The View of Paris
While making my way up to the top of the Eiffel Tower, I stopped on one of the lower levels of the Tower to grab this shot. I was only 11 years old with my old Nikon D40 on a family vacation in Europe. I recently came across this photo while going through some of my old Europe images and couldn’t resist bringing it into Lightroom. There I added an old vintage film preset to it to give it a 60s/70s feel. I kept much of the red, orange and blue colors of the French architecture, but then allowed for a cooler horizon and skyline. I got my inspiration for this from the way vintage tv shows and movies would showed you high-up views of the city where the storyline would take place. The city scenes were many times taken in the morning so there was a cooler temperature in the clips when they showed you of city skylines, ariel views, etc.
The Rich and the Wealthy
This is an older photo taken with my old Nikon D40 many years ago when I was about 10 visiting Miami, Florida. My family was taking a bus tour exploring the islands and this was the last shot I grabbed right before the evening made the light too dark. I was intrigued by this island particularly because of the eye-catching architecture and also because I learned that some of the houses on the island belonged to movie stars and other famous people.
I came across this shot again while going through some old photos and decided to bring it over into Lightroom to see what I could do. I like the first version of this image because of the vintage look as well as the Miami heat wave vibe it gives off. The second one I like also because it just has that classic b/w film look and plus it intensifies the approaching storm.
Dining in Key West
Discovered this really nice outdoor dining restaurant while strolling down Duval street in Key West. This really beautiful flower also caught my eye! I decided to frame my photo by having the flower as the subject and the elegant outdoor setting in the background. Thanks to my Leica X1, I was able to get some nice bokeh in the background and also of some of the lights. I composed it so the eye would see the circles of light just by following the tip of the flower and which would lead you to the lights and then into the exquisite outdoor dining experience in the background.
Japanese Shishi Odoshi
While exploring a Japanese garden on my vacation in Florida, I came across what to me looked like a Japanese bamboo waterfall. After taking a few shots with my Leica X1, I was able to focus directly on the spot of the bamboo where the water poured into it. In my post processing I felt that the green foliage and pennies all over the ground was a distraction so I went the black and white route and adjusted the tonality, contrast and exposure to my liking in Lightroom.
Once I finished editing this photo, I was interested in what this really was because I knew it was no ordinary man-made waterfall or fountain, and I was right. After doing some research and going through several images across the internet, I finally discovered that this is a Shishi Odoshi, or “Deer Chaser”. It’s design consists of a bamboo arm that fills up with water and then after a few minutes swings downward striking a stone basin and rises back up to repeat. The function of it was to create a distinct resonance that would startle any animals near the garden when the bamboo arm collided with the stone on the ground.
Charleston Harbor Restaurant
After having lunch at this really nice restaurant a few blocks from the harbor in Charleston SC, I decided to explore the place and really liked some of the cool harbor-themed decorations and novelty objects. This was taken with my Leica X1 at f/2.8 to get as much light in since the place was dark and too also get some really nice bokeh. The lights hanging along the ceiling were really nice so at f/2.8 they would add nice some glow in the background. It was hard to get an angle on this wall light but was easy compared to the other cool objects that were in a tough position. Took some work 🙂 The staff was very nice letting me know after eating to feel free to take some shots around the place. A couple of them even showed some really cool decorations that would be interesting to photograph.
