November Contests - Vote for Me!

As mentioned in the past, I've resolved to enter two contests monthly. This will help me continue to promote my work, as well as grow. Here's what I've chosen this month:

One of my bird pictures from Key West:



Please click on the above link and vote for me! (the picture is on the bottom right of this page, at least it was the last time I checked).

The second contest I entered was Outdoor Photographer's Nature's Colors Contest. Here are my entries (and links to vote for me):

Picture 1



Picture 2



Picture 3



Picture 4



Thanks for any support you can provide! Till tomorrow!

Adams Morgan, Two Years Later

I mentioned right before Thanksgiving that a friend and I were planning to return to the Adams Morgan area of DC to take pictures together. I was really looking forward to the outing for several reasons:

1) My friend and I are the types to bounce ideas off each other - I knew I'd see things in a different light.

2) It was a sunny day, so I could practice taking pictures under adverse conditions.

3) I wanted to see if I'd actually learned anything in the last few years.

Well, it was definitely an adventure - cold, sunny, and crowded. Some tips I gave my friend:

1) It's the camera, not the photographer (you've heard this before).

2) Quit while you're ahead - if you've taken several versions of the shot and you don't like it, and you can't fix it - walk away. It's okay. Don't frustrate yourself.

3) Don't hesitate to take multiple versions of the same shot with different settings. You never know what you might like best.

My friend got some terrific shots of leaves and reflections. I'm hoping he'll post them and let me reference them in this blog. There was one in particular that I LOVED.

As for me, it was an interesting outing. Some examples:





The first and third pictures are my favorites. The third reminds me of an Alice in Wonderland scene - distorted, strange, and colorful. My friend and I discovered that although we loved this street, we couldn't get a decent picture straight-on. I then proceeded to tilt my camera, something I've done often. He was a little skeptical, but I don't blame him. :)

The first was taken off of one of the main streets in the neighborhood. Here, my telephoto lens came in handy. It worked great, actually.

The second is from a mural in the neighborhood. I took many more pictures. I think I did a better job with these than with the ones I took a few years ago, because there's more of a point to them. Take a look at my older mural pictures and let me know what you think.

Another result is that I've paid more attention to the abstract aspects of architecture. I enjoyed my buildings shoot, and wanted to incorporate some of that into my DC shots. They're not the same, of course - these are daytime shots, and the others are nighttime shots, but that's okay with me. I'm just trying to push my boundaries as much as possible.

It's contest time! Tomorrow, I'll let you know what I've decided to enter. Till tomorrow!

Thanksgiving!

I'm heading out of town soon, but fear not - I already have good plans for a photo shoot on Sunday.

Several years ago, I learned about abstract photography in Adams Morgan, DC. Some examples:





Bonus points to anyone who can guess what the last picture is, by the way.

What will I do in the neighborhood this time? I don't know. I plan on taking all of my lenses and seeing what unfolds. A friend of mine is coming with me, so I plan to help him with technique and composition, too. I'm really looking forward to it - I love working with people.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Enjoy your long weekends! Till Monday!

Trip Report, Part 2 - Family

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I had great aspirations for this trip. One of them was to step outside of my comfort zone. Specifically, I avoid taking pictures of people as much as I can. I don't consider portrait photography a strength of mine. However, with my family in town, I decided to rethink my strategy. Some results:





There were some favorable conditions that helped me, such as:

1) Choice of clothing - the bright colors are a photographer's dream! These were taken 30 minutes before sunset on a cloudy day, so the pink and the stripes helped me make sure these pictures stayed natural.

2) The park wasn't too crowded - this afforded us freedom of movement.

3) Everyone wanted their picture taken. I don't take this for granted, given my track record.

Some considerations:

1) My niece moves fast, so I bumped up the shutter speed to around 1/40.

2) Because the weather was cloudy, I bumped up the ISO to 200-400, depending on the shot.

3) Several of these pictures required that I bump up the exposure during postprocessing. I was really careful not to overdo it. I didn't want them to look fake or overprocessed.

4) I cropped some of the pictures to give a more intimate feel.

I still think I have plenty of work to do, but I really considered this progress from my previous attempts. This is probably because I had a lot of control over the setting. I was also really motivated to do a good job. I'm sure both factors had some influence on the outcome.

Till tomorrow!

Trip Report, Part 1 - Buildings

Success! I'm happy to report that I was able to follow through on two of my three goals on my trip to NYC. Today, I'll cover buildings.

I have to say, this was extremely difficult in practice. I started out in my room - I had a nice view. Unfortunately, I wasn't thrilled with the composition. Undeterred, I went outside, and that's when things turned around:





I used my SLR, and my macro lens. My telephoto lens would have been better, probably, but at one pound, I decided to leave it at home. Some tips:

1) Crank up the ISO - I used 800 and 1600, mainly the latter

2) Take multiple shots - without a tripod, your pictures are more susceptible to the evil blur. You can mitigate the risk by doing multiple takes.

3) Tilt the camera - that's how I got these interesting angles. Don't worry about being redundant. That's the point.

4) Remember that you don't have to go far - All of these pictures were taken just a few blocks from my hotel.

Now that I'm back in DC, I'm definitely going to try this in the city. I'll get a different result, as the buildings are more historic, but it should be interesting.

Till tomorrow!

Reflections

Don't worry, I'm not about to be sentimental or sappy. I really enjoyed my minerals adventure, and thought about other times where I'd played with the light. I also wanted to prepare myself for my trip this weekend. I remembered my tour of the Natural History Museum a few months ago, and that I never reviewed that album. No excuses, now that I'm using Aperture 3!

The visit to the museum was actually a private tour that was given by one of my French club members. We spent the entire time at the Ocean Floor exhibit. It was really empty - also, I'd never seen the inside of a museum at night.

Anyway, I had to spend most of the time listening (it was really interesting), but here are some pictures I took that I liked:











I did take quite a few shots of the museum that were straight on, but these pictures do a better job of capturing how pretty the exhibit is. Some tips to consider:

1) These were shot in low light, so I had to be very careful about bumping up the ISO, as well as ensuring I didn't move around too much. I used ISO 800.

2) I set the white balance to Automatic, so that the light looked natural, then I previewed my results. The pictures didn't look too yellow, so I kept that setting as is. You'll want to either experiment with different white balance settings, or make sure you have a product where you can fix this after the fact. I recommend the former.

3) A wide angle lens enabled me to capture as much detail as possible. It also ensured that I could stand very close to the exhibits (since people were attended the tour with me, and I didn't want to disturb them).

4) I wasn't afraid to take multiple versions of each picture. With reflections, even the slightest change can result in a completely different image.

I'm working on a few pressing work issues, and I have my trip. I'll post when I return, hopefully armed with new pictures. Till Monday!

Travel Plans

I'm going to New York later this week to see some family members. I'll be there all weekend. Last year, I took some terrific shots, including:





Because I'm a planner (to the point that I probably drive everyone around me crazy), I took some time to think about 1) Whether or not to take my gear, because I'd be busy with family and 2) What to try to shoot. Some options:

1) More pictures of my sister and niece - both are very photogenic, plus I should work on being at least passable in this area.

2) Buildings - there are many tall buildings with lots of glass. I could play with reflections. I saw something in the latest issue of Popular Photography that made me think of this.

3) Hotel interiors - not everyone is staying at the same hotel, so I could practice my hotel photography, but I don't think NYC hotels are all that inspiring, except for a few.

I'm going to go for 1) and 2) and see how they work for me. My obsessive self has already entered a calendar reminder to pack everything. I'll most likely take almost everything with me. The telephoto lens could really come in handy on this trip. All I really need is time - I'll have to work on that.

Till tomorrow!

Minerals, Revisited

Before I get into anything, I'll be posting at odd hours this week. Work is really hectic, and I have family in town. I'll do my best!

This weekend, I was really excited. I grabbed my macro lens, and decided to shoot more minerals, as I'd explained on Friday. My idea was to shoot the minerals I own - namely, my jewelry. My efforts saw mixed results, to say the least.

Here's what I mean: My favorite shots were the "futuristic" ones such as these:





The common theme with these is that I was really able to play with the light and the reflections. The first picture was taken using some of my glass and plastic rings. The second was taken with crystal. i think that both are really good abstract shots. I just looked for pretty patterns and reflections.

However, taking pictures of the rings "straight on" didn't look as nice. Here's one exception that I think turned out okay:



It looks like it's on water. I shot it on my glass table on my balcony. However, I prefer the abstract ones.

Surprisingly, what also didn't work out was the uncut emerald. I thought I could get really cool shots up close, but I learned that my older mineral shots were terrific because I had a larger canvas. With very small stones, the approach doesn't work so well - abstract was the way to go.

So, as always, I learned something - go for all kinds of shots - literal, blurry, and try different backgrounds. Don't be afraid if the outcome doesn't match the initial goal. It's how you learn.

I'll post the others in the next few days. Till tomorrow!

Distractions

After having spent a week doing nothing but image editing (well, that, and my day job), I realized that this type of work is borderline addictive! I was flipping through some old articles from Popular Photography last night, and came across yet another image editing idea. I had to put my foot down and think about what I should be doing - taking new sets of pictures, not editing old ones. At least for the time being. I will definitely cover that image editing idea in a future post, because it was a good one. :)

So, I went and read (and read and read), so I could find some inspiration. I'd decided to do more macro photography, but with subjects other than butterflies and flowers. Although I could certainly improve in those areas, I 'd felt as though I'd done them to death! Finally, it hit me. I'd taken pictures of minerals in the past.

At the time, I thought these were really interesting. They are, but they were all taken when I knew so little, relatively speaking. Examples of what I didn't know:

1) How to shoot in RAW, so editing the images resulted in a loss of detail

2) Much about depth of field

3) Anything about macro photography. I took many other pictures, but their potential was extremely limited.

So, I'm going to do something with minerals, but with a twist. I'll explain more on Monday. Have a great weekend! Till Monday!

Curves, Levels, and Fall

This is the last day where I will cover image editing (I hope). I've found the process interesting and illuminating, and I think the changes I've made will help me with my productivity. The intent of this blog is to help me grow, and it's definitely done that.

On to Curves and Levels. I have to admit, I had no idea what either of them did. I'm still not an expert, of course, but I've gained some perspective. I loaded some fall pictures that I hadn't processed yet into my trial of Aperture 3. I then read the documentation about Levels and Curves.

I came to the conclusion that Levels is the way to go 90% of the time. Curves is best suited for pictures that need heavy editing, or have serious issues with shadows and highlights. And, frankly, the Auto settings for Levels were really all I needed, most of the time. Here are some examples of pictures taken on a cloudy day:



The issue with cloudy days is that although sun glare and harsh highlights are not an issue, the pictures tend to have low levels of contrast, and low levels of color. To me, the originals of these pictures looked faded, initially. I fixed all of them in Aperture (mainly using Levels - Curves didn't make a difference). They don't sparkle like some of my previous pictures, but that's the point - it's a nice change of pace. The originals, though, well, I wasn't a fan. :) I like these edits far better. The level of detail is terrific. I'm really pleased, if you couldn't tell. :)

The first and third ones benefited the most from Aperture, by the way. The last picture was almost brown, before I added red tones to it. The first one was very muted.

Also, note the placement of the watermarks - now, I don't need Elements to do this for me. Everything can be done within one tool. Admittedly, Photoshop is still the premiere tool, but it doesn't suit my strengths or lifestyle. I'm quite happy.

I don't know about you, but I want to cover something else for a change. :) I will do just that. Till tomorrow!

What's a Histogram Worth, Anyway?

Yesterday, I covered Aperture's image editing features, and highlighted the ones I found practical for my life. Today, I'm going to discuss Lightroom, and my findings.

I think I already mentioned how much I love the histogram tool. It's seriously the most useful tool in the entire application. If Aperture had it, I'd have everything I needed.

Another useful feature is the watermark tool. Unlike the one in Aperture, this is very simple. You simply type the text, and off you go. Here's an example:




I didn't edit the photo at all in Lightroom, but notice the watermark - it's perfect. Very professional. In Aperture, you're required to create one in Elements or an existing tool.

I also loved Lightroom's powerful presets. They're far better than what Aperture has. Here's an example:




I manipulated this photo in two ways:

1) I played with the tone curve tool. See, I can sort of learn! I brightened some of the shadows.

2) I realized that this photo would look much better in black and white. I chose the General: Grayscale option, and I think it's terrific. Very clean and simple.

How do I know what I did? The History tab in Lightroom tells me. It's great - another keeper.

Unfortunately, everything else in Lightroom seems to be better suited for my MSE and PhD customers, rather than for me. Examples:

Uploading to Flicrk took so many steps that I didn't bother. This is far easier in Aperture.

The interface is really difficult to navigate. Aperture is more file/directory-based.

Ideally, I would purchase both tools. If I did, I would use Aperture as my primary tool, and save Lightroom for the really "messy" pictures that need the most work. However, I want to upgrade in the next month, and I will definitely start with Aperture.

My next step is to understand and benefit from the Curves and Levels features. Till tomorrow!

Resolutions

Yesterday, I acknowledged that upgrading my Aperture 2 environment was a necessity, not a luxury. I'm not lazy, but I don't like to spend much time editing my pictures. I think I've said this more than once. :) Aperture 3 definitely has quite a few features that will make my life easier. They are:

1) Polarizer - this one is really like applying a polarizer filter - here's an example of what I mean:



Notice how blue the skies are. This was taken mid-day, so without this filter, the sky would have been much more pale - and the highlights would have been blown out. Having the ability to recreate this look in Aperture (to an extent) will help me. Another one is:



I LOVE blue skies!

2) Dodge/Burn - LOVE this - using this enables you to lighten or darken areas selectively. You can select the brush thickness, the changes you'd like to make, and then you can go to town. This would work as a band-aid for some of my pictures.

3) Hold Highlights - a preset that allows me to make this change quickly.

4) Brighten Shadows - the opposite of 3) - this will help rescue my pictures that are too dark because of sun issues. The sun is my friend in real life, but as a photographer, I totally struggle with it.

5) White Balance - this picture was BLUE when I took it, because I used the wrong white balance setting:



I had to adjust this manually in Aperture 2, but doing this in Aperture 3 is a snap - it's a menu option. Huge timesaver.

6) Curves and Levels - another topic for another day. I'll need to master them, first. :) I've had access to these tools in the past, but never used them.

In Aperture, it's very easy to select and preview every one of these. Tomorrow, I'll discuss my experience in Lightroom. Till tomorrow!

The Pursuit of (Image Editing) Happyness

On Friday, I confessed that after much internally self-imposed resistance, even I would need to learn about image editing. This prior weekend, I set out to do just that.

I use Aperture - Version 2. I've always liked it, because it's very user-friendly. I did some research, and realized that there was an Aperture 3, as well as the latest version of Lightroom. Decisions, decisions.

Fortunately, both offer trials. I'm not a fan of evaluating software just for the sake of it, but I really needed to see if the two tools would provide me with everything I needed.

I started with Lightroom. The histogram tool is REALLY cool. That's the first thing I noticed. I pulled in this picture:



and decided to play with it in the histogram tool. This is what I got:





I actually really like it! The sky is a bit blue, but it has this stylized look that I love. Anyway, consider me a satisfied customer. Plus, check out the cool watermark.

So, why would I even go back and look at Aperture? Well, although it doesn't have the histogram tool, it has a few other things going for it:

1) It's much easier to use (for me)

2) The cataloging of projects and pictures is much easier (again, for me)

3) Easy-to-access presets and adjustments (especially dodge/burn, and polarizing)

4) Easy way to upload to Facebook and Flickr (something I do often)

5) The price: $99 (upgrade) versus $299 for Lightroom

I'm going to continue with the trial, but for now, Aperture is in the lead. I may sound lazy, but I will always want to spend more time composing and taking pictures, and less time editing them.

Tomorrow, I'll go into some specific features that I will begin including in my skillset. I will never become an image editing professional, but I am working towards competence.

Till tomorrow!

Take Two

Yesterday, I discussed hotel photography and my interest in it. I pointed out one of my pictures and its exposure issues. So, I decided that I had a little more practice to do before I could really write off the idea. That will take time, as most hotels in my area aren't especially inspiring to me.

In the meantime, though, the picture drove me crazy. Not wanting to give up on it, I submitted it to several feedback groups on Flickr. We decided that while there were a few things I could have done to mitigate the situation, there was no way to avoid the harsh highlights on the right of the picture. Well, short of carrying strobe lights (or something like that) and other bizarre equipment, anyway. I try my best to take great pictures on the first try without carrying an arsenal of tools, so that didn't sound appealing.

I decided to bite the bullet and crop the picture. Here's what it looks like now:



The perspective is different but good, and the highlights are still there, but greatly minimized. I have decided that I can live with that.

Still, though, I'm realizing that I'm being a little stubborn. I really hate spending time in Aperture/Elements, except to pump up my colors and make minor tweaks. I'm realizing that I need to sit down and learn about things like masks, layers, and other options for post-processing.

I'm not thrilled about this, because I'm such a purist. Pictures shouldn't need extensive editing! So, I'm treating this as adding to my "first-aid kit". I won't always use these editing skills, but I should have them.

So, next week, I'll cover some of my lessons learned. Stay tuned, and till Monday!

Travel AND Photography?

I love my macro photography, and my pictures of butterflies, flowers, and other small objects. I have always wondered, though, if it would be worth it to explore other avenues. In my earlier What's Your Niche post, I described what I considered my strengths: macro photography, interiors, and abstracts.

What's interesting, though, is that I "fell into" macro photography. A few years ago, I only thought I was capable of landscape photography. I didn't even know what macro photography was. So, I wonder, what else am I missing?

I was looking over some of my favorite albums, and stumbled across this picture of a hotel:



One person said that the picture was probably nicer than the ones on the hotel website. I thought about this yesterday, and asked myself, hmmm ... really?

I think my hotel photography skills need some work.

Then I remembered these:



I mean, who wouldn't want to be at this hotel? I sent these to the general manager, and he thought they were really nice, too. So there's some hope ...

And then I realized what I'd been missing with some of my other shots (not shown here). The straight lines, the angles, they're all here. What is not here is my command of the sun and harsh lighting. I simply am not good (yet) at overcoming adverse lighting conditions.

So, I took one of those pictures and submitted it to one of my Flickr groups. I'm hoping for some feedback as to 1) If it's really a big deal and 2) How I can avoid it in the future.

Once I figure that out, I'll go back out and see if this idea has legs. What do you think?

Till tomorrow!

Ugly/Pretty

Okay, I admit - I'm a huge fan of America's Next Top Model. Without going into too much detail about my obsession, I'll say that there is one theme that resonates really well with me. It's about “ugly/pretty”. What does that mean? Well, essentially, it means that even things with a less than a sunny/shiny/pretty context can still be pretty.

Confusing, huh? Well, I'll illustrate. Here is “pretty/pretty”:



Or this:



In both pictures the weather is great, the sun is shining, and life is good. The colors are nice, and they're just happy pictures.

Now, here is a classic example of “ugly/pretty”:



This was the night before one of DC's infamous snowstorms last year. I was in a terrible mood. I stood on my balcony and took dozens of pictures. I was surprised to see how well received this picture was, though. And, now that I think about it, I still focused on composition and telling a story - but it isn't the same happy story I like to tell. And that's a REALLY important message.

Compare it with this picture, which was also of the snow:



I think it's obvious (to me, anyway) from this picture that I don't like the snow. If I did, I think it would have come through, so to speak. Instead, this is just a generic picture of the snow with two people and a dog. Not bad, but others (as in people) have done much better.

I have to keep all of this in mind, as we head towards winter. I hate this weather. So, I normally don't take many pictures. However, I can't go six months (or however long it will be before the weather is actually civilized again) without taking pictures, so I have to balance between my emotions and reality.

In other words, if you don't think you like a subject, take a picture anyway. You may surprise yourself! Just stay true to your emotions, be realistic, don't forget your composition, and tell a good story.

Till tomorrow!