Author: Alik Griffin

1800’s Canadian Barn Exterior

A few weeks ago I posted an image of the interior of a barn. The landscape north of Toronto Canada is spattered with old 150-year-old barns like this. People still buy them, maintain them and use them. This one has an attached garage and a built-in studio for the owner’s musical instruments. I wish I…
Fixing Color Banding in Photos and Video

One of the things you’ll notice if you’re a photographer, videographer, or motion graphics designer is color-banding artifacts when converting your work to 8-bit web formats. This happens because each color of an 8-bit image only has a color range of 256 values. So, say you have a sunset that’s orange and shifts into purple…
Yosemite Falls – Selective Coloring Technique

This is a shot of the Yosemite Falls. I singled out the color of the man at the base of the falls to really capture the scale of the falls. This trick is pretty easy to do, and there are a few ways to do it. I did it with Lightroom. Here is how.
Streets of Kyoto Japan

Walking through Kyoto, Japan, is unlike anything else. Everything is so clean and orderly. You wouldn’t know it, but it was snowing earlier in the day when I took this photo. I would love to go back to Kyoto and spend more than a day there and take some proper photographs. This photo was actually…
The Haunted Queen Mary

In WWII, the Queen Mary was called the Grey Ghost, not because it was haunted but because of its color and the way it smoothly sailed across the water. Doesn’t it just look haunted? Apparently, some 150 ghosts haunt the Queen Mary, and I’ve read that up to 49 people have died aboard the ship.…
Dejima Dutch Trading Post – Nagasaki Japan

This is what Japan would have looked like in the 1800s. It’s a historically preserved part of a town in Nagasaki, Japan. This area was used as a Dutch trading post from 1641 to 1853. So, Dutch traders would have been living here. It was later integrated into the city.
El Matador Beach – Malibu

El Matador Beach is an awesome little spot just above Zuma. I’m guessing it got the name “El Matador” because this rock formation looks like a bull with its head down. This location is about halfway between Ventura and Santa Monica on the Pacific Coast Highway in California. It’s known for its beautiful rock formations.…
Miyajima Temple Japan

Off the coast of Hiroshima, Miyajima is one of Japan’s finest views. Miyajima means Shrine Island, and that’s pretty much what this place is. Tame wild deer roam freely, and old Japanese Edo-era architecture is everywhere. It was founded sometime around 806 when a Buddhist monk, Kobo Daishi, established the site. The Buddhist temples and…
Orange Skies – Santa Monica Pier

This photo is of the Ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier Amusement Park. I love sunsets when there are no clouds in the sky. You get nice even colors that are easy to tweak. Shot with the Canon 5Dmkii and the 24-70mm f2.8L USM lens. I tweaked the exposure in Lightroom. Created a silhouette…
Queen Mary with the Canon 40mm Pancake

The Queen Mary during the 4th of July fireworks show. About 30 minutes after the show, they set off another brief round of fireworks that I could capture further down with my Canon 40mm f2.8 pancake lens.