Laid over

Hello everyone. I'm currently sitting in the airport at Birmingham, AL, waiting for my flight. I got here around 11:30, to find out that the plane had a mechanical problem. I am heading to Baltimore for my cousin's wedding this weekend. I figured since I have some time, I would send a quick blog update on my IPad. The spacing and format will be a bit off, since the program is much different than what it looks liken my computer, but I think we can all live with that. Over the last week, I have been working with a program called Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 (SEP2). It was touted as an amazing black and white conversion software. I downloaded the free trial and it is amazing. You open your picture in photoshop (in my case) and then access SEP2 from the filters tab. You are then given about 20 preset black and white options for hat photo. I would say that 5-6 of them are nailed with no work needed. However, manipulating your photos from there is very easy. I would rate this software a 5 out of 5 stars and I wil definitely be buying the full version. When I get back home next week, I will post some of the conversions using this software. I will also have some wedding photos coming soon as I work on them for my cousin. Until next time...

It's been awhile

Time sure does fly when you have a lot on your plate.  This is a picture from this morning's sunrise photoshoot.  I went back out to Crowley Park in Richardson, TX and shot by the water of the pond.

It was nice that the moon was still out as the sun started to come up.  Pretty good color in sky, but not a lot of red until after I had packed up.

As I was finishing up, I decided to pull out two new pieces of gear and give them a test drive.  Those would be my Canon Speedlite 600 EX-RT flash and Gary Fong Cloud flash diffuser.  I bought both to use for my cousin's wedding but haven't really had a chance to try them out yet.  The flash in the reception hall will allow me to be able to use a fast shutter speed in the dim light.  The diffuser will help to soften that light so that it doesn't seem like a white blast on everyone I use it on.

Here are two pictures that I took of myself using my remote control.

On the left is the flash with no diffuser.  You can see that my skin is pretty blown out.  On the right is with the diffuser.  Skin tones come out a little more naturally when they aren't being blasted with light.

I plan to be able to get a little more practice using these two items before the wedding.  I'm actually reading the instruction manual, so I'll have the basics down.  I'll be able to use the rehearsal dinner to get some good real world practice with it.

Before I leave, I'll give you a tip.  When putting your camera bag down in the dark, be sure to not put it down on a fire ant mound.  I missed one by about 5 inches today.  That could have made for a bad morning.

Until next time...

Catching Up

It's been a little while since I've been able to post a blog.  I've been busy shooting and editing, but not blogging.  

Since my last time on here, I have been trying out some new software; ACDSee.  It's a photo editing software that attempts to compete with Photoshop.  It is a pretty user friendly piece of software that allows you to edit and customize pictures, batch process, etc.  So far, I like it.  There are things that it does better than Photoshop and vice versa.

Next, I went down to San Antonio to take some engagement pictures of a friend of mine and her fiance.  This was my second big shoot.  I was a little nervous at first, but not long into it, everything just seemed to fall into place.  I just finished processing them and narrowing down the 5star selections.  The CD is burning now and I should be able to get them in the mail Monday.  It was a lot of fun.

The next day, Sunday, I of course I had my sunrise photo shoot.  I wanted to do something iconic, so I went downtown to the Alamo and set up.  I haven't had a chance to work on those pictures, but I imagine they will turn out nicely.  I also learned that a quarter in a parking meter in San Antonio buys you an hour, whereas it only gets you 20 minutes in Dallas......  Not as much bang for your buck.  lol

Next, I had to break down and buy a new computer.  My laptop is almost 4 years old and just can't handle the demands of processing my pictures.  The RAM wasn't large enough to handle the speed needed for Photoshop and for some reason, the computer doesn't see the CD drive anymore.  I wasn't able to figure that one out.  In addition, I had filled up the hard drive.  It was time.

That's what's been going on in my life recently.  I'll get back on here soon with some more pictures.

Until next time...