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Showing posts from July, 2015

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 of Black and Whites, Day 5

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Hanging Around Ending the week with another flower shot. I've found keeping things simple has been a good way of getting back to photography. Ignoring color and really getting down to the basics of a shot have been good for me. This is another case where seeing the flowers in black and white had me looking at them differently. The colors are striking, but in stripping those out there's a nice simplicity to them. Shot with my G3 and processed through Lightroom and onOne.
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Week of Black and Whites, Day 4

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The Road This is a shot I've been wanting to take for awhile now. The sun filtering through the trees makes for dramatic lighting. I think I'll go back and try it again as I think the shot could be better. I like the sun burst, accomplished through using a high/small aperture (high number for a smaller aperture opening) and how the road leads the eye through the picture. Shot with my G3 and processed through Lightroom and OnOne Perfect Black and White. I can't decide if I like it yet, but I do like the different presets which helped in making this. Definitely wanted a darker more dramatic shot with a little grunge to it, and I think it worked out.
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Week of Black and Whites, Day 3

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Up Close Normally I wouldn't shoot these flowers in black and white. They have a stunning purple color to them which is what drew my eye to them in the first place. But while looking at them through my camera, with a black and white setting selected, I found they looked more delicate in black and white than in color. I'll be sure to share the color version next week. Shot with my G3 and processed through Lightroom and Topaz Labs. I wanted to bring out the veins in the petals, while still giving a delicate look to the flowers.
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Week of Black and Whites, Day 2

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Sand Waves One of the things to look for when shooting for black and whites are patterns and sights that don't require color to make the photo. Now on top of the pier I was under yesterday, I spotted these sand waves and worked to try and bring them out more. Shot with my G3 and processed through... (wait for it) Lightroom and Topaz Labs Black & White Effects. Yes, all photos are now going through Lightroom now. Still figuring some things out, but all in all the transfer is now complete.
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Week of Black and Whites, Day 1

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Under the Pier I've been neglecting my camera lately. The longer this neglect lasted the harder I found it to get back to photography. Creatively I doubted myself which made it even harder to get back. Over the weekend I literally ran into someone while running and it turns out we both enjoy photography. He's been shooting for a much longer time than I have, but it got me thinking about how I was going to get back my groove. I decided to strip my first set of shots down to basics; black and whites and of things I enjoy shooting. What is it about piers/boardwalks that attracts photographers like moths to a flame? I remember when I started finding an interest in photography mentally putting the "under the pier" shot on my to shoot list. This is not my first (though maybe my first in black and white) and won't be my last. Shot this with the Moto X (now the 2014 edition) and processed in my go to mobile app VSCO Cam  which for black and white work is probably
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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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