[ProtectOurFreedom]

Here are a few shots from today. These were all processed in the Aurora 2018 HDR program from Macphun which came out a week ago. I generally take three bracketed (-2 EV / 0EV / +2 EV) exposures with the camera on a tripod and store RAW plus JPG files (Large/Fine). The brackets aren't centered at 0EV; rather, I reduce all brackets by ~0.7EV. I learned this week that the extra information stored in single RAW files works well with HDR software, almost as well as using three bracketed images. The first two marsh shots are handheld and tone-mapped using single RAW exposures (I took three auto-bracketed exposures, but alignment was poor in Aurora, so I used the middle exposure alone in Aurora). The ocean shots were taken with the camera on a tripod, but again are single RAW images, not merged 3 bracket HDR (because of the wave motion).

Lots of experimentation today! After leaving the beach, I stopped at Duartes in Pesadero for artichoke soup. Good as always.

Images #1 - 3 below: Single RAW, handheld, ISO 200, Canon 35 mm S.S.C. f/1.4 (1977) on Olympus OM-D M1, Aperture Priorty, Manual Focus using Peaking, tone-mapped in Aurora HDR 2018
Image #4: Three RAW exposures, tone-mapped Aurora HDR 2018, tripod mounted. Same Canon lens.
Image #5. Three RAW exposures, tone-mapped Aurora HDR 2018, tripod mounted. Switched to Olympus pancake lens.
Images #6 & #7. Single exposure, tone-mapped Aurora HDR 2018, tripod mounted. Switched to Olympus zoom lens.

Image #1

Image #2

Image #3

Image #4

Image #5

Image #6. There's some heavy surf hitting Northern California. Some wave sets were crashing really big! Looking north on the coast - that's Marin County in the background, tapering off to Point Reyes on the left.

Image #7

[clintonh8r]

Bump

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Pinging FReepers who enjoyed (or otherwise) my previous hike reports and pics. I guess this is developing into an informal, low-volume/occasional NorCal travel, hiking, outdoors, and photography list (with some photography and post-processing technical details).

If you want off or on this list, let me know.

POF

[nickcarraway]

Wow. For some reason your pictures usually aren’t visible to me, but fir the first time they are.

[11th_VA]

CA is a beautiful state - I've been in and out of there for 40 years (work).

I made two WestPACs in the late 70's - never made it to Japan, but buying cameras were all the rage.

We were a day out from anchoring in Taiwan when Carter closed their embassy, never got to visit.

And the Poison Ivy and Cordizone shots - same happened to me in high school.

[W.]

I had a whole summer ruined by poison oak—what was l gonna do, cry about it? Har!

[txnativegop]

Looks like a nice place.

Scenery is beautiful.

Thanks for posting.

[Vendome]

The photos are so beautiful I can smell the ocean and feel the wind....

Thank you.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Very good photos. I especially like the coastline with the water spray coming off the wave.

Last week we went to the Berlin Zoo and I took pictures with my LG Q6. Which is a mid price range camera so the quality is not expected to be great but the processing power of the smartphone with 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage made it a good deal.

One picture I took was of the flamingos. As it turned out a huge wind storm hit soon after and killed 18 of them. Flamingos are hard to get inside, it takes a few days.

Nine people were also killed.

[mairdie]

I LOVED THESE!!!

I haven’t been to California in years and it was pure joy to see these wonderful pictures. Thank you so much for letting us join you on your outing. Would you have links to other sets you put up?

[super7man]

“Leaves of three, let them be.”

[Grimmy]

A welcome break. Thanks for including me on your list.

[refreshed]

Thanks for adding me to the ping list. I very much enjoy the scenery!

[MeganC]

I LOVE the pictures on the ocean! Thank you for sharing them!!!