Loving my new iMac 27 5K Computer

it has been over a month since I started using the Apple iMac computer and I have to say that while there is a bit of a learning curve related to the file system, I am enjoying my 20 second boot ups and fast response in Photoshop and Lightroom.

The Apple SSD is very fast. The 5K monitor is fantastic and my G-Tech Studio 6TB Thunderbolt drive is fast. I also purchased the Apple Trackpad 2 and use it along with the Mouse.

Just from observations I would say that the iMac software makes better use of the installed memory (24gig). I am sure there are some specific applications that use memory better than others, but I seldom saw my Windows 10 machine use more than 12 of the 32 gig available. I see the iMac using 16 and 17 quite frequently while using Lightroom and Photoshop (the same apps I used on Windows). The 5K screen really helps deliver accurate colors and reading text is very easy on the eyes.

I also purchased an iPad Pro for my wife's birthday. She has been using it to create greeting cards and wireless printing of pictures to her Canon Printer.  The iPad Pro is a much better experience than the iPad Air based on it's real estate alone, and for Valentines Day I bought her the Apple Pencil which she likes as well.

Here is a picture of a custom 1937 Chevy Pickup truck I took in August 2007 using a Sony DSC-H5 digital camera. I used Lightroom to bring out the color of the truck and emphasize it through a vignette. When doing "extra" more heavy duty editing on a picture I do hear the fan speedup from time to time, but normally the iMac is very quiet on everyday tasks like surfing the web and reading emails.

 

Create Your Own Photography Style

What is your style? I would define my photo style as “realistic” or "natural". I don’t do a lot of textures and drastic changes to color because I like a more natural appearing picture, but I do increase saturation and I like stylized pictures, but drastic changes I only do few here and there. Most likely in the coming years I will do a lot more textures and overlays as they can add interest to your photos. I am always looking at other peoples pictures and read blogs with the intent to improve my photography.  Then I look back at my pictures and see flaws in them and want to change them, I have to force myself to move on and let it go, but I quite often recrop my older pictures to improve them. My weakness is leaving too much in the picture!

When I read photography posts I quite often read things that really doesn't set well with me. One of the blogs I decided to read (claiming they could improve my pictures) jeered removing the color from a picture leaving only one color. This they said was bad. Something about not natural, but they loved black and white which actually isn't natural.  Then other people weighed in and condemned the action as well. They also complained about over saturation, and greens looking unnatural, but making a picture dark where it removes some color is just fine I guess. Sepia is cool and yet what is natural about that? It amazes me how some people have decided that they are the Kings and Queens of defining what is art, and what is bad and unpleasing.

It really doesn’t make sense that no color is cool and one color is bad, except if the color is sepia, or too much color is bad. I prefer a little more individuality myself. I am not saying that over saturation is always cool, but I call the over saturation “post card” shots. Maybe over saturated green is liked more by people who live where it snows and everything is dead and dormant for months on end. I like an occasional over saturated picture. I have a few that I love, and it really doesn’t matter to me if anyone else loves them or not. The group think stuff is almost mob like. There is a fellow with a photography blog that I like and once in a while he shares some pics of his children. Nothing special about them, you see a lot of nice pics of kids everywhere. Except this guy has his children’s pictures shared by followers at a count of over 1,000 shares for a single pic. What? Nobody shares ordinary pics of kids like that, except this guy is popular and people share his pics, who they are sharing them with is beyond me since there is nothing special about them. If I sent him a pic and asked him to post it as his own I am sure it would be shared in the thousand plus count! Why? Perhaps people feel like he is one of the family. I guess there is a little paparazzi in all of us.

HDR is popular and I like most of the HDR pictures that I see. HDR “like” processing is popular with some people and really doesn’t look that great, but I do use it once is a while and typically on a picture that otherwise doesn’t look all that good without taking a different apporach. Sometimes I use extreme processing to save a picture I like. Just give it a different look. Some HDR “like” pictures are cool, but wait…there are the self-appointed overlords that don’t agree with me.

Pictures are about depicting life, creating moods, and sometimes creating a work of art, there are lots of ways to do that, and who is to say which one is right or wrong? Some pictures only have great meaning to you and no one else. Those are the best pictures! We only know what we personally like, and I kind of like it that way. If your picture is interesting then many others will like them as well, regardless of what style or type of photography you prefer. Get your camera, get in, get the shot, and get out! Photo document your life as you live it. Happy shooting.

The Future of Photography Technology

The future of photography technology will be as dramatic as the technologies we are seeing in smartphones and tablets. The computing power is doubling at amazing rates and the power needed to manipulate photographs is growing with it. That is so promising and yet not everyone has grasped that yet. I was reading an article about organizing your photographs and the author said to not download your blurry photographs. Stop right there! That statement is assuming a lot of things that are not necessarily true. First, it assumes that the picture is just one of many and no big deal if you delete it. Second, it also assumes that at no time in the future could technology advancements in photography resolve the blur problem. Because of better technology I have pictures that I have rescued this past year that I took 12 years ago. If that blurry image is the only one you have of something important then do not delete it! Have you seen the technology demonstrated by Adobe where blurry images are being corrected to an almost perfect image? I only delete pictures that I feel are duplicates and of no value regardless of the future. Yes, I have a lot more pictures I store because of that but so what? What is the cost of doing that?

Be very selective of the pictures you delete. I have gone back into my archived pictures more than once to process a picture because of what was in the photograph. I used 12 year old pictures of my house being built to see where the pipes and wires were at. I didn't have them in my "official albums" but they were still there on  my hard drive. You never know what the value of a picture is until the day you want it or wish you had it.

I store all of my photographs on a single drive that is backed up by Carbonite and I also copy the "Picture" directory to a second hard drive. I do not want to lose my pictures regardless of their perfection.

Checkout the Adobe "Sneak".

Lisbon Falls South Africa

There is something about waterfalls that always fascinated me and Lisbon Falls in South Africa is no exception. I remember seeing waterfalls on TV when I was a child and wondering where all the water was coming from. Fortunately I have seen a lot of waterfalls since I was a kid and all of them still have plenty of water still pouring over them. I visited the Lisbon Falls in 2009 and took a few pictures. The height of the falls is about 295 feet (90 meters). It is located in Mpumalanga, South Africa.

Get out and see the world!

Want to know more about my first trip to South Africa? Click on this link.

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Mapped location of Lisbon Falls can be found below.

 

Great Pictures Are Everywhere

Every Christmas I take a picture of the Christmas tree. This past year was no different and I took the usual pictures, but I decided that I wanted to take some close-ups of the ornaments. I did that a few years ago, so I thought I would do it again. Later as my wife and I were looking at the pictures we have taken at Christmas, she commented on various things we had done throughout the years. A very pleasant conversation talking about the time we have shared, and all brought on by a few pictures that together tell a story.

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