Blue Mesa

This is one of the most amazing areas of Petrified Forest National Park- the gradations of color are gorgeous! To get this shot, I had to fight bad knees and high winds as I set up my tripod in different positions along the trail- and just the trail at the top, mind you. I wish I had started this whole photography thing when I was younger!

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8 Degrees of Meghan Markle

My cousin is getting married on Saturday! We aren’t able to make the wedding, unfortunately, and actually will probably not be able to watch the ceremony live (we will be visiting our newest grandson, Caleb!)- but we wish her well!

Yes, I’m talking about THAT wedding!

One of the benefits of working on genealogy for almost 30 years is that you know who your ancestors are- so,  when I saw an article on my iPhone’s CNN app naming Capt. Christopher Hussey (one of the original proprietors of Nantucket Island) as an ancestor of Meghan Markle, I must have gasped out loud- Christopher Hussey is my ninth great grandfather!

Since then, I have researched Meghan’s ancestry in order to place her in our family tree. We are actually both descended from Christopher Hussey’s daughter Mary Hussey and her husband Christopher Page. This makes us eighth cousins once removed (8C1R in genealogy lingo).

Here’s a screenshot from my genealogy program:

I actually tend to add famous people to my tree whenever I find a connection- just for fun.  I can’t say that I’m descended from anyone famous (Lonnie is one up on me, because he has a Mayflower ancestor. . .), but I do share DNA with quite a few names you’d recognize (including several presidents, writers, Hollywood people, and . . . a serial killer).  You likely have famous relatives too- perhaps Meghan Markle!

BTW, the title of this blog refers to the Kevin Bacon Game (6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon), which was a fad about 20 years ago, in case you forgot. And, not to be a name dropper,  BUT- I’m only a few degrees away from Kevin Bacon himself (through marriage not DNA, alas).

Ok- back to photography . . .

Melinda3 Comments

In the Morning

We have been having extremely windy days recently! In fact, it was so windy that I couldn’t photograph flowers outside- so I propped this one in the window to get the best light I could. With the addition of three textures, I’m happy with the resulting image.

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Up to Speed

I remember taking this shot near Yuma, because I was attracted to the way the light was hitting the weeds at the lower left. But then when looking at the photo on the computer, it just seemed like another dusty, dry, shot of an unappealing landscape. It took me a couple years to get used to the harsh desert sunlight here, and this is one of those locations where I was fighting it all the way.

I decided this week to finally get up to speed on the major improvements that happened in Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw recently (specifically the addition of creative profiles to the basic panel). I was not a believer, because I have my usual workflow- and I didn’t see the point of changing. However, I watched tutorials by three of my go-to editing gurus, Matt Kloskowski, Blake Rudis, and Julieanne Kost and gave it a try. I was especially interested in what Blake had to say, because he never does much on the creative side with Camera Raw- he saves that for Photoshop and the plug-ins.

So. . . I used one of Matt K’s new Lightroom/ACR profiles (Crisp Warm) on this photo (plus some other Lightroom edits) and am pleased with the results. I like the way you can reduce the opacity of the profile, which I did here- and that the profiles don’t override the slider settings like presets do.  I also really like that you can access the same profiles in Camera Raw, which would allow me to use them in a layer in Photoshop and mask if I wanted. These changes haven’t rocked my world so far, but I can definitely see using this new feature.

 

 

 

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Not Even Close

It is finally Spring here in Prescott. The trees have leaves, our birds are building nests, flowers are in bloom, and cottonwood fluff is floating in the sky like snowflakes- playing havoc with everyone’s allergies. Our irises are blooming, but getting a satisfactory shot has been challenging. I tried several times and finally settled on this composition.  I took the image into Topaz Studio and ended up with a look that is not even close to my original image- but I like it better.


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