Posted on by Anne Sandler · 2 Comments

Lightroom and more

Now where did I leave off? Oh yes, I was griping about my new gear. Of course (Remember I said I was afraid to try it on!) when I tried on the new vest, it just fit! It couldn’t go over a jacket, and my wide angle lens barely fit into the front pocket! So, back on the phone to B & H Photo. I ordered a large because the salesperson said to order a size larger than I think I should. I thought I should order the medium, but the measurements were correct for the small, and one review from a woman my size said she was swimming in the small! Just another bump in the photography road.

I did practice on Wednesday evening, and discovered that I’m not all that creative. Well, I’ve always known that. I’ve read enough tutorials that suggest that when we don’t have anything to shoot, look around the house. One of my treasures are my grandmother’s brass candle sticks and mortar and pestle. She used the candle sticks every Shabbat (Sabbath) and used the mortar and pestle routinely. I discovered that natural lighting didn’t work well, and I didn’t have a proper back drop. But, I did practice with the new tripod and found it much easier to use than the old one. I’m not going to post the shots from the practice, because I didn’t think they were that good.

What was good, was the fact that I got in some reading on Lightroom today. I spent a good part of the day going through the Adobe manual through page 72 of 219! I can now import and export photos in and out of my file system on my hard drive. I really like the way I have my images organized on my computer and want to load new photos directly into it and then bring them into Lightroom for editing. I’m relieved to have gotten that much figured out because I’m going to a workshop tomorrow on the Develop module. I’ll spend more time on it before the workshop begins.

This evening I’m posting some more from our scavenger hunt. That was a fun morning and forced us into some creativity. I also tried to do some street photography with my long lens. When I get a vest that fits, I’ll really look like someone who knows what she’s doing–wearing a photographer’s vest and a two camera sling! Well, maybe I’ll grow into the role!!

 

 

Posted on by Anne Sandler

Oh my, the wonders of photography

Highs and lows, that’s how I would describe this past week. On the plus side was a fun meetup that was a photo scavenger hunt. Marebeth Gromer of the Shoot or Go Home Meetup group gave us a list of 50 objects (or ideas) to shoot. We had 3 hours and I didn’t find everything. But, I had fun and did well with most of what I shot. I’m going to put in some images for you to see and probably finish off in my next post.

Frustration came as I bought some more gear. It all began with a Black Rapid 2-camera sling I bought so I wouldn’t have to keep switching lenses. It works well. Actually I love it because it makes field shooting easy and it’s more comfortable than the regular Nikon strap. However, I was still not using the tripod because of the inconvenience of taking off the sling’s “O” ring that fits into the camera base so I could mount the camera on the tripod. My photo buddy suggested I get a ring that would lay flat into the tripod’s quick release so I could easily go from tripod to sling.

So, off I went to Action Camera in Roseville, California to purchase the ring. It didn’t work with my tripod’s quick release. Back to Action Camera. I found out that the ring only works with Manfrotto tripod heads! In the end, I ended up with a Giottos tripod body and a Manfrotto head. I needed a new tripod, but was trying to make the old one work. Everything worked out okay, but it was frustrating.

I also bought a vest to carry my gear into the field. It came today. It’s still in the package. I’m afraid to try it on! What else can go wrong? Practice Tuesday has now turned into practice Wednesday evening because I cared for my younger grandchildren on Tuesday.

What am I learning? I’m learning that photography is like life, you need to remain flexible and have a good sense of humor to get through those highs and lows.