New year’s Day. Family gathering. Group shot. Ah! No tripod. The group is too large and my arm too short for a standard selfie. Ok! Improvise! Colleen is a good photographer now. Really! Does she need to be? Yes, a steady hand! It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t hard. Voila! Jen wanted everyone in the picture. Done.
Hey! Same exposure. The zoom/enlargement factor is not quite the same but close. A little image size adjustment and the figures matched. Photoshop. It’s a fairly easy fix. Done.
We’ve done this before. We did it here. We did it a while ago. This time around… well, we did it again. It’s a nice set of trees. Fun! Confused?
Well, Photoshop does good things for me again. There is some skill involved. I am not great at it. But I can do a passable job. Enjoy!
… but not reformed. We have a running visual in museums now. I took umbrage with a relative who stated that she had seen art in a museum. Huh?! I am undoubtedly over reacting. I make sure to spoof her each time we attend. Is it art? Are we performing? Am I acting out? Colleen? It’s an old joke by now. Sometimes it’s just hard to grow up.
Technically, I try to keep the camera in the same spot. We don’t tripod. Sometimes Colleen changes the position. After all she’s perfect. Then I must size the image to match the figures.
The lighting is usually dim so that is a factor to consider.
Fun? Juvenile? Try it?!
Selfie. There are many ways… most popularly iPhone. Okay! Androd has 75% of the market. There are few exceptions in that my circle of friends and relatives compose 95% with iPhone.
So? I use a camera. I do feel comfortable reaching the iPhone shutter button or in using a selfie stick. Left hand. Left hand. I am left handed. Colleen stands on the right. We pose. It works. My shoulder position and partial arm is the giveaway. We don’t strive to fool the viewer. There is always Photoshop. If you don’t have the skill, there are alternatives. I just find the image from an iPhone does not give me better quality than a camera. I am wrong. But that is my belief and I’m stickn’ with it. Shy! I’m shy. So, there is no kindly passerby to shoot a portrait of us as we pose. I got skill. We’re no dummies.
Um,,, different day, same jackets…. it rained a lot in Scotland. Nah! I shoot a lot of selfies as we go along. It was all the same rainy day. Score: selfie 3- Photoshop 1.
… in the family. Colleen has a sister… she’s cautious and … Well, at least she will – reluctantly – pose. She is just one step shy of … What am I trying to say? Ha ha! In the making of this photo there was some skill and cooperation needed. I got an immediate response from one family member who commented that they appear to be anchored. Yeah, yeah, my original image cut them off at the ankles. It’s hard to miss. Did you also notice Lee switched positions left to right on the stairs as they went. Colleen pretty much pushed or pulled her up. Down? Nope, they were never coming back.
Why? … for fun. We go to a museum or gallery… this blank wall reminds me of modern art – Rauschenberg, Whilte Panel – MOMA $15 million in 2914, painted in 1951. I bet you didn’t know that! Moreover, do you care? Colleen’s got a sister in law, the very epitome of stick the mud of which I spoke. She would never get my sense of humor and fun. Her face would crack from the thought. In fact her hair style has not changed from the 50’s. Laugh?! Cry?! Honest! I seen a picture…. Ma??? We havin’ fun yet?
I’m shy. As in, I do not like to ask people to pose. Of course they will – pose. But ya gotta ask. And, I’m shy. Everyone knows me and that I carry a camera around. And, I am the only one in the family to do so – mostly. Well, pretty much, only. And it’s easy. “Family picture.” They all gather up. I have to space them. Usually it means getting a little closer together. Covid is just done, more or less, so folks are less squeamish about getting shoulder to shoulder. So far no one I shot got ill. Good! Eh?
Technical: Canon G11, 1/320 sec, f4.5, focal length 30.5
A little Photoshop can go a long way. I’ve other shots of this fish with more rich brown coloring. But it appears this guy is really black and white. Even for fish it’s the eye. There’s a little catch light and it looks more appealing. This is a big fat fish with little fins and I figured it couldn’t swim fast. Wrong. It’s faster than me. I did a little zoom. The problem with zooming is finding and keeping your subject in the image frame.
Technical: Nikon D90, 1/125 sec, f3.5, focal length 18
I like this portrait Susan shot of her grand daughter. The lighting is sweet. There is enough blurring of the background to make it pleasing. Yeah, it could be tweaked a bit. But mostly this is fine. It’s good as a horizontal image. I might crop/zoom closer. But the trade off is to loose the doll. I think it’s an important element. It’s something to think about. What to include or exclude? This is the decision of what the photographer sees to be important to their image. Again, I would encourage experimenting in the camera. Take a couple more images rather than think that you can compensate in Photoshop.
Technical: Canon EOS 7D, 1/100 sec, f3.5, focal length 60
David sent this in, a portrait of his beloved birds. It’s an interesting composition. The upside down view is distinct. So why don’t I love this more? The colors could pop a little more. And I might try a different cropping. Since it’s the upside down pose that’s interesting, maybe a vertical crop with less of the bodies. Just concentrate on the eyes and head. It would be stronger graphically. Here’s an instance in which I would go ahead, edit, and enhance in Photoshop.
PhotoCritical 