Category: Blog | Page 51 | Alik Griffin

Mather Point Grand Canyon

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Grand Canyon – View from Mather Point

A year and a half later, I returned to the Grand Canyon with two new lenses. This time, I had a little more time—about two hours. I was able to use my tripod and switch my lenses a couple of times. This photo was taken on my Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS II. The Grand Canyon often calls for a long lens to really focus on its features. This was a three-shot HDR taken handheld with that lens. Handheld can be very tricky and often doesn't turn out right if you move the lens too much. Luckily, this lens has an auto stabilizer that works great when you can get it to kick in. The photo was processed in Photomatix using the Exposure Fusion technique and tweaked with Lightroom 4.2.

Santa Barbara Reflections Beach Photo

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Santa Barbara Orange Reflection

The other night, I was in Santa Barbara taking photos around the Pier. I'm slowly collecting all the piers of Southern California. While walking down to get a nice wide shot of the pier, I looked across this dirty little inlet lagoon thing that smelled really bad and saw all these trees and this little lighthouse perfectly reflecting across the water. So careful not to touch the water of this dirty smelly lagoon inlet thing with my tripod I got my camera really low and was able to get this. It was really the perfect time of night.

Solvang Pizza Tower

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Tower Pizza of The Danish Town Solvang

A couple of miles out of Santa Barbara, California, is a small Danish town called Solvang. It feels as though Vikings built it one hundred years ago or something. Actually, they probably did, but I haven't done my research on the place yet.

American Falls

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The American Falls

This photo is from last year when I went to Toronto, Canada. It's of the American Falls taken from the Canadian side. To the right of this is the Niagara Falls. This is one of those sites that is just breathtaking in real life. It's hard to really capture the scale of this in the photo. I tried not to alter the colors too much to give the photo the most natural appearance of what the scene actually looks like. The water is really a beautiful emerald blue like this.

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Redondo Beach Pier

The different beach cities all along the coast of California all seem to have their own little vibe. And Redondo Beach is no different. For this shot, a thick marine layer blocked most of the sun. A few minutes after this, the light from the sun was pretty much gone, even though the sun was still a good 15 minutes from setting. Luckily, the Redondo Beach Pier has a lot of great and interesting areas with nice lighting, so night photography there can be fun.

Laguna Mussels Beach With Bird

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Two Seagulls in a sea of Mussels

This is an HDR photo of two seagulls relaxing in a sea of mussels during sunset. It was a very low tie, so the mussels were all exposed. I'm sure the seagulls were looking for an easy meal with all the other animals that were exposed. I'm on a 16mm shot in this photo, and I was surprised at how close these birds were letting me get to them. I'm a lot closer than it appears here. I guess the birds on California's coasts are more helpful to people.

Malibu Pier HDR

How to Shoot Better Photography with a Tripod

I’ve started shooting many more landscapes, long exposures, cityscapes, and HDR Photography in the last few years. Using a Tripod has taught me a great deal about why and how to use a tripod and other photography techniques.

HDR Photo of Hermosa Pier

Beach Photography

Like most people, I love the beach, I love shooting there, and I always love great ocean and beach pictures. I grew up on the beach and have spent a lot of time in the water—hours a day surfing on summer break or between semesters. It's safe to say I've learned a thing or two about the ocean and how it acts. I hope to share several photography tips I've picked up when shooting pictures of the sea in this post.

Victoria Beach Tower in Laguna Beach

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Victoria Beach Tower

This Photo is of the Victoria Beach Tower, which is actually a 60-foot spiral staircase built with reinforced concrete that leads up to a house on the top of the cliff. This was built in 1926 as part of California Senator William Edward Brown and his wife's summer vacation home so they could escape the heat of Beverly Hills. It must be nice. I guess 85 degrees in the summer was too much for them to handle back then. The look of this tower comes from old French Chateaux and Castles. Many people returning from the First World War were inspired by these structures and attempted to mimic them.

HDR Photo of Hermosa Pier

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Hermosa Pier Sunset

This shot is of the Hermosa Pier right before the sun went down. The sun is there but very small in the shot because I'm on a really wide lens. This photo is just before the sky turns to a deep purple color, which created a totally different look from the one found in my other night HDR photos of the exact location. With a sunset photo like this, it's very important to have a High Dynamic Range, so I find I either have to shoot a five shot bracketed HDR offset by two stops or shoot RAW, which is what I did in this High Dynamic Range Photo. I also was using the Samyang 14mm f2.8 lens. I didn't want to use this lens for too long since It does not accept screw-on UV filters, and the salty, misty sea air would quickly cover my glass. So I switched to my Canon EF 16-35mm f2.8L ii to shoot the rest of my night HDR photos after the sun went down.

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