Dusting off this blog

Yes, I do remember this is here! So, it's been almost 2 years since I posted here. Some of that is due to the fact that for a time, I wasn't doing much of anything with my photography. I did go on a trip to Hawaii in 2013 and have some okay pictures from it. Then, next year I am going to Alaska again, so I hope to get a bunch of really nice ones from that. I did have a spell of little to no photographs. Mostly due to a bout of my depression issues getting bad. Now that I'm on the upswing from that, I am rededicating myself to working on my hobby and improving my skills. I have seem some improvement, but I still have a lot of issues I want to work through. Friday, I am attending my first meeting of the Southeastern Photographic Society, up in Atlanta. I'm really looking forward to that, where I hope to reach out to some fellow photographers to learn from them and get ideas and pointers. I am very excited! I may work up a post with some updates to photos I have done in my absence. Might as well, it might give me a chance to look back and pick out some of my better photographs. I hope to revive this blog!!

Just a random shot

On the way in to work this morning, the sunset was just so pretty that I had to turn around and take a few pictures. This really cannot show the colors well, but it's pretty dang nice!

Shooting raw...

Or, more accurately, editing raw. Holy crap, there is SO much more finicky stuff to do than I realized! It's great to have the control, but geeze it sure does make for a lot more work on the post-processing end!!!

I'm working with a stack of shots from a friend's recent wedding that I was conned asked to photograph. Despite being nervous as hell, I gave it a shot.

Well, so far the results haven't been too horrible. However, the mountain of pics to go through and edit is made that much more daunting because I shot them all in RAW format. I wanted to give myself every advantage I could, and I think it will be worth the blood, sweat and tears that I will inevitably shed to get there!

Just gotta drag myself through the mire of editing!!

Updates!

Yes, I live!!

And yes, the pic a day thing died. . . again. Apparently, I fail hard at doing anything once daily.

BUT! I do have pics to post!!

First, my very first IR photo ever.



Not too terrible, I think! I liked the color tint to it, so I kept it. I might play more with just greyscale later, but I think the color adds to it.


And, I FINALLY finished editing the pics from the Tennessee Aquarium trip for my birthday the other weekend. 116 were in the final cut and I really like them!

Enjoy!

I bought it

Yep, I bought the lens.

Nice things to come soon!!

Photo A Day: Attempt #2

Ok, so the last time I tried a photo a day for a month, it bombed. I just crapped out, not really putting my heart into it. Well, this time around, I've got new toys and I really want to put my effort behind it.

So, here's the plan. For the month of June, each day of each week (and partial week) will have a theme. I will try to take a photo every day that I'm happy enough with to post, with as little editing as possible - except for the first and last weeks, since they will require editing as a rule.

The breakdown is as follows:
June 1 -4: IR photos
June 5-11: Macro
June 12-18: Animals
June 19-25: Texture
June 26-30: Black & White/High contrast photos

I think that having a theme every week will help me focus more. I'm toying with the idea of making it into a theme every day of the week, and just have those themes repeat, but until I decide for certain, it'll be theme week.

Fingers crossed I can keep it up!!

Oh my, yes.

Oh yeah. Good days for me. I am getting my new camera! Digital Rebel T3i.

I am also very close to ordering a new lens. Must juggle a couple things to justify it, but it's not that expensive, so I might be able to.