Everything in its time…

01. July 2015 · Comments Off on Everything in its time… · Categories: patience, processing photos, Travel · Tags: ,
Twin lakes, Desolation
Escalante - Lower Calf Creek Panorama

Escalante – Lower Calf Creek Panorama

It takes time to build a Panorama

Looking out the window

Decades ago, in grad school, I took a class on the economics of software development. In that class we had to read a book,  The Mythical Man Month by Brooks, which is the source of the quote ‘nine women and a month don’t make a baby’.   As much as I would like to hurry things along in photography, there are things that take time.

I think printers were put into this world to teach us patience !  For the last several months I have been having problems getting people’s faces to print correctly (landscapes to a lesser degree).  I have profiled everything several times.  I have checked and rechecked everything.  I ran out of ink and had to wait for the new ink to arrive, a little better, but not great.  Then I noticed that on one of the endless printer quality runs that I was missing the light gray swatch.  Now it was waiting for the new print head to arrive and time passes.  Finally, new print head, and voila (calibrate, and  profile)  – the faces are starting to look better.

Panoramas, although not as frustrating as my printer problems take time. I have 2 different programs that will stich a set of images together to build a panorama; Photoshop  & PT Gui. The one on the the left is a combination of 31 frames. The one above not as many. The programs are relatively quick, but there are an interesting series of issues that show up when building panoramas.

-Often there are gaps in the panorama where there is not a frame for a spot.  Then you have to fill it in with Photoshop work.

-There is too big a dynamic range in the photo, and so work needs to be done.
-There may be waves that span multiple frames that don’t line up that require careful editing in Photoshop.
– The is bigger than 2GB, and so is a .PSB file that is not recognized by Lightroom.
-It may be under the 2GB limit, and so can be a .PSD file, but the pixel count exceeds the current maximum pixel count in Lightroom.
-Once you have the file in a workable size, printing it becomes an issue on several fronts, the one on the left is 24″ wide and about 7.5 long; what do you do with that?

Having a big beautiful print is a great joy, but there are only a limited number of places you can put panorama.  Not to mention the mounting costs….

Putting in the time to build and print a small copy of a panorama is extremely rewarding, but it is an exercise in patience.

 

To see more panoramas visit and let me know if you want one.

Panorama

From Whidbey Island

Panorama

Off of Conway Summit

Plan, Prepare, Practice, Patience

25. March 2015 · Comments Off on Plan, Prepare, Practice, Patience · Categories: patience, Philosophy, Plan, Practice, Preparation · Tags: , , ,
Males seeing who is more dominant
At times those skills were really hard to do because not only was I having to contend with the camera, but I was having to learn these new skills and the ball was always kind of doing what you didn’t want it to do. So it got a little bit frustrating at times but we got there.- Parminder Nagra
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.- Winston Churchill
Girls Volleyball,Stanford,Volleyball

Girls Volleyball, Stanford, Volleyball

I have ADHD.  For those that know, it is well like DUH! So, for me to write, let alone an article on Plan, Prepare, Practice, Patience is quite something !

Regardless of whether you are an Instagram shooter, shooting for a paper, portraits, landscapes, you name it; Plan, Prepare, Practice, Patience all  pay dividends.  Seldom do we get a chance as photographers to do over again. and even the ability to do over again, requires planning and preparation.

  •  A product shots requires planning to allow a redo.
  • I think of my son who posts on Instagram and Facebook multiple times a day of friends, food, activities; there is no redo for those occasions.
  • Landscape photography, will the lighting be the same, will you be in the same spot, will the landscape be the same?
  • Portraits, will the person(s) be able to have the same expression, will you have the same lighting?
  • As an event photographer (think sports) the moment is fleeting and gone forever.

Not all photos, and types of photos require the same degree of Planning, Preparation, Practice, and Patience.  My Instagram son, who uses his phone for photos plans, as do every other photographer I know.  What do these four “P”s  really mean?

Plan

Planning is the process of mentally looking into the future and imagining what is going to happen, and how you will respond.  And then, taking notes (mental or otherwise) on what you will do.  Here are a few examples:

  • To take an early morning  sunrise photo, I will need a light to see the camera, I will need a tripod for long exposures, I will something to keep me warm.
  • To get pics of elephant seals fighting I am going to need a longish lens.
  • What are the settings  I need on the camera for what I am shooting.

Most of us do some amount of mental planning, but do we actually pay attention and think about what it is that we want to do? Often, planning is the result of learning from things not well enough planned.

Prepare

This is an action step: This is where I collect what is needed, or the process of getting what is needed available.

  • Buy gloves and a headlamp for my before sunrise photo
  • I find out if the elephant seals are visible to public and obtain needed permits
  • Charge batteries
  • Pack the camera bag
  • Get water and munchies for during the day
  • Clean the camera & lenses
  • Fresh memory for the camera

All of these types of activities are implicitly the result of planning and recognizing what actions need to happen.  I often make a work list so that I won’t forget something, and that I can add to as I remember other things.  I set up various categories that I need to deal with such as clothing, camera, lighting, props, batteries.

Practice

There are many times  and types of photography where there is not a lot of time to figure something out; kids, wild life, event photography, even landscape as the light is changing from predawn to dawn.  I remember, one pre  dawn at Mesa Arch, and three guys came in late, but they had a tripod, but they didn’t know how to connect the camera to the tripod.  Some types of photography, such as sports or wild life, require a knowledge about the subject if you want good photos.

Mesa Arch, being prepared

Canyon Lands National Park,Island in the Sky,Mesa Arch,Southwest,Utah,buttes,canyons,sunrise

Patience

I am in some ways surprised that I am a photographer with my ADHD.  Waiting for the moment and not getting frustrated in the waiting and not just clicking frames out of impatience that later have to be weeded out.  The elephant seals, and the volleyball practice are both examples of this.

 

In parting, if you think about it, what would you do more of, what would you do less of: Plan Prepare Practice Patience?