Silent Sentinals of Long Beach is a post from: Ari Takes Pictures

That is all.

Palm Trunks of the Rich and Famous is a post from: Ari Takes Pictures

I can appreciate the beach and strolling the sand, but the encroaching high-rise hotels, some of them dating back directly to those glory days, make for some of my favorite pictures.

Starting from the south (zoo, aquarium) end of the strip with Diamondhead at your back, the Aston Waikiki Beach is the first big hotel you see.  I love the scalloped balconies.

I got a bunch more.  Click for the jump.

The Waikiki Beach Marriott sure looks like they stole the 70′s-vintage Aston looks and threw a bit more mirrored glass on it.

The Waikiki Resort Hotel is a sort of stand-out on this section of the strip, mostly because you can tell how much newer it is than some of the other buildings.  I like the mix of tones and lines against the sky.

You know what Resortquest Waikiki Beach Tower?  Not my favorite.  That’s all I’m going to say.

Hey there little Resortquest Waikiki Circle Hotel – you almost make up for your big brother!  Who doesn’t love circular buildings?  And those exposed in-room air conditioners?  How shabby-chique!

The Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach is the last of the hotels on the south end of the strip.  Going north there are plenty of other highrises, but most are packed so close together than you can’t really take pictures of them in isolation.  The sky as a background, with Hawaiian sunlight streaming through, makes this special to me.  It sounds stupid to say that everything in Hawaii is so vivid that I get excited to takes pictures when I’m there, but it’s true.  I guess that the brightness just helps me see.  More to come.

Waikiki Beach Skyline is a post from: Ari Takes Pictures

Starting with Photoshop CS4, Adobe changed all that.  There was a panorama tool built right in, and it had a magic setting called “Auto”.  With CS5 it got even better.  No matter what you throw at it, it blends, warps, and just works magic.  The pictures always look good.  Always.  Here is my latest:

Like before, I’m posting my panoramas at twice the width of most of my pictures so you can see a little of the magic in there!

This is a shot from the end of highway 270 on the north shore of the big island of Hawaii.  Stretching out to the east is the Waipio Valley.  From this side, near Hawi, you can drive only so far, and then you can hike.  The beach below is only 20 or 30 minutes, but you can go a couple days farther if you’re stupid brave enough.  It’s a beautiful place with lazy cows, fields of waist-high grass and the odd taro patch.  It might not be obvious but this shot is a bit odd.  I’m standing on a hill, shooting down and panning the camera diagonally – sort of inland + underneath me.  In the past, this just wouldn’t work.  You’d have to map every point in the panorama by hand, and at the end of the day you’d have a distorted picture that would probably lead to a lot of rending of hair and kicking of computers.  With Photoshop CS5, you just hit go and wait.  I’d like to say I miss the old days when things were hard, but I don’t – at all.  Not only does this let you just take pictures and do what you want to do, but it means you can shoot hand-held and with lesser equipment and still have something serviceable come out the other side.  Adobe, this time, I love you.

How Photoshop Won The Panorama War is a post from: Ari Takes Pictures

See that shot?  Not too bad, right?  The real magic however, is twofold.  First off,  I shot that hand-held.  Yes, it was in fairly bright sun so the exposure was easy, but it includes a beach scene and rolling waves are just about the hardest thing to put in a panorama.  The real beauty behind it all is Adobe Photoshop CS4.  Whereas before I told you to use Panorama Factory or Autostitch, which are still fine, I just need to spread the word that the built-in panorama creation tool in CS4 beats them all.  In fully auto mode, it stitched together 6 individual shots to create this without any manual intervention.  Without much if any moire, and without totally barfing when it came to the water.  The original shot is 10,000 and some pixels wide and I think it’s beautiful.  If anyone is really interested, I can post a larger version too.

The moral of the story is this: go shoot some panoramas.  Certainly a tripod and level will help and for night shots it might be the only way, but don’t limit yourself!  Software is constantly improving and even if you don’t have Photoshop CS4 right now, you might get it down the road (or you might get this feature in something free or low cost in 6 months).  Things change!  The only thing you can’t change is the fact that you might not take pictures today.  I’ve certainly regretted the things I’ve not captured.  Do yourself a favor.  Digital is cheap.  Go take pictures.

The Evolution Of Panorama is a post from: Ari Takes Pictures

I’ve been employed for all of two weeks now and already I’m digging in the vault as I’m out of new stuff.  Of course this pic is from my trip a while back, but it’s still good stuff, right?

Anyway, these sorts of rock formations were all around the beaches on Koh Tao and I lived them all.  This one seemed to have particularly nice asymmetry.  I can’t figure out if I’m happy with the framing in this shot or not.  On one hand, the subject is halfway up, seeming screwing up the rule of thirds pretty good.  On the other hand, horizontally, I think the positioning is very nice.  I’m coming around to the idea that the vertical symmetry and the horizontal asymmetry make it work.  But I took it, so I’m a little biased.

Digging In The Vault #1 – Thailand is a post from: Ari Takes Pictures