Life of a Disorganized Photographer

A couple months back I posted a shot of a little store we spotted when we were staying in Newport Beach. You may remember I mentioned that I envisioned an image where the store was placed right on the beach. Soon after I did just that, but wasn’t entirely satisfied and never printed the image for class.

I have been avoiding complicated editing of late, but really wanted something slightly more complex for my last image of the semester- which is due tomorrow. I remembered the shop on the beach, and decided to use that, rather than creating something new. I opened the image and realized that I had done a TERRIBLE job of selecting and placing the store onto the beach. A few weeks after I had edited the photo, our class re-watched some terrific videos on the “select and mask” tool in Photoshop, and my skills have improved since then.  Did I think to re-select the image to place on the beach? No! Instead I spent 4 hours with a sore arm cleaning it up and fixing it!

And then- the external hard drive sort of died.

Long story short- I got a new drive- and the old one miraculously came back to life after a day of angst and turmoil (which included realizing I had left my tripod in California- it’s been a stressful couple weeks!). I finally got the image back and saved it in three places. And a new tripod has been ordered.

And now I wish I had thought to add a dog- or birds! Someday. . .

MelindaLeave a comment

Vulture Mine

Another outing with my photo group- this time close to home!

We visited the Vulture Mine outside Wickenberg and enjoyed wandering around the old ghost town taking photos. Gold was discovered there in 1863 by Henry Wickenberg, who started the mining operation. Eventually a town of 5,000 grew up around the mine, which became the most productive gold mine in Arizona history. It was shut down in 1942 by the government, but is now owned by a private corporation and is open for tours.

 

Melinda1 Comment

3:10 to Yuma

The 3:10 to Yuma was headed to the Yuma Territorial Prison, as were we the day after we toured Castle Dome. It is now a museum- a good one. You can see the cells and learn about the notable prisoners and administrators- and gain insights into Arizona history.

An archway leading into the locked area:

At first it almost looks like a church window- but it’s a view through a cell. In person, there are NO similarities to a church!

Melinda1 Comment

Luminarista

Over the years I have bought quite a few plug-ins for Photoshop, which I use fairly often- but not without a lot of tweaking in Lightroom and Photoshop as well. In our photo class, it is not uncommon to use well over twenty layers to craft the final image. I jumped right in when I joined- and have become used to this style of editing.

But. . . I have been having some arm and shoulder issues since August, and have been told by the chiropractor and doctor to cut back on the computer (I haven’t mentioned to them how much time I spend texting. . .). Since my two retirement hobbies (genealogy as well as photography) involve LOTS of computer time (like all day long. . .), I have tried to change my habits. I discovered propping my laptop or tablet against my legs and RECLINING is a fairly pain-free way to do go through family trees and compare DNA matches and that texting via voice works well- but nothing was working for photo editing.

Then I started playing with Luminar, which I had but had not really used much until recently. For the last month, I have been editing at my computer using Lightroom, then going into Photoshop if I need to clone something out- and then going into Luminar for the rest. I love their presets, which I can modify with sliders- and then I’m done! I’ve upgraded to their 2018 version, which is even better!

The photo below was taken at Castle Dome. I just loved this little tableau- the aprons hung by the counter. It reminds me of Lonnie’s grandmother’s farmhouse. I spent longer than I’ve been doing in Photoshop- I had to clone some blown out areas in the curtains (only 5-10 minutes). But then I took it into Luminar and used one of their presets as a basis for this edit. What took the most time was deciding which preset to use.

And because I can’t leave well enough alone, here’s a toned black and white (just done in Lightroom with a one click preset I created years ago) for another look.

 

Melinda1 Comment

Desert Dust

Castle Dome Road seems longer than it is, especially for us city slickers in our shiny cars! Every time a car drove by as we were pulled over taking photos, a dust cloud lingered long after the car disappeared. On the way back out to the main highway, I decided it was a photo op and shot this through the windshield.

MelindaLeave a comment

Bottled Up

Lonnie and I went with my photo group to Yuma for a couple days last week. On the way we stopped at Castle Dome, an area filled with old mining cabins and buildings-a photographer’s delight!

Here’s a “found still life”- old bottles on display. I don’t think there was a right angle to be found in this old ghost town- so I gave up trying to straighten anything but the door in this image!

 

MelindaLeave a comment