It's done! My newly created, newly redesigned website is live and hosted by Wix.com; no more trying to make do with a GoDaddy website.
The differences in building a website with each host is like night and day. While I always struggled to make things look good on GoDaddy, Wix made everything simple and easy to do. They even automatically created a mobile version of my site. Now, admittedly I don't have everything complete; images need captioning, SEO needs setting up, and likely several other different little tweaks will get made; but the main thing is the site is now live and much improved.
One other thing that I am pondering is how best to proceed with this blog. Currently it is still being hosted on Blogger and is "mirrored" on my website via the use of a Blogger app. But the thing is, the app doesn't look that great. If I can't give it a more polished look I may look into setting up my custom domain in the Blogger settings and hosting the blog from my website.
Whatever I choose to do next, I hope you stay tuned and join me as I push forward with my new and improved web presence. I also have plans to offer a storefront to allow the easy purchase of prints. The future is definitely looking better, in many ways.
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Monday, February 13, 2017
Change, change, change
I can never make my mind up as to whether change is a good or bad thing. This is not helped any by there seeming to be so many (albeit small) changes I've needed to address lately.
Chief among them is that I have recently overhauled my image editing processes. This has been a somewhat, drawn out process but I'm glad to move on from doing everything in Lightroom. I'd have to say a big contributor to this has been my acquisition of the Nik Collection; and my getting around to fully exploring it. Now instead of making a lot of edits directly in Lightroom, I am using Dfine for noise reduction and Sharpening Pro (output) for final sharpening. These two tools are miles ahead of the adjustments within Lightroom and the resulting images are much improved. And on the subject of Lightroom; it has a weird habit of skewing the colors when importing NEF RAW files from my cameras. Testing out the different Camera Calibration settings certainly pays off and using the Camera Standard setting gives my more vibrant (and red) reds. No more orange tinted reds!
Oh, and while on the subject of the Nik Collection, I have to mention Silver Efex Pro! I am loving the B/W conversions I can do with the software. I've even created my own custom preset so I can quickly replicate the look across any image. In my opinion it is the best B/W convertor available.
The other big change is concerning my online presence, as GoDaddy has completely changed their website building software and "obsoleted" my website. Now I know that I need to redesign and update my website but I do not like their new software, which is clunky and not the most intuitive. Of course, I already have a sore spot where they're concerned and their poor Mac support; hence why this blog is no longer hosted on their domain. So, I'm now looking into alternate hosts and platforms to start fresh and bring my website and blog back together. I'm also no longer considering a free solution as, unsurprisingly, you do get what you pay for.
I can't really talk about image editing and workflow changes without providing some samples, so here are a couple of images from my recent trip to Pikes Peak in Colorado. Regular visitors to my blog will recognize them, as I did post the color image previously; albeit with my "old" image editing workflow settings. Hopefully you can see the changes in the finished image.
And here 's the same image after running it through Silver Efex Pro and my custom preset.
Chief among them is that I have recently overhauled my image editing processes. This has been a somewhat, drawn out process but I'm glad to move on from doing everything in Lightroom. I'd have to say a big contributor to this has been my acquisition of the Nik Collection; and my getting around to fully exploring it. Now instead of making a lot of edits directly in Lightroom, I am using Dfine for noise reduction and Sharpening Pro (output) for final sharpening. These two tools are miles ahead of the adjustments within Lightroom and the resulting images are much improved. And on the subject of Lightroom; it has a weird habit of skewing the colors when importing NEF RAW files from my cameras. Testing out the different Camera Calibration settings certainly pays off and using the Camera Standard setting gives my more vibrant (and red) reds. No more orange tinted reds!
Oh, and while on the subject of the Nik Collection, I have to mention Silver Efex Pro! I am loving the B/W conversions I can do with the software. I've even created my own custom preset so I can quickly replicate the look across any image. In my opinion it is the best B/W convertor available.
The other big change is concerning my online presence, as GoDaddy has completely changed their website building software and "obsoleted" my website. Now I know that I need to redesign and update my website but I do not like their new software, which is clunky and not the most intuitive. Of course, I already have a sore spot where they're concerned and their poor Mac support; hence why this blog is no longer hosted on their domain. So, I'm now looking into alternate hosts and platforms to start fresh and bring my website and blog back together. I'm also no longer considering a free solution as, unsurprisingly, you do get what you pay for.
I can't really talk about image editing and workflow changes without providing some samples, so here are a couple of images from my recent trip to Pikes Peak in Colorado. Regular visitors to my blog will recognize them, as I did post the color image previously; albeit with my "old" image editing workflow settings. Hopefully you can see the changes in the finished image.
And here 's the same image after running it through Silver Efex Pro and my custom preset.
Sunday, January 8, 2017
Traveling more
While 2016 has been a year of change for most people, for me it has provided me the opportunities to travel more. Regular readers will already know of my recent vehicle change to a Ford F150, which with our 16ft travel trailer, has provided a home base for several camping trips.
June saw us camping for a few days at the Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Oklahoma. And while I did not take a lot of photographs, I did enjoy the chance to escape the "rat race" and watch the sunsets over the lake while walking my dogs.
August saw us off to Colorado Springs for a long weekend; primarily to visit the Tiny House Jamboree. But it also provided an opportunity to visit the popular attraction of Pikes Peak. The views while driving up (and down) Pikes Peak were amazing and the summit provided some great views . While here I did take a 360 panorama but for some still unknown (to me) reason, I have not been able (yet) to process it successfully and get all the elements to align correctly.
December saw us off to spend a long weekend at Beavers Bend near Broken Bow, OK. It was a great change of pace to spend not only my birthday, but also the new year away from the "rat race". And while it may not have been the most photogenic of locations, I still enjoyed wandering around, either walking my dogs, or carrying my camera to see what I could find. Was also great to experience a selection of different visitors to our camp site: crows, squirrels, woodpeckers, raccoons. And to also spot some deer in the distance while hiking one of the trails; although Jax thought he was up to the task of hunting down a full grown deer! And while he wasn't able to go off in pursuit, he did manage to scare them off with his "battle cry".
I still need to work more on balancing my personal time and my photography time. Currently I'm still not spending as much time with my camera and photography as I would like but 2017 should see a resurgence of my work, as I make a greater effort to shake off my creative blocks and my technology burn out. Hopefully I can also shake off the carpal tunnel issues I've been suffering lately too.
June saw us camping for a few days at the Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Oklahoma. And while I did not take a lot of photographs, I did enjoy the chance to escape the "rat race" and watch the sunsets over the lake while walking my dogs.
August saw us off to Colorado Springs for a long weekend; primarily to visit the Tiny House Jamboree. But it also provided an opportunity to visit the popular attraction of Pikes Peak. The views while driving up (and down) Pikes Peak were amazing and the summit provided some great views . While here I did take a 360 panorama but for some still unknown (to me) reason, I have not been able (yet) to process it successfully and get all the elements to align correctly.
December saw us off to spend a long weekend at Beavers Bend near Broken Bow, OK. It was a great change of pace to spend not only my birthday, but also the new year away from the "rat race". And while it may not have been the most photogenic of locations, I still enjoyed wandering around, either walking my dogs, or carrying my camera to see what I could find. Was also great to experience a selection of different visitors to our camp site: crows, squirrels, woodpeckers, raccoons. And to also spot some deer in the distance while hiking one of the trails; although Jax thought he was up to the task of hunting down a full grown deer! And while he wasn't able to go off in pursuit, he did manage to scare them off with his "battle cry".
I still need to work more on balancing my personal time and my photography time. Currently I'm still not spending as much time with my camera and photography as I would like but 2017 should see a resurgence of my work, as I make a greater effort to shake off my creative blocks and my technology burn out. Hopefully I can also shake off the carpal tunnel issues I've been suffering lately too.
Sunday, September 18, 2016
Some things change; other things stay the same
There have been a lot of changes (and some not so much) since my last blog post; however long ago it was.
First and foremost (as it's the largest change in size) I traded in my Subaru for a Ford F150 pick-up truck. This is primarily to provide us with a decent tow vehicle for our camping trailer; which enabled us to spend a week in Colorado (near Colorado Springs) and provided me an opportunity to visit Pikes Peak and the spectacular views from the summit.
It also provided me with a great photo platform for a visit to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, here in Oklahoma. To me this is a wonderful location to escape the "noise" of civilization and unwind. When there's no vehicles driving down the gravel roads, all you hear is the sound of nature, mainly just the wind. You might be wondering just what I meant about the truck being a great photo platform; well that has to do with the local inhabitants of the prairie preserve, the bison heard. Jumping in the truck bed gives a great elevated vantage point that also prevents any errant bison from getting too close to me; a great safety feature.
The above is a 180 panorama I took from a scenic outlook spot with a 35mm lens (50mm effective). And I have to say that the rolling hills so remind me of parts of Dartmoor National Park in England, which is an all time favorite location of mine, that I grew up visiting as often as i could. Colorado helped to provide me a renewed taste of rocky and elevated terrain, something that's pretty lacking in Oklahoma. And I certainly intend to start traveling more to interesting locations.
Okay, back to the bison. For my photos of them I broke out an old Nikkor 300mm manual focus lens I have. And here lies a few discoveries: 1. I'm seriously out of practice using a manual focus lens, especially on moving targets and 2. the manual focus system on the Nikon D2X is not that great for moving targets. It uses a range-finder style indicator to show when you are in focus but the focus target is in the center of the viewfinder, so focusing and then recomposing provides plenty of time for the subject to move; I so miss the split focus indicator on my old manual focus cameras, so much easier to use and didn't require you to "centrally focus". Anyway, it unfortunately meant, as I found out later, that most of my photos are a little soft on focus, or off by a lot.
Now for the things that haven't changed. I'm still spending 8 hours a day in front of a computer for my "other job" and have lost my desire to spend long periods in front of a computer when I am away from the office. Unfortunately that has seriously effected my photography as, shooting digital photos, you have to do everything on a computer. Suffering from technology burnout is not conducive to being a photographer. Maybe I need to step away from digital and go back to film for a while, and have the photo lab do all the work for me. That way all I would need to do is any additional editing and sorting.
Whatever I decide to do, something will need to change so I stand a chance to recover my passion and drive for photography.
First and foremost (as it's the largest change in size) I traded in my Subaru for a Ford F150 pick-up truck. This is primarily to provide us with a decent tow vehicle for our camping trailer; which enabled us to spend a week in Colorado (near Colorado Springs) and provided me an opportunity to visit Pikes Peak and the spectacular views from the summit.
It also provided me with a great photo platform for a visit to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, here in Oklahoma. To me this is a wonderful location to escape the "noise" of civilization and unwind. When there's no vehicles driving down the gravel roads, all you hear is the sound of nature, mainly just the wind. You might be wondering just what I meant about the truck being a great photo platform; well that has to do with the local inhabitants of the prairie preserve, the bison heard. Jumping in the truck bed gives a great elevated vantage point that also prevents any errant bison from getting too close to me; a great safety feature.
The above is a 180 panorama I took from a scenic outlook spot with a 35mm lens (50mm effective). And I have to say that the rolling hills so remind me of parts of Dartmoor National Park in England, which is an all time favorite location of mine, that I grew up visiting as often as i could. Colorado helped to provide me a renewed taste of rocky and elevated terrain, something that's pretty lacking in Oklahoma. And I certainly intend to start traveling more to interesting locations.
Okay, back to the bison. For my photos of them I broke out an old Nikkor 300mm manual focus lens I have. And here lies a few discoveries: 1. I'm seriously out of practice using a manual focus lens, especially on moving targets and 2. the manual focus system on the Nikon D2X is not that great for moving targets. It uses a range-finder style indicator to show when you are in focus but the focus target is in the center of the viewfinder, so focusing and then recomposing provides plenty of time for the subject to move; I so miss the split focus indicator on my old manual focus cameras, so much easier to use and didn't require you to "centrally focus". Anyway, it unfortunately meant, as I found out later, that most of my photos are a little soft on focus, or off by a lot.
Now for the things that haven't changed. I'm still spending 8 hours a day in front of a computer for my "other job" and have lost my desire to spend long periods in front of a computer when I am away from the office. Unfortunately that has seriously effected my photography as, shooting digital photos, you have to do everything on a computer. Suffering from technology burnout is not conducive to being a photographer. Maybe I need to step away from digital and go back to film for a while, and have the photo lab do all the work for me. That way all I would need to do is any additional editing and sorting.
Whatever I decide to do, something will need to change so I stand a chance to recover my passion and drive for photography.
Sunday, May 1, 2016
Visit to Robber's Cave State Park
I recently started what could be a long running project, visiting and photographing National Parks and State Parks; starting off in Oklahoma, my “home” state. Not the I have visited many yet, in fact, this recent trip to Robber’s Cave was my inaugural trip. For anyone interested in visiting, you can find out a lot of information on the Robber’s Cave page of the TravelOK website here: http://www.travelok.com/listings/view.profile/id.6415
As it turned out, weather affected things somewhat, as there was rain and storms moving through the area as we were traveling to the park. In fact, for a while I was not sure if we would be doing much more than holing up in the cabin we had rented for the entirety of our 2 day stay. Luckily, the morning after our arrival was a lot drier as the weather front had moved away. It was still damp from the previous day’s storms but it was not actively raining anymore.
My plans were not set in stone but I was wanting to take some 180 and 360 panoramic shots as well as some HDR/regular landscape and detail shots; which is pretty much what I did. The climb up to the cave was interesting as the ground was still a little wet and the rocks were slick in spots, plus I was carrying my backpack of camera gear and a large tripod strapped to the side. Once I reached the summit of the climb and neared the cave entrance I was greeted with nice panoramic views of the surrounding area. And one of the biggest things I had noted was how clear the air was here; moss and lichen were everywhere. Trees and rocks were covered, creating fascinating textures and patterns.
Now on to the photographs.
Picture 1 is a 180 panorama of the actual cave. I took this so that I could capture the entirety of the cave entrance without having to use an ultra-wide lens, and subsequent image distortion.
Picture 2 is a simple landscape shot using an 8mm full-frame fish eye lens and is looking out from near the cave, out over the valley.
Pictures 3, 4 and 5 are closer detail shots of the patterns and textures the mosses and lichens were making.
Picture 6 is from a HDR bracket set of the Devil’s Slide feature below the cave.
I also took a HDR bracket set 360 panorama, which due to viewing issues will be posted to my 360cities account. It is not a full 360/180 circular panorama as I didn’t include a zenith and nadir shot but it is still a great view of the cave and surrounding area.
As it turned out, weather affected things somewhat, as there was rain and storms moving through the area as we were traveling to the park. In fact, for a while I was not sure if we would be doing much more than holing up in the cabin we had rented for the entirety of our 2 day stay. Luckily, the morning after our arrival was a lot drier as the weather front had moved away. It was still damp from the previous day’s storms but it was not actively raining anymore.
My plans were not set in stone but I was wanting to take some 180 and 360 panoramic shots as well as some HDR/regular landscape and detail shots; which is pretty much what I did. The climb up to the cave was interesting as the ground was still a little wet and the rocks were slick in spots, plus I was carrying my backpack of camera gear and a large tripod strapped to the side. Once I reached the summit of the climb and neared the cave entrance I was greeted with nice panoramic views of the surrounding area. And one of the biggest things I had noted was how clear the air was here; moss and lichen were everywhere. Trees and rocks were covered, creating fascinating textures and patterns.
Now on to the photographs.
Picture 1 is a 180 panorama of the actual cave. I took this so that I could capture the entirety of the cave entrance without having to use an ultra-wide lens, and subsequent image distortion.
Picture 2 is a simple landscape shot using an 8mm full-frame fish eye lens and is looking out from near the cave, out over the valley.
Pictures 3, 4 and 5 are closer detail shots of the patterns and textures the mosses and lichens were making.
Picture 6 is from a HDR bracket set of the Devil’s Slide feature below the cave.
I also took a HDR bracket set 360 panorama, which due to viewing issues will be posted to my 360cities account. It is not a full 360/180 circular panorama as I didn’t include a zenith and nadir shot but it is still a great view of the cave and surrounding area.
Friday, January 29, 2016
Still going!
After taking some time off from photography I want to reassure all of my readers that I am still alive and well. It's a new year and I am starting to put together some plans for photo projects, primarily for panoramic and HDR (and maybe panoramic HDR's) landscapes and cityscapes.
One thing I did pick up to assist me on these new endeavors is a Garmin GPS so I can get accurate location details for geotagging my work. This is especially important for the panoramas as there is the possibility of having them featured on Google Earth. Some may say that using a cellphone app should be sufficient but I found that there are some major downsides to this when compared to using a "true" GPS device.
I haven't set any specific journey times as yet but will certainly keep you all informed as I get my plans solidified.
Stay tuned for me to come...
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Time and Panoramas
First off, where has the time gone? I can't believe how long it's been since I last wrote anything here; life just seemed to keep getting between me, photography and this blog.
I've kept myself pretty busy though and am delving into the world of panoramic photography. Helped out, along the way, by my purchase of a Nodal Ninja head, rotator and leveling head; then topped off by finding a great deal on a "like new" 8mm fish-eye lens. Not that I won't be experimenting with some longer lenses to produce some "giga-pixel" style partial panoramas. Add in some plans to experiment with some HDR work too and I have enough experimenting to keep me busy for quite some time.
Along the way I did run into some obstacles, not that they weren't fixable, but all they did as slow me a little. The first was the need to learn yet more software - plus, should I keep working with open-source (free) software or find the money for a commercial package. I'm currently still using Hugin on my Mac for stitching the panos together and other than a few issues to overcome (wonky control points, zeniths and/or nadirs not stitching, wonky horizons) it's doing a pretty great job of pulling the shots together.
Of course, one big issue with panoramic shots, especially the circular 360 ones is how best to display them. If you just post them "flat" on a webpage they look weird and distorted. And as not everyone has access to a dedicated viewer; I signed up to try out a couple of dedicated hosting sites. Long story short, due to some issues with sizing and format, all my panoramic work to date is posted to my profile on www.360cities.net and as they offer the option for embed codes, I hopefully will be able to share them here. If not, I do know how to convert them to Google Photospheres which I believe can be self contained.
Path To Linnaeus Teaching Gardens
Here is an embedded version of one of my latest panoramas, which includes a link to my profile on 360cities.
While on the subject of 360cities, it's pretty nice having the ability to geo-tag the photos, and have the ability to have them featured on Google Earth. This did, however, throw a challenge my way. I very soon found the shortcomings of the GPS feature on my cellphone (and all cellphones) - they're not very accurate. A lot of it comes down to the app you use, so after a lot of testing I found one that can locate me to within 10 feet of my actual position; or at least it was doing that in my tests. The real challenge will be accurately tag my position when I'm off in the middle of nowhere, especially when there's no cellphone signal. Did you know that cellphones use their cell tower triangulation signal to boost the GPS accuracy? I didn't until just recently. If push comes to shove I will just look to picking up a full blown, standalone GPS unit as I know there are locations I want to photograph that have little to no cellphone signal (such as parts of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state).
Guess I should sign off for now, get some sleep, then plan my next photo session. Then test out my updated GPS app for geo-tagging the shots and get some more panoramas in my profile.
I've kept myself pretty busy though and am delving into the world of panoramic photography. Helped out, along the way, by my purchase of a Nodal Ninja head, rotator and leveling head; then topped off by finding a great deal on a "like new" 8mm fish-eye lens. Not that I won't be experimenting with some longer lenses to produce some "giga-pixel" style partial panoramas. Add in some plans to experiment with some HDR work too and I have enough experimenting to keep me busy for quite some time.
Along the way I did run into some obstacles, not that they weren't fixable, but all they did as slow me a little. The first was the need to learn yet more software - plus, should I keep working with open-source (free) software or find the money for a commercial package. I'm currently still using Hugin on my Mac for stitching the panos together and other than a few issues to overcome (wonky control points, zeniths and/or nadirs not stitching, wonky horizons) it's doing a pretty great job of pulling the shots together.
Of course, one big issue with panoramic shots, especially the circular 360 ones is how best to display them. If you just post them "flat" on a webpage they look weird and distorted. And as not everyone has access to a dedicated viewer; I signed up to try out a couple of dedicated hosting sites. Long story short, due to some issues with sizing and format, all my panoramic work to date is posted to my profile on www.360cities.net and as they offer the option for embed codes, I hopefully will be able to share them here. If not, I do know how to convert them to Google Photospheres which I believe can be self contained.
Path To Linnaeus Teaching Gardens
Here is an embedded version of one of my latest panoramas, which includes a link to my profile on 360cities.
While on the subject of 360cities, it's pretty nice having the ability to geo-tag the photos, and have the ability to have them featured on Google Earth. This did, however, throw a challenge my way. I very soon found the shortcomings of the GPS feature on my cellphone (and all cellphones) - they're not very accurate. A lot of it comes down to the app you use, so after a lot of testing I found one that can locate me to within 10 feet of my actual position; or at least it was doing that in my tests. The real challenge will be accurately tag my position when I'm off in the middle of nowhere, especially when there's no cellphone signal. Did you know that cellphones use their cell tower triangulation signal to boost the GPS accuracy? I didn't until just recently. If push comes to shove I will just look to picking up a full blown, standalone GPS unit as I know there are locations I want to photograph that have little to no cellphone signal (such as parts of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state).
Guess I should sign off for now, get some sleep, then plan my next photo session. Then test out my updated GPS app for geo-tagging the shots and get some more panoramas in my profile.
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