Sorry about the silence. December started out absolutely awesome. As if I needed a reminder why I love LA it came earlier this month. Low 80's at the beaches and getting some of the biggest waves 10-12 feet regular sets with some as tall as 16-18 feet! December 4th I grabbed the camera, loaded up the 8 gig card and started shooting. Some HDR of the waves, some non-HDR of the surfers, walked the board walk and in general just enjoyed that day.
I got home with a bit of the sneezies and blamed it on the Santa Ana's that brought us that gorgeous weather for stirring up something I was allergic too. Damn...woke up the next day and felt awful, horrible cold that proceeded to simply kick my butt for the next two weeks. Little shooting, little post processing and spent every bit of energy I had to get Christmas done.
Today is the first day I have been able to have the time to sort through and work through those images. I am entranced with the power of the waves as well as the poetic beauty of their rising and crashing on the rocks. Not all that surprising was that I wasn't the only one with idea of getting pictures of the waves or surfers...probably another dozen people with cameras were shooting in the same spot I was that day!
Yesterday, the 27th was the complete opposite. Very little wind, cold (I think It may have made it to 60) with crystal clear skies and only the thinnest up upper layer clouds. Spend the day out with family and their relative from Philly up at Griffith Park Observatory. I got one of my favorite views of what I in my not so humble opinion believe is one of the most iconic landmarks of LA...the Hollywood sign.
For you fellow technogeeks here's how I shot and processed the Wave pic and the Hollywood sign. Shot them bracketed +/- 2 stops, used the Photomatix HDR generation and tonemapping programs then post processed with Optik Verve's Virtual Photographer.
