Altamont Pass (CA), Turbines, Clouds, High Contrast, Monochrome

Altamont Pass, Livermore, CA

The wind turbines at Altamont Pass are a sight to behold even if the wind is absent.  These structures, old and new, are sentinels watching over the hills.

(Click thru the image for the 700px view)

Once again, the post processing is through Nik Silver EFex Pro 2 with the intention of creating a high contrast photograph to invoke a mood, primarily a sense of gloom and doom.  The fence line towards the bottom of the composition is intentionally dark, giving just a glimpse of the metal T-posts when it catches light off the sun.  The clouds have been reduced to the point where they appear as smoke trails appearing from the right, off image.

EXIF data: Nikon D7000, center weighted metering mode, ISO 200, 38mm, f/8, 1/100 sec

Altamont Pass (CA), Turbines, Clouds, High Contrast, Monochrome. Altamont Pass, Livermore, California. February 05, 2011. © Copyright Steven Tze – all rights reserved.

Preston Grounds, Wind Blown Sidelit Grasses

Preston Castle Grounds, Ione, CA

A photo opportunity delayed by a day.  With the winds gusting over the last two days, the idea was to shoot a slightly slower shutter speed to capture the movement of the grass.  Unfortunately, gusty winds in the Spring equate to pollen and dust to flying through the air even to people with minor allergies.  Luckily with some self-administered overdosing of relief tablets, I only missed one day of shooting.

(Click through the image for the 700px view)

The initial idea was to head towards a local pasture during midday and use a 10-stop ND filter to force long exposure times.  Yet the thought of going through the exercise of focusing, switching the lens to manual, carefully screwing on the filter and then shooting one shot before repeating the process for each composition just did not seem appealing.  So the next best plan was to shoot much later in the day, stomp down on the aperture setting (to f/16), and shooting at a much slower 1.3 second shutter to compensate.

EXIF data: Nikon D7000, center weighted metering mode, ISO 100, 68mm, f/16, 1.3 sec

Preston Grounds, Wind Blown Sidelit Grasses. Ione, California. April 09, 2013. © Copyright Steven Tze – all rights reserved.

Red Barn, Wind Turbines, Long Exposure

Sherman Island, Montezuma Hills, CA

A relatively so-so day shooting architecture in Berkeley and Oakland.  Almost halfway on the drive home, I spied this red barn from the highway and a sign indicating a levee road rapidly approaching.  Less than 5 minutes later, I was ready to shoot.

(click through on the image to view in 700px of long exposure blur)

As I was driving to the Bay Area and passing through the city of Antioch at 7am, I had seen two separate power generation plants in operation, with towers spewing water vapor/steam (at least that is what I assume it to be) into the air.  A perfect setting for long exposure photography.  By the time I was on my way back — nothing.  Either the plants were not in use or perhaps the unseasonably warm temperatures (mid-70s) prevents the vapor from being seen.  It would be the first of two setbacks as the foundry in Berkeley was also not in operation as I passed by.

Luckily, the wind along the Carquinez Strait was brisk enough to move these massive wind turbines.  Each of these turbines typically generate 1 megawatt per year, or enough electricity for 1,000 homes.  Using my 10-stop neutral densty filter, the sight of these turbine blades in motion almost look fake.  The shadow coming off the tower and turbine provide an added element of interest.

EXIF data: Nikon D7000, center weighted metering mode, 86mm, ISO 100, 30 sec, f/11

Red Barn, Wind Turbines, Long Exposure.  Montezuma Hills from Sherman Island, California.  November 04, 2012. © Copyright Steven Tze – all rights reserved.

Windswept Tree, Concrete Bunker, B&W

Marin Headlands, Marin, CA

Maybe not a photograph for everyone as this is more about shape and form than wide expanse landscapes.

Anyhow, we had decided to get out of the car for a brief stroll during our drive to Point Bonita Lighthouse in the Marin Headlands.  Along Conzulman Road there are what seem to be concrete bunkers, some with tunnels going through them and all with flat areas above to place large artillery guns.  These are the military batteries that protected the entrance to San Francisco Bay from potential attack from the sea.

While hiking up, through, and around this particular battery, I noticed this particular tree with a windswept lean to it that matched the angle of the concrete tunnel reinforcement next to it.  This ghost of a tree conformed to the hill around it.  I’m not sure how many more years this ghost tree will continue standing.  Like so many of the Cypress trees facing the ocean in the Bay Area, this tree was shaped by both the hillside it sat on and the wind that pushed it against the hillside.

Now that I’m looking at the photograph again on a laptop, I might want to go back and do some processing through Nik Software’s Silver EFex plugin as I’d like to see if I can darken the mood a bit on this obviously sun drenched photo.  I might even try out a square crop to see if the sky above the tree is unnecessary.

EXIF data: Nikon D50, patterned metering mode, 32mm, ISO 200, 1/160 sec, f/7.1

Windswept Tree, Concrete Bunker, B&W. Marin Headlands, California. February 13, 2011. © Copyright Steven Tze – all rights reserved.

Wind Turbines, Ridge, Clouds

Altamont Pass, CA

A bit late on the post today as I’m settling back in after arriving back home after 8 days away for the Thanksgiving holidays.  Yesterday (Thursday), was a very windy day all throughout California.  Reports of winds hitting 101 mph, schools being closed in some Southern California cities and even power outages.  In fact, I was stuck in traffic as all the traffic signals in Alhambra were off.

Anyhow, in deference to the mighty wind gods, I’ll post another photograph from the Altamont Pass that connects the cities of Tracy and Livermore.  This was taken towards the end of the shooting day but before the “Wind Turbines, Sunset Clouds” photograph.  Besides my penchants for taking sunset photos with silhouettes, this one has the added bonus the dark clouds mirroring the shape of the ridge but having a gap between the two elements to provide backlit sunlight for the wind turbines.

EXIF data: Nikon D50, patterned metering mode, 55mm, ISO 200, 1/500 sec, f/11

Wind Turbines, Ridge, Clouds. Altamont Pass, California. February 05, 2011. © Copyright Steven Tze – all rights reserved.