The Digital Photo Guy

Landscape, Nature, Pin-Up and Portraits

In 2012, I plan to focus my efforts on landscape and nature photography with an eye toward entering more competitions and producing sellable fine art pieces. A secondary goal is to expand my pin-up and portrait portfolio. I want to create more images like these below.

On April 22 & 23, I’ll be at the Clay Blackmore portrait workshops in Tempe, AZ. Blackmore was trained by the legendary Monte Zucker. I was scheduled to take a class with Zucker in 2007 when we learned of his passing. I’m hoping Blackmore will be able to fill in what I missed. These are two separate classes with the 22nd being a seminar type session with 200 of your closest friends crammed into a hotel auditorium. I generally eschew such sessions but it was cheap when combined with the hands-on class on the 23rd. The cost of both classes was $249. Let me know if you plan to attend and we’ll try to meetup.

Although it’s a bit late, in early May I plan to visit the Salton Sea to look for burrowing owls, my favorite small birds. BO breeding season generally starts around late March to early April. After the chicks hatch, they hang around for 6 weeks before fledging so we may be able to catch some naive young chicks poking their heads out of the burrows.

My annual Eastern Sierras photo trip is tentatively scheduled for the week of October 8-14. That’s the week after the Lone Pine Film Festival so I may be there the previous weekend to check out what’s new at the festival. The festival offers guided photo tours to various movie sets around Alabama Hills so that may be a good way to see several new sites in one swell foop.

In late November/early December, I plan to scout the area around Willcox, AZ for wintering sandhill cranes. I had heard there were sandhills in the area but recently learned there can be as many as 20 to 30 thousand. That’s more than Bosque del Apache, my favorite sandhill crane reserve. The major difference may be accessibility. At Bosque, areas like the Railroad Pond and Flight Deck make it easy to practically be on top of the birds before their morning flyout. I hope to discover the best places for crane photography.

There will be other photo shoots during the year so stay tuned if none of these float your boat.

Stop Copying, Start Doing

For years, I’ve subscribed to several magazines because the articles often gave me ideas for new lessons or techniques in my classes. With my recent decision to no longer teach classes, I haven’t renewed my subscriptions to most. The only one I still read is Outdoor Photographer because I find inspiration in the photographs.

Today, I received my last issue of a well known magazine put out by a company that stages several annual orgies of Photoshop excess. Basically, these are large parties for geeks who wouldn’t normally be allowed out of their cubicles. I also received a copy of a magazine that covers Photoshop Elements. That subscription expires at the end of this year and I won’t be renewing.

The cover of one rag breathlessly proclaimed, “Unlock the secrets of…” I rolled my eyes and recalled something I had learned years ago, “The secret to good photography is that there are no secrets!” Scanning the rest of the cover, I realized the whole magazine was geared toward people who were simply trying to gloss over bad photography with visual eye-candy.

Turning my attention to the Photoshop oriented rag, I flipped through the pages to see what might be of interest. First, I was struck by the number of ads and ad-like articles for products, each promising to make me a PS maven if only I sent them a few dollars. Next, there were the graphics design articles of no interest to me. Third, beginner articles that bored me to tears. And, finally, a few photography articles that promised to show me how to achieve a particular look or effect. Why would I want to constantly copy others’ look or effect?

Reports of My Demise Are Greatly Exaggerated

I haven’t posted much over the past two months because I’ve been dealing with the excruciating pain of gout. With no history of gout in my family, the doctors have chalked it up to, “Stuff happens!” In any case, I finally broke down and saw a rheumatologist. I actually met with two to get a second opinion. The pain and swelling are now under control and the doctor plans to put me on a long-term drug after the current attack.

I think the word, “drug” has always made me wary of medication. I remember all too vividly the effects of illegal drugs on friends in Turkey and Vietnam. I swore I never wanted to be so out of control that I didn’t know when I was endangering myself or those around me. Fortunately, in our home, I can do whatever I want so long as my wife lets me. In this case, she “let me” see a rheumatologist before she strangled me. Therefore, rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated.

Third San Diego Natural History Museum Best of Nature Exhibit

Click this LINK to see the 72 photos that were accepted out of 1000 submissions. To see a larger slideshow, click the YouTube icon in the slideshow. My submission, Mobius Arch at Night (above,) is near the end.

If you’d like to join me on future shoots, watch this blog for future announcements. If you’d like to enter a juried contest, the San Diego Fair will start accepting on-line entries for the 2012 Fair in early March and the last day is 20 April, 2012. You can get all the info HERE.

Serious Photographers Wanted

Back in October 2011, I posted an article re: “serious photographers.” The article was actually about B&W but segued into a comment about what makes one a serious photographer. The three characteristics I listed (in keeping with Lee’s Rule of Threes) were:

1. Constantly striving to improve.
2. Open to feedback and critique.
3. Always staying true to our vision.

In keeping with this philosophy, I’ve decided to drop all paid teaching programs and concentrate on my own fine art photography. This doesn’t mean I won’t take time to help others, just that I will be much more selective. My focus will be to produce fine art print for sale, for competition and for commission.

Past students will always have priority. If you have a question, feel free to send an e-mail. My response times may become longer as I won’t be constantly monitoring my Inbox for questions.

Are “They” Seeing What You’re Seeing?

By now, serious readers know there’s monitor calibration, printer profiling, projector profiling and, if you want to get picky, even, camera profiling. Well, do you know about web browser profiling? Say, whaaa???

You perfect your photos by color correcting, adjusting levels, setting black point, adjusting Hue/Saturation, tweaking Vibrance, etc until it’s just the way you want it. But you have no control over how they’re displayed on your viewers’ monitors. They could be viewing your photos on a $12000 Eizo calibrated monitor or a $79 Walmart “We don’t need no steenkin’ calibration” special. Throw in a non-color managed web browser and who knows what they’re actually seeing.

I had planned to embed screen captures from various browsers using photos with and without profiles but decided that was too much trouble. Instead, go to this web site and roll your cursor over the test images. The take away is that you have no control over someone who is cluelessly using a non-color managed web browser but you have some modicum of control over those who are, at least, using an up-to-date browser. In any case, be sure to tag your photos before uploading them.

Alf Goes to the Rainbow Bridge

Last year, I wrote about my cantankerous, obnoxious, geriatric buddy, Alf. She was 21 years old and her body was beginning to fail her. I was afraid of waiting too long to help her slip the surly bonds of this world yet, I feared prematurely losing my buddy.

Last week, we took her to the vet for a “Quality of Life” exam. Alf was having a good day and amazed the doctor by leaping up and down from chairs and conducting a “perimeter check” of the examination room. The vet said she couldn’t find anything amiss with Alf.

Today, Alf went into convulsions and respiratory distress. In a panic, I wrapped her in her favorite towel and rushed her to the vet. The vet took one look and said she was beyond anything that even advanced treatments could do for her. Fortunately, my wife was able to get away from work and meet us at the vet’s office. We said our goodbyes and the vet helped Alf escape the prison of her worn out body.

May you always nap in your favorite warm spot, Alf. Thanks for all the joy you’ve brought us over the years.

What Can I Say? I’m a Little Slow!

I never understood the fervor over tablets. Who the heck wants to pay $500 to play games or watch videos on a tiny screen? What advantage does a soft keyboard offer over real keyboards? How can I run Lightroom on such anemic hardware?

Nevertheless, I knew my target audience was buying them so I had to understand their appeal. When Costco reduced the Vizio VTAB1008 tablet to $189, I rolled the dice. After playing with it for a few weeks, I finally understand the tablet’s role. This is the new TV, stereo, newspaper, map, GPS, Yellow Pages and Post Office, all rolled up into one device. In other words, it’s strictly for entertainment and info lookup. Instead of looking in TV Guide, use the tablet. Instead of watching TV, watch YouTube on the ’net. No more Yellow Pages, order take out Chinese on-line.

If you want to do serious work such as enhancing and editing photos in LR, PS or PSE, you still need a real PC. Analyzing the genetic makeup of a killer rhinovirus outbreak in Hong Kong ain’t gonna be on a tablet! The catchy phrase of the day for tablets is “information consumption.” The whole idea is to sell you more “stuff,” ie, e-books, videos, music, games, anything to entertain. Bottom line, tablets aren’t really computers.

I found the tablet useful during a recent roadtrip for checking diesel prices, reading e-mail and, in general, entertaining myself. But, when it came time to download, review, rate, enhance, optimize and store nearly 200 photos of bighorn sheep, my big honkin’ laptop was, and still is, the tool of choice. Writing even simple e-mails is a chore on a soft keyboard. Teens with overly developed thumbs, typing in pidgin Textglish, might like it but if you type in complete sentences with proper grammar, soft keyboards are abysmal.

I have, however, discovered tablets are wonderful portfolios. My print portfolio weighs about 10 pounds while the Vizio weighs 1.2 lbs. Of course, an 8″ screen doesn’t have near the impact of a 17″ x 25″ print from an Epson 3880. A tablet is essentially a toy, albeit a fun toy, and there’s no way it’s worth over $250.

Photos from Pt Loma Lighthouse

After all, this is a photography blog so here are some rcent photos. The San Diego Photography Collective had a Meetup at the Pt Loma Lighthouse during its 156th anniversary celebration. The very top of the lighthouse, which is normally closed, was open to the public. I used Topaz Labs Adjust and B&W Effects because those were prizes for a photo contest we concocted for this Meetup.

Given the age of the lighthouse and the docents in period costumes, it seemed appropriate to process these in B&W. The left photo above is Jimmy and a docent. Jimmy is from Quebec and he flew down to San Diego for this event! He had never been to California and thought it might be fun. He’s a great guy and a talented photographer. This was a first for us, no has ever flown in from a foreign country for one of our Meetups.

The middle photo is a docent and the right photo is the spiral staircase inside the lighthouse. Notice the ghost on the landing below! All three were processed in Topaz Labs B&W Effects. The first is an antique sepia preset while the middle is an opalotype preset. I don’t remember what I used for the right photo but I believe it was a classic B&W effect.

On the Snake Oil Salesman, I cranked up the grain and simulated an old daguerreotype. Topaz has a daguerreotype preset but it was too refined for my taste. I wanted this to look like one of the old west posters processed in chemicals long past their useful life. The last one of a gargoyle on the lighthouse roof was processed in Topaz Labs Adjust 5. Afte applying a preset, I pushed it over the top to create a photo appropriate for slasher movies. TA5 was just released and has over 130 presets to get you started.

If you’ve never used Topaz plug-ins, click this LINK and download the fully functional trials. Best of all, Topaz offers FREE upgrades. I bought the entire Topaz suite about 3 years ago and have upgraded most of the plug-ins at least once and some have been upgraded 2 or 3 times.