August photos

It is the first of the month already so time to post some more photos. I had an exciting month cruising the theme parks here. A link to my August photos are in my. My favorite is the shot of Cleo and the Walrus.

Although the portfolio link works, the August link gives:

Sorry, that page was not found.

Maybe it's just me but the page will not open.  The larger album does but not August. 

Sorry guys, that was my fault. I forget that since Google switched over to Google plus I now have to change the album properties to allow anyone to view the photos. I changed it and the link should work now.

Nice photos! Looks like you had a great deal of fun as an "excuse" to indulge your passion for photography.  Way to go!

Continuing my alligator infatuation, "Jaws" is my favorite this month.  I also loved the Wood Stork Profile and many others.

Margi

Tom and Margi said:

Continuing my alligator infatuation, "Jaws" is my favorite this month.  I also loved the Wood Stork Profile and many others.

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Thank you for your kind words, Margi. Thank god for telephoto lenses so I can shoot alligators without fear.

Alligator infatuation or lizard lust?

As always good work!

That banyon tree is spectacular!  I also like the contrast between the real critters and the fake ones made of Legos.

ArdraF

ArdraF said:

That banyon tree is spectacular!

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I agree. That tree is at Legoland on the old Cypress Gardens property, where they used to do the water skiing shows.

The link works now, Tom -- thanks. I'm hard pressed to pick a favorite since, as usual, they're all well done. But I've narrowed it down to the stork, the cat, the waterfall and the pink flower, though the turtle and cockatoo are close behind.

    Thanks for sharing, the shots are spectacular as usual.

Ed

Nice pictures Tom the Alligator I think is the best action picture.....

Nice shots Tom. I wish I had your eye.

Seiler, Cloe is a beautiful... no she's a gorgeous cat!  I love calico cats almost as much as I love black cats.  We recently adopted an all black cat.  Any suggestions on how we can avoid losing the details on Black Velvet's coat?  (Your image of Cloe is missing details in the shadows and highlights of her coat.  BTW - my clicker training for Black Velvet is coming along nicely.  She is a smart cat but unfortunately her trainer (me) is not consistent with her training.)

I also like the picture of the Toucan.  Is there a way to capture the details in the clouds.  They seem to be blown out. 

It's nice to see your portrait - self portrait?  (Hopefully we will meet in person some day.)  Both husband and I wear glasses.  I think eye glasses can be a photographer's nightmare.  Is there anyway to avoid glare and harsh shadows?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

MN Blue Skies said:

Seiler, Cloe is a beautiful... no she's a gorgeous cat!  I love calico cats almost as much as I love black cats.  We recently adopted an all black cat.  Any suggestions on how we can avoid losing the details on Black Velvet's coat?  (Your image of Cloe is missing details in the shadows and highlights of her coat.  BTW - my clicker training for Black Velvet is coming along nicely.  She is a smart cat but unfortunately her trainer (me) is not consistent with her training.)

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Thank you for your kind words. Cleo also has a stunning personality to match her stunning good looks. I have been using a new camera for the last few months and I cannot edit RAW with Lightroom yet since they don't have support for my camera yet. So I have been shooting jpg. It is easier to fix things in RAW but that option isn't available to me yet. There is a way to bring out detail in the black so I will try it when I get home. I also have an all black cat and she is challenging to photograph.

https://picasaweb.google.com/108464110929132780547/March02#5997430944797782994

I also like the picture of the Toucan.  Is there a way to capture the details in the clouds.  They seem to be blown out. 

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Yes they are blown out and I didn't notice it, thanks for pointing it out. I can fix that in Lightroom also with the Recovery tool.

It's nice to see your portrait - self portrait?  (Hopefully we will meet in person some day.)  Both husband and I wear glasses.  I think eye glasses can be a photographer's nightmare.  Is there anyway to avoid glare and harsh shadows?

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It is called a Selfie. Shooting RAW and post processing it properly would remove the glasses glare or simply removing the glasses before the photo is taken will do the trick. I will work on all three this afternoon and post the results.

SeilerBird, I am only a professional photography student but I've found that most people don't want to remove their eyeglasses because:

1.  If a person usually wears eyeglasses, their glasses are considered part of their identity.
2.  There are usually unflattering indents where the nose piece rests.

I'm still trying to master the law of reflection.  I have some decent images with reflections but I've found implementing the law of reflection with eyeglasses isn't easy. 

I don't know of anyone who has found a way to remove the eyeglass glare while recovering the detail behind the glare.  (I hope that makes sense.)

Regarding your Toucan image, I am looking forward to learn how you recapture the details in the clouds using the Lightoom recovery tool.

I am also looking forward to seeing images of your black cat.

It's a bummer that the Adobe doesn't support your new camera.  I have heard similar laments from a fellow student who is on his own because he doesn't shoot Canon or Nikon.  Our college only supports those systems so he tried to learn high speed sync, rear curtain sync, etc. on his own.  It was very frustrating for him and I don't see him on this semester's roster so he may have given up. 

On a closing note; I am surprised that you find it "easier to fix things in RAW" since I got the impression from other threads that you are not an advocate of shooting in RAW.

I will watch for your responses.  Thanks

MN Blue Skies said:

SeilerBird, I am only a professional photography student but I've found that most people don't want to remove their eyeglasses because:

1.  If a person usually wears eyeglasses, their glasses are considered part of their identity.
2.  There are usually unflattering indents where the nose piece rests.

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Amazing. Most people are vain about their glasses, I would think they would be happy to take them off.

I'm still trying to master the law of reflection.  I have some decent images with reflections but I've found implementing the law of reflection with eyeglasses isn't easy.

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A polarizing filter would solve the problem but they are a real pain to use, plus my camera doesn't have threads on the lens so i could not use one if I wanted to.

I don't know of anyone who has found a way to remove the eyeglass glare while recovering the detail behind the glare.  (I hope that makes sense.)

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There is a tool in Lightroom that will do it. I tried on mine this afternoon but I was not happy with the results. I really need Photoshop to do it right.

Regarding your Toucan image, I am looking forward to learn how you recapture the details in the clouds using the Lightoom recovery tool.

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I could not recapture the clouds since I was not starting with a RAW image.

I am also looking forward to seeing images of your black cat.

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That one was easy, I haven't posted it yet, my wifi is sucking.

It's a bummer that the Adobe doesn't support your new camera.  I have heard similar laments from a fellow student who is on his own because he doesn't shoot Canon or Nikon.  Our college only supports those systems so he tried to learn high speed sync, rear curtain sync, etc. on his own.  It was very frustrating for him and I don't see him on this semester's roster so he may have given up. 

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It will be available soon, it is just that it is a brand new camera on the market, it generally takes them six months or so to add a new RAW. But it really isn't bothering me because the out of camera jpgs are really good with this camera. I am not doing much in post processing besides cropping.

On a closing note; I am surprised that you find it "easier to fix things in RAW" since I got the impression from other threads that you are not an advocate of shooting in RAW.

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I have been shooting RAW for many years. I love RAW. I hate it when advanced photographers attempt to convince beginning photographers to shoot RAW. The vast majority of camera owners don't want to spend hours a day on their computer editing photos. It takes many years to get good at post processing. I can go back to any image I post processed 7 years ago and start all over and end up with a much better image. To learn post processing I took a community college course to do so.

BTW - I also hate it when advanced photographers tell beginners to buy thousand of dollars worth of the best glass available. I say buy the cheapest glass that will do the job. My whole camera costs $400 with the lens. I do pretty good without thousands of dollars worth of glass.

Ok, MN Blue Skies, I put together a quick and dirty Recovery Tool explanation and found a working wifi. Attached to this post is 6 photos. I could not start from RAW with the totem pole image so I found a RAW shot with blown clouds. The first photo is the RAW image as it came out of the camera. Of course I had to turn it into a 250k jpg but all that does is change the file size, the image still looks the same. As you can see the clouds are hopelessly blown out. In the second image I have moved the Recovery slider from 0 to 100 and that is all. That helps the clouds and the sun, but her left shoulder and her pants are still blown out. Every time I use the Recovery tool I always reduce the brightness a bit and increase the contrast. So in the third shot I have essentially post processed it the way I normally would. The fourth shot shows the Lightroom settings for the second image and the fifth shot shows the Lightroom settings for the fully processed shot. The sixth shot is my feeble attempt to fix Cleo. Normally I would not have even kept that shot since  as a photograph it is a bust, but she is so cute I included it.

There is a reason why the shot of the girl here was so blown out to begin with. I was using an 8mm manual lens. When using that lens I would pre set focus and exposure and then walk around blasting away knowing I can fix any problem in post. I was working at the Grand Canyon at the time walking the south rim when I happened upon this lovely lady standing on a rock posing for a photo. I walked up just as she jumped off the rock. I asked her if she would hop back up there and pose again and she did. I got her email address and sent her a copy since it came out so good.  But the problem was I just took the shot since I did not know her I did not think I had the time to pose her like I would have normally set up a shot like that. The whole problem with an 8 mm lens is that the sun is almost always in the photo unless you are really careful.

Meanwhile I thought of a good Recovery tool story. It happened seven years ago when I was at a Photography in the Parks workshop put on by Canon at Yellowstone. The instructor for the course was the head of a university photography program in Virginia and he was a total jerk. He started one session telling us that after every shot we needed to consult the histogram and if the histogram was stacked to the right it meant the whites were blown out and we would have to retake the shot since "it was totally impossible to fix blown highlights." The info has never been recorded so therefore it was unavailable. I almost choked on that one. First off I consider the histogram as being totally worthless, second I have been fixing blown highlights for years. He told me flat out I was wrong, I could not fix blown highlights. So the next day I brought my laptop to class with a demonstration all set up to show him. He refused to look at the demonstration telling me that I didn't know what I was talking about.

To see these images better you should download the first three and then open one up with the Windows Photo Viewer so you can switch between the three easily.