A flash of brilliance

I really can’t help but at least talk about the Pens for a little bit after a game.  Although they lost again last night, which is getting to be a common theme with the rash of injuries they’ve had, there were some sparks in the lineup that certainly give you some optimism.  Tyler Kennedy, on a bit of a tear as of late, scored two goals, and Marc Andre Fleury looked absolutely brilliant in the loss.  The goals, a one timer from behind the net on a power play, a bad bounce that game right to a Shark who jammed it home, and a scrum in front of the net with Fleury down, can be easily forgiven.  The offense has to get going though, averaging only 2 goals a game since the departure of Sidney Crosby, last in league by a long shot.  I’m not giving up on the season yet.  Let’s go Pens.

Some shots from the game last night.  The first one is a thirty image panorama that I took with the iPhone and stitched with AutoStitch.  I think that it game out pretty cool.  The second one is a tilt shift that I took with the S95, as that is a custom scene on the phone.  Also not too shabby.

30 image panorama

Canon S95 Tilt Shift

Like I said a few days ago, I was finally able to get out shooting this weekend.  Got up real early on Saturday at 6, grabbed the gear, and rolled out downtown.  I had this vision of the sunrise coming up over the city and me standing at the Point, where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers join to form the Ohio.  However, I got downtown, which was eerily empty, seeing as it was 6:30 on a Saturday morning, and realized that that just wasn’t going to work.  There are still doing construction at the Point, and it really detracted from the picture.  Ok, on to Plan B.  I headed over the Fort Duquesne Bridge towards Heinz Field, and the view down the river was stunning.  The moon was huge in the sky, the colors were all kinds of shades of pastels and the water was nice and calm in the river.  Got a few shots, then headed over my destination, right below the Clemente Bridge.  Set up the tripod, snapped a few pre sunrise shots and waited.  I saw the sun starting to come and thought, “It has to peak around the buildings soon.”  I look behind me, and see it is already shining on the building that I was standing in front of.  So I back up 10 feet, and lo and behold, there is the sun, streaming through the Rachel Carson Bridge.  “Um yeah, I’ll take an order of sun flares, no thanks, no halos for me today.”

This is a seven exposure HDR processed under the Clean setting on HDR Efex.  After cleaning up all the dust spots in the sky (yes I forget to clean the sensor before I went out.  Come on, it was 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday.  Gimme a break.) I could go to work.  First, I selected the tree and recovered some of the shadows on it.  I wanted it to be silhouetted, just not as much as it was.  I added a green curves level to enhance the grass and the bushes, as well as did selective coloring to give the sun a more reddish tint, as it was a bit too yellow for my liking.  Kicked it over the Color Efex where I added a Tonal Contrast layer on everything but the sky, and finally added some High Park Sharpening.  I really like the result, one of my favorite shots that haven’t been from New York in a while.

That about wraps it up for today.  One more day til Friday.