Thursday, December 03, 2009

New Hawaii Shots, Round Top Drive, Diamond Head (Taken Dec 2nd)

Hey all, I'm still alive and still taking pictures! In fact I have some really good ones from today. Been working on them since I got back from shooting in fact. I stayed downtown too long and was stuck in traffic for an hour plus, but these shots were definitely worth the hassle.

As some of you may know I just got a new lens (EF 17-40L f/4) off of craigslist for a steal and a half, and today was the first day I really put it to use. I've had this lens before, Rocky Mountain National Park - October 2004 so I know it's an awesome lens to have, and I'd already tested the lens out indoors and was very impressed with the quality inside at ISO 1600 wide open (ie f/4), so I couldn't wait to get some real shots out of it. Anyway I'm sure you're thinking Aaron quit blabbing and show me the money, err pictures :)

Take a look!

I think the clouds really make this picture, they're the only reason I posted this one image in addition to the 2 panos I did from Round Top Drive.

View of Diamond Head Crater, downtown Honolulu and Manoa Valley (in the foreground) taken from Round Top Drive in Puu Ualakea State Wayside located in the Round Top Forest Reserve.



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This is the second panoramic shot I took from this location. This one I used just a UV filter instead of a polarizing filter. It's another hand-held (no tripod) panoramic and I'm very impressed with the results. Yeah I can nitpick and say the horizon bows instead of being a straight line, but this is light years better than my attempts and hand holding panos in RMNP circa 2003-2004 :)

Panoramic shot of Diamond Head Crater, downtown Honolulu and Manoa Valley (in the foreground) taken from Round Top Drive in Puu Ualakea State Wayside located in the Round Top Forest Reserve.

19 shot hand-held (no tripod) panoramic composition stitched in Adobe PS CS4.

40D EF 17-40 f/4L USM
Shot @ 40mm ISO 100 f/8 1/400s

RAW conversion done in PS CS4

This PS file is 113MB and a resolution of 13081 x 3739 or 54.5" x 15.6" at 240dpi or a 139.9 megapixel image!



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This is the third panoramic I took from Round Top Drive, and I call this version "Wider with Less Sky" :) Still a UV filter, and still hand held. I really like this one, extremely happy with the results. And the best part, aka the little easter egg, click on the picture, and the very right hand side you can see an airplane. I purposely waited for one to be in the last frame of the pano, and thankfully it didn't get cropped out when this pano was assembled. I don't know if I had better luck in this one, or since the horizon is higher, but there's almost no bow in the horizon at all.

Panoramic shot of Diamond Head Crater, downtown Honolulu and Manoa Valley (in the foreground) taken from Round Top Drive in Puu Ualakea State Wayside located in the Round Top Forest Reserve.

20 shot hand-held (no tripod) panoramic composition stitched in Adobe PS CS4.

40D EF 17-40 f/4L USM
Shot @ 40mm ISO 100 f/8 1/400s

RAW conversion done in PS CS4

This PS file is 126MB and a resolution of 13529 x 3766 or 56.4" x 15.7" at 240dpi or a 145.8 megapixel image!



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This is my favorite image I took of the day (Dec 2nd), it's the Diamond Head Light House from the summit of Diamond Head. I took a bunch of shots of that little lighthouse mostly just point and click, but this is the one where I composed the shot, waited for the waves to be just right, etc. :D I'm really glad it turned out as well as I envisioned it. Not to flatter myself but it reminds me of a post card, or a pictures from a lighthouse calendar.



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I took more pictures from the Diamond Head and Hanauma Bay, but I'm still working on those. Stay Tuned!

Aaron

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