Disney/Pixar's "UP" House come to life!

Every year Utah has a "Parade of Homes" This is where real people get to pay for the privilege of seeing how the filthy rich live. This year one of the builders went a little nuts and with the full blessing of Disney/Pixar built a life size replica of the house from the wonderful movie "UP". Here are a few videos a local TV station did on it.

We took the kids out to see it last Sunday as part of our "Family Home Evening" a time we set aside every week for time together as a family. Here are a few of the images - most of them are HDR images, and a few were taken using my new Promote Control. I'll have a full review of that soon after I've had a chance to take a wide range of images with it.

This is a sorta head on shot using 9 exposures @ 1ev spacing. I was on a tripod down in the shadow of the street barrier (which wasn't stopping any cars from driving right up in front of the house)  I went low to use the shadow to block out the low angled sun which was just to the right of the frame.

This is the view from the corner across the street looking southwest you can see one of those useless barriers, and just how bright that setting sun was even with 9 exposures I wasn't able to dial down the highlights on the side of the house while tonemapping, and I didn't feel like messing around with a bunch of layers and masking in the darker brackets as I feel that this shot shows the true light levels at the time. Shot with 9 brackets with 1ev spacing using the Promote Control.

This is the mailbox that Carl and Ellie made in the movie complete with their handprints. This is a 3 shot HDR handheld with brackets at -2, 0, +2

One of my favorites of the day (at least of the shots without my own kids in them) It was fun watching this little guy try to open the mailbox (it doesn't, at least not right now) This is another handheld HDR with 3 brackets of  -2,0,+2 and this shows just how important Photomatix's De-ghosting feature is as even at 7fps this guy was moving! One bracket had a clearer view of his face but this shows his effort better.

Sneaking a peek! My little girl was waiting patiently to see inside but it was taking too long so she stood behind the little boy to get a view of the front room which is decorated just like the movie with identical chairs, painting, etc. Again 3 shot HDR handheld at -2,0-+2

Here's my future Paparazzi! She took more pictures than I did. I took this literally seconds after the previous one, I saw it coming so I had to hustle around the fence and through the gate to catch it.

Here's my shot of the painting above the mantle of "Paradise Falls" a group getting a private tour had closed the blinds just before I walked up to see inside so this was all I could see of the painting and I had to crank it up to iso4000 (yeah that's 3 zeroes) but I kinda like the spying through the window feel of it.

 The weather vane was a nice touch!

And here's a typical pose of a photographers wife - patiently waiting for her crazy husband, and wearing her daughters hat because she didn't want to wear it anymore. (btw that's the spot I took the first HDR image from)

This home is on sale for ~$400,000! It clashes so much with the neighborhood which is all mega mansion sized homes with dark brown stucco walls. I pity the eventual owner as this house will be a tourist attraction for quite some time and the customized nature of it from its paint to its shingles will be very expensive to maintain.

I however will never have to worry about that as I'll never have that kind of money, but I am very thankful that someone did build it, and that I was able to take the family to see it.

Happy Shooting!

West Jordan City 4th of July Parade 2011

For the last few years we've been attending our city's 4th of July Parade it's a fun (although early) start to a long, fun filled day of celebrating our great nation, and spending some quality time together as a family. We always set up at the same place, right at the starting point of the parade. We like this location because it's usually pretty easy for us to get a place to sit, and since it's at the beginning the participants are full of energy, and as a bonus we get the whole thing over with sooner.

I never try too hard to get "good" pictures during the parade as the backgrounds are bad ( gas station, strip mall, grocery store), the light's all wrong, and I'm pretty much stuck in one place, with that in mind here are a few shots I liked and thought I'd share.

The West Jordan Motorcycle squad always starts it off

All lined up and ready to go 3 exp Handheld HDR

The D.A.R.E. car, 3 exp Handheld HDR

Pre Parade sweets!

The Fire Department follows the police, here is Ladder 53 3 exp Hand held HDR

Ladder 53 and some friends, 3 exp handheld HDR

"Killer" Hazmat Logo

Smokey! A serious crop to get rid of the truck he was riding in, Silver Effex Pro2 for B&W conversion

The Chick-fil-A Cow, The whole parade seems like one big marketing scheme!

Finally some action!

In Utah this has many, many, meanings...

Some serious drumming.More advertising! Good thing it was cloudy and cool this year

The local Bike club paraded, some with Cheerleaders on the back,this guy was too cool for that - Ok he had no back seat, but still...

No this is not SR. from O.C. Chopper

A local car club also showed up

He honked the horn after this, yep must be Utah! 3 exp Handheld HDR

"EWWW...", I love pictures taken out of context! But you can't have a parade without a "beauty" queen right?!

I'm  glad that I don't know that girl and that she'll never see this, otherwise I think I would be in some serious trouble.

This year the weather was perfect, 70's, overcast with just a few scattered raindrops here and there. We had a great time, kids got candy, and I didn't get sunburned.

Happy Shooting!

Lunch Date

Last week my wife and I celebrated our anniversary, unfortunately our work schedules didn't allow us to get away for a vacation this year so I decided to surprise her with a lunch date.  Nothing fancy just a short walk to an awesome nearby sandwich shop that sits in a secluded little alley downtown.

I've been trying to bring my camera with me more and more lately,  it has advantages and disadvantages. I can take pictures but it's a bit cumbersome and I'm still not sure how to carry it? In a bag, or out in the open? This time I took it in a bag to avoid any problems or accidental spills while eating, and we had a great lunch together alone - if you have kids you'll understand why I included that statement.

I should have taken some pictures in the shop, but I didn't and I'm not sure why, maybe I felt awkward shooting in such a place without permission. I wanted to shoot the wall we were sitting next to as it reached up 2 stories and was bare brick with great light and metal rafters at the top, and I could've taken a great portrait of my wife against it, maybe I didn't because  I wanted instead to just talk with her and enjoy the time together.

I'll shoot it next time!

On the way back to her work as we were walking up the alley (it gently slopes up in that direction) I noticed as we began to come out of the alley that some buildings came into view with a nice contrast of architecture so I pulled out the camera and snapped off a few handheld HDRs.

The Walker Center Building

I usually try to shoot different aspects of a scene so I tried this in Portrait mode as well.  I like this version more than the first, even though it was tougher to handhold a 3 shot HDR in this orientation as I'd taken off my battery grip to make the camera less conspicuous.

A vertical view of the Walker Center

Walking farther out of the alley I turned left and saw the Wells Fargo building looming over us, I zoomed in and made an abstract shot of its windows.

I really liked the tones and shapes of the windows and exaggerated that contrast of tones in Photoshop.

I then turned around and looked across the street to see this beat up relic, what a difference the width of one road can make. I snapped a handheld 3 shot HDR and made some pretty aggressive post processing choices as I wanted to really show the grungy nature of these buildings.

I'm glad I took my camera, and I'm glad that I used it! Also it was nice to be reminded that looking high, low, and behind you can often yield another picture that may even be better than the one you first saw.

Happy shooting! and don't forget to "look everywhere"!