Mini H-Town

It’s easy to dismiss tilt-shift miniature faking as nothing more than a Photoshop gimmick. But in my opinion, when done right the results are still quite compelling. There’s a method to the madness of the post-processing and even if you put aside the digital chicanery, there’s still the matter of getting the right subject matter shot from the proper angle which is instrumental in achieving the desired effect.

And besides, if the photographer is having fun and people smile and enjoy the end product isn’t that all that matters?

As Neil Young once sang – “There’s more to the picture, than meets the eye…

Click the images below to see the full sized versions

I Got A Basketball Jones

I was commenting to some friends at one of the recent Geek Gatherings how it had been awhile since I’d been to a basketball game. I’m not a huge huge fan, but Cynthia is. I enjoy it well enough but the real joy is watching Cynthia watch the game.

Turns out the person I was talking to was a season ticket holder and he said that he could hook me up sometime as he didn’t go to every game. I didn’t think too much of it until a few weeks later when he contacted me and offered tickets to the Rockets VS. Mavericks game.

The tickets are at the Red and White Wine Bistro, an upscale all you can eat restaurant and wine bar. Food was included with the ticket but you paid for the wine. And the seats are right on the balcony with a great view of the court.

The Toyota Center has a 4 inch limit on lenses so there was no bringing my long zooms. I settled on my 11-18mm with the idea of capturing some wide angle shots like this one:

Click to see the larger version and check out the detail.

And although I know it is getting more and more passe and trite, I took the opportunity to create a fake tilt-shift miniature:

Again, the larger version is much more enjoyable.

The food was excellent, the seats were great and we had a blast! The Rockets even won!

Thanks for the use of your tickets, Alan!