Day 6: Six Days of Canon EOS 6D Images From Route 66

It's the last day in this my blog series: 6 Days of Canon 6D Images from Route 66. Each day I posted a few of my favorite images along with some photography tips – from the "Mother Road."​

On Days 1 I posted a picture of Robert Randazzo, owner of Absolutely Neon in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ​Since then I have posted pictures of cool neon signs, classic cars, awesome buildings and beautiful landscapes – along with a bunch of photo tips.

Robert, with his kindness and generosity, added a wonderful human touch the Route 66 experience, as did two other folks we met: Angel Delgadillo (above) and John Pritchard (below).

Angel owns Angel's Barber Shop in Seligman, Arizona. Angel has been dubbed the 'guardian angel' of Route 66. He is a founder of the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona, established in 1987 to campaign for "Historic Route 66" signage on the former US highway. Similar initiatives have since been established in every U.S. Route 66 state.

​We only spent a few minutes with Angel, who welcomed us, as he has done with hundreds of others, into this small shop with a big smile and a warm handshake. Angel is one-of-a-kind, but we need more people of his kind – people who love what they do and who want to bring joy into the lives of others.

A bit of photo tech talk: I carefully composed the picture of Angel so that his reflection in the mirror and the photograph of him as a young man ​were in the frame. You can learn more about composition in my on-line classes. Also, I used the Paper
Toner filter in Nik Color Efex Pro to tone the image. Info on the plug-ins I use is on my Save on Plug-ins page.

John is a man with a big heart in a small (and awesomely cool) car. He owns the Hackberry General Store – the only store in Hackberry, Arizona. His store has been called the "Mother Load of Mother Road Memorabilia." You know why as soon as you open the door.

Like Angel, John is a kind and giving person.

I had seen many pictures in which John's Corvette was parked outside his store, but none of him in his car. So, to get the shot I wanted, we asked him to move his car out of the shade and into the sun – twice – which he did with a smile.​

I know John is very small in the picture above, but as small as he is in the frame, I think he adds to the photograph. I used one of the Old Photo filters and Image Borders in Nik Color Efex Pro on this image.

​Below is a close-up picture of John and a picture of his car parked in front of his store. To me, the picture of just his car/store is not as interesting as the picture above.

The tip for this post is simple: get to know the local people wherever you travel. They will add to your travel experience. ​

As far as a photo tip goes: When photographing people, take a portrait and an environmental portrait, that is, a picture of a person in his or her environment.​

I hope you have enjoyed this series. It was an awesome road trip.​

You are invited on my next road trip: My Southwest Photo Caravan. Info my 2013 Workshops page.​

If you are interested in buying a Canon 6D, check out Adorama.

If you want to rent one, perhaps for a road trip, check out BorrowLenses.com.

All the gear I packed for this trip is listed here.

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. Here's a final tip: If you go on a road trip, rent a cool car. You are worth it! A fun car will enhance your "ride." Here's a shot of our Route 66 hot wheels. It's a Dodge Challenger RT - one of the cool cars in the Hertz Adrenaline Collection. ​

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Day 5: Six Days of Canon EOS 6D Images From Route 66

It's Day 5 in my blog series: 6 Days of Canon 6D Images from Route 66. Each day I will post a few of my favorite images along with some photography tips - from the "Mother Road." Hope you enjoy the "ride."

Location: Holbrook, AZ

I had a productive early morning shoot at the Wigwam Hotel, where you can actually sleep in a wigwam. "To each his own," as my dad used to say.

The wigwams are cool, but the setting is made even cooler by the vintage cars that are parked in the parking lot.

During my shoot I came up with a new Sammonism: "See Through It, Shoot Through It."​ (My other Sammonisms are listed on my About/Contact page.)

The concept of the new Sammonism is to use an interesting subject as a foreground element while having an interesting subject in the background – and to get everything in focus . . . just as it looks to our eyes. Toss in creative composition and you have a killer shot.

I teach all this stuff on my workshops. If you can't make a workshop, I cover this stuff in my Kelby Training classes.

I took the opening image for this post with my Canon 15mm lens, which is one of my favorite lenses, along with the Canon 14mm lens, for inside/outside car shots. That lens has been replaced by the Canon 8-15mm zoom, which is an awesome lens.​

​The opening image is a hand-held HDR image produced in Nik HDR Efex Pro. Read about HDR Efex Pro and all the plug-ins I use on my Save on plug-ins page.​

Tip: HDR is often needed in inside/outside shots.

Above: Here I shot with my Canon 17mm-40mm lens and used the side of the car as the foreground element, being careful not to crop out the door handles. I wanted one of the wigwams framed in the windshield.

Tip: Set your lens at f/22, as I did here, for max depth-of-field.​

Above: ​At first glance, this may not look like a "See Through It, Shoot Through It" image. But if you look through the read window of the car in the foreground, you'll see a cool, blue 1959 Chevy Impala framed in the window. This is another Canon 17-40mm lens shot.

Tip: Watch the background – like a hawk.​

I hope you have some fun with my latest Sammonism.​ It's a fun - and effective - composition technique.

If you are interested in buying a Canon 6D, check out Adorama. If you want to rent one, perhaps for a road trip, check out BorrowLenses.com.

All the gear I've packed for this trip is listed here.

Okay, it's time to get back on the road.

Explore the light,
Rick

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Day 4: Six Days of Canon EOS 6D Images From Route 66

It's Day 4 in my blog series: 6 Days of Canon 6D Images from Route 66. Each day I will post a few of my favorite images along with some photography tips - from the "Mother Road." Hope you enjoy the "ride."

Location: Gallup, New Mexico.

In the previous posts in this series I have not talked too much about the Canon EOS 6D. So today I thought I'd share with you a cool – and quite impressive – feature: the detail that's in the camera's RAW files (a.k.a. digital negative).

I made the image above from the file below. ​Once again, I used my Canon 17-40mm lens.

Because the train was very underexposed and the sky was bright,  I thought this would be a good image to test the camera's RAW file capture capability –  because rescuing shadow detail (without getting a lot of noise) and preserving highlights is important to photographers.

Low noise in low light at high ISO setting is important, too. That's another feature I like about the camera. See the first post in this series to see the quality of my low light/high ISO images.

Back to my train image. I work in Photoshop more than in Lightroom. In Photoshop, I pulled out the shadow detail (without adding noise) – while retaining detail in the sky and clouds. Kinda cool, don't you think?

Tip: Always keep in mind the end-result image that you can create in the digital darkroom.​ Don't be so quick to delete a file.

​I like black-and-white pictures of trains (and clouds), so I converted my color file to black-and-white using Nik Silver Efex Pro. All my plug-ins are listed on my Save on Plug-ins page. While you are there, check out the great deal on all the Nik plug-ins.

Speaking of clouds, we also had great clouds at Red Rock State Park, not far from Gallup.​

I used a Tiffen Polarizing filter to darken the blue sky and whiten the white clouds in the image.​

Tip: ​Don't cheap-out on a polarizing filter, or any filter. Sames goes for tele-converters. You always get what you pay for.

Here's a fun behind-the-scenes iPhone shot of me shooting by the tracks later in the day. My ears are still ringing from the sound of the train's blaring horn.

If you are interested in buying a Canon 6D, check out Adorama. If you want to rent one, perhaps for a road trip, check out BorrowLenses.com.

All the gear I've packed for this trip is listed here.

Okay, it's time to get back on the road.

Explore the light,
Rick

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Day 3: 6 Days of Canon EOS 6D Images From Route 66

It's Day 3 in my blog series: 6 Days of Canon 6D Images from Route 66. Each day I will post a few of my favorite images along with some photography tips - from the "Mother Road." Hope you enjoy the "ride."

Location: Tucumcari, New Mexico.

This post is a bit different from my two previous posts in this series. Tonight – after a long day of driving, shooting, downloading, processing, blogging and posting on Google+ etc. –  I'm focusing on making a picture. It's the image that opens this post, and it's one of my favorite images from the trip so far. The message here: take the time to make a picture.

I had the idea to make this image when we stopped in Tucumcari on the first full day of this road trip. On that first stop, I took some okay shots of the totally cool Blue Swallow Hotel sign, but I did not want to bother the owners with a request to make this image, which would have involved moving the car into the exact right position for the shot.​

Well, upon returning to Tucumcari very early the next morning, specifically to make this image, I asked the owners of the Blue Swallow Hotel, Kevin and Nancy Mueller, If they could help me out. They said sure.

While I was sitting in in the driver's seat, steering, Kevin pushed the car into exactly right position. Talk about helping out a photographer! Kevin rocks!​

I moved to the passenger side of the car. Crouching down, I shot, hand-held, with my Canon 14mm lens.

HDR was needed to capture the entire dynamic range of the scene. Above is the processed HDR image from the bracketed sequence below.​ I know the image looks flat. Read on.

When I process my HDR images in an HDR program (Photomatix or Nik HDR Efex Pro), my goal is to create a digital HDR negative.  After that, I go into Photohop or Lightroom to adjust, fine-tune and crop my image. I teach this kinda stuff on my workshops.

If you are interesting in learning more about composition and light, check out my on-line classes.​

Hey, I know this all looks like fun. It is. However, we're working our butts off on this road trip – shooting, processing, posting, grabbing a bite to eat, and driving. It's not easy having fun. :-)​

And speaking of driving and having fun, here's a shot of me with my trusty Canon 6D and our hot wheels for this awesome road trip. It's a Dodge Challenger RT - one of the cool cars in the Hertz Adrenaline Collection. ​

Here's a photo tip for the image above: Isolate the subject's head from the background.​

​If you are interested in buying a Canon 6D, check out Adorama. If you want to rent one, perhaps for a road trip, check out BorrowLenses.com.

All the gear I've packed for this trip is listed here.

Okay, it's time to get back on the road.

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. Want to join my 2014 Route 66 Photo Caravan/Workshop? Shoot me an email for info.

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Day 2: 6 Days of Canon EOS 6D Images from Route 66

It's Day 2 in my blog series: 6 Days of Canon EOS 6D Images from Route 66. Each day I will post a few of my favorite images along with some photography tips – from the "Mother Road." Hope you enjoy the "ride." ​

A general tip before we get going: Use plug-ins and image-editing software to remove some of the reality from a  scene, as well as to create a mood.​ I used Nik's Snapseed to add a retro look to all these images. All my plug-ins are listed on my Save-on Plug-ins page.

Location: Tucumcari, New Mexico.

Opening image: ​Tucumcari Trading Post. Canon 17-40mm lens. HDR was needed because I was shooting into the sun, which is hidden behind the clouds. I created the image from seven bracketed exposures.

Tip: Use your camera like a spaceship. My camera, mounted on my Really Right Stuff tripod, my camera was positioned about a foot above my head for this shot. I used Live View on the Canon 6D to compose the shot.

Above: Tucumcari Trading Post. Canon 17-40mm lens.

Tip: Tell the whole story. Take close-up shots in addition to photographing the wide view.

Above: Best Mexican Food in Tucumcari? Maybe at one time. Canon 17-40mm lens.

Tip: Expose for the highlights and compose carefully. Watch the background, too. Learn about light and composition in my Kelby Training classes.

​Above: Fast wireless and $23 bucks night. Color TV, too! What could be better? Canon 17-40mm lens.

Tip: The name of the game is to fill the frame. Hey, that composition rule worked for this image. But remember, negative space can be good, too.

Above: "You can trust your car . . . . " If you don't know that slogan, you are much younger than I am. Canon 17-40mm lens.

Tip: As you can see, I used one lens for all of the images in this post – even though I have several other lenses in my camera bag. The tip here: Keep it simple and have easy and fast access to your gear when you are on the move.

If you are interested in buying a Canon 6D, check out Adorama. If you want to rent one, perhaps for a road trip, check out BorrowLenses.com.

All the gear I've packed for this trip is listed here.

Okay, it's time to get back on the road.

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. Want to join my 2014 Route 66 Photo Caravan/Workshop? Shoot me an email for info. All my workshops are listed on the Workshop pages on the left.

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