Three Buddies

On the coral reefs of Papua, it is easy to just overlook these pretty little fish as they are all over the reefs. But they sure are cute little guys worthy of a photo...

Shoes

I remember thinking, "Now that's a different way to display shoes for a shoe store..." In Nepal, I guess you don't always have to display your shoes for sale neatly on a shelf...

Skywatch Friday - Central Java

Happy Friday!

This week's Skywatch shot is from Java while on a motorcycle trip...

Be sure to visit the many beautiful skies from around the world...

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Tropical Paradise

Nestled in those trees are wild parrots, Cocatoos, Lorikeets, Hornbills and other birds singing their songs early in the morning...really is a tropical paradise...

The Beauty of Digital Photography

After processing this photo in Lightroom and Photoshop, I was amazed at the difference of what I started with (bottom photo) and what I ended up with below. Just goes to show what your digital camera actually captures, but you don't always see. The details are all there, you just have to bring them out in Photoshop. You can barely see the highlights of the clouds in the bottom photo, and the greens are all washed out....

So, this is what I did...

Since my original photo was RAW (I always shoot in RAW), I created three photos from the original at different exposures in Lightroom. The only thing I changed was the exposure values. I created one at +1, one at the original setting, and one at -1. The -1 exposure captured the details in the clouds, and the +1 caputured lost details in the shadow areas. I then blended the three photos into and HDR using Photomatix, and tone mapped. After Photomatix, it looked pretty good, but I then reopened the photo in Photoshop, and did a curve adjustment and color balance adjustment to get the greens correct....then sharpened...

A Field of Rice

Last weekend, I went mountain biking with some good friends about 3 hours outside of Jakarta. The rice fields were in full bloom...not sure if "full bloom" is what you say about rice...so, ok, "the rice fields were close to harvest..."

Skywatch Friday - Sea and Sky

Happy Friday!!

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A Six Meter Wide Manta

This is one of five mantas that swam within inches of my camera...this one was at least 6 meters from wing tip to wing tip....they are the most graceful and gentle animals in the sea...

A Busy Place

After my dive, I had to "burn off" some nitrogen at 3 meters...

For this safety stop, I was low on air, but had to stay at 3 meters for 5 minutes longer...

So, to kill time, I took a couple more photos...and this is one that I took while hiding behind the reef to block the raging current....where there is current, there are fish...lots of fish.

The Bridge...

Crossing this bridge on a mountain bike...no problem...

Crossing this bridge with a 4-ton truck...uh...could be a problem...

Just Hangin'

Some friends and I headed to the mountains for the weekend about 3 hours outside of Jakarta. We rode mountain bikes and dirt bikes down some cool back roads and trails...

I can never resist taking photos of colorful village houses...and the characters that hang out on the porch...

Underwater Skywatch Friday

The sky seeps through to shine on the Crinoids below...

Happy Friday!!

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