Well, there’s not a whole lot new to report tonight.  I took a couple of shots out the back today and really like the RGB histogram.  Have you ever had a shot that didn’t look like it was clipped but ended up clipped in one of the channels?  Well, now you’ll know and can do something about it while you still have a chance.

I also played around some with exposure bracketing.  In addition to planning on doing HDR I also plan to try out Uwe Steinmueller’s High Speed HDR technique.  That’s where you do HDR hand held.  At 5 frames per second it’s a good bet the 1Ds Mark III will be fast enough to do hand held HDR (although it’s only half as fast as it’s little brother the 1D Mark III which Uwe shoots).  Well, it turns out that to do High Speed HDR you need to turn off High ISO Speed Noise Reduction.  It turns out it cuts the buffer to about 1/4 its size.

No photographs uploaded to the computer yet but we’re making some progress.  So,…

Stay tuned.

It arrived yesterday, my new Canon 1Ds Mark III.  Graduating up from a 10D is like graduating from a slide rule to a computer (does anyone still remember slide rules or have I limited the people who will understand that analogy to pre-baby boomers?)  I spent about two and a half hours last night going through the instruction manual.  Yes, there are people who still read the manual, at least in some situations and this was one.

There are so many things that amaze me just from first impressions.  The first thing I noticed was that it was actually much lighter than I expected.  But my first impressions were made before the battery was installed.    But even with the battery installed it was lighter than I expected.  Then I put my 24-70 f/2.8L on it and it got heavy.

Read the rest of this entry »

We had some more good rain this weekend.  It was a huge storm but most of the precipitation came down up north.  The Sierra got as much as 10 feet of snow!  The state really needs it.

The aftermath in the Santiago Fire burn area relates to the green grass that is growing in profusion all over the hills.  Well, “all over” is something of an overstatement and here’s the interesting observation.  Where there was grass before the fire, these areas are covered in lush, vibrant green.  But where there was chaparral before the fire the ground is bare.  I suppose that makes sense.  That seems to be one of those things where when you know the answer, the answer is pretty obvious.

If you haven’t seen the photo journal of the days of the fire, click here.

Rain is on the way.  We’ve been warned about a huge storm that will hit over the weekend.  The National Forest people have been mulching the hillsides.  The hope is it will at least slow erosion and runoff.  I talked to a couple of National Forest rangers yesterday and it’s not seed. 

In the past they have seeded burned areas with rye grass which, being non-native, has caused more long term problems (in the form of a greater fire threat) than the short term ones it solved.  So they’re mulching the hillsides instead.  We should get a good test of how that works this weekend.

Click to enlarge

The first annual Joshua Tree Gathering is scheduled for January 18th through January 20th in Joshua Tree National Park.  We welcome photographers of all levels of ability.  If you’re interested, leave me a comment to this post.

It shipped yesterday, my new Canon 1Ds Mark III.  I should get it next Wednesday.  Stay tuned for first impressions.  The excitement is running high.

My brother, Roger, just launched his own blog yesterday.  I added his site to the Glogroll and will be adding an RSS feed.  I encourage you to check it out at RogerNordstromPhoto.blogspot.com.  He also has a very nice website with some of his amazing work.  You’ll want to check that out also at RogerNordstromPhoto.com.  You’ll love his work.

 Welcome Roger.

I worked more on the CIE Lab photo from the previous post and have some thoughts on what I’d do differently.

 First, I didn’t do a whole lot of value and contrast adjustments the first time.  I just created one Curve to adjust luminance.  Next time around I’ll add curves for brightening/darkening and for contrast enhancement/reduction.  All of these will operate on the L channel.

What I won’t do is get into Hue/Saturation or Selective Color.  If that’s needed I’ll do that once I get back into RGB mode.  Hopefully not much will be needed as we’re back with the old problems of RGB.

I worked on two photographs tonight that have been giving me trouble for the last week or so.  Both were shot in Zion NP.  The one I’ve been working the longest on was what I finished up on tonight.  Hopefully I have it.  We’ll know tomorrow morning.

My point in this post is I often get the feeling I’m wandering in the fog.  You can’t see where you’re going very well and you just stumble around.  You take a step, look around and decide where to go from there.  It’s a slow process.  I make a print.  It takes several minutes for it to come off the printer.  Then I look at it.  Often times it’s very disappointing, especially tonight.  Think about what’s wrong with it for a while, make the changes in PS and make another print.  It’s disappointing so think some more, fiddle in PS some more and make another print.  Hours go by.

Read the rest of this entry »