Mary Ann's Photo Gallery and Tips

I know many people who use Photoshop do not have Lightroom so I went into Camera Raw to see if the Lucis effect would work in it and it almost works easier as the slidders are just in a row.  To repeat the method that is in the previous blog you adjust the slidders to:

• Recovery to 100%
• Fill Light to 100%
• Blacks to about 20-50, and readjust at the end
• Contrast to 100%
• Clarity to 100%
• Vibrance to 100%
• Reduce Saturation to -20 and lower as needed to remove and gaudy color
• Go back and adjust Blacks and Exposure as needed
• If one particular color is overposwering in Lightroom you can visit the HSL palette and adjust it's satuation.  If in Camera Raw you need to adjust and color after transfered to Photoshop.

Here is another example this time using Camera Raw and color adjusted in Photoshop.  I left it quite vivid for more effect.

I hope some of you will try this Lucis method who wish they had 3, 5, or 7 photos of something to do HDR on but you don't.  Personally since this is so easy and fast you may want to play with one of your photos right now.  Have Fun!

Enjoy!

Mary Ann

This effect gives a somewhat like HDR effect and comes from a Photoshop plugin called LucisArt which when used enhances details in bright and dark areas of an image both at the same time.  Since I don't have this plug-in but do have Lightroom2 I found a formula to recreate a similiar approach.

Open Lightroom, select your photo and create a virtual copy.  (You don't want to work on your original).

Go to Basic adjustments and slide Recovery to 100%, Fill Lingjt up to 100%, Blacks to abut 20-50, Contrast to 100%, Clarity to 100%, Vibrance to 100%, Drop satuation to -20 and more if needed to remove any gaudy color.  You can now go back to  play with adding some Blacks and adjusting Exposure if needed.  If one color is overpowering, go to the HSL palette and adjust the saturation.  This really help with the background.  I then cropped to the rule of thirds.

Have fun playing.

ORIGINAL ABOVE

LUCIS-LIKE EFFECT.

I am sure many of you belong to a local Camera Club.  If you love photography and do not, be sure to see if you have one in your area.  The La Crosse Area Camera Club is filled with people who so generously share their information and time that I have ever met.  We meet on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays, September through May.  Each month we have a competition with photos posted digitally and prints in Black and White or Color alternating monthly.  The categories for this past year were nature, people, and open...with one contemporary and one photo journalism.  If you would like to stop in and visit the web site for LACC here is the web address.  Just copy and paste.  http://lacrosseareacameraclub.org/

Michelle Cox does a wonderful job in keeping the site up and the winners of each months competitions are posted and the photos of the top winners.

Last year there were over 800 entries that were submitted by about 40 photographers.  About 380 of these made it to the year end competitions.  Each category had a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner and a few honorable mentions depending on how many entries in each category.  I was very fortunate to win 3 honorable mentions this year.

They were: Open Print:  The Old Barn Door, Open Projected:  The Old Eagle Portrait, and Contemporary Projected:  Plastered Floral.  The Old Eagle Portrait is in the next blog.  The old Barn Door is a copy of the print so the color is not as vivid but at least you can see the photo.

Next year this camera club of about 50 people will be hosting the Upper Midwest Regional Convention in September which is a large undertaking for such a small group.

I recently accepted a restoration project of a photo taken about 40 years ago.  Here is the posting of the before and after.  This is such fun work seeing the color restored and the cleanup completely finished. 

Enjoy!

Mary Ann

This actually was blogged on May 23rd but fell out of sequence because of a posting error...!!!

Early, yes... very early, Mike and John from the La Crosse Camera Club are picking me up (5:15 am) to go to a nature reserve in the Black River Falls area.  We are planning to photography sunrise, wild orchids, birds and any other wild life that comes are way.  Mike has the record of shooting wolves (with a camera) in our club.  My Old Eagle lost to his 1st place last month but deservingly so.  He captured a photo of a mother fox looking almost directly at him in a perfect standing pose while nursing a young'n!  It was one of those Kodak moments.

I will let you know what tomorrow brings and the wonders of nature we see on the trail  Definitely going to have fun using my new Canon EF 50mm 1.4 USM lens.  It is so fast, even I don't need a stabilizer. I am a hobby photographer. Since I have severe RA I am limited to what I can photograph but love the creativity when taking the basic photo back to the computer using Photoshop, other techniques, and filters to turn it into an artistic rendition. Manipulation of photos is not to cover up bad photography but to take it into a personal vision.

Enjoy!

Mary Ann

Gene tells me that I can't say we were on vacation as since we don't work any more, we don't get a vacation!  OK, we took a mini-trip...actually 5 days and about 900 miles.  We are so use to traveling for days and going to far away places with strange sounding names...well those names are getting pretty familiar after several winters in Arizona. 

We found that we knew the sites of that Arizona more than our tri-state surrounding area so we picked a spot, the Amana Colonies that we had never been to, and set off on the 28th of May.  Since the Amana Colonies ( a group of 7 villages) were formed in the mid 1800's there have been changes but only a few.  The Amana Group still owns the Woolen Mill, Amana Refrigeration and about 25,000 acres of land with a cattle operation, farming and woods. Communal living is no longer the style and homes are privately owned.  They also no longer use communal kitchens to feed the residents, nor is church going 11 times a week a requirement.

This prevents the modern motels from moving in so we stayed in a Bed and Breakfast for the 1st time.  It was not inexpensive but worth the value.  Likewise the restaurants still serve German family style which means too much food for a sedentary life.  Walking around shopping and taking photos and driving between the villages does not wear-off such a meal!

One evening we enjoyed a play called Scruples which was hilarious and one of the actresses went to college at Viterbo University in La Crosse.  The main male actor was just in ER and one of the movies up for the Academy Awards so the acting quality was excellent.

Then we went down the road to Hannibal, MO.  This is the land of Tom Sawyer, Becky Thatcher, and Indian Joe fictional characters  developed by Mark Twain.  The trolley ride we took was extremely interesting but we were very surprised at the lack of "shininess" of the area.  It seemed very depressed.  We didn't know what sort of work most people went too but most of the houses needed sprucing up as they say.  It was very hilly, not like La Crosse where the Prairie went down to the river bed.  I can't imagine driving there with ice and snow and using a wheelchair seems almost totally impossible.

The next day we drove northward to Galena, IL.  The accommodations were excellent.  This city is definitely not depressed in any way.  Tourist abide all over and the shops were busy even on a Monday.  By noon when we were planning on taking a trolley history tour the sprinkles started in and so we decided to skip our side trip to Madison to see the Botany Garden and Zoo.  Instead we turned towards home.  We plan to go to Madison later in the summer.

I didn't get a lot of photos on this trip but I really liked the ones I took with my new 50mm f1.4 lens.  They are crisp, clear and bright.  This lens was definitely worth waiting for. 

If you look around, I would image many of your trips are also farther away and maybe you haven't visited the nearby sights.  Look and see, it may make for a fun summer.  Remember your camera!

Enjoy!

Mary Ann

Diet

The American Robin's diet generally consists of around 40 percent invertebrates, such as beetle grubs, caterpillars and grasshoppers, and 60 percent wild and cultivated fruits and berries.[12] It forages primarily on the ground for soft-bodied invertebrates, and finds worms by sight, pouncing on them and then pulling them up.[14] Nestlings are fed mainly on worms and other soft-bodied animal prey. In some areas, Robins, particularly of the coastal race T. m. caurinus will feed on beaches, taking insects and small mollusks.[7]

The Robin is frequently seen running across lawns, picking up earthworms by sight, and its running and stopping behavior is a distinguishing characteristic. It hunts visually, not by hearing.[14]

We hope to leave Thursday for a few days begining with a stop-off at the Amana Colonies in Iowa, then on to points unknown.

Enjoy!

Mary Ann

What a beautiful day it was yesterday.  The outdoor temperture was a perfect 70 degrees, the sun shining, the birds chirping and the scent of wild flowers all around just made getting up early, driving for about a hour a day for perfect adventure.

We found many different types of wild flowers, many of which John could rattle off their common name and latin names.  One however was rare and said he would call me with its name so will save these photos for later.

Next catagory since we didn't find wolves out roaming around were the birds.  Outstanding in this field was the mother eagle feeding her 2 week old baby whose head kept popping up to get the raw fish tidbits.  Then we saw and photographed Kingbird, Red-wing Blackbird, Blue Heron, and both a female and male Scarlet Tanager.  Warblers, Thrushes, and Flycathers were seen but to quick for us to catch.

Of course,  we saw groups of deer and rabbits, and tracks of the wolves.

I was back home by 1:30 pm and we had a birthday bar-b-que for Ryan with the boys, his new bride Jill, and Grandpa from the nursing home.  Sleep came early and I was in no hurry to rise this morning.

I am posting the photos of the Tanagers for you to see.

Enjoy!

I am a hobby photographer. Since I have severe RA I am limited to what I can photograph but love the creativity when taking the basic photo back to the computer using Photoshop, other techniques, and filters to turn it into an artistic rendition. Manipulation of photos is not to cover up bad photography but to take it into a personal vision.

My first camera was a box brownie that I probably received as a gift in grade school.  After marriage a nice Canon XT with a variety of lens came into our household.  However, my husband Gene was the photographer and all I technically new about it was to put the line through the center of the circle to get the right exposure, set for the correct film and click.

When working as a realtor-manager the Poloraid was the working camera of the office.  My favorite vacation camera was a 35mm Sigma with several of the outstanding films available at the time.

Then came digital.  I thought it would never last...that it was a phase.  My 1st digital camera was the Canon G3 which I really liked for several reasons.  The color as in all Canon cameras is outstanding.  The rotating LCD made holding and shooting so easy except in sunlight.  I still use this camera for infrared photography.  With a red IR filter it can't be matched in this style of photography.  Even though only a 3 megapixel camera I have printed 16 by 20 inch photos in outstanding quality.

My camera of choice now is the Canon 20D.  I have 2 stabalizer lens the Canon EF-S 17-85 f4-5.6 IS USM and the Caanon EF-S 75-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM.  Recently added is the EF 50mm f1.4 USM lens.  It is awesome and so fast.  The color is vivid and brilliant.  Because of it's speed the stabilizer factor is not a necessity.  Macro to infinity range is possible with this versital lens.  Fast movement, portrait, and lack of light can't stop its focus.  It is small and becomes a dream come true when traveling and recording those vacation photos.

I still would like to get a lens for catching those bird photos or at least a doubler for my 300mm lens.  I do need to use a tripod to use this lens.  Tip:  When using a tripod with a lens that has a stabilizer, turn off the stabilizer or your photos will not be in focus. 

My favorite friend in addition to my camera and lens is in the ability to work with the computer.  Software like Lightroom2, Photoshop CS3 extended, many plugins like Fractalius, actions developed by The Little Photoshop, and using the creative spirit to blend with the beginning photo to the finished outcome is great fun and definitely reflected within my photos.

I invite you to look around, visit the gallery, check out a tip or two, post a comment or idea and enjoy yourself.

Mary Ann

Ignore everything below...it won't let me delete it and if I redo...It will be out of sequence like the Eagle..nothing under except HTML txt.