Why Not A Blog 6

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Blog 5 is now complete,, well just too long, so,, time to start Blog 6.

On sunday I had a Western Digital complete Meltdown fail, the local repair shop could not even save any images.. which is exactly why you always run dual separate external drives as a backup. This should be an absolute must.

Not a bad Idea to back up on the cloud, I have a personal website that I can store pictures up.

As such, I was going thru some of my older drives, and re-harvesting. Re-harvesting is when you find old nuggets of pictures you passed over the first time, or decide that your editing skills have improved, and have another go on a keeper. Can be real productive. Plus, you can see how much you have improved from say 5 years ago. You might have the reaction of wow,, what a lot of stinkers. A good exercise no matter what.

 

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ugh,, hours later, 2012 75% rebuilt on the new drive, and still have about 1/2 year of 2011. That is the problem with these huge hard drives, when they fail, its a lot of data to restore.

 

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2012 fully recovered to dual drives, now onto 2011,, I think that in about 1 more day all photos will be back to the dual external drive coverage. So, only 3 days of copying to fully recover the drive.

 

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such a blast,, I went thru my photos of edited photos. I have a three layer system. layer 1 is the origninal file sets, then a set of phots which are edits of the sources, and then the third layer of the portfolio selections from the edited files. I am thinking of adding a fourth layer for the say top 500.

Occassionally, have to go thru the layers, pull photos up thru the layers, or as I like to call it harvesting shots.

Another option is to re-edit previous winners, as your editing skills improve, you will be able to improve the overall image.

 

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I was out last night doing some city scape photos, and was quite pleased with the ISO 1600 performance of the D800, really don't see any night difference between my D700 and D800. When my wife shops, gives me a nice couple of hours to walk around looking for subjects.

 

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finnally got down to the basement for some printing, I am getting kinda stuck on the 13x19 prints, pictures just seem to small now at 8x11, 11x14 is very nice, and perhaps works for 99% of the shots, but its amazing, when you push the the photo up to 13x19 which is the maximum size for my home printers.

As mentioned in this post, I create layers of pictures. Layer 1 is the original source file. Layer 2 is what I call a set of edited folders. I started at folder 1, and currently am at folder 55. I keep a folder active for about 2 months, before the size of the folder becomes too large, then I create the next edit folder. Layer 3 are the portfolio layer, and finally Layer 4 is just my current print queue - pictures that will get printed at some time, because no way would or should I print my whole portfolio.

 

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finnally got to lenscrafter for those big boxes of lens cleaning tissue. I have found the lenscrafter tissue best deal and just the right fiber mix to clean up the lens without leaving lint. I sometimes forget this simple step of getting ready for taking some shots, but really good common sense. Why add additional dust to the image.

 

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nice, got to enjoy a few hours this morning taking some photos, I had my target locations, but still ended up pulling off the road 4 times along the way.

I think that one has to be scanning looking, looking, and then even when you go pass, then turn around and take some photos.

 

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got to love Black Friday as a photographer, I bought my yearly external harddrive purchase at half price, and better yet, got a 32 G Extreme SD card for 17 dollars!

I upped my D800 memory to 2 32 G cards for 64G of space. I find that that is plenty of memory, I can shoot like crazy all day, or even all weekend without worrying about filling up cards. I love that I no longer have to carry extra cards like the single slot 8G or even 4G days. To go from 4G to 64G is awesome even with the image size taking now 3X the space.

 

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So,, I have begun watching the Great Courses class on Photography, by the National Geographic guy

Overall, well done, Any new to photography would greatly benefit. The first disk for me was too basic, but as he demos his use of light and composition thoughts in later disks, my persona interest was high. Anyone new to SLRs will benefit greatly from disk 1, and all will benefit on the rest of the material.

He is a major advocate of the use of soft light, and a hand held light box on the flash unit. reflectors and diffusers on bright days.

No matter your skill level from beginner to expert, being exposed to another's person view on photography can be useful. Pick up the bits that interest you, including work flow, and expand your horizans.

 

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One of the major points that this course suggest is to not use Auto WhiteBalance. Turns out our brains automatically makes all types of light white, or as much as possible, and that is exactly what this function does also, but not as well as our brains.

However, if you leave it in Daylight mode, the sensor will more accurately capture the light as it really is, and one can always fix later. I am not sure how much of an effect this will be, and often I just use raw
anyway, which to me, should be the pure form ANYWAY, and I dial in the temperature in CS raw editior.

 

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Almost done with the Fundmentals of photography class. Better then watching some junk show on TV. Have you ever thought of how many dead bodies we have seen in our life time (between all the fake ones on TV shows, and in the News Outlets of tragic events or war).

anyway, the last DVD disk covers macro, low light, and more composition tips. He likes to go low and high on many of his shots. Of course on National Geographic, they have the budget to rent bucket trucks, helicopters, blimps, and to set up lots of photo traps.

Another luxury he has is a photo assistant. That extra hand, that can be so useful, but not for me. He almost always hire as local as a guide. Not a bad idea.

 

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darn,, ran out of Cyan, was on a real roll catching up on some of my printing. Off to Amazon for another reload of ink. I have been printing big lately, so use ink up fast, but I so love seeing the larger formats.

Of to the frame shop to frame up some of the shots. Glass so makes a difference in photos when you print on Matte Paper.

I am hanging at a high volume business for the 1st two weeks of December.. hope to pick up some xmas shoppers. Typically, I'll sell 1-2 shots for maybe 150 dollars or so, but hey, a bit here, a bit there. Plus, its a great excuse to frame up some fresh shots.

I always use hangings as an excuse to print/frame. I like to have a 2/3 new shots, 1/3 shots previous shots. The 1/3 is to remind people of who you are, and the 2/3 shows them that you are producing new shots.

Actually, I generate a bit more new material then lots of other local photographers. I like looking at the art stores of other local photographers, and you get to recognize there
work, and many of the shots are 20 or more years old.

That is the beauty of photography, can print a 20 year old shot, and can be still fresh.

 

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I put the 60 mm macro lens on my D800, and really enjoyed the feel and results of this lens. I bought a couple other options, but left the 60 mm on the whole hike. just enough tele, and I just stepped back further for some shots, but such a sharp lens. I have the 60mm 2.8D version. (I prefer still the non G versions).

 

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well, I think this blog is reached its scroll down limit, wish they put the newest entry on top, takes too much for people to always have to scroll down, so,, now on to Blog 7. Who knows if anyone follows these.