I captured this photo on my 2019 trip to California to visit VidCon with my daughter. These lifeguard posts are really iconic to me and represent one of the differences between the west coast and east coast beaches.
Shot on a Nikon D5200 and edited in Lightroom Mobile. 4448 x 3556 f/100 ISO 100
Selecting a picture to edit today allowed me to reflect on one of my favorite subjects to capture, desert landscapes. I have many examples of these scenes in my library and when I look at one I remember the vivid beauty in my minds eye. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) I was just beginning my journey into photography at this time so many of the pictures I have taken of desert landscapes don’t fully capture the beauty I remember. Sure I can artistically edit the photos to make them look better, but I am limited by the exposure, composition, and white balance that was shot at the time.
The fortunate part of this is that I have these examples to examine and determine how I would shoot them differently with what I know now. Then when I get venture back out west I have the opportunity to recreate these photographs and see my progress. For example shooting desert landscapes can be challenging with the bright sun which can blow out the saturation of the scene and whitewash everything. This wasn’t something I was aware of when I took the photo years ago. So one thing I would change is getting to the scene during golden hour to have better overall lighting for the picture.
The unfortunate part of this is that I currently live in my home state of Ohio which is quite a ways from Arizona and with a global pandemic I’m not sure when I’ll get the opportunity to revisit these hikes. However I am certain that time will come and it will be exciting to note the changes in the pictures!
Until then I will enjoy editing my existing desert shots and remembering the peaceful hikes that were the origins of the pictures.
As always, thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy the photo and the story!
This picture was shot on an iPhone 5 and was edited in Lightroom. I started by applying a flat s-curve preset and adjusted the individual color saturation from there in an attempt to bring back some of the vividness from my memories.
Ah, I miss my days of regular hikes in the desert. The views are so beautiful! Big blue sky, mountains wherever you look, and the sunshine!
This photo was taken on my iPhone 6 and edited in Lightroom. I didn’t have to do much with this photo beside slightly adjusting the s curve and adding a light vignette to frame the shot.
I came across this image today and I was immediately reminded of the camping trip where this was taken. Photographs have a way of not only capturing the beauty in the world but reminding us of memories made. Two wins in my book! As I go through my tons of pics I am excited to edit them with fresh eyes and rediscover the happy memories that were formed when I took the picture.
I am working through my backlog of pictures for two main reasons. One I already have a lot of great shots I want to share with the world. And secondly, I unfortunately broke my fibula about three weeks ago, which required surgery. So I will not be mobile for a little while which means it will be difficult to get new material. I think this is the right time to transition my hobby to something more as this will be a great distraction from my current state!
This photo was also taken on my iPhone and edited in Lightroom. This time I used the just the base s-curve to correct the coloring. I then used two radial filters to accent the frog. The first one focused on enhancing the frog’s coloring while the second one was a duplicate. I used the second one to focus on the inverse and desaturate the background which made the frog stand out a little more.
My main subject for photography is beautiful landscapes, but I also enjoy taking pictures of interesting subjects that may or may not also fall into the landscape category. An example of this is the image above which is just a simple glass block window.
This window faces east and the way that the morning sunlight comes through is just beautiful. I noticed my infant being entranced with the window when light was coming through and I soon followed suit. Then after taking a picture of it with my iPhone I discovered that up close it looks like a kaleidoscope!
I took this picture with my iPhone 11 Pro and was edited in Lightroom. My intent here was to bring a moody feel to the picture and to accentuate the different colors coming through. I think this would make an interesting pattern or background for a design.
As always I hope you enjoy!
I have been contemplating trying to share my photography and painting hobbies with the world and potentially making them more than just a hobby. Part of this means that I have to create a “brand” for myself, which is a concept that I am not totally comfortable with. Since authenticity is important to me, part of what ends up being my “brand” will have to include the awkwardness and transparency (aka lack of filter) that are, well, me. We’ll just have to see what the rest of my “brand” ends up looking like!
My plan to share my photos and paintings with the world will include this website/blog and hopefully a YouTube channel as I get a studio setup and figure out what needs to happen in order for me to record videos.
As I edit photos I’ll write a post describing what’s special about each photograph and what my approach to editing it was. I really appreciate all of the photography YouTube channels and blogs that help aspiring photographers learn how to edit their photos and I want to build upon that and share what has helped me become a better photographer.
For paintings I’ll share those that were especially fun to paint or have helped me work through some set of emotions that I was otherwise having a tough time figuring out.
Anyways, the first “blog” post or anything typically seems to be the most difficult, and I’m sure this rambles on, but I hope you (my audience) will enjoy what I have to share with you and thank you for coming along this journey with me!
