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Upper Table Rock and Mt. McLoughlin
We took a little hike for Mother’s Day yesterday. While I’ve done the Upper Table Rock hike a half dozen times or so over the 14 years I’ve lived in the Rogue Valley, this was my first time going up Lower Table Rock.
Ashland Rowing Club
Ethan Jonas
Covered Bridge @ Dexter Lake (Lowell, Oregon)
the most splendid picnic area I have ever encountered
Covered Bridge Regatta – AHS Crew – Ashland Rowing Club – Karen, Ellie, Liv, and Kara
This past weekend I was hiking on Upper Table Rock. The ground was covered with wildflowers and snow-covered Mt. McLoughlin looked splendid in the distance. So I took this photo of the wildflowers.
foreground focus
But I wanted a photo with Mount McLoughlin in focus so I took another one.
distant focus
When I got home I was a bit disappointed in each photo.
My photography and Photoshop skills are completely self taught. I have never taken a class, had a tutor/mentor, or even read a book on either subject. I’ve learned merely by trial and error with my camera and trying different things in Photoshop.
So what I wanted to do was combine the above two photos. I did so by using Photomerge (under File/Automate) in Photoshop and unchecking the “Blend Images Together” option. Hit F7 to see the layers if your layers box isn’t already open. Select both images, and use Auto-Blend Layers (under Edit) to stack the images. The result is below.
Photomerged focus stack
It’s not perfect, but now I have a new option at my fingertips in the future. Two things I need to do differently:
1) Take more than two photos. Notice how the finished result is out of focus in the middle. Had I taken three or four photos, each with a different focus point, the entire stacked photo could have been in focus.
2) Maintain the same, or nearly the same, composition (and camera settings–shutter speed, ISO, aperture). I recomposed the scene a bit after taking the first image which doesn’t make for the best stacking conditions later in post.
A more recent focus stack of a similar scene can now be found here.
Lake of the Woods
Mossy trees in Monroe, Oregon
I went for a walk this past Sunday morning when we were staying at the Inn at Diamond Woods, a place on a golf course between Eugene and Corvallis. The grass was mostly flooded from the rain the day before so there weren’t many golfers.
The sun had barely peeked through the clouds when I took today’s photo. Rain began again soon thereafter which was fine by us since we were going to be indoors all the rest of the day at the CEVA Presidents’ Day Volleyball Tournament.
Grizzly Peak blue hour
We have some friends who live near the top of Park Street. I have always wanted a shot of the view but have never had my camera with me (until last night). This was an hour or so after the blue hour, but with a 30-second exposure a bit of time travel was possible.
View from Grizzly Peak during minimal snow winter
I have yet to break out my snow shoes this winter. Last weekend we hiked to the top of Grizzly Peak where I took this photo from. Last year at this time this was the scene miles below the location of today’s photo.
This year we were able to drive all the way to the parking lot which is pretty much unheard of in January or February. From there the trail usually has several feet of snow on it in winter as it is in the shade and doesn’t melt until May or so. Not this year.
Cold Blue Mountain
Ashland, Oregon
Cold Blue Mountain, a band from Chico, California, is scheduled to play at Club 66 next Friday night (1/17/14). Today’s photo is of Ashland’s own cold blue mountains from last month’s snow storm.
Santa Barbara County Courthouse during Christmas blue hour
Last week I posted a photo from the clock tower of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse. Today’s photo is of the courthouse and the clock tower that prior picture came from.
The first night we pulled into Santa Barbara we were all rather stunned driving past this building which looked spectacular at night. During the day it still looked pretty cool, but at night is when it really dazzles. Every night I meant to walk down the street (we were staying near Santa Barbara High School) to get this shot, but it wasn’t until our final night–Christmas evening–that I actually made it happen.
Today’s photo comes from our trip to Santa Barbara last week. This is the beach right next to UCSB, and this dad was taking his kids out surfing. With the challenges of moving waves, and the hopes of the young, I thought it made a good photo for the first day of a new year.