6 Versions of Dianna in a Boat in the Everglades

I played with editing this photo. First, I tried a bleached-sunny look, following instructions I found on a site on the web. I don't particularly like this one:

Hmmmm . . . I like this one a tad more. After my usual raw edit, I changed this to Lab mode, boosted the color and lightness, then switched back to RGB, and added some more editing with Rad Lab.

Next, I just used an action called "Booster Baby."

Next, I dusted off an old action, Color Wash, and I liked this effect. If you're like me, you have a good stash of actions that just sit unused, moping and struggling with abandonment issues, in Photoshop.

This one was done in Rad Lab only, just brightening and adding some saturation:

And then for the simplest edit of all, just some edits in Raw:

Just for Fun. . . From Mexico Xel Ha

This bad boy is fun to mess with with different editing techniques:

The Birthday Tour: Part 3 Icelandic State Park

And this is a rare bit of wonderfulness in North Dakota: an honest to God, actual, real, beach. They're rare, and miles and miles apart (unless you think of Devil's Lake, which is a lake that seems to be slowly consuming the state, like something out of a grade B horror flick named something like "The Glob"). But this is in Icelandic State Park, and it's beautiful.

And there are walking trails! Just wandering through the woods, along some fields. Doug is stalking a monarch. The monarch population has been declining because of the use of herbicides to control milkweed. Apparently, the monarch really depends on the milkweed plant. So I guess Doug should grab this photo while he can.





And you know that little obsession I have about sRGB? And making sure that the photos I post are in this color space rather than RGB? Forget all that stuff I said about "convert" vs. assign. It turned out that the new "save for web" action I created did not have the "embed color space" box checked off, after my computer crash in March. That's all it was! I created a new action, and now, finally, I should have dependable sRGB posts.

Why is this important, you ask? Because web browser need the information to figure out how to interpet the colors in your photo. This means that after you carefully edit your photos, the browser will willy nilly interpret the color any old way it feels like. Unless you embed the color profile in sRGB, and then there's more of a chance that the right color information will be communicated to the browser. (But then there's still that problem of not all browsers being color managed. Will you ever listen Google Chrome?)

The Big Red Dog's Date with her Birth Control Plan

What a day! As I write this, Ruby is at the vet getting her reproduction capabilities nixed (spayed). And it seems to fitting that this should occur on a day when I opened the newspaper (you know--those print things) and saw that the federal health care plan is going to mandate that insurance companies cover women's birth control contraceptives, starting January, 2013! It's about time! The fact that men's Viagra is so routinely covered, but women's contraceptives are not, has really angered me over the years. Insurance companies have been able to duck this by claiming religious controversy. I suspect it's been a "convenient" and lucrative "moral position" and their part, and that they've been much more inclined to cater to their male stakeholders than to young women. But I digress. . . .

. . . Anyway, so Ruby is at the vet, and I'm anxious about this. She looked at me with her beautiful big eyes this morning and said, "Where's the food? Yo! Are you forgetting something near and dear to my heart? Tricks? Shall I do tricks for you? How about a handshake? Ummmm, let's go in the kitchen and get some food!" Apparently, we would get to fee her until tomorrow.

And then we pulled out the leash and led her to the car (translate, she practically dragged us to the car and leapt with joy into the back seat), and now she's probably under sedation. . . . so I'm pacing around, antsy, looking for ways to distract myself . . . . (I'm glad my children never needed their tonsils taken out, or. . . ummmmm. . . . needed to be fixed!)

So here are two versions of a shot of the Big Red Dog, and look how red--I mean, REALLY, really red she is in the second photo. The photo was taken with my new 20mm f2.8 lens at the dog park. The first photo is much more what she actually looks like to me.

The second version is one in which I used the command "convert to sRGB" from my working space of RGB in photoshop, and then ran an action that resizes and sharpens for web.

The first shot is one in which I used the command "assign to sRGB" and then ran the same action.

I don't get it. The "convert" command somehow loses the sRGB change, and results in a photo that is interpreted by the web any old which way, in whatever color space it feels like. And Wild Red it is.

But the "assign" command keeps the sRGB designation and successfully bosses the web around demanding that my instructions about the sRGB color space be followed. (But then again, Google Chrome and internet explorer are still not color managed and will play looser with color instructions; Safari and Firefox have much better color management capabilities.)





Other than all that, this shot is of Ruby at the dog park. She loves it! She's now gotten to go about four times, and still thinks its the Happiest Place on Earth (sorry Disney.) See the black dog taking a drink from rectangular Rubber Maid container? Ruby is a maniac with it; when she gets a chance at it, she manages to "dig" out all the water with her front paws, splashing any nearby humans, who then are at her beck and call to refill it from the drinking fountain. Apparently, other owners at the park are telling me their dogs are picking up her fiendish ways and are doing the same things to their dishes at home now. Sorry folks!

Sigh. Time to go pace around in the kitchen again and clean a closet. . . .

***** UPDATE * * * * *
Ruby is home and well and groggy and sleepy. I'm not sure yet if she's going to be trying to lick her stitches a lot, so we're taking a wait-and-see attitude about whether she need to wear the cone around her head. We actually got one of those inflatable ones. It's hard to see her like this; she's definitely uncomfortable, and for awhile she just laid in her crate and moaned :(

Hopefully the next two weeks will show a speedy recovery, and we'll see our little maniac back!

The Gutsy Petunia

We have a concrete patio in our yard, and this summer, we haven't exactly put a lot of effort into "beautifying" it. But there, growing from a small crack, is this gutsy little petunia that decided to take matters into its own hands:





This first shot was taken with my beloved Nikon 105 mm lens at iso 400; f/10; 160 ss.

And this second shot, just to compare, and with identical processing from RAW, was taken with my brand new Nikon 20 mm 2.8 at f.2; iso 100; 1000 ss.

Over The (Adobe) Bridge and back to Mexico

I'm reading a fascinating book right now, "Buddha's Brain," by Rick Hanson. The book is written by a psychologist who talks about how our brain benefits from contemplative practices, like mindfulness, or meditation, or brushing the dog. . . anything that activates our parasympathetic nervous system brings tremendous rewards in reducing stress and inducing a sense of happiness.

It turns out that mental activity has a greater direct influence over the autonomic nervous system (of which the parasympathetic nervous system is part), than any other system. When you stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, which you can do through mental activity, you can have "calming, soothing, healing ripples spread through your body, brain and mind."

And guess what! Most of the brain's mental activity is spent on nonverbal activities, such as processing mental pictures. All this is a fancy way of saying that imagery can be a powerful anchor for well-being. So if you're feeling stressed at work, imagining a peaceful scene. . . like in Mexico. . .can bring you all kinds of physical and emotional benefits!

So, fire up your Bridge program in Photoshop and head back to someplace wonderful, and bask in those neurotransmitters!

And what better way for me to do that than through a photo like this:

In March, while we were in Mexico, we went down into a cool cenote, and is was unbelievably peaceful and tranquil, even with bats flying overhead. And look at these two lovelies, Dianna and her soon-to-be sister-in-law, sweet, wonderful, Elizabeth:

I wasn't as brave as they were to climb down the rock to the water, but watching them splash and the play of light on the water was mesmerizing. . .

Photography in a cenote is a bit challenging. Flash would bounce against the water too much, but thanks to a greatly boosted ISO (6400), and noise reduction in Adobe Camera Raw, a rock to use as a tripod, I could still use an f/5.6 setting, and 1/30 shutter speed.

Angela & Doug Watercolor

Using the watercolor tutorial at this link, I took a photo of Doug and I and "watercolored" it. It was fun to play with, but there are other treatments that also incorporate watercolor brushes, and I think I might like that approach better. But guess what! I'm on theme!

Photo Editing LAB & Honey

Two versions of Doug. The first photo is a SOOC shot, converted from RAW to jpeg.

In this version, I selectively increased the exposure on Doug. Then I ran an action I created in which I convert to LAB mode, increase luminosity and color contrast, sharpen & edge mask for high frequency images (images that are generally considered not portraits, even though this does include Doug. It's when there are less smooth transitions and more abrupt and sharper transitions (which skin usually hopefully isn't.) High frequency treatment is good for city scenes, objects, etc, and I wanted to highlight the glass windows more in this shot.

I also then ran Jess's Honey action (thanks, Jess!) to both slightly mute and warm up the image a bit more.

Comparison SOOC & LAB mode editing

NEWSFLASH: I got very good, although sparse, news today. My son says that now the Navy is NOT sending him to Afghanistan! I don't know anything other than this note, as in whether he is still an alternate, whether he has to train in Kuwait. But I foresee another night of tears, this time those of relief.

But this was a very sobering experience for me. The war in Afghanistan and Iraq stir up all kinds of feelings, including a sense of patriotism and support for our troops, (regardless of political positions), but it was so easy to have this "at a distance". It doesn't feel so abstract to me any more. The book I started to read, "Mom's Guide to Military Deployments" has some wonderful suggestions for real, tangible support.

I think I'm going to search out someone deployed in Afghanistan, who doesn't get much mail, to "adopt" with care packages. A small gesture, but this really should be more "real" for all of us is if this is where we sent the sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers of Someone.

Are you sick of a) My London photos from February; and b) my singing the praises of LAB mode editing yet?

Well, here's another SOOC that I almost deleted:


And then I thought I'd do a little LAB mode editing, and liked how it turned out:

Carnation Petals and LAB Mode editing

Soon, there will actually be flowers like these outside! Until then, I'll have to content myself with my 105mm macro lens, flash, and photographing indoors.

f/4.0
1/80
ISO 400
SB00 Flash
105 mm
RAW, manual, AWB
LAB a&b channels
High Pass Sharpen

Itty Bitty LAB mode editing Tutorial:
1.Change to LAB mode
2. Curves: on "a" channel, change white point input to 97, black point input to -98
on "b" channel, change white point input to 97, black point input to -98
3. Curves: on lightness channel, change black point to 12 and white point to 88
4. brightness/contrast: brightness to 10; contrast to 30
5. High pass sharpen in overlay mode
6. Convert to RGB mode (rasterize; merge; flatten); save, size for web.

More Fowl Appearances of the Unusual Sort and Professor Bonnie's Book Review

This is a duck. This is a duck that was standing in my driveway this morning! For no apparent reason! I've lived here for 25 years, and have never, ever, seen a duck standing in my driveway. Or on my block. Or anywhere in my neighborhood! Just standing there, looking at my house (of course.) I don't really know Which Side this duck is on, but since it wasn't dismantling my house, I'm going to assume in was standing sentinel on MY side. An owl recruit, no doubt.




There are times when you've just got to call in a professional. Professor Bonnie is taking an instructional role in teaching me more about LAB in photoshop, in part because of her affinity for all things "lab."



Oh, and I botched it yesterday, not correctly embedding the link to the video I wanted to show you on LAB mode, so here it is again today.

I See Owls. Everywhere.

I always wanted to be part of a secret society. Not a creepy, wear white robes, do bad things, kind. . . but one with secret handshakes and mysterious signals of recognition, letting each other know that "Shhhhh. . . . I'm one too. . . . Act discrete. . . . " Preferably organizing to fight Evil. That kind.

Well, maybe I am! Everywhere I look now, I see Owls. . . my neighbor across the street has one in her yard, on top of her playground equipment. . . .I always wondered about that!

And yesterday, I picked my husband up at the airport, and there, right above both entrances to the terminal (it's a small airport in Grand Forks), were Owl Decoys! Like Sentinels watching over comings and goings. . . .

And I know they're on my side!


I reworked both these photos in Lab mode to see what color could be captured, and I'm finding that I like the technique more and more!

Here's a strange video talking more about Lab, by Deke McClelland. I've been working through one of his classes at lynda.com, and this is a sample video. But, he's not anywhere near as frenetic at the lynda.com site as he is on you tube!

After you watch this video, you might want to do an intervention and remove caffeine from his house! Don't Fear Lab!

Lab or RGB?

An editing question for you. . . which version do you prefer. . . AND do you ever edit in LAB mode rather than RBG? I signed up for a month of lynda.com lessons, and have been working through some RBG photo editing suggestions and a course on LAB editing.

The 2nd photo was edited with very basic, and minimal, LAB editing; the first in RBG. It's not actually a completely fair comparison, because the settings in RAW in the two are different. . . I left more contrast in the LAB version, added it more after RAW in the RBG version.

SB800 flash, Manual mode, f/4.0; 1/40; ISO 400, 28-75 mm lens at 75mm.

And here's a bird update! After putting up Hedwig (thanks Shirley!), the next day, I looked out the window, and there were about 20 cedar waxwings in the trees all lined up and Staring at my house! I kid you not; they were all facing the house, not looking left or right or dangling upside down from the branches.

But they stayed away!

The next day, I looked out, and The Birds were now all in one tree, looking at the house, and a squirrel was in the other tree.

And THEN! The next day, there was a dead squirrel in my driveway!!!! (aren't you glad there's no photo?)

And then today, two birds crashed into my window in the front of my house, (not the back, where the Cedar Waxwings have been massing; and I'm not sure the kamikaze birds were waxwings --I haven't checked for corpses yet.)

Huh. There's a war of some sort going on, and I know Hedwig, my Owl, is so far being successful.