The Adjustment Brush in Lightroom 3

Long time, no blog.  In fact, I've been struggling with finding a reason why to blog period.  I mean, I have a photostream, so why should I bother? Here's the new idea:  Recently, I upgraded to Lightroom 3 and I'm trying my best to understand the advanced capacities of the software.  In doing so, I'm pouring through old photos (previously thought of as lost) and trying to salvage them.

In the above photo, I added some punch to the clouds using the adjustment brush and increasing the exposure and contrast of the clouds and water without darkening the already-dark bridge.

Effect? Photo saved.  I also played with the saturation and vibrance a bit (which I feel is kind-of cheating, but whatever).

Cliffs of Monterosso al Mare, Italy

Cliffs of Cinque Terre, Italy
Originally uploaded by mizzoudavis

Haven't blogged in forever, so I'm jumping back in. It's not exactly a new years' resolution, but I'm hoping to start picking photos from my flickr stream and sharing them in this format. Also, I hope to get better at writing tags and descriptions. We see how that goes. I'm well aware that building dialogue requires making yourself available to dialogue, I'm just a bit lazy about it.

So, regarding this shot: the wife and I were leaving the village of Monterosso al Mare (one of the five villages of Cinque Terre), which is one of the most scenic places on the planet. This shot was taken just in front of the train station that would take us to Milan and from there home from our incredible honeymoon.

(F/11.0, 1/4 sec, 16mm, 100 ISO)

The many faces of Wilco

If you have a camera and a pet, you've no doubt punished the poor animal while trying out a new lens/perspective/flash/tripod.  This post is an ode to my faithful dog Wilco and the many faces he displays when the lens cap comes off.

Indifferent

Unamused

Ambivalent

Unconcerned

Wistful

Arch Grounds

I've had my Sony a230 for roughly six months now and finally got around to taking a stroll around the St. Louis Arch Grounds to take some shots.  For six years, I worked less than two blocks away from the arch and I never got tired of admiring it during my morning commute.  Its an astonishing piece of architecture.  It's dizzyingly tall and ridiculously photogenic. 

From every angle I stood, a new picture presented itself.  By the time I had finished, I had dozens of shots, almost all of which made me feel pretty good.  Figuring out which ones I liked the best posed somewhat of a challenge, but after some deliberation, I uploaded 11 to my August 2010 set.  Enjoy.

Twigs

Twigs
Originally uploaded by mizzoudavis

No post in a while... I've been busy and haven't dedicated the time I'd like to behind the lens. That said, I DID buy a new prime lens: the Sony SAL 16-105mm (it's really a super-prime lens). The most remarkable thing about the lens is its versatility to go from super wide angle to decent-telephoto. In doing this, however, I have had to sacrifice some minimum focusing distance. (Guess I'll have to buy a macro lens at some point in the future)...


At any rate, here's a shot of some weird things the wife bought. Even though it was taken in broad daylight, I added the harsh flash to get the shadows in the background. I also didn't retouch this in Lightroom at all (rare for me).

Line 'em up!

Our good friend Sarah had her 30th birthday party on Saturday... (not sure if you follow my blog Sarah, but if you do, happy birthday).

At some point in the night, bottle caps began to collect on this ledge near the coolers.  This picture was taken near the end of the night and definitely doesn't account for all the beers that were consumed during flip cup time!

Boston

June 20th?  Really?  That's the last time I've posted anything?  Well, let's cover some ground:

The wife and I went to Boston for the 4th of July.  We decided to get "wicked patriotic."

Among all of the touristy things we did, I was most geeked about seeing Fenway.  Which we did:

We also got to check out a very cool Iraq war memorial that consisted of a dog tag hanging for every service person lost in the current Iraq war.  It was very moving and very interesting.

That is all I've got today.  More to come soon.