Photography

[ozzie]

That latest batch is just great, Lenn! Yes, they all look like they could be made into puzzles. I love it!
Glad you explained what the cigars were, I was having a tough time figuring that one out!
I have a similar frost on the windshield picture.
This wasn't on the windshield but the pattern on the hood of my daughters car one frosty morning....

[Shoelessjoe]

Here are some of photos I took at a 1 year old birthday party.  I hate taken pictures where you have numerous people taken pictures with whatever cameras they have.  I changed the background in Photoshop to remove distracting background garbage.  The problem that I'm trying to correct but I haven't gotten the hang of it is to make the photo not look like a cardboard cutout but rather become one photo.  It's not quit there yet.

Original

Exposure adjustments.

Changed Background to remove distracting garbage.

Another changed background.

[MightyGiants]

Len,

I think you could be a professional photographer.  Your pictures are definitely professional quality, in my opinion.

[Jim143]

These were taken by my wife on my 50th birthday.  Getting scalped by a whale shark and then having a couple of Manta Rays come in to do summersaults in my air bubbles.





This is the rise over Cocoa Beach back in 2009



This is the slate alone the road in NY.  Both my wife and I completely forgot out these.  We dont see it down here.  We actually took some and put in the trunk to take home with us.



This is an old Plane that used to have a ladder and slide.  It is part of what we called

[LennG]

Frank

That is amazing what one can do. You took just an ordinary pix of family and made it into a professional portrait shot. How long would something like take to do?

[LennG]

Lou

Great pixs. You just never know where a 'good pix' will appear. Some people couldn't see a good pix if they walked into it.

Myself, I feel I have a pretty good eye for what myself, and others, would see as a good pix. I only wish I had the knowledge that Frank has, and the ambition to take a decent enough pix and take out this, lighten that, and viola, you have an amazing shot.

Keep them coming .

[LennG]

Jim

Great pix also.

What camera were you using for the underwater shots.

And where are those barracks?

See you had the sot of the Alamo, were you sationed at Lackland?

[Jim143]

Jim

Great pix also.

What camera were you using for the underwater shots.

And where are those barracks?

See you had the sot of the Alamo, were you sationed at Lackland?

If I remember correctly, my wife was using her iPhone 4. . .maybe 5 (it was 7 years ago - what ever model was out that year - actually the one the year before since this was July and they usually come out in October).

The barracks are Lackland.  They are the old barracks that were torn down not to long ago.  I remember in boot camp that we were right near the back gate, over looking a 7-11 and Micky-D's. (the smell of the fries were torture).

When I went out for his Tech School graduation, we came back from dinner downtown and I pulled over into that parking lot.  I pointed to the dorm and said that's where I was (BMTS 3703) - My son said "That was my dorm too".  I looked at the door (each side of the ground floor had a door.  1 was chow hall, 1 was orderly room and 2 were classrooms).  I asked him what the door was that we were facing.  He said it was the Chow Hall.  So I pointed to the first floor up and said "that was my dorm floor (we had females one floor above us on the top floor) and when you walked in, the first bay on the right was where my bunk was.". . . he said - mine too.

That is one thing I will never forget - we shared the same dorm, same floor, same bay, 30 years apart.

As for the Alamo - I was never stationed at Lackland other than bootcamp, but we went down there when I went out for his Tech School graduation.  Heidi and I couldn't go together, so she went to his Boot Camp graduation and I went to the tech school since he is law enforcement and I was a deputy, we both wanted me to pin his badge on at graduation.

[LennG]

I also, was only at Lackland for basic training. At the time I was there, they had narrowed it down to 4 weeks. At the end of our time, we were give a day off and everyone went to San Antonio. I made my trek to the Alamo, among other places.   

From there I was sent to Amarillo for 'Tech Training' There they taught me how to type, which took 4 months (thats the way the AF does things). I hated Amarillo, it was hot, then it was hotter and then it got even hotter. The saying around there was you could go AWOL and they could still see you running 3 days later (it is flat).   

[LennG]

I have a little time and I wanted to post some pix from  a place we were at several years ago. Antelope Canyon in Arizona. It is around Page AZ and Lake Powell. We were there many years ago with our kids and we did this amazing boat ride on Lake Powell and this time we were looking to do the same, but there was a tremendous drought and the lake was down about 90 feet. There wasn't much lake left to ride a row boat. so, we were driving around and we saw this sign to visit Antelope Canyon. I knew something about this place, but never realized the real worth of it.
Maybe you have never heard of it, but once you see pix, you might recognize it. It is NOT a Canyon in the sense, it is a series of cave like formations and tunnels, about 5 stories below the ground. It was formed who knows how many years ago, by an underground river that left these formations and tunnels. You have to go with an Indian guide, who is your personal guidem and they only allow so many people down there at a time. It takes about 2 hours. You have to climb down these ladders to get to the bottom and as you walk along and thru the tunnels you gain altitude until you are about near the regular ground. Most of the walking you do thru the Canyon is by little paths, sometimes just large enough so you can fit thru. there are several openings along the way where one might say,  are pix heaven. There are, at times, during the day, when the sun shines thru some of the openings and you get this eeerie effect.
To put it bluntly, this is one of the most amazing places you would ever want to see. If you ever get out West, and into this area, this place is a MUST DO. I can guarantee you will never forget this place.

Ladders going down--5 stories down



My lovely wife and our guide



Some of the formations and sights along the way. Every turn there is something new, every corner is simply amzing and it never ends









As I said, you wind your way thru very narrow paths



Which sometime open into room like areas



Truly just another world under our regular one

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Wow Lenn, just wow!

[ozzie]

Jim, great pix. My faves are the air show and the churches. There is just something about church architecture that I find interesting.
Lenn, I'm running out of adjectives to describe how incredible your photos are!!
I have seen pix of Antelope Canyon, but I never knew that was the name of it, so thanks for the education. That place looks like an alien planet.
I would love to visit there one day. It is just stunning!

[LennG]

Jim, great pix. My faves are the air show and the churches. There is just something about church architecture that I find interesting.
Lenn, I'm running out of adjectives to describe how incredible your photos are!!
I have seen pix of Antelope Canyon, but I never knew that was the name of it, so thanks for the education. That place looks like an alien planet.
I would love to visit there one day. It is just stunning!

Lou

Really, this place is like supernatural. It is truly another world under the one we live in.
Just google Antelope Canyon and you can see this amazing place.
What makes it hard for the photographer is that all the light is natural, from the openings above. Some parts are dark, but not fully dark where you can't see where you are going, but pix taking is a problem. You have to use a flash in certain parts and that does change the dynamic of the colors et al. Overall, it is so immense that taking pics only can capture what you aim at, but in reality, a small part of what you are really seeing, and feeling. There is a complete stillness there, the only sounds are the winds that go thru the canyon, and some of the other people there. When you tour, they give you an assigned time so rarely do you see others there. You do at times, but again, they are never in the way.
I can't say this enough times, this is truly a place you have to experience to really believe it.

[Shoelessjoe]

Frank

That is amazing what one can do. You took just an ordinary pix of family and made it into a professional portrait shot. How long would something like take to do?

Lenn, I started about 10 years with another product from Adobe called Photoshop Elements.  At that time Photoshop cost about $600 while Elements cost about $90 so I went with Elements because at the time I was working and really didn't have the time to put into therefore I couldn't justify the cost.  Lightroom cost about $300.  The problem with Elements is you had to pay for upgrades to the product almost every year.  A few years ago Adobe came out with a subscription based product with a photographers bundle which includes Lightroom and the full version of the software at a monthly cost of $10 or $120 a year.  This subscription provides you with all of the upgrades from Adobe without any additional cost.  As a result I got the subscription in January of 2018 and have been working with the 2 products since then.  I had the time and the cost was decent for the two products.  Today Adobe only sells the products as a subscription.  Lightroom lets you catalog, organize and store all of your Photos as well as perform about 80% of edits that you will need.  The remainder needs to be done in Photoshop.

As a result of all of this I'm constantly working on three things cameras and photography as well as Lightroom and Photoshop.  I spend hours a day on the 3 and I feel that I just scratched the surface.  As I've said this is a passion and I truly enjoy what I've been doing so I feel it is time well spent.  I buy digital books, subscribe to You Tube video, attend classes through my local Coastal Camera Club and belong to online groups.

For example, the local camera club had a professional from Strobist an online flash photography, https://strobist.blogspot.com/ for $250 which is a real good price for an all day class.  I learned a lot so now I'm starting to get into flash.  This was before the shutdown in March.  Since then the club has provided to it's members online classes because we can't meet. 

One such class was by Matt Kloskowski https://mattk.com/stuck-inside/.  Take a look at what he does with a simple picture of a bird and how he can change it to look stunning https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0vPofykKck&t=554s.

The method used in the family photo that you referred to is called Texture Blending.  It entails taking 2 photos and placing each in a layer in photoshop. you then mask out a part of one of the pictures or layers.  Think of layers as two prints, the original one and the textured background one.  You then mask out or in the case of the two prints the background garbage and the textured background appears.  It's like you cut out the family and paste it on the background.  The problem is you need to soften the edges so that the seams where the two meet mesh into one so that they look like one photo.  Once you learn what to do you can do the transformation in about 15 to 30 minutes.

One last thing I started with film about 50 years ago.  At that time I used a hand held light meter for exposure and had to manually focus all pictures.  As a result I had a learn the basics such as the exposure triangle with little or no shortcuts.  I also use to have my own darkroom and developed my own black and white photos. 

I have just scratched the surface with the two software products and to be honest I probably will never know how to even use half of them but it is fun and it keeps the mind going.  My goals over the remainder of the year is to become better at flash photography, learn how to better use brushes in photoshop and if I have time learn how to better use another software product call PhotoPills.

[T200]

We were down in ShoelessJoe's neighborhood and although I'm not a hockey fan, I had to take this pic!