Cafe Opera & Bakery
Roadside Americana
Nikon D7000 18-200mm @ 40mm ISO 200 1/125 F/11 Lr4, TpzSim; PsCS6
On Myrtle Avenue in the pedestrian friendly Old Town, Monrovia, California. There are quite a few restaurants and retauraunt/bars in this neighborhood.
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Urban Study #70; Old Town Traffic
Nikon D7000 10-24mm @ 16mm ISO 320 1/400, 1/100, 1/30 f/16 Lr3, HEP1, TpzSim; PSCs5
Colorado Boulevard in Old Town, Pasadena, California during a late afternoon in January. I really enjoy capturing images of the Pasadena urban scene, the variety of architecture and what I can produce using the lines, shapes and colors and textures that I find.
Del Mar Building Trio
Interpretive Digital Imaging
Nikon D7000 18-135mm @ 35mm ISO 2000 3-bkts f/13 Lr3, TpzSim; PsCS5
These buildings stand on the north side of Del Mar Boulevard between South Raymond Avenue in the foreground and South Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena, California. Coming up Raymond from where we parked I was attracted by the bold colors of the buildings which reflect the re-urbanization of Pasadena, they were constructed after the beginning of the new millenium and are primarily housing units with maybe some business activity on portions of the first floors; there is an interurban rail line that passes through the red building in the center. This block of buildings is situated on the southern edge of Old Town Pasadena, adjacent to many Pasadena historic structures.
I started with an HDR processed image, used Lightroom to flatten some of the detail, then went further with Topaz Simplify. Then masked back in some of the detail at varying opacity; then hand painted in all of the white building in order to get the color and texture where I wanted it.
Heritage Boxcar
Nikon D7000 10-24mm @ 15mm ISO 400 3-bkts f/22 Lr3, HEP1, CEP3; PsCS5
This old boxcar is resting on the western edge of Heritage Square, hard by the Pasadena Freeway (the nation’s first freeway) in Los Angeles. As an example of great minds thinking alike I captured this image at about the same time that Van Sutherland captured a similar image, two time zones away. Van titled his image “Character” and you will find it on his blog Exile Imaging. Van’s version is more realistic than my interpretation, my excuse is that he had a better weathered subject than I did, covered with some great peeling paint, so I had to rely more upon slight of hand to make my surfaces more interesting.
Chill’n At The Equator
Street Life
Nikon D7000 18-135mm @ 26mm ISO 2500 1/6 f/3.8 Lr3; SEP2
The Equator was originally a stable in the 19th century, and since the revitalization of Old Town, Pasadena, California that began in the late 20th century the building has hosted various hospitality based businesses. They bill themselves from what I can gather from their web site as a restaurant/club featuring Asian fusion food and of course a full bar. Equator is located on Mills Place which is nearly just an alley in Old Town, adjacent to Mills Alley, which is a real alley. This short street is much more typical of the North End in Boston, than of some Disneyfied entertainment venue typical of the greater Los Angeles area.
No special post processing here, just some selective tone adjustments to bring out more clarity of all the human images, particularly of the fellow actually inside the building. I was intrigued by the elaborate chandeliers that are visible through the windows and I like the image of the hairless guy leaning against the wall.
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
Shop Windows
Nikon D7000 18-135mm @ 18mm ISO 2500 3-bkts f/3.5 Lr3, HEP1; CEP3
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf at the corner of Mercantile Place and Fair Oaks Avenue in Old Town, Pasadena, California is our bivouac for hot and cold coffee drinks when we are doing a photo walk in Old Town. This shot was captured just after closing time on a recent weekday evening.
Place Vendome: Attraction To Shiny Objects
Shop Windows
Nikon D7000 18-135 mm @ 26mm ISO 2500 1/80 f/7.1 Lr3
This is the window at the rear of the Place Vendome shop on the alley way between Miller’s Alley and Smith Alley in Old Town, Pasadena, California. Just a straight forward image, no application of post processing filters, just minimal exposure and contrast adjustments.
The Hardware Store
Nikon D80 10-24mm @ 10mm ISO 200 3-bkts f/22 HDR Efex Pro SEP2
This is Patterson Hardware on Central Avenue in Fillmore, California. If you are a member of the digital generation you may not know what an independent hardware store looked like, back in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. No big box warehouse like emporium, no big national chain operation, no Home Depot and Lowe’s duopoly with a large corporate advertising budget. Just a guy in a store front, with a sign on the front, the time to devote to his customers, and a lifetime of tools, widgets, and sundry objects packed on the shelves and cataloged in his mind.
As I was capturing brackets out on the sidewalk, Judy was inside engaging in some commerce. She had remembered that she needed some little odd ball doodad that has something to do with a lampshade and headed inside to see the man. He fixed her right up. Better than a possibly unsuccessful special trip to the big box store.
After HDR processing I used Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 to convert to black and white, and give the image a vintage look.
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