my own two eyes and not just on the tube or on the screen. Played with the split toning in lighroom to achieve this effect. I know I can go more golden but doing so somehow lessens the feel of realism. This I think is a good balance.
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
19 of 24
Color Me Beautiful
This is part of my Project: Reprocess Series.
Project: Reprocess #5
This picture was taken in Windmill Island, Holland, Michigan. These are traditional wooden houses and they were said to be exact replicas of famous houses in Holland.
Not really a big fan of this punchy color processing. A friend of mine though has almost made it his signature and some people do love it when colors almost seem to be shouting at them in high note. Well, this is me dipping my foot at the deeper end of the color pool.
See original SOOC image here
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
20 of 24
Alcatraz Island
This image was taken as our boat approach the island. Aside from adjusting clarity and vibrance and adding a slight vignette, this is how it looked like in the original RAW image. Love how the low drifting clouds appear to be separating the blue sky from the island. You will also notice a sort of halo which surrounds the top part of the island including the clouds. This was more of an after-effect of increasing clarity which I think was a nice accident because it makes the island appear enclosed.
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
21 of 24
Observing the Observation Deck
This is part of my Project: Reprocess Series.
Project: Reprocess #4
Same Observation Deck as this but from a different vantage point.
What I want to demonstrate here though is that the same B&W HDR effect can also be achieved even with a single RAW shot. I'm not talking about a pseudo-HDR (which still undergoes tone-mapping) but rather just plain simple regular processing (no HDR utility required). Usual familiarity with the Tone Curve is all that is needed (well aside from the fill light, blacks, and clarity).
There's really no defined steps to get to this final output. Everything is judged by eye. This same technique was used in my image #1 for this series.
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
22 of 24
Boat of Mischief
This is part of my Project: Reprocess Series.
Project: Reprocess #1
A friend and I went for a photowalk along Lakeshore Drive in downtown Chicago.
There were a bunch of overturned old, run-down boats lined up along where we were strolling. This is where I found Mischief (see it on black background).
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
23 of 24
Creative Challenge #2: Colorful
Last Saturday (Apr 18), I joined a meetup group for a photowalk at the Evanston Northwestern University grounds. The organizer presented us with a creative challenge (the second one this year). She gave us a list of words and our task is to compose images that best describes those words.
This is my interpretation of Colorful.
Took this picture last while sitting on the sidewalk waiting for the others to return from their shoot. This is in the intersection of Sheridan and Chicago Avenue.
Done selective coloring in Lightroom via gradient tool and then ran the final output in TiltShiftMaker to add the tilt-shift effect.
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)
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Creative Challenge #2: Elegance
Last Saturday (Apr 18), I joined a meetup group for a photowalk at the Evanston Northwestern University grounds. The organizer presented us with a creative challenge (the second one this year). She gave us a list of words and our task is to compose images that best describes those words.
This is my interpretation of Elegance.
The Northwestern University Library (1970) consists of three distinctive towers of limestone, concrete, and glass that contain nearly 4 million volumes, making it the 10th-largest private university library in the nation.
This was a another perspective of the Majestic take, this time it's taken from down low between two of the above mentioned magnificent towers. How these magnificent towers were designed is just pure elegance.
Oh and as a side note, for those who think the structure design is interesting, I just happen to notice myself that those windows look more like books from a shelf. For a library tower this is absolutely awesome!
Happy Blue Monday!
Photo by The Veiled Chamber (So Little Time Now)