Hardly Harley

Foggy Oregon rock. Took a quick trip up to the Oregon coast. I had certain places to check off my photography list in mind for this trip, but the weather just wouldn't cooperate. Normally a little fog wouldn't deter me, but the main thing I wanted to shoot wasn't just in fog it was invisible in the fog. My best shot of my main attraction was a barely discernible outline in the fog. So this is the runner up shot, much closer to shore and I happen to catch it with a little less fog. It's one of many giant "natural bridge" like rock formations in Harris Beach State Park .

The Real Trinidad Lighthouse The Trinidad Memorial lighthouse has been featured often on these pages. Probably one of my favorite photos of the Memorial Lighthouse is this one that was used as a holiday card recently. Apparently though there is a functioning lighthouse out on Trinidad Head that the public can only see and access one day a year. Well, this was that day. Lighthouses As you can see the functioning lighthouse is not too far from the memorial lighthouse, and is a nice 20 minute hike from Trinidad Harbor, though the trail to the lighthouse is closed for most of the year. The lighthouse is the same size as the Memorial one, meaning quite small, but is fully automated. Two people on/in the lighthouse proves to be cramped, and the entries are a little tight, but you get an excellent view of water. From the lighthouse, looking inland, you can see a cabin right on the edge of the Head where the fog horn is. Fog Horn Cabin The trail leading down to this cabin is r...

The Pre Fireworks Show I shot fireworks for the first time this past July 4th. My results were pretty hit and miss, with the majority falling in the miss category, though it's not all my fault. I was told my tripod wouldn't be allowed in the viewing area, so I was forced to leave it in the car. I had gotten there early enough to get a good spot right up front and was able to make use of the rail with a 45 degree angle to rest the camera on, but my shots were pretty much click and pray shots. I started off using a small aperture with shutter priority set to about 4 seconds, but found this to be clumsy. Switching to bulb mode, which allows me to open and close the shutter based on how long I hold down the shutter button, worked out slightly better. Again, though, my camera was at my hip pointing up, so it wasn't really ideal. I will say that having a screen that flips and tilts out made this much easier to shoot. Though the goal for me was the shoot fireworks, this came...

Aperture 3, when it came in a box Kind of out of the blue today Apple seeming announced that Aperture development is dead and that those resources are being put to the excitingly named Photos app briefly shown at Apple's recent World Wide Developers Conference. On June 2, shortly after the keynote that didn't mention anything about Aperture, I wrote an email to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, to see what was going on with Aperture. I'd like to think this morning he replied to me. A couple sporadic posts back I theorized that 1 or more Apple photo applications would be going. My thought then was since Photos was new Aperture or iPhoto would get the boot, and that Aperture would be the one based on user install base. Turns out I was half right. It sounds like iPhoto is also being terminated. The Loop has the story here . So what does that mean for pros, semi pros, or photographers like me who enjoyed the top level tools offered? Can one program really fill both shoes? I find th...

Guardian of the Fleet This is a shot I've been working on for awhile. Both behind the camera and in front of the computer. The odd shaped rock has always drawn my eye, and the fishing and crabbing boats behind it make for an interesting scene. Going through my library I found a lot attempts of doing something with, but none that really worked out. This was shot back in January! of this year, and had been forgotten fairly quickly, unfortunately. I'm glad I've been going through the archive to clean things up and found it again. The photo, not an HDR, was taken during Golden Hour, which makes for some great colors in the sky and some nice natural highlighting for the rock and some boats. I did remove a boat from the right side using Snap Heal Pro which is AMAZING for removing things and filling the space. I don't own a Photoshop version with the Content Aware Fill feature. Then it was just a matter of taking it through my  +Topaz Labs  plugins after getting exposure...

Pewetole in Silhouette I don't know what it is, but this year just isn't the year of photography for me. I've not felt as motivated to shoot, and it shows not only in the quality of my shots but in the numbers when I compare just raw numbers of photos I took in 2013 and look at where I'm at now, at about the halfway point of 2014. Not to mention noticeable by how often this blog gets updated. I'm annoyed with myself on that. Last year was a banner year as far as number of posts and page hits were concerned, probably because I was posting 2-3 posts a week. I don't think I'm posting an average of 1 a week this year, so all that work has been flushed. So the photo. One of my favorite subjects when I get the chance to shoot it, Pewetole "Island". I was going through my archive of this year when I came across this. I had actually already processed it and had it ready to post, but it got lost in the cracks. Which brings up another post regarding A...

Don't worry, you didn't miss any Aperture news from Monday's World Wide Developer's Conference. Or at least not any direct news. A quick history lesson: Aperture 3 was released in February of, wait for it, 2010. It's current version is 3.5.1, which was released in November of 2013. There's been a steady stream of primarily small updates, mainly to accommodate for new Mac hardware. That's 4+ years of the same basic set of tools, user interface, and backend. I assume the backend part as I don't really get into the code level of Aperture. That's a long time to go without seeing a refresh and when the competition has been elevating it's game. And I catch a lot of grief from photography buddies who have been using Lightroom wondering when (not if) I'm going to switch over. Here's the thing, I spent a considerable amount of time and resources (money) learning how to use Aperture. I don't consider myself an expert, but I feel very c...