Masthead header

Choosing the right path

First off, thank you all who voting on the shot for my next business card.  One is certainly the front runner, but I am going to leave the voting open through today and maybe the weekend, so if you haven’t voted yet, go right ahead and choose your favorite on the right hand side of the page.

A little bummed out about last night, was going to spend the night shooting with the rented fisheye, but I got rained out as I was on my way downtown.  I’ll give it another go on Saturday morning.  For now, here is a shot from a few weeks back not too far from our house.  My wife was getting her haircut and I took a little stroll to see what I could see.  These trolley tracks caught my eye as they disappeared into the trees, so, leaning against a telephone pole and getting a really weird look from a group of older ladies walking by, I snapped of my five brackets.

I processed this shot per usual, running it through Photomatix and then CS5.  First had to mask in the lower part of the -2 exposure for the slight halo and clone out a few dust spots.  Then I applied a Tonal Contrast filter to everything up the sky as well as a Contrast Only filter.  I decided I wanted to do a Color Cast removal as well, but when I hit the Color Efex 3 button, it defaulted to B&W.  Then I thought…I really like how this looks.  So I threw it in Silver Efex.  Since I was going down the more editing that usual path, I also ran a version through onOne and applied the Lord of the Rings and Turbo Boost filter.  Well now I had a problem, because I liked all three.  My only option was to post them all.  So here you go.

Beach in 5 days.  Can’t wait.  Hope you all enjoy your weekend.

show hide 14 comments

Chrisdmrf - June 17, 2011 - 1:51 pm

tough choice, I think the 1st one does it for me

Chris Frailey - June 17, 2011 - 1:59 pm

Hmm, I like the first one. Those green trees just pop.

Jim Nix - June 17, 2011 - 2:06 pm

nice Dave, sometimes you just can’t choose right? I like them best in the order you have them posted, but they are all sweet and love the comp, enjoy the beach dude!! great title too!

Barbara Youngleson - June 17, 2011 - 2:42 pm

I think that your choice to frame this vertically was the most important artistically. You’ve compelled the viewer to follow the tracks to infinity in a narrow scene framed with multiple vertical poles. Oh, I like the first, vibrant image the most!

Jimi Jones - June 17, 2011 - 3:02 pm

Nice work, Dave.
I like the first shot best of all. The B&W is also very nice. Great composition.

Jason Hines - June 17, 2011 - 3:27 pm

Not shot man. I think the B&W emphasizes the lines of the tracks a little more.

Chris DeAngelis - June 17, 2011 - 3:37 pm

I think I like the first one. The B&W is pretty slick though!

Rob Hanson - June 17, 2011 - 4:57 pm

I like ‘em all, but I’d give the nod to #2… I like the B&W effect for this scene.

Also, I voted. Evidently I joined the herd on ‘Clear Day.’

Charles Dastodd - June 17, 2011 - 5:25 pm

really cool! i think I like all three, but its a toss up between the first two for which one I like more

Len Saltiel - June 17, 2011 - 5:32 pm

Very nice composition Dave. I like all of them but I think the top one is my favorite. Glad to see you have good taste in websites (I use the same theme)

Curt Fleenor - June 17, 2011 - 6:02 pm

They’re all great but I gotta go with the first one. Tone contrast is just deep enough to bring out the tracks and the clouds. Good stuff Dave!

Jim Denham - June 17, 2011 - 7:00 pm

I’m going with the first one as well! More natural looking!

A.Barlow - June 17, 2011 - 10:37 pm

I like the mono one, looks pretty cool.

Greg Goodman - June 27, 2011 - 8:05 pm

I vote the top one. Color is better IMO and the bottom color one seems a bit softer. All are beautiful though and it’s a shot right out of my own favorite things to photograph! Great work.

Your email is never published or shared. Required fields are marked *

*

*

CommentLuv badge
SHARE ON FACEBOOKTWEET THIS POSTBACK TO TOPCONTACT MEEMAIL POST TO FRIEND