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Showing posts from February, 2013

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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Weekly Photo Projects, Week 8

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Don't mind the giant wave This week I had one photo already accounted for which gave me 7 days to concentrate on the other one. Unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating, and I had a general disinterest in shooting anything. For the  +Weekly Photo Project 2013  our theme was Other Photographers. Last year it required me to go into my archive to find a photo where I had inadvertently captured another photographer. This year I used a shot I took a couple week earlier specifically for this project. When I first saw these two it was just as a wave was going to hit and I thought for sure they were going over. But they didn't even react to it and kept at it. They were taking turns shooting and modeling. Talk about a dramatic portrait session.
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The Lost Coast

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The Lost Coast The sun came out and I went running for some photos. In hindsight I probably should have waited for the trails to dry out a little before trekking on the coast. Oh well. I really liked the convergence of redwoods, cliffs, and the ocean here. A typical northern California beach.
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Weekly Photo Projects, Week 7

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Carpet of the Forest This week was an all black & white affair; one of necessity and one to cover up bad lighting. Let's start with my black and white group's photo. Our theme was abstract, and this was a challenge for me. I don't like looking for or thinking in the abstract. So I interpreted it as a close up of moss on a tree. I was happy with the outcome and love what Silver Efex 2 can do to a photo. Not my favorite theme or photo, but I think it turned out ok.
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Sun Kissed

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Sun Kissed I didn't want to post this shot. Not because I didn't like it, I do, but it's the third or fourth shot from the same outing. The darn clouds give it away! I liked this shot because the hillside foliage is nicely illuminated, in the background you can see the mists hugging the coast, and the sun trail on the ocean. This was a seven shot HDR shot... or composition. I'm not sure if "shot" is the right word for a photo like this that's made up of seven other photos. In terms of processing I didn't do that much. It came out of Photomatix looking pretty good and instead of my usual Topaz Labs Adjust to Detail, to Aperture workflow I normally do, I only used Detail to sharpen things up a bit then played with curves back in Aperture.
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Weekly Photo Projects, Week 6

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Dreaming of summer This past week was pretty easy for me. The theme for the black & white group was rule of thirds, which wasn't one of my favorites because I try to shoot that most of the time. What was difficult was finding something I wanted to shoot. I looked at my other photos and saw I had a drinks sub-theme going on, so I thought I'd continue it for week 6. I think this will probably be my last drink theme photo though because I don't have any other glasses that help convey the drink. Well, except for the champagne flutes. Hmm... wonder how I can fit them in a shot. The setup for this shot is the same as the ice cube shot, just a hand held flashlight.
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Crashing Wave

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Crashing Wave I have a hard time taking photos of waves. Actually, based on the many shots I have I don't have a problem taking the photo, I have a problem with liking them. I almost  like this shot. You get a sense of its size and power with part of it crashing against that fairly large sized rock, but still see the rest of the wave. It's like a before and after sequence in one shot. The northern California coastline was treated to a some bigger than normal waves in January. The waves are so big that there's a well known surf competition held every year because of the waves. This spot was a little too rocky for the surfers, but just a little south of this surfers were taking full advantage of the waves. Between the very cold Pacific Ocean and the large waves I can't decide which is crazier!
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Weekly Photo Projects, Week 5

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Thirsty? This week I'm happy to be happy with one of my photos, which is better than I thought I'd be. For the black & white group the theme was the very new agey sounding "color without color". So I took the iconic Coke can and shot that. Everyone should  know the Coke can is red. For this shot, and continuing my sub-theme of non-compliance, I very lightly brought some red back into the first can. I found this to be harder to do than I imagined. It's more noticeable if you view the photo full screen. I See All For my own  +Weekly Photo Project 2013  we had the theme of "eyes". Nothing went right for me shooting wise for this. I wanted to take a shot of an animal's eye, but not owning one that would allow for me to get up close and personal with it made that hard. So, after much frustration, and annoyance, I got this, the eye to my MacBook Pro. I settled on this shot mainly for one reason, I needed to be done with the theme so I could s
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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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