I had my beat up camera, the one that took a dive off the top of a Jeep at about 20mph, converted to full spectrum in February. I've been getting some IR shots with it using different lens filters for the last month and a half.. you've been subjected to a few of them. I've been struggling with it as I couldn't seem to get the the output to look right vs the tutorials I've been trying to follow. As it turns out, there is a simple reason: I've been working with jpgs and didn't notice. Jpgs don't allow for changing the white balance after the fact the way that raw files do, and for IR adjusting the white balance it's a key part of the process. So.. due to my import process (I generally never look at the full file names) it's taken me more than a month and a half to figure out that the conversion company switched my camera to jpg only for testing and that I didn't notice it until today. Thus, idiot.
The image is an unedited (other than the crop) IR photo I took the other weekend. It's not good as is, which seemed appropriate for this post :)
Mountain meadows and social distancing
Decided to drive up to Big Meadows after work and play a bit.. trying to work on my landscape photography and also IR photography. I arrived about an hour before sunset and it was a bit chillier than I expected, and windy… and was great :) No one else was up there and I basically had all of Big Meadows to myself and the deer. I’m an introvert at heart, and being alone in the mountains is really comforting… that and I do like that kinda chill wind. Don’t know why, but it’s the kinda thing that actually makes me want to go out and hike around. Temp around 40°F, and wind chill pushing it into the 20s .. good times ;)
WPPI 2020 .. people are annoying, but the desert is nice
I’m not a wedding photographer. And, in the sense that the conference means, it I’m not a portrait photographer either. I’m most definitely not a professional photographer, I make my living in software development and haven’t charged anyone for a shoot yet. So why WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International)? It’s fun to learn, and sometimes interesting to meet others (I may have mentioned I’m an introvert).
I flew into Vegas Sunday and left Saturday afternoon. Mostly a good trip, I got out to Red Rock and up to Valley of Fire to do a little hiking and a little picture taking. I’m still struggling with my landscape photography I think, my eye just isn’t aware yet what makes a good shot and what doesn’t.
I did a somewhat random shoot with a couple of models out of Arizona early one morning. We just did a walk-n-shoot around a few of the hotels, and it was fun. Short, but a good way to begin the week.
I drove up to Valley of Fire early one morning, and got there before sunrise. Didn’t find the best spot to setup, but I enjoyed the time and quiet. Oddly I met a family from Virginia, from a town about 45 minutes from me, right as the sun was coming up. Nice people, very excited about being there for sunrise. From there I drove into the park and checked out some spots I hadn’t really been before. Decided to hike down into Fire Canyon.. and that turned into a longer expedition than originally intended. There wasn’t really a trail, and I left my pack in the car, and blah blah unprepared, stubborn and lucky. Anyway, made for a great day :)
Red Rock I drove out to in the evening and hiked a little. Only took a few shots near sunset, not a lot of interest in the sky that day and I couldn’t really find a shot that I liked.. that was near me anyway. I kept seeing shots I thought might be interesting, but I was a few miles too far away. I need to spend more time scouting it out in advance.
Oh, and Hoover Dam :) Another early morning excursion, was nice to walk around. I’ve been there a few times before, but I really love the art deco style.
At this point you might have forgotten the conference and the comment on people in the title…
So I did go to a few classes at the conference. Photo walks, where you basically follow the instructor around and shoot models based on whatever the intent of the class was, and classes, which were basically classes :) They were a bit annoying. Not all of them and I’m not going to call anyone specifically out, but yeah, annoying. I’m going to just some it up with: you are not as important to the attendees(or instructors) around you as you think you are. For the attendees, everyone is paying for these things, don’t hog the instructor/model .. especially not the model when you’re not even shooting (just standing in the way while talking loudly to the instructor). The photo walks are overcrowded as it is, don’t be a dick. For the instructors, I’m paying for the class, not to be your intern.. I have no problem helping carry things when asked, but you are literally not the boss of me. Don’t treat me like I work for you. Ok, that said, some of the classes were really interesting but I’m not sure if I’ll go again next year. If I do I guess I’ll be a bit pickier about classes I choose.
Walking around town
Decided to go for a walk this morning. It had been raining, lightly but steadily, during the night and there was a pretty heavy mist on the mountains. I really want to work on my landscape photography more, so out the door I went. Didn’t end up with any landscape photos that I liked, but enjoyed the walk quite a bit.. Ran into a guy and chatted for about 30 minutes, learned some about welding :)
Also found that lone red leaf in the green bushes. There were others (not gonna lie), but there was a section a good 10 feet or so long where that was the only red one, I think it made for a nice photo.
The spiderwebs were all real heavy with the rain/mist, but it had been light enough that it didn’t break them. Unfortunately the clouds were still really heavy when I was walking, so no real sun to make the drops sparkle, but they were still pretty to look at.. oddly a bit of a combination of Halloween and Christmas decorations.
And there was the hole under the bridge. I hadn’t walked through that particular park before, and I didn’t realize that it was on both sides of the road. So there was a very muddy path under the bridge to get from one side to the other. There was also the hole… which seemed to have something living in it (if I REALLY pump up the exposure/shadows there seems to be some kinda animal). Anyway, for whatever reason I liked the photo.. therefore you’re subjected to it :)