Lightroom 5......

LR 5 has been out for a few weeks now and I've been asked by several photographers if the upgrade from LR4 is worth it. In two short words: "you betcha!!!" Let me tell you why I think you should upgrade: 

  • Healing Brush - This tool is worth the upgrade all by itself! We are no longer confined to just taking out spots, we can now use this as a true brush and take out things like power lines, stray branches, garbage, etc. For the most part it works very well. 
  • Spot Visualization Tool -  If you are like me and printed what you thought was a killer image only to find dust spots in the enlarged image, this tool is for you.  It will highlight the spots and make removal simple.
  • Upright Adjustments - Automatic correction for your images that have perspective problems. It will make your verticals stand up straight!
  • Radial Filter - Like the vignetting tool on steroids! You can make a custom vignette of any size or shape, anywhere in your image. 

This is just a quick look at the new tools in LR 5. I'm hoping to have another class either the end of this month, or early next month. Stay tuned....

Now That I Have Your Attention.....

Two Rivers Photo Club went to Sycamore Hills Gardens  for a group photo trip today. Weather was perfect and the company was even better. What a beautiful place!! A perfect mix of hard and softscape, with plenty of photo ops for everyone. This is a place we need to get back to in the Fall, as the foliage up there will be incredible! Many thanks to Cindy Ruggieri for organizing and pulling this off!

Lightroom 5 Released.....

Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 5, the latest version of its image editing software. Available as either an individual license or as part of a Creative Cloud subscription, Lightroom 5 adds a more advanced healing/cloning tool, automatic image leveling and perspective correction, a new selective editing tool and the ability to edit files that are offline. Just more reasons to  not upgrade my Photoshop CS 5!!!

Click here to learn more. 

For you night Owls....

This is just a quick shot that I took out in the garden last night. This is the Evening Primrose, a variety that only blooms at night! Starting around sundown the petals will open and stay open until first light in the morning, when it will close back up for the day. Special thanks to my wife for growing such beautiful flowers! 

  Tech info:  Nikon D300, 105 2.8 Macro, 5 sec. at f22.

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Beachcomber....

It's been a month or so since we came back from Florida, and I'm ready to go back!! We had so much fun shooting the birds down there, and the weather was so nice..... I'm posting this picture of a shorebird because I personally like it, not because it is a technical masterpiece. To me it captures the essence and feel of the rhythm of the shore life. The ebb and flow of the waves, the antics of the birds who depend on the beach for their survival. I like the way the bird is bathed in morning light, while the waves in the background are the cool blue of early morning shadows.

Tech Info:  Nikon D300, 70-200 f2.8, ISO 1600 , 1/250th at f9 . (Click on the pic for a larger look.)

Old and New at Cornell Plantations

I had a chance to visit the Cornell Plantations at Cornell University earlier this week. The gardens there are gorgeous at this time of year, but I think I was about a week too early this year. And what flowers were blooming looked like the heavy frost had gotten to them. But what caught my eye was the stark contrast between the older Lewis building (below) and the new structure that was completed just last year. The Lewis building resembles an old English cottage with plenty of charm, while the new building (to me) looks totally out of place. The two buildings are right next to each other, but they are worlds apart! (click photos to enlarge)

I don't know what they were thinking, but probably someone with deep pockets had something to say about it. I'm hoping that I will eventually warm up to the place, but it just seems like such a cold austere building with no personality that it seems out of place. Maybe if I donated 20 mil or so, they would build one to my taste???

One Crappy Day.....

We're on our way home today! We left Fort Myers at 6:45 this morning, and we have been in airports all day. It's now almost 7 pm and we'll probably get stuck in Newark or Philly tonight. This is not the way to end a great vacation!   So i will end with a photo.... this is Bonita Beach looking south towards Naples. This is the view out our back door....

More from Florida....

We're back at Naples Botanical gardens bright and early to take advantage of the morning light . Unfortunately, even the morning light is pretty bright! But this is where you need to improvise and use what you have at hand to help you get the shot! Once again, Lightroom can help you improve your final image if you get it mostly right in the camera.  

We used each other as diffusers and reflectors when we needed help with the light and we got some fairly good images. We hope you like them! (click on the images to open a full size picture) 

This picture above is the center of a Bromeliad, a large succulent that grows in this area. I thought the tiny blooms were the story in this image. The plant itself is about two foot in diameter, but these blossoms couldn't be more than a quarter inch diameter, if that. (click on the image for a bigger look) More to come... 

Indigestion.....

I was on the beach yesterday looking for some good compositions when I came upon this poor fellow. He let me get very close to him and I thought that he had injured himself somehow, because you can't normally get close to them without a fish in your hand! 

But as I watched him, he finally gave me a glimpse as to what his problem was. He began stretching his neck out and making a bit of a yakking sound and I could see just a glimpse of a fish in his gullet. He had swallowed a fish so big he couldn't get it all down his throat! It took him over half an hour to work it down his throat without choking himself!

Almost Missed It....

This little flower is a Lily, but it's the smallest one in the pond! I almost walked right by the little thing. If it wasn't for the spectacular color I may have never seen it. We were at Naples Botanical Gardens in Naples, Fl. The sun was high in the sky so conditions were not ideal, but sometimes you just have to deal with what you've got.Thank God for Lightroom! This was shot at 1/250th @ f10 and I had to do quite a bit of work to get an acceptable print. Some of the petals were too hot, so I had to brush them down a bit and I was using the 70-200, so this image has been cropped considerably. This is not the way I prefer to shoot, but sometimes you don't have a choice. More to come....

It's Not All Fun & Games, You Know.....

Been getting up before dawn for a week straight now, and it seems to be getting more difficult every day. But the rewards are worth it. I get to spend time in some beautiful places doing what I love to do! And I am lucky enough to share this time with my wife Mel, who is also a photographer. This picture was from the Naples Botanical Gardens, which I will cover in subsequent posts. 

Good Things Do Come In Small Packages!

The area we have been concentrating our photography on is called the Little Estero Pool. And it really is quite small, probably no more than 6 or 7 acres at the most. But what it lacks in size, it makes up for in sheer bird numbers! As the photo below shows, we never lacked for subjects at this place. We're going to try and get back here one more time before we have to head back home. More to come....