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Showing posts from February, 2012

Running... Again?

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  If you know me you know there was a time about 10 years ago or so where I was running. A lot. At least 5 days a week and at least 5 miles a run. I wasn’t training, I wasn’t preparing for a race or a marathon. I just found myself enjoying the time spent running. I wasn’t obsessed with numbers, but I kept track of them all and liked seeing improvements in time and distances. It was good physical health and mental health. Then I tweaked my knee. Not bad enough that I couldn’t walk on it, just a tweak that told me I needed to back off of running for a little bit. So I decided on 2 weeks. At the end of 2 weeks I aborted a run very early as the pain was still there. 2 weeks became 3, became a month, became 5 years. 
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Week 9 GPlus Project 52

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Click to see larger This week's picture from the Project isn't much artistically. In fact besides a little cropping I did nothing to the photo. But, to me it'll be memorable because this is the last useable image from my 4 year old Canon SX10is.
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Bigger Than Life (Photocentric)

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Today's shot is from a highway side tourist attraction in what I call Way Northern California. Usually I write these chintzy attractions as third rate stops that happen to have something a little more than your average rest stop. I use their restroom, check out the overpriced giftshop, then it's back in the car. Then I saw the Trees of Mystery . Well actually I saw Paul Bunyan and Babe, his blue ox. Just to be clear, that is a full sized Toyota Camry on the left. So just how big are Paul and Babe? Their plaques answer those questions: Aside from these big things, Trees of Mystery boasts some trails showing off some very large and very old Redwood trees, and a gondola ride to a ridge some 500 feet up. Admission for a place as out of the way as this is is admittedly steep, but it's not something that will leave you feeling ripped off. 
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Location: Trees of Mystery, California 95548, USA
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Week 8 GPlus Project 52

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Click to see larger So, I'm not sure if my photo for week 8, Other Photographers, should count. Every time I had my camera with me I wasn't spotting anyone else with a camera. But of course when I didn't have it with me I was seeing them all over. I had to use a shot from earlier. You can view this, and the rest of my Project 52 photos here .
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Hands on the Wacom Bamboo Capture

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Well, as promised, I thought I’d write up my views on the Wacom Bamboo Capture that I recently picked up. It won’t be too in-depth, but it will cover my thoughts on it after having used it for about a week now. It will be split primarily along two areas of focus; it’s primary task, how it works as a creative tool, which means how it handles itself in Aperture and the plugins I use daily and it’s secondary task of being a general use touchpad for everyday computer use. First the basics. Physically the tablet comes in at just about 11"x7" and .4" thick. Along one side (the left, when set for right handed use) are 4 programmable buttons and a blue LED light that is lit when plugged in, and blinks with touch input. The left edge is also where the micro-USB plugs in, and where the optional wireless kit would be installed. On the opposite side is a fabric loop to hold the pen. The pen has a rocker button that holds two function in it, also programmable. Also included are
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On the Road

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Today's shot is from the road. Initially I took the shot on a whim, not thinking it would amount to much. I didn't even see the Jeep exiting the the shot on the left, I had thought it was out of frame. When working with the shot I wanted to pull more details out of the clouds. The original shot was very dull and and flat, which I'm now thinking might be due to the fact I was using the wrong metering function. A little HDR work brought out some cloud and road detail that I really liked and voila. Yet another reason to shoot RAW; when you screw up the settings on your camera the magic of a RAW file can sometimes save a shot. I'm working on writing up my thoughts on my Wacom Bamboo Capture pen tablet after a week's use. I wouldn't call it a review, just thoughts. So I hope to have that drop tomorrow. I know, 3 posts in 1 week, that's just crazy! Click to see larger
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Week 7 GPlus Project 52

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Click to see larger I was looking forward to this week's theme, shadows, only because I felt I didn't put much effort into the last couple week's themes. Sadly, again, the weather didn't cooperate with me being overcast for much of the week. Sure, I could have made shadows using lights and such, but didn't really know what I wanted to do for that. So Wednesday, when the heavens opened for a couple hours, I grabbed this shot.
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Tree Blossoms (Photocentric)

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Today's shot is from the tree outside my house. I think it's confused, and rightfully so. Calendar-wise we're supposed to be in winter. The groundhog even gave us another 6 weeks of winter. But mother nature didn't get the memo because it's been unseasonably warm lately and I think it fooled the tree into budding early. I also got my Wacom Bamboo Capture pen tablet today. So far I'm really impressed with it. Between ordering it and today I've gone back and forth on it. I was either thinking it was going to be the best thing to not have an Apple logo on it, or something I spent too much on that was going to spend it's time either collecting dust or just being boxed and sent back. So far it's closer to the former. You can view some of the initial unboxing and setup photos here , and while you're there make sure to circle me. Click to see larger
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Week 6 GPlus Project 52

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This was another crazy week dealing with family, but I was able to get off a shot for week 6 in my goal of taking a weekly photograph for 2012. It's a fairly boring shot, so I took it through Topaz Adjust to liven it up. Next week's theme is shadows, so I'm hoping for a little more creativity on my part. You can view this, and the rest of my Project 52 photos here .
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Another Waterfall Shot (Photocentric)

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I went back to the waterfalls from last week , this time with better shoes and was able to get pretty close. Any closer and I'd be on the rocks shown in the photo. With all the green and the ferns I think I could have said this was taken in some Amazon forest, or Hawaii and get away with it. Hard to believe it's just down the street! With the falls drowning out any sound from behind me I had no idea that a small crowd had gathered to take photos from a safer distance. I had planned on taking more shots, but realized I was ruining everyone else's photos so I decided to climb back up. I ran into a couple who had been in the area for 20 years and hadn't known about the fall until they ran across one of my photos of it from another site. They actually showed me the Flickr page on their iPhone. It was my almost famous moment. Originally I thought this photo would look best in color with all the green, but an accidental press of the black and white conversion in Aperture re
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The Pros and (Mostly) Cons of Upgrading to a 4K Monitor

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I'm in the process of getting back into photography which will mean a new camera, more on that in a later post. But the first step for me was a new computer, one with the horsepower to handle a modern day camera and its RAW files. Along with the computer comes a new 4K monitor. 4K is great for media consumption, right? Your characters on your favorite show or movie really look detailed and realistic. Scenery looks wonderful. Everything looks great, right? Wrong. You know what doesn't look great? That photo I took in 2012 that I thought was sharp but is very much not. I transferred over my past catalogs of photos over to Lightroom Classic and eagerly began opening up some of my favorite photos. At first I was happy with how the colors looked and how the scene was composed. Then I noticed it was a little soft. Well I had just gotten a new contacts prescription so that must be it. Changed to my glasses and the photos were even blurrier! I went through photo after photo and most ca
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