“Eaten bread is soon forgotten.” — Thomas Fuller
“Good books don’t give up all their secrets at once.” — Stephen King
“Let your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.[ed]” — Nelson Mandela
“When eating fruit, remember who planted the tree; when drinking water, remember who dug the well.” — Vietnamese Proverb
Photographer Ben Moon and friends create a loving tribute to his dog and partner of fourteen years, Denali. If you are a dog lover or animal lover of any sort, I think you will have your heart strings tugged as you watch this beautiful video told from the dog’s point of view.
WARNING – You might need tissues!
“This Is Goodbye: In Memory of Denali”
This unfortunate Koala mum was hit by a car and needed emergency surgery. Her baby would literally not leave her side so the hospital allowed the joey, named Phantom, to cling to its mother during the surgical procedure.
Photos are from the site linked below
Many people fear sharks and have reason to do so if they are in areas where these creatures normally roam. One thing I like to keep in mind, however, is that it is their planet as well.
Below is a video of one of the largest great white sharks ever filmed. The filming crew nicknamed here Deep Blue. She is a magnificent specimen and dwarfs one of the boats. Her extra large size, as the video suggests, is because Deep Blue is pregnant. Another interesting hypothesis is that she may be fifty years old.
Published on Aug 11, 2014
“Deep Blue is one of the biggest great white sharks ever caught on film. Jaws Strikes Back, part of the Shark Week 2014 lineup, was filmed in partnership with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.”
“I had to remove knowledge to make room for belief.” — Immanuel Kant
“Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains.” — Democritus
“The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get the old ones out.” — Dee Hock
“History does not always repeat itself. Sometimes it just yells, ‘Can’t you remember anything I told you?’ and lets fly with a club.” — John W. Campbell Jr.
A couple of things up front…
Now that the preliminaries are out of the way, I want to make an important point. Once I decided to try my hand at becoming a more serious student of photography, all of my readings convinced me that I should be shooting in the RAW format. There seemed to be way more advantages than disadvantages.
Since my only camera was the A590 with only 8 Megapixels to offer, I was stuck in the JPEG (JPG) zone. I wanted to experiment with the RAW format and a slightly more advanced camera and thus I purchased the 12.1 Canon SX50 HS which has served me well for the last ten months.
Having decided to shoot more in the RAW format, I then needed the appropriate software to read, catalog and process those images. Along came the Adobe subscription plan for Lightroom (LR), Photoshop (PS) and other associated software for a subscription fee of approximately $10 USD per month. My path was clear. I began to learn LR and to work with RAW images.
But wait…what about all those JPGs I shot with my A590? Could any of those pictures be improved with LR? I know JPGs don’t have as much embedded data to call on, but surely I could make some improvements. Well, I am here to show you a few results. I will be the first to admit that the differences in post processing JPGs will not be as dramatic as with RAW images, there are some significant gains to be had.
Three years ago, I took my trusty little shooter (not the best term in this day and age) to the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus. Conditions were far less than ideal. The artificial lights were blaring every color when lit and often the arena was dark. Not only that, but elephants, co-stars of the show, are kind of a drab gray. I love elephants, but I have to call it as I see it.
In any event, I took my camera and did the best I could. Everyone who has followed photography knows the adage: “The best camera is the one you have with you.” and thus I was using my best camera that evening.
Below are several pictures I took that evening followed by the same picture processed in LR. Now remember what I said above. I am no expert at photography or post processing. I was, in my opinion, able to improve upon the original images using LR. You can decide for yourself. Just one note. The revised/improved images have been cropped so the picture may appear larger, but it is only because the crop has enlarged the remainder of the picture so that all photos are the same general size for posting on the website (+/-).
Are you following along?
This picture (below) is of the main entrance into the arena. Notice how dark the image is with lack of much detail in the corners.
Notice the colors in this revised pictures and how the details pop a bit more.
This performer riding the elephant wasn’t too bad a shot under these conditions, but that spotlight just to the right of the elephant’s foot is distracting as are those shiny lights above. There is no snap to the colors either.
Notice how the contrast is improved. The distracting elements have been edited and the picture is much more pleasing. Now remember, nobody is claiming these are wonderful pictures. These are from my “historical record” and I am just trying to improve them using LR even with the introduction of a bit more “noise” in the scene.
One of the problems I had in the darkened arena was shutter lag. So I often mis-timed the pictures. This picture was not framed correctly; too many distractions such as the trainer on the left and the objects in the bottom right. The overall color is dingy.
This is much improved with the crops, more appropriate color balance, etc.
Okay so you get the idea by now. No more narration just two more sets of before and after pictures. If anyone has any questions, post a comment and I will do my best to answer.
“I’ve learned… that when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.” — Andy Rooney
“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” — Haruki Murakami
“If you’re not enough before the gold medal, you won’t be enough with it.” — from the movie Cool Runnings
“Culture is roughly anything we do and the monkeys don’t.” — Lord Raglan
Jennifer Lucore, national champion pickleball player, offers her advice on the forehand volley. Of course, the first thing she emphasizes is to “get the ball in the court.”
Assuming the ready position with paddle held high and realizing that the ball is coming to the forehand while you are at the nonvolley zone line, these are the steps she advises one to use:
- Keep your eyes and head steady
- Align the face of the paddle with the ball early
- Adjust the paddle rotation in accord with the height of the ball in relation to the net
- Hit the ball well in front of you
- Propel the ball forward and rotate your shoulders through the ball to impart the power with trunk rotation
- Finish of the stroke is toward the opposite shoulder with a tight rotation; no wide, loopy rotation
- Maintain a firm wrist and keep the paddle head above the wrist in a cocked fashion.
There is a video on Jennifer Lucore’s website demonstrating the above steps and giving a bit more detail. You can view both at the link below:
“You don’t have to know exactly where you’re going to be headed somewhere great.” — Unknown
“Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.” — Francis Bacon
“You don’t always have to chop with the sword of truth. You can point with it too.” — Anne Lamott
“Normal people … believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet.” — Scott Adams
