”Surf City”

”Surf City”
©David A. Ziser

I made this image a few days after a long 90  minute walk down the beach.  My final destination was a little beach restaurant named Zipper’s.  It’s quite popular with the surfers that make their annual pilgrimage to San Jose del Cabo for the fine surfing ways.  In fact, this weekend is the annual Los Cabos Open of Surf competition [link] with takes place right at the world famous Zipper’s beach.

Just as I was making my way from the beach up to the restaurant, I had to pause briefly for this “surfer dude” to pass by.  The moment was perfect as he passed right in front of Zipper’s.  His long stride, the perfect horizontal position of the surf boards balanced on his head, and all the Cabo colors in the background made for a strong composition.

Yes, I did tweak the image substantially. And yes, the image was made on my iPhone 6+ phone – my favorite phone of all time ;~) The first image tweak was made in an App named Dynamic Light – it’s a kind of cool instant HRD app.  After dialing in the effect I wanted – basically a super saturated contrasty effect, I saved out the image and reopened the image in a second App called Painteresque. This second app results in some of the most unusual and painterly images I have ever seen.  I prefer the Painteresque2 setting.  It is just so much fun to play with.

A final tweak of colors and contrasts in Lightroom CC gave me the final result I was looking for.

I know some of you may be thinking that I’ve gone over to the “dark side” of camera phone photography - but not true. The technical excellence built into these little jewels is amazing. For me it’s all about the finished image – a final rendering of color, contrasts, composition, color harmony, imagination, and creativity that pleases the viewer.  I think this image does just that!

Camera specs: Apple iPhone 6+  at 4.5 mm, F2.2 at 1/3000 second, ISO 32. 

Enjoy! David

”The Long And Winding Road”

”The Long And Winding Road”
©David A. Ziser

This image was made while traveling through Andalusia, Spain. We had stopped briefly to explore what looked to be an old castle of some kind.  Turned out to be an abandoned water tower for a real estate deal that-went-south in the economic crunch a few years ago.

The climb to the top of the hill presented us with some great vantage points for some cool panoramas.  This is one of my favorites. Compositionally I love the road meandering gently through the foreground heading into parts unknown in the distance. The contrasting colors and textures also work well together in this image.

Because of the heavy backlighting, I had to work a few tweaks in Lightroom 5 to get the image tones right were I wanted them.  I think the resulting image captures the abundant beauty of this region of Spain.

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark III fitted with Tamron 28-300mm VC lens at 65mm, F4.5 at 1/1600 second, ISO 250.  Enjoy! David

Rooftop Serenade: A Creative Exercise

Good Morning Everybody,

In this post I wanted to share with you some of the photographic pleasures I find from traveling. We had just spent a full day traveling the historic streets and sights of Santiago and were happy to get back to a beautiful apartment in the heart of the city.  Now there is one thing I need to point out about our AirBNB apartment – it was on the 5th floor which actually means SIXTH FLOOR in Europe. And, get this, no elevator. Yes, we had to make the climb everyday often more than just once!  Talk about your daily workout ;~)

Anyway, it was this 6th floor elevation that works into today’s post.  After the the climb to our apartment and getting comfortable by a large window overlooking the city I settled in with a nice glass of one of Spain’s fine red wines and just took in the view.

That’s when it struck me – I began seeing the rooftops in more of “macro-mode” looking for little isolated vignettes of composition, color, line, and texture.  I grabbed our little Canon SX50 camera with it’s super zoom lens (24-1200mm) and began shooting away.  It was a wonderfully creative experience for me. I’ve put together a small collection of my favorites from the session.  I think the visual result gives you a backdoor peek at this historic medieval town.  I hope you enjoy!

		Santiago, Spain: A Rooftop Serenade VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Hey gang, That’s it for me today. Stay tuned more to come.

Adios for now, David

”Porto Sunrise Surprise!”

”Porto Sunrise Surprise!”
©David A. Ziser

This is an image I made a few days ago from our balcony overlooking the river as I watched the early morning light make it’s gradual appearance into the new day.  I was taken by how the well illuminated building on the opposite bank of the Douro River stood out against the bright blue early morning sky.  The contrasting colors held me mesmerized. 

With camera in hand I worked to get the image I wanted.  I tried several crops and even reviewing the images in Lightroom, I struggled to select the image I thought captured the moment best.  The image above is my final result. I hope you like it..

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark III fitted with Canon 24-105mm IS lens at 58mm, F4.0 at 1/20 second, ISO 5000.  Enjoy!  -David

“Spectacular Grandeur”

”Spectacular Grandeur”
©David A. Ziser

I captured this image on the last day of our visit to Vienna, Austria.  Austria is quickly becoming one of our favorite stops on our travels this year. The grand mountain vistas, beautiful and historic cities, and sumptuous architecture makes LaDawn and I both look forward to a return visit to this part of the world.

This image speaks to the sumptuous architecture referenced above.  This image was captured at the entrance to the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna’s Museum of Fine Art.  As you can see, it is simply a stunning view.  The museum was built by the Habsburgs, the ruling monarchy at the time.  The Habsburgs needed a place built Kunsthistorisches Museum to house their art collection.  As no expense was spared during the construction process, we now have, in one of my opinion , one of the most spectacular buildings in the world to visit.

Compositionally, I like the really wide perspective I gave this image with my super wide Sigma 12-24mm lens.  The 122 degree field of view of this lens certainly lets you “take it all in”.  I also made no attempt to correct the super wide perspective.  I feel it’s the wide angle perspective that lends to the sense of awe one feels viewing this image.

Postproduction in Lightroom 5 gave the image it’s almost HDR look. I increased Vibrance and Clarity, and reduced Highlights to get to my final result.  Hope you like it.

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark III fitted with Sigma 12 – 24 mm lens lens at 12mm, F4.5 at 1/30 second, ISO 6400.  Enjoy!  -David

A Trip To The Musical Capital Of The World & It Isn’t Nashville!

Good Morning Everybody,

We wrapped our two day visit to Vienna, Austria yesterday, drove back to Budapest to drop off the rental car and caught a flight for London, England last night.  Today I pick up another rental car and we are off to beautiful Cornwall, England right after I finish this post. We have had a fabulous time touring Eastern and Central Europe these last 7 weeks!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were listening to a Rick Steve's podcast - he's like the Scott Kelby of travel - and he commented that it would be a grand adventure to tour the three great cities of the Habsburg Empire, Budapest, Hungary; Vienna, Austria; and Prague, Czech Republic

We hit the trifecta and visited all three on our journeys.  In fact, over the last 7 weeks we have traversed nearly 3000 miles of the beautiful countryside visiting many of the most historic and scenic parts of Europe. What an experience!

A Trip To The Musical Capital Of The World and It Isn’t Nashville!

Anyway, let me re-cap our quick two day visit to Vienna.  This was our second trip to Vienna since we arrived in Budapest way back on September 8.  We made the day trip with the Master Class during our first week in Europe.  This time we got a chance to better explore the city and it's exciting offerings.

Once we landed - we were staying at the Hilton Danube Hotel, a 5 star hotel (it's good to have all those Hilton Honors points built up over the years ;~) The hotel was just a short distance via underground to Old Town, the hub of Vienna. 

We quickly learned how to navigate the underground, purchased our tickets, and were on our way within minutes after check-in to our hotel.  While traveling down the tracks we weren't quite sure of the stop we needed to exit so we asked a friendly police officer for assistance. He offered much more than simple directions.  He showed us a short-cut and gave us a "police escort" through our train change and then directly to where we wanted to be - pretty nice of him.

I wanted to check out the famous 144 year old Vienna State Opera.  You simply can't go to Vienna without seeing one of the world's epic enters of music.  Mozart, Strauss, Wagner - all those guys worked this house, and we wanted to be part of that history!

Of course all performances have been sold out for weeks but the street scalpers were happy to oblige you with a ticket.  After a little “wheeling and dealing” we had our two tickets to the opera Der Rosenkavalier for not more than a regular tour of the Opera House would have cost us. This Richard Strauss opera is very popular and widely performed around the world.  We even manage to acquire box seats.  Now that sounds great on the surface, but please read on.

Box seats are great if you are in the first row but not so good if you are in the second row - if you get my drift. We had to stand the entire performance just to see the performers as our box was to the side.  The good news is that the boxes come with personal "subtitles" screens built right in.  We were lucky enough to have one of the three patrons in front of us tuned to "English" so we were able to follow along quite easily.

View from our box seats above – not too bad ;~)

LaDawn and I have not been to many operas but the experience of seeing and hearing an opera in the largest opera house in all of Europe with such a rich musical history was a genuine treat. It was a late night including the 2 1/2 hour performance and two intermissions with us arriving back to our hotel about 11:30 p.m.

More Castle Hopping – On To The Habsburg’s Summer Cottage – Not!

Nevertheless we were off and running fairly early the next morning planning to visit the 1,441 room Schönbrunn Palace, the summer residence of the Habsburgs.  The Habsburg Empire reigned for nearly 700 years so this castle was pretty important to see for history buffs like LaDawn and myself.

The tour was fun and informative with our English speaking guide who added lots of detail and color as she shared the story from the reign of the Habsburgs.  

Show Me The Good Stuff!

Next it was off to the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna’s Museum of Fine Art.  This museum is simply spectacular both in design and in the scope, depth, and range of its collections.  The museum was as spectacular in design and beauty as were the master pieces of the collections. You simple can't make it through all the collections in one day - simply unbelievable!!!!

It was a busy week and we figure we walked about 60 miles for the week and we were wiped out by the end of our museum tour.  We decided to head back to the hotel and grab dinner there. I know, the travel purists reading this post think we must have been crazy to have a hotel dinner while in Vienna, but the strategy was perfect for we chatted with the entire hotel staff - always a pleasure for me to connect with the locals - enjoyed a very nice dinner watching the not-so-blue Danube River gently roll by and more importantly grabbed a chance to relax.  

It was an early night for both of us as we drug our exhausted walked-weary bodies back to our room, enjoyed a brief nightcap and hit the sack.  The big challenge for us the next day was repacking our bags - nearly 200 pounds worth of luggage - for the flight to England.  We managed and were on our way back to Budapest arriving to an easy check-in with a very friendly British Air agent - what a relief for that.

I've put together a small album of photos from the Vienna leg of our journeys below.  Please enjoy – David

 

		A Few Days In Beautiful Vienna VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

_________________________________________________________________

Hey gang, that's it for me today. 

After we get settled in our new hotel/apartment in Cornwall, I’ll follow up with two more posts about our travels to Prague and Germany which happened prior to our Vienna visit.  The lack of free time has created a small problem getting these posts up.

Have a great rest of the day.

See you soon,  David