Tuesday, March 1, 2022

[Dave]

Welcome to March, everyone.

Our SoCal weather has been crazy; last week overnight temps in my area nearly reached freezing. but yesterday's high reading on the thermometer in the shade just outside my front door was 91 F (33 C), and 96 F in the strong sun. Today will be hot too, but later on the week is supposed to bring more normal temperatures and a good chance of rain.

On my usual walks, if it's late enough in the morning to be warm and sunny, I keep my eyes open for fence lizards basking in the sun. Here's one taken yesterday and processed an hour ago. I had fun adjusting values, blurring the background (yes Rich, this is one of the few times that I've done that) to tone down some ugly dark blotches, playing with color intensity, and selective sharpening...

   

Here's the file after only my standard edits in Camera Raw: before cropping, selective brightening, color adjustments, downplaying the dark blotches in the background, and selective USM...

   

Have yourselves a good day.

[Don]

Thanks for starting the daily, Dave. Good job on the background.


Old Store and historic church.

[damar]

Thanks for the Daily start, Dave!
Your lizard capture is pretty cool. I like your composition and you did great with the background.
He looks like he is giving you "the eye"!

Hi Don!
The old store is interesting with the tree trunk posts. We see
cedar stumps being used like that.
The church sits very nice on its foundation.
Pretty photo. Were these both taken with the same camera?
If so which one?
Your processing looks excellent.

I'm going to post one from my flickr album.
Older photo (not sure which Nikon it was).
It looks like its last purpose was a vegetable stand.
(it really is that color)

[Don]

Thanks Patty. There were taken with the Konica IIIa rangefinder using Ilford HP5. I've been watching quite a few YT videos on processing with PS, especially increasing the contrast on BW images. Lots more to learn though.

I like the red building - very "colorful". That Fujifilm makes nice images. Some of the landscape photographers on YT that I watch are using the fujifilm gfx 100s camera. I looked on BH and saw that the body alone is almost 6K, or 10K with the built in battery grip. 102MP medium format mirrorless camera. Wow.

[Adamphotoman]

Dave, As Don already said "Good job on the background". Makes the lizard pop. If you saw the great lengths that Ansel went to, You would give yourself permission to do what ever it takes to make an image better. And you did! Bravo!
Don, You do choose B&W worthy subjects.
Patty, That is an eye popping image.

Here is one from my retired D200 on a 2008 trip to Tofino. Long Beach [10 miles of sand on the western coast of Vancouver Island].

   

[Rich]

Dave, sounds like South Dakota weather!
I agree with Grant on the after processing. Ansel and other B&W photographers of the day spent hours in a darkroom making a perfect print. Nothing wrong with that! Good job! He is giving you the ol stink eye!

Don, good work on the taking and processing. I agree with Patty's comments. Gulp, Fuji camera is a bit out of my price range!

Patty, what a neat scene! Looks so desolate and "country" Love the red against the bluish sky!

Grant. what a peaceful scene. Wonderful composition. Would be one to paint when you get back into it. I like the touch of fog.

A beautiful blue sky day today. Forecast high of 60 degrees then chance of snow Wednesday night. I  hope not much as I need to drive 275 miles Thursday.

[Dave]

Thanks Don, damar, Grant, and Rich.

I updated my initial post to iadd an image showing pretty much what I started with (although it was much darker before my usual Camera Raw editing)..

Don, two nice ones. I especially like the strong value contrasts in the old church photo.

damar, vivid but believable color - really pops.

Wonderful wilderness image, Grant.

Rich, yes he is glaring at me. Enjoy your warm temps.

[damar]

Yup! You did good Dave! You were right about the black spots int he background. Nice work.
Grant,
Your shore photo is beautiful!
I will always love and appreciate my old Nikon D200.
It was/is a great camera.
I still have it and it reminds me that I need to charge up and run the batteries out.
Also, if some digital cameras sit too long without power, their internal clocks can run down.
(from what I've read anyway)

[Adamphotoman]

Here is a capture made from an old negative. My wife at an early age. She explained that she was trying to catch the bubbles that only she saw after the flash cube went off.

   

[damar]

Hi Grant! 
Oh how sweet!!! "Flash Bubbles"!!
Adorable face and dressed like an angel!
Very nice negative to digital!

We took our walk around noon instead of morning;
neighbors trees are in flower.

Linked from FlickR and looking out of focus...its not!
(clickable)

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