Cactus Flowers

© by Michael Long 2014

© by Michael Long 2014

The Cactus flowers pictured above only bloom once a year.  The cactus pictured were done in my own back yard.  

Nikon cameras and lens tend to bring out the reds more so, than other cameras.  The only retouching that was done was to clean up the blacks and dust spots......  

The picture done with the black background was done outside with a black plastic for the back ground.  All the pictures were shot off of a tripod.  The reds in all the photos Were not photoshop in or intensify in any way.  The only lighting was open shade.  

ROSES

This first picture was taken so that the head of the flower would show just above the cactus.....  Which I feel came out pretty good.  I'm happy with it. 

This was taken in a more traditional way.  Which I enjoy very much also. 
I've found that Nikon cameras have a tendency to saturate the reds. But that's fine with me,  Since I love a strong red color. 

OTHER PHOTO'S

© by Michael Long 2014

I do, do other pictures of landscapes and sunsets, and of sunrises.   This picture I've had a lot of success selling.  I've sold 5 of 10 signed canvas.   This was taken in Palm Springs CA. facing west.  I did do a little photo shop to snap up the colors,  but very slightly. It was printed on canvas with a gallery wrap. 

© by Michael Long 2014

This picture was of a Sunrise,  About the same time maybe a few days apart.  This picture will go on the market very shortly.  This one will probably be printed on Metal,  in a larger size,  e.g.  16"x 20"  or something a long those lines.  Some pictures look better larger,  and this is the case here.  And like the one above,  it will be a signed and numbered edition. 

KOBE's Japanese Steak House

© by Michael Long 2013

© by Michael Long

© by Michael Long 2013

The other nite I got invited to join the family and granddaughter's birthday party at KOBE's.  In Rancho Mirage, CA.  

I took my Nikon to get some family pictures etc. Along with the family pictures I got to take pictures of the chef cooking our dinner. 

The hardest part of this was shooting in available lite.  I did manage to get a few pictures of the chef with a flash,  but I could tell that he wasn't real excited about the flash thing.  So I cranked up the ISO to 1600 dropped the shutter speed to 1/30 and the F-stop was about F8.  I did have to adjust the pictures a little bit in photoshop, but that was just to bring up the exposure some.  And Poof they were done.

Just a different angle

© by Michael Long 2013

© by Michael Long 2013

I was hoping to get a portfolio picture out of this one,  We'll see after I get an enlargement of the pic printed up..  This was shot with a Nikon d3200,  A 55-200 lens with an extension ring.  The reason for the extension ring was to get in a touch closer to the fish and still retain focus.  The light source was diffused window light, on the right and a silver reflector on the left to fill in.  I used a manual setting for the exposure.  with bracketing. 

Here is another pic of the same Salmon but from a different angle.  Every thing stayed the same except the lens...... I went to a 18-55 lens.  Same lighting etc.

FACEBOOK

Today we just pulled all of our photographs off of FACEBOOK.  They have in there info section or wherever it is.  A clause that states in short that they have the right to use any of our photographs of anything that is posted And use it in their OR Third party advertising.  So to make a long story shorter,  they can use your pictures of you or your family anyway they want...... and there is nothing that you can do about it........  So don't look for us on FaceBook.  I will keep a personal page on there but that's it.  I hope that this is helpful in some way.

Here is a link to the article.


  http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/04/privacy-groups-ask-f-t-c-to-block-facebook-policy-changes/


 

A possible menu cover

© by Michael Long 2013

I just got a new camera body to work with.  I got a Nikon d3200 with 24.1 megapixels  which is a bunch of pixels.  Anyway,  This started off as a test shoot on the camera,.  And it came out so well that I may use it in my portfolio,  as a menu cover.  But we'll see about that and how that goes.

This was done without booze,  but with Lemon-aide and fake ice crystals.  or chunks.  The lighting came from the right side through a diffuser.  There is NO reflector on the left.  The floor of counter top was a fake marble or slate tile.  Actually it was Lino peel and stick tile.  And a black card for the background.  The lime twist was the only real thing in the picture,  And probably the hardest to make and get to curl like I wanted.  So there you go.  a Menu cover for a bar.