This is a building near downtown Tulsa. I loved the old red brick with white trim, the awning, the fire escape on the building behind. The blurred car was on purpose. I wanted a longer blur, but I didn’t have a tripod and this was the best I could do, holding my camera by hand.
All the photographers out there: Do you carry your camera with you all the time, just in case you see a great shot? What equipment do you take?
Well, here is some tech stuff for those of you who are interested. I just bought Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for importing and dealing with my pictures. If you didn’t know, I just bought (a few months ago) a Canon Digital Rebel XTI. This is a digital camera with a shutter and all of the ability to manually tweak the settings, just like my old film cameras with which I grew up.
Anyway, the new camera takes jpg images, if you want it to, or it will take the picture in RAW data format. Simply put, with a jpg, the camera makes all the decisions about white balance, lighting, etc. for you. When you set your camera up to take RAW data, it takes all of the information unfiltered – which is good because you have nothing filtered, but bad because you now need a program that has the ability to handle RAW data and provide a manageable filtration process.
Lightroom is that program and it is truly awesome. First of all, no matter how you tweak your RAW data, Lightroom never saves the changes as RAW data, so you never lose the original. When you get ready to make a jpg (or whatever) out of it, the program exports the changes to the desired format, but doesn’t touch the RAW. Very nice.
Also, it is attractive and fairly simple. In fact, Adobe has come out with a free upgrade to LR 1.1. I got 1.0 and the program suggested I download the upgrade which is a little nicer interface and some other tweaks.
I just found out that I can embed a copyright in the metadata associated with each picture. That was kinda cool, too.
Anyway, I got this gem of a program for an extreme discount at campustech.com. They sell software and stuff online for full time students at the student discount. I know, I am not a student. My wife, however, is a full time student right now. Besides that, she’s a teacher and qualifies that way, anyway.
If you are a student, this is a great online resource for you. You will have to scan an image of your student id and a paid receipt for your current semester and email that to them (or upload it or fax it… several ways to get it to them) to prove that you are a student.
RAW data knowledge and the suggestion to check out Lightroom: Timmy Brister. Thanks man.
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Mike Day
on Aug 10th, 2007
@ 9:16 pm:
Art–
Hope you are well. I continue to enjoy and appreciate 12 Witnesses. On another note, I understand the PGA is happening not too far from where you live. Did you see any of Tiger’s 63 today? Blessings!
Art Rogers
on Aug 10th, 2007
@ 10:20 pm:
Mike,
I was there on Tuesday and Thursday. I saw John Daly wrap up his round. Davis Love III, Vijay Sing, Mark Brooks, Tiger, Steve Elkington, and quite a few others. Pretty cool. Some great shots as well.
Rick Boyne
on Aug 10th, 2007
@ 10:43 pm:
Art,
I usually try to carry my camer at all times. In fact, it came in handy for me today. Check out my blog to see why.
Oh, I usually refer to myself as a picture-taker, not a photographer! ;-)
http://boyneblog.blogspot.com
http://wisbc.wordpress.com
(Formerly known as Nomad 4 God.)
Scott Gordon
on Aug 10th, 2007
@ 10:46 pm:
Art,
Man I’d be jealous if it wasn’t a sin :-) !
Art Rogers
on Aug 11th, 2007
@ 5:36 am:
Scott,
I’ll pray for you, brother. :)
Rick,
Nice shots. Hope you didn’t get stung.
Marty Duren
on Aug 11th, 2007
@ 12:16 pm:
Scott-
Don’t be jealous; by a Mac. Mine came pre-loaded with photo and movie software.
Art-
Don’t be jealous of my Mac.
Marty Duren
on Aug 11th, 2007
@ 12:17 pm:
Geez, “buy a Mac.”
Tim Dahl
on Aug 13th, 2007
@ 12:39 pm:
Gah! Now I’m really jealous of Marty!
*repents profusely for envying Marty’s Mac*
Tim
Steve Webel
on Aug 18th, 2007
@ 10:38 pm:
Not true. When using jpeg, it simply ‘locks in’ the settings that YOU set in the camera or the settings that YOU allow the camera to make for you by using one of the ‘auto’ modes.
There are actually quite a few pros switching back to jpeg as the benefits of RAW are usually exaggerated or overstated. It’s better to get things right ‘in-camera’ than it is to rely on the fall-back of ‘fixing it in post’.
Using jpeg makes me a better photographer!