Category: Things I Find Cool
Leaves To Be
I took this yesterday evening, right after the apple blossoms I posted in an earlier post, and found myself drifting back in time. The little seeds that look like helicopter blades and hopefully grow up to be trees and sprout leaves were a sense of wonderment to me in my youth. We called them “whirly-gigs” or at least I did but everyone else called them whirlybirds. The ones that fell to the ground we would throw into the air and watch them descend back to earth. The best experience was if you were under a large Maple when a wind gust blew a large amount into the air at once! Cool stuff for a kid, and honestly I still love it to this day. So here is one from the past and to the future, here is some leaves to be!
Two More To Compare
After a very good day, and a lovely dinner and drive with The Bride, I wanted to post something but realized I have not shot anything for a couple of days. I was looking for something when I revisited my post Two To Compare where I used the two free photo-editing tools Perfect Effects 8 and Paint.NET. So in that vein, and since I had nothing new to bring to the table, I decided show you two unpublished shots from earlier this week. I played with Perfect Effects 8 on these two and I am really happy with the results. I took the top one with my Canon PowerShot S3is and the bottom with my Canon PowerShot SX10is (Click on photos to enlarge them……really they are pretty cool up close).
Sun Dipped
Two To Compare
After years of doing very little to no photo-editing of my photos I begun the search for a good, solid editing and management tool. This was last Fall when this journey began but life has a way of setting our priorities and mine did. Now I finally have the time, and truthfully the energy, to try again. I am leaning heavily towards Adobe Lightroom and adding other software as plugins. Till then I dug around some photographers I respect and see what they are using. Steve @ daPonte Photography uses OnOne Software so I looked at their products and decided to downloaded their freeware Perfect Effects 8. The first photo I used Perfect Effects 8 to give it a light HDR/Grunge look. The second is the original with a brightness/contrast adjustment applied with Paint.NET, a software I stumbled upon while digging around the web..
Next week I am hoping to test drive TopazLabs free trail of some of their software. My buddy Mike @ Mike’s Look at Life does some amazing things with his already solid captures using some of their software. Till then here is Two To Compare.
My Partner In Chillin’
Yesterday was a lovely day to just stay outside and chill. Truth be told I should have worked on the many ongoing projects around our place but I have a hitch in my giddy-up that relegated me to observer status. Hopefully on Wednesday I can have that worked out by a visit to the chiropractor. So here is my partner in chillin’!
Bees On The Fly
Sorry for such a lame title but it is what it is: Carpenter Bees flying by trying to establish a beachhead in my front porch’s rafters. I discovered a little trick in the process, one which I am sure all established photographers already know, and that is I tracked the bees with the eye not looking through the view open. This allowed me to track the bee(s), you will see two at first, and when I had the manual focus right the bee(s) become one. Cool stuff I think! So here is two bees on the fly.
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Rusty Picket
Full To The Brim
I spent many hours of my youth down on the fossil beds at the Falls of the Ohio. This shot is where the dam holds back the Ohio during normal river levels. The railroad bridge is a visual line at the start of the fossil bed. I hope to get some shots sometime from down on the bed’s floor but as you can see the Falls of the Ohio is Full to the brim.
Down By That Muddy River
Today after my brother and I finished some estate biz and a nice breakfast I grabbed me some sunny day captures. Welcome back Mister Blues Skies and Sunshine, you make this rain-swollen river look good!
Daffodil Hill Photography 