What if Your Trip Flips?

We have all planned that dream vacation.  We have seen great photos of our destination and we just can't wait to capture our own spectacular shots.  What happens if you get there and your first four days are overcast, rainy, windy and your pictures look something like this?  So it happened on our trip to Iceland. You have a couple of choices.  You can throw them all in the recycle bin or shut the computer down for a few days and then come back to them when you are in a better mood and try to do something with them.  I opted for the latter.

On the original photo the exposure for the water is ok, but that means the land is dark.  Fortunately, I did shoot this for HDR.  I have one darker for the brights in the water and sky and one lighter where the water and sky are blown out but the land has a good exposure.  I combined them in my HDR software and did a little tweaking on the color and contrast and came out with this:

It is better but not quite there.  I then added a layer mask of the sky, gave it more contrast and darkened it to give it that stormy look.

But, I so wanted blue skies.  So I made another layer of the photo and then did a selection of the sky.  I found a picture where we did have blue skies in Iceland and  did a select all and copy and then went back to this photo and did a paste into selected area command and voila, blue skies.

I then decided to try a monochrome version of the tonemapped photo from the HDR program and here it is below:

So, all is not lost.  If you have done your best to capture the scene, a little computer work at home can help save the day.  You may even like several versions of the photos you have experimented with.

Making a Difference

Yesterday I went with our senior group "Encore" from Journey Church to the Billy Graham Museum in Wheaton, IL.






It is across the street from Wheaton College were Billy Graham went to school and met his wife Ruth.







The museum shows the life a Billy Graham and his influence around the world.  It is amazing how he started from humble beginnings and with his love of God and his wanting to share with everyone the great hope he found, he has had such a great impact in the lives of individuals- thousands of individuals.

The museum also shows the history of evangelism in the United States from it's very foundation as a nation.  What a revival these individuals and organizations brought about in the country.












Oh to have such a positive influence on people around us and to make a difference in the world.

You Can Do It With Enough Determination

Even though circumstances are not what you may have hoped for, you can still reach your goal with resolute determination.

We had wanted to take the RV we had purchased out for a test camping experience.  We chose to go a couple days to Starved Rock State Park which is a few hours drive from us.  The problem is that is was about the hottest week of the summer- in the 90's.  We wanted to do some biking and I wanted to do some hiking in the canyons.  I was hoping to take our dog with me so he could get some exercise.

The situation-
Temperature in the 90's.  Too hot to take the dog out hiking.
The park was a couple of miles from our campground.  Too hot to take the camper and park it at a trail head to go hiking.  Both my husband and our dog would be miserable in the camper while they waited for me to finish a hike.  We had to leave the camper in the campground connected to electricity for the air conditioning.  So this meant riding our bikes in the heat to the park if we wanted to see anything.

Solution-
I rode my bike in the early morning, when it was a little cooler, down back gravel roads to get to the east side of the park and go hiking on that end.  On the next couple of mornings I rode my bike to catch the trails in the middle and then on the west end. In the evening when it cooled off a little we took our dog out around the campground for a little run.


During the middle of the day, my husband and I rode our bikes the 2.5 miles each day into the park and spent time in the air conditioned hotel for lunch, took a bus tour in the air conditioned trolley, and sat in the shade to see a nature program about hawks. Mind you, when we got back to our RV, we were soaking wet in sweat.  Whew!








But we did it, I hiked, we biked, I got some nice pictures of the canyons and it is a vacation to remember.

Taking Photos Creates Memories

Photography creates memories.  I was watching Harley and the Davidsons on TV of how they started in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  I was watching the bikes they were racing and had to stop and look up an old photo of my Great Grampa Gallup who worked at the Harley-Davidson in Kenosha.  Those were the bikes!  My Grampa is the second from the right.

Butterflies Galore

Butterflies have decreased in number a bit around where we live, but I know a place to go to see many of different varieties.  That is at the Chicago Botanic Gardens seasonal Butterflies and Blooms Exhibit.  I went there a couple of times this summer and was happy with the ability to walk into an enclosed "jungle" of flowering shrubs and photograph to my hearts content.





One day was sunny which made for some contrasty and distracting leaf backgrounds.  I had my nice full frame camera with me on this day, but I had to be very careful and look for a nice even lit background behind my subjects.

The other day was overcast which made for nice even lighting but also a little dull and need of a little more light.   I used my cropped sensor camera as it has a small built in flash. So I used the flash set at -2/3 power to give a little fill light and some vibrance to the shots.

The gardens allow you to photograph as much as you want without a tripod and as long as you don't touch the butterflies.  Therefore the flash along with the image stabilizing helped me to get a little sharper picture hand holding my camera. This is especially important because a lot of the butterflies are small and you have to get fairly close to get a full frame shot and the depth of field you can get may not be as much as you would like.  I also tried to keep the butterfly wings as close to a straight line with the camera for this same reason.  Since you are close to the butterflies and the butterflies are close to all the vegetation behind them, it can be a struggle to decide on an f-stop that will be enough to have a sharp butterfly and yet have the background be pleasingly out of focus and not distracting.

I used my 100 mm macro lens and slowly approached the beauties to get some nice close up shots.   A slow approach is important because even though the butterflies may sit for a while in a certain area, you don't want them to flit off on you by too fast of an approach.

 Happy butterfly hunting!

Watch the Weather

I have been busy managing a blog for our upcoming CAPS-Chicago Area Photographic School this coming November 21 and 22.  Chicago Camera Clubs - Home and so I haven't posted anything here.

Then I went out to photograph recently and I wanted everyone to know about the great early morning weather we have been having.  The ordinary person would say "No Way," because it has been foggy and the humidity has been up and the temperatures have dropped at night.  However, for a photographer this is great because it means there will be dew all over the place and so it was at Chiwaukee Prairie.

Here is what I found:

All the shots were taken with my 100 mm macro lens.  With the third picture I added a close-up filter onto the front of the lens so I could get closer and see more detail.


Most people would say it was a "calm" morning, but it wasn't dead still and these things are fragile, so there was slight movement occasionally.  I therefore used ISO 400 so my shutter speed wouldn't be too slow.  I had it at 1/5 to 1/25 second as it was.  My f stops were from f 6.3 to f 10.  Not super great for a macro shot, but like I said, I didn't want too long of a shutter speed.  Those I tried at a slower speed were blurry.  Of course my camera was mounted on a tripod and I used a remote shutter release.  I also used fill flash to try to stop the action of the very slight breeze and to add a little vibrance to the subjects since it was an overcast, foggy morning.




I just love "live view" for focusing.  I can now get things in better focus than with the old film cameras.  I did use the old technique of making sure I was as straight as possible to my subject (and not at an angle) so that  I could get as much in focus as possible with these macro shots.  In the old days we called this "in the same plane as the back of the camera."

On the whole it was a fun morning.

Happy Mother's Day

It is Mother's Day.  It is May.  The day should be beautiful....but it is raining outside.  This must be a mistake. It shouldn't be like this....but really if you take time to look, it is beautiful outside.  The spring flowers are blooming and along my driveway are these lovely tulips covered with raindrops.  How beautiful is that.  Happy Mother's Day!