I spent a lot of the summer behind the camera so when it came time to move I had to box it up for a while. I was going through withdrawals, until we took Mason to the aquarium in Monterey for Christmas and New Year. I took the opportunity to go for a late night walk down to the bay with my camera. The weather was perfect, slight fog to really make the distant light glow and it was cool and crisp. I took this shot at the fisherman's wharf and luckily the water was calm enough that the boats barely moved during the long exposures. I took five shots with exposure times from 8 seconds to 1/2 a second, which I planned on later processing as an HDR photo. The picture below is the result of the HDR processing in Photomatix (http://www.hdrsoft.com/). I like to take the minimalist approach to HDR and make it look as close to how I remember seeing it as possible.

Here's the final photo, without the images attached.

 Thanks for visiting Dangersoup and I hope to have more posted soon.

-Justin

The lighting consists completely of old incandescent bulbs, and then the lights under the water. After seeing how dark it was in the room I opted to go the HDR route. I wanted to have some more depth so I shot it at f4 and used one of the concrete lions as a foreground reference. The exposure time ranged from 30 seconds to 2 seconds for the five images that I used.

This image shows the finished photo along with the 5 images that were used to create it.

The finished photo.

I used Photomatix Pro to merge the photos together into one HDR image then I did some adjustments in Camera RAW to get it to look exactly the way I liked it. For more information on HDR images visit Trey Ratcliff's blog at stuckincustoms.com.

Since I had no prior knowledge of the theme for the contest, I had already planned on driving to Smith Rock State Park since I can get just about any kind of shot there. Once the theme "The Road" was announced, it greatly changed my plans. After taking a couple of pictures of the road, I realized I really wanted to implement an element of motion into the photo. A few years ago I took a photo at night from the back seat of a car looking through the front windshield and it turned out nice. My original plan was to try this shot, except during daylight. I didn't really like how it turned out.

After I took a few shots from inside the car, that's when I realized that the best shot would have to be from the outside, afterall nobody wants to spend an hour getting rid of the bugs on the windshield in Photoshop. Since I was just about the only person around on the rural highway, I thought, "Why not?". After all I had just listened to an interview with Chase Jarvis where he took an unreleased Nikon camera that they had sent to him for evaluation and strapped it to a helicopter, with great results. Fortune favors the bold, right? So I took my tripod, flipped it upside down and hung the camera outside the window while I was driving. I had the straps for my neck strap attached which I then used to make sure that I wasn't hanging the camera too low to the ground, I could feel them drag the asphalt before I would grind the top of my camera off. After that it was a matter of finding the rest of the elements which took about 10 minutes of driving around. I had it narrowed down to about a half mile stretch of road and I knew which way I wanted to be travelling. After a few practice shots I got the timing and exposure down fairly well and after reviewing a few shots I realized that I wanted at least a portion of the car in the shot, even though it did need to be washed. I had seen a few shots in Audi advertisements where they used similar shots and so I thought I might as well try it out.

After about 10 shots, the image below is what I ended up with. I found out quickly that going about 35-40 miles per hour in second gear offered the smoothest shot and allowed me just enought time to hit the shutter button, lower the camera and get to speed. If I was a little too slow then the picture was taken when I was shifting and the camera moved slightly because of the change in speed (oh yeah, I forgot to mention that my car is a manual).

I continued to take a few shots on the way back to town but none of them had all the elements that I liked in the one above. 

Thanks everyone for the comments and compliments, I greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

The view of GoodLife Brewing Company and you can barely make out the smokestacks of the Old Mill in the background.

Art Alexakis, lead singer of Everclear.

This is about a 1 second exposure of the crowd. It's easy to see who's having the most fun.

Mason enjoying the kids fishing day at Prairie Springs Fish Farm. http://www.prairiespringsfishfarm.com/

Fun with sparklers, even though they just don't work as well as the flaming welding rods that we used to have as kids.

The Dayville 4th of July parade, consisting of floats, horseback riders, kids on bicycles and a band. Everyone can participate.

One of the eager participants in the parade. 

Very serious photo shoot, no messing around.

 Keeping a 3-year old entertained is not always the easiest thing to do, especially when they are getting tired. While on a road trip to visit my sister and brother-in-law, Mason became very unimpressed with our conversations and just wanted to watch cartoons so thanks to Netflix and some headphones, he was able ot escape all the boring grown ups for a little while.

When shooting a wedding I always get lots of suggestions for photos, usually because somebody saw an amazing wedding photo somewhere that they really want to duplicate. While it's always great to get feedback and know what the client wants, it's especially gratifying when they have something original that they want to do. When it's comical as well, all the better. Thanks Nathan and Kirsten for the fun photo shoot. Juniper Golf Course, Redmond, Oregon

This one is pretty self-explanitary. Pumpkin patch around Halloween just outside Eugene, Oregon.

Voodoo Doughnuts in Eugene, notice the bacon maple bar in Dustin's left hand. It really doesn't get any better than that, unless you are trying to eat healthy then everything is better than that.

The first morning of elk season. Fresh snow on the mountain tops, brisk air on your face. It's like Christmas morning.

The real present, getting back to a nice warm wall tent that night.

This photo was taken on the last day of elk season last year, I believe it was October 31st. Rattlesnakes should not be out and about on Halloween! This one didn't really pose much of a threat even though I almost stepped on him, the cold weather was definately taking its toll on his reaction time.

He really is a superhero and this is how fast he runs. Washington Park, Portland, Oregon

Mason's first buck. Captured while on a family vacation in Seaside, Oregon.

Rachel stealing toys from a 3-year old. Seaside, Oregon

The great thing about living in the Pacific Northwest is that there is coffee (or hot chocolate) on every street corner. Portland, Oregon

Not a trophy shot by any means, and if this young buck doesn't wise up soon he never will be. When I took the first shot of him he was about 50 yards further away and when he heard the shutter open and shut on my camer he got curious and almost climbed up into the tree stand with me to see what I was doing. Northern Nebraska

A whitetail doe looking at the spike buck in the photo above. 

Shawn looks like a statue because he was frozen like this. Even though the photo looks nice and calm and peaceful, it was frigid cold and the wind was biting through us. He had been in this spot almost all day. Nebraska

Mudflap, our trusty and loyal hunting partner in Nebraska. He did snore a little too much for our liking though.

Thanksgiving in Arizona! We decided to go against the traditional Thanksgiving feast and had a Top Chef style cookoff. This was my contribution, a Puerto Rican style stew.

Delicious!

While in Arizona we visited an "authentic" western town named Rawhide. If you manage to make it here, don't trust the bartender!

Rawhide after dark.

Phoenix pine tree.

Even though his mother doesn't agree with me, this is my favorite Christmas photo.

Justin Homan, Redmond native and Metal Mulisha alum, showing his talents to the fans at Winterfest in Bend.

Ahhh... Life on the road. Harrisburg, PA

Dress atire for the largest consumer sporting goods show in the nation. Harrisburg, PA

The bridge leading to the Pennsylvania state capitol building.

The Pennsylvania state capitol building on a very rainy, windy and stormy night.

Downtown Baltimore Maryland, just after visiting some friends at Under Armour and getting to see their amazing facility.

Getting ready to board our plane in Baltimore. Just so you know, the time this photo was taken was at 1 A.M. PST.

This photo pretty much summarizes an entire year.

 

     I had heard rumors of this small shack of a restaurant in the middle of the southern Oregon outback for a couple of years but never made the hour drive to investigate. Silver Lake is only about a 75 minute drive south of Bend, and that does seem like a long commute just for dinner, but you realize that you made the correct decision about burning up that much $3.00 a gallon gas as soon as you step out of your car. If the smell of the steak against the hot BBQ grill doesn't hit you first then you are sure to catch the aroma of freshly baked sweet rolls wafting out of the oven. Mix that with the smell of juniper and sage that "landscape" the entrance and it reminds me of something straight from my childhood growing up on a farm.

 While we waited for our meal to be prepared we spent some time in their waiting area where we played in their mock saloon and brushed up on our roping skills.

Once we were seated we were immediately delivered a salad with their homemade salad dressings, both of which were great. As far as beverages are concerned you have a choice of pink lemonade, ice tea and water. They don't have a liquor license so no adult beverages are offered, which is probably better because even in Silver Lake it's just easier to avoid the OLCC as much as possible.

Fresh Sweet Rolls

Beans

     I really wish that the pictures of the steak did it justice, but they do not. The only thing that I can say about the size is that it is HUGE! Not only is it big but it is tender and juicy and the horseradish that comes with it compliments it perfectly.

     The dessert was a shortcake of sorts (more of a cross between short cake and corn bread) with fresh local berries and a small amount of cream over the top.

     If you have a weekend coming up and you really don't have anything to do, make a reservation at the Cowboy Dinner Tree in Silver Lake. Spend a couple days exploring the Oregon outback and enjoy some great country style food while you're there, you won't regret it.