Photography, Techniques and Whereabouts of Kevin Raber
The Australia Outback . . . an amazing place with immense landscapes. This was photographed with a Phase One P65+ set in vertical position and stitched from 5 images. It’s just a nice image to view not to mention amazing place to visit.
Every year I spend a week with a group of fellow photographers and friends. We go to a special location, shoot a lot of photos, talk photography and drink fine wine. Last year we visited Olympic National park and had perfect weather and shot lots of good images. One evening were photographing the sunset on the Pacific Ocean and it was tough scene. It was a classic case where HDR was needed. But to shoot multiple exposures with water that is in continuous motion is near impossible. Lucky for me I was shooting with a Phase One P65+ and this amazing camera has a huge dynamic range. So what I did was find an exposure I like, processed it out by setting exposure sliders in capture One to 2 stops over and 2 stops under and then normal. I took the three images and used Photomatix to handle the HDR. I made several varieties of HDR some very natural looking and a few like this are best described as nuclear. So, enjoy my nuclear sunset.
As you have seen from previous posts I like doing street photography. Wandering around Reykjavík, Iceland oner afternoon I came across this store window. Couldn’t help think how different this was from the Victoria Secret windows in the US. This was shot on an iPhone 4 and then worked on in several apps. I guess when you have the long winters like Iceland does that a store like this must sell a number of these.
I made a recent trip to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, to meet up with my friend Michael Reichmann of www.luminous-landscape.com. I brought with me the NEW Phase One IQ180 digital back that he was doing an initial review on. So, since he had my back he gave me a new camera he just got a Lumix GH2. This was a small 4/3 DSLR and highly sought after. We took a walk in the streets of this beautiful mexican town. And, while Michael shot with the Phase One IQ180, I shot with the GH2. This turns out to be an amzing little camera great for street photography. I decided to break with the one picture a day theme and today post a gallery of my few hour walk through San Miguel. I lead off the gallery with this photo of a nun which I find just illuminating. The rest of the images are the result of a visual exercise of just seeing. All images were shot RAW and worked on in Capture One 6.x, I hope you enjoy.
By the way I have now purchased the GH2 with 3 lenses and have been having some fun with it. I plan to sell my Leica M8 system and use this for much of my street shooting and candid type of work.
I love Chicago and especially the buildings and bridges. Everything there just feels massively solid. I love shooting with the Phase One P65+ and I do a lot of hand held work with it. So, on a visit last year to Chicago I got up early and wandered the streets. This is one of the shots I came back with. I like it because it shows the old rivets and solid steel feel of the bridge and then a modern shiny sky-scraper arising from the right side. Shot with a P65+ and a wide angle lens hand held.
Speaking of architecture, Phase One is going to be holding an Architecture PODAS workshop in Chicago this summer. This will be a unique workshop lead by two of the greatest architecture shooters of today. Each participant will get a Phase One camera and P65+ back to work with. It will be three days of intense interior and exterior shooting as well as classroom time on post production and business. Watch www.phaseone.com/podas for news on this soon. Sign up on the site if you want to receive more information.
Back to the blog after a few days of traveling and having some surgery. I had a bit of basil cell cancer removed from my face and thought it would be a cake walk but by the time I was through, I now have like 30 stitches on my face. I am told the scar won’t be bad. At my age a few scars are good to have.
The photo today was taken in Death Valley. There is an old abandoned Borax mine in Death Valley junction that I had a blast shooting at. This is a shot taken with a Phase One P65 and then played with a bit on the iPad. I like the whole feel.
Speaking of Death Valley, I am leading a workshop there in April. Visit www.phaseone.com/podas for details.
Sometimes in the strangest places you find the strangest things. Thus was this photograph made in Death Valley, where actually in this case right outside of Death Valley. This was photographed in at a small art gallery where all the sculptures are part of the environment. But you have to admit, this is pretty creepy. I used a wider angle lens from a low angle and tried to make this image different.
The redwood forest, is one of my favorite places to explore camera. This picture was done a few years ago in Northern California at the Redwood Forest. The best way to shoot this force is a drive down a road, find a spot you like, I walk into the forest. After a little while you will always find a spot that has more ground in the background and the right light. Such as it was with this particular picture. This was photographed with a Phase One p45+ camera. The detail the actual print is truly amazing. Click on the images to see larger and then click again, use the back arrow to return to original.Hope you enjoy.
At a recent event in Carmel, we stumbled upon a guy playing a most unique looking guitar. Kind of like 3 guitars in one. It sounded beautiful and it looked beautiful. This was taken with the iPhone and played with a little. Simple and nice.
I do like cold places and I am always fascinated by ice. Some of my best photos are of ice. This shot was part of a series of close-ups of ice taken on an iceberg beach in Iceland. The story is that there is a glacier nearby and as the glacier calves, the icebergs slowly flow out o t the ocean. At high tide they are pushed to the beach and when the tide goes out they are stranded. The beach is littered with icebergs. Some as big as a house or car and some the size of baseballs. They are like finding diamonds. I like this one and others like it as the light comes through and reveals the beautiful patterns the icebergs have. Look for more in the near future.
Don’t forget you can click on an image to see it larger and click again to see even more detail. Use you browser web button to back out to regular size.