Apple Valley Plaza Site Survey, Part 3

Wow, being sick really sucks.  And you fall behind on so many things like these blogs.  Ok, I’m back from the dead so let me continue where I left off.

For these last four photos, I threw in a black and white layer in between my crossed processed layers and some Gaussian blur (refer to part 1 and 2 for details).  I also used the shadow/highlight effect.  The only thing I didn’t do was throw in some HDR.  Of course, this was all done in Photoshop.  I really like how these came out – abstraction and all.  Have a look.

Oh, there is no black and white layer on this particular image.  Still looks cool though.

Apple Valley Plaza Site Survey, Part 2

After doing a shadow/highlights adjusted layer, I applied a ‘cross processed’ layer to all five of these photos because I love that look/effect.  I did this just last week with Photoshop though I took these photos last summer.  And the last three shots I again went for the abstracted appearance.  Have a look.

Apple Valley Plaza Site Survey, Part 1

Moving on to June 18, 2011, I was out and about again doing site surveys (no, I don’t have a regular ‘9 to 5’ job) and exploring my new habitat.  Again, I was motoring eastbound down Bear Valley Road.  I passed through Apple Valley heading to the outskirts of that town and stopped when I got to Central.  On my left was a big strip mall that never quite became what it was supposed to be – the Apple Valley Plaza.  Ultra Star Cinema was completed and operational but the rest of the site was never completed.  It looks as though on the day someone said there was no more money to complete the work, everyone just walked away.  I can only assume that happened after the market crash of 2008.  The Victor Valley seems to have suffered more severely than other parts of California but it seems to have gone somewhat unnoticed, unless you live here.  This is another location that I’ll return to and shoot again.  This time, I shot this with my PowerShot S5 IS.  The Photoshop work done was minimal but I did that just a few days ago.  Have a look.

In this shot, I’m trying to abstract my subject with this from the bottom up angle.  I’ll do a lot more of this here.