Alcatraz the prison island in the San Francisco
Bay is one of the top tourist magnets in San Francisco (about 2000
people visit this National Park per day). We have never been to
Alcatraz because we have no real fun joining the masses.
Fortunately North California's premier camera dealer Keeble
& Shuchat (sponsored by Nikon) offered a unique workshop on Alcatraz:
- Limited to 40 photographers
- Access to otherwise closed buildings
- Shooting from 5pm till after sunset
The first building (New Industries Building) we entered captured
our imagination so that we stayed in this building for over two
hours.
We rather
liked
to get the most of it than visiting more places. Here are some
of our photos with only sparse commentary.
Note: We mix color and B&W to show the possibilities.
In a pure portfolio we would stay either in color or B&W. 
The light and the columns made our day
We also love the B&W variant
We experimented with different focal length settings
The light changed permanently
All very gritty
This is a photo from a Cellhouse:
Modern Living
We like the final image because
it shows a sunset of the other kind. 
Golden Gate Sunset
If you look carefully you can even
spot the Golden Gate Bridge :-).
For us the Alcatraz workshop was
a great experience. We would like to thank Mary and the Keeble
team for making it possible.
Technique
- All shots were 3 exposures (-2, 0, +2EV)
- Converted to HDR with Photomatix (see our review
note)
- Tone mapping with the Photomatix Photoshop plugin
- Final tuning, split toning, print and web images with LightZone
2.0
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