Happy Halloween |
Monday
Journal Entry for Monday, Oct 31st
Journal Entry for Sunday, Oct 30th
Concert Collage |
Saturday
Journal Entry for Friday, Oct 28th
Friday
Journal Entry for Thursday, Oct 27th
Tips on Taking Pictures With Others Today’s Tip - Part 1: Learning to Shoot in Manual Mode – Learn the Basics. If you really want to improve your picture taking skills, one must force themself into shooting in the manual mode. I know what you’re saying, “but I never took a photography class”, “I have no idea what settings to use”, “I would just end up taking bad pictures anyway.” I’ve also had all these thoughts, and while they may be true, learning to take pictures in [P] manual mode will make you a better photographer. For starters, here is what I suggest. Using books or the Internet, start learning the effects of changing [S] shutter speed, [A] aperture (f-stop), [M] manual, exposure compensation, and ISO settings. Study the various focus modes and settings your camera has to offer, e,g, [AFS] Auto Focus Single, [AFC] Auto Focus Continuous, [M] Manual, [1-Area] focusing, [23-Area] focusing, [AF] Auto Focus Tracking, [Face] Face Detection. Having a basic understanding of these element will go a long way towards learning to shoot pictures in the Manual Mode. Today’s Tip – Part 2: Learning to Shoot in Manual Mode – Take Your Time. Once you have a general understanding of the basic settings available to you, you need to put them into practice. There are many ways to approach this, however, I feel that the key thing to remember is this, “Take your Time!”. Today’s Tip – Part 3: Learning to Shoot in Manual Mode – Establish A Shooting Procedure. Establishing and maintaining a consistent procedure to be used when taking your pictures will make the editing and ‘cleanup’ process go much faster after you have transferred the negatives to your computer. Until I become more proficient, here is the process I will be using. For single shots, I have decided to take four identical pictures. The (1st) using the [iA] Auto mode; the (2nd) using a specific scene mode such as [Portrait][Scenery][Landscape][Sports][Close-Up][Night]; the (3rd using the [P] manual mode; and (4th) use a specialty film mode such Dynamic, Nature, Vibrant, Black & White, etc. Hopefully, doing this will force you into thinking about the various options available for creating a better picture. During the review and editing process, you will more easily see what settings worked best and understand why. Click here to view more tips ... Today's Tips |
Wednesday
Journal Entry for Wednesday, Oct 26th
My Desert Slideshow Back in early 2008 I put together a slideshow of pictures from places in and around the Las Vegas area that Connie and I had visited either together, or with friends and relatives, over the previous five years. I created it using a slideshow program called ProShow Gold. The only problem was, that by the time I finished I got so carried away with adding pictures, it was more than 20 minutes long and 674MB in size, too big to send to anyone. Back then it was even to large to upload to YouTube. Recently I learned that YouTube is now accepting larger slideshows, and I decided to add it there so I could share it with the people I originally created it for, as well as the general public. Click here to go to YouTube and view it … The Beauty of the Nevada Desert. Hope you enjoy! For anyone interested in creating a slideshow like this, in my opinion, the best software program on the market is ProShow Gold 4.5 by Photodex. Click on the Software tab to read about this program and find a link to their site. |
Tuesday
Journal Entry for Tuesday, Oct 25th
Site Updates Another great find was a book titled, Digital Expressions - Creating Digital Art with Adobe Photoshop Elements. This book provides dozens of step-by-step techniques for turning your photos into digital art. |
Monday
Journal Entry for Monday, Oct 24th
Ken & Connie's Personal JournalMechanical vignettingTODAY'S TIP: Solving mechanical vignetting problems. The picture on the right shows and example of mechanical vignetting. Sometimes I end up with this effect on my pictures when using my lens hood.This can occur whenever a mechanical extension to a lens protrudes into its field of view - the image corners receive less light than they would in the absence of the extension and vignetting occurs. The can happen whenever the extension (lens hood) is too long for the lens, when there are stacked filters, or a combination of the two. Sometimes a single, thick filter can vignette a wideangle lens. Sometimes using the zoom feature on a lens will trigger the effect. If you have this problem, the only recommendation I can offer is to check on vignetting behavior under various conditions, e.g. with and without filters, hood, and under various zooming conditions. One would think the remedy is obvious: use proper accessories; however in my case the lens hood I use came with the purchase of the lens. Click here to view more tips ... Today's Tips |
Sunday
Journal Entry for Sunday, Oct 23rd
Saturday
Journal Entry for Saturday, Oct 22nd
Christmas Tree Pass |
Friday
Journal Entry for Friday, Oct 21st
Black & White |
Thursday
Journal Entry for Thursday, Oct 20th
Architecture Abstract |
Wednesday
Journal Entry for Wednesday, Oct 19th
Taking A Walk |
Tuesday
Journal Entry for Tuesday, Oct 18th
Monday
Journal Entry for Monday, Oct 17th
Sunday
Journal Entry for Sunday Oct 16th
Saturday
Journal Entry for Saturday, Oct 15th
Petroglyphs and Pictographs |
Friday
Journal Entry for Friday, Oct 14th
Daytrip To Grapevine Canyon |
Journal Entry for Thursday, Oct 13th
Tuesday
Journal Entry for Tuesday, Oct 11th
Monday
Journal Entry for Monday, Oct 10th
Site Maintenance
TODAY'S TIP: Switch your camera's focus dial to the MF (Manual Focus) setting when shooting insects. As insects are almost constantly moving, turning off the lens' iA (intelligent Auto) function and AFS (Auto Focus Single) function may make the job so easier. In auto focus mode the lens will keep swimming or refocusing, making it nearly impossible to capture a sharp image. Another tip would be to set the focus on whatever the insect has lit upon, e.g. a branch, leaf, rock, etc. Click here to view more tips ... Today's Tips |
Sunday
Journal Entry for Sunday, Oct 9th
Desert Marigold
TODAY'S TIP: Here is a "close-up" tip that, even though I don't quite understand why, will help you get better closeup shots in the field. When using a tripod, always make sure that the "anti-shake" setting is turned OFF. For me this can sometimes be confusing. When using my 14-41mm lens this is an internal camera setting; when using my 45-200mm lens, it is a switch on the lens itself. Click here to view more tips ... Today's Tips |
Journal Entry for Saturday, Oct 8th
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Rattlesnake Weed I captured this while on a hike to the Wee Thump Joshua Tree Wilderness Area with the rock-hounds from the Henderson Heritage Park Senior Center. I have yet to find out why this plant is commonly called Rattlesnake Weed. Maybe it's the fact that it produces a milky white substance that is poisonous. My thanks to Kathy Pool, one of my hiking partners for helping me to identify this quite delicate desert weed. Go to my Photo Gallery blog to read more about this unusual plant … Rattlesnake Weed. TODAY'S TIP: Buy a UV filter for each lens you own. It's easier, and needless to say cheaper, to replace a scratched lens filter than it is to replace your actual lens. Click here to view more tips ... Today's Tips |
Journal Entry for Friday, Oct 7th
The Fringed Amaranth I captured this while on a hike to the Wee Thump Joshua Tree Wilderness Area with the rock-hounds from the Henderson Heritage Park Senior Center. Capturing photos of landscapes and close-up's of wildflowers seem to be my two of my most enjoyable photographic interests. When taking hikes I almost always have my eye to the ground, looking for even the smallest detail or abstract that might make a worthwhile image when turned into a full-sized photo. Identifying wildflowers for placement onto my photo gallery blog site is much more difficult and time consuming than I ever imagined it would be. In addition to searching the Internet and looking through books on the subject, I have begun to elicit help from some of my hiking partners. Click here to learn more about this delicate little plant …Fringed Amaranth |
Friday
Journal Entry for Thursday, Oct 6th
Nipton Road or Joshua Tree Highway Today was another of my regular Thursday hikes with the rock-hounds from the Henderson Heritage Parke Senior Center. We spent the majority of our time at the Wee Thump Joshua Tree Wilderness Area, a relatively pristine wilderness area that receives few visitors. Naturally, as its name implies, the primary attraction is the thousands of ancient Joshua Trees, however, if one pays close attention, one will find a variety of desert flora and wildlife. Click here to read about the hike and view pictures … Wee Thump Joshua Tree Wilderness Area. |
Tuesday
Journal Entry for Monday, Oct 3rd
Las Vegas Architecture Series |
Sunday
Journal Entry for Sunday, Oct 2nd
File Maintenance To provide an example, the image on the right shows the 30 sub-folders under the first folder titled, 1-Birds, Animals & Reptiles. So here is what happens after each photo shoot. After, (1) creating and placing the pictures into the most appropriate storage folder, e.g. 11-0915 Daytrip – Cold Creek, (2) editing them, (3) saving a final negatives folder, I then go through all the pictures taken and copy “subject specific” images such as birds, butterflies, horses, to individual subject folders. Even though this creates duplicates and takes up more drive space, it allows me to easily seek out all the pictures on a specific subject/category for a project in the future without having to try and remember when I might have captured pictures of ’horses' for example and searching through dozens of folders looking for them. (refer to Step 4. under the Saving Pictures tab). If you have any suggestions on how I might improve this system, let me know. |
Saturday
Journal Entry for Saturday, Oct 1st
Monarch Butterfly |
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