Recently, I was going through my photo collection within Lightroom and came across this image I took a couple of years ago at the Monterey Aquarium. It’s not necessarily good or bad, but now that’s two years later, I’m realizing that there are some very quick changes that I can do to enhance it:

So, here’s how I re-processed it:

1. Used Lightroom 2.3 instead of 1.x. The improved processing engine (esp for noise) made an immediate difference.
2. Next, I brought it into Photoshop CS3 and applied Imagenomic’s Noiseware at default settings. (At a recent workshop, I really picked up how important it is to use noise reduction early in the process as it minimizes the noise artifacts from being magnified during later processing.
3. Third, I cloned out the tentacles and jellyfish along the left hand side. I also went through and cleaned up various spots (either junk on the window, my lens, my sensor, or “stuff” in the water). This comes back to looking at what’s the subject of the photo – which is the primary jellyfish swimming down from the upper left. Once that’s identified, subtract what’s not needed to simplify the image. I choose to keep the other jelly fish in the background to give it a sense of depth. I also like how the curve of the background jellyfish “frames” the subject.
4. Finally, I sharpened the image with a high-pass sharpen action

So here’s the final version now:

Your thoughts?

I spent last week taking a photography workshop in the North Carolina Outer Banks.

Although parts of the workshop left something to be desired, overall it was a great experience.  I got to meet some new friends (John, Scott, Joseph, Davis) as well renew a friendship (Bart) with someone I took a workshop with last year.   (I’ll talk about the workshop experience in a later post).

Below a Google map of various places I’ve discovered to photography whether it be through the DLWS Workshop, the Carolinas’ Nature Photographers Association (CNPA), or my own research:

View Outer Banks Photography Locations in a larger map

In addition to these locations, there’s always other standard things to be found along the coast: (some of these items are more desirable than others)

• Beach – people, crowds, kite flying, fishing
• “Culture” – tourist traps, minature golf courses,
• Wave abstracts

In the first stage of the centennial Giro d’Italia, it was basically 3 american-related teams that topped the results: Team Columbia-Highroad, Garmin-Slipstream, and Astana.  Although, this is only a small stage, it continues to show how far americans have come in this traditionally european dominated sport.

For those in the United States, the race can followed live on the Internet on Universal Sports at http://www.universalsports.com

I’ve also used Cycling News’ live coverage to follow races – (http://www.cyclingnews.com).

Recieved an “interesting” credit card offer from Visa (or some supplier there of), for the “Black Visa Card”.

Carbon-fiber, conceirge services, and high credit limits available to the just %1 of the U.S. population eligible to have the card.

The fine print: $495 annual feed.  

Just like all of the other credit card offers I receive, this one quickly found the trash.

Yes, but not nearly as much as the report $4.5 billion would led you to believe.  Here are their one-time earnings used to make that number:

• $1.9 billion pretax gain on the sale of shares in China Construction Bank
• $2.2 billion from an adjustment to the value of structured notes at Merrill

Things not mentioned in the headlines:

• Credit card division lost $1.8 billion
• Mortgage division lost $500 million
• $6.4 billion added to reserves to cover future losses

Who’s next up in this game?   From this morning’s performance in the stock market, investors aren’t happy playing…

According to the headline of this New York Times article, they did.

But on closer inspection, their $1.6 billion profit came from a 1-time charge of $2.7 billion.   So in reality, the company actually had $1.1 billion in less cash (i.e., money out the door) than they had at the start of the quarter.

It’s these types of games that need to stop.

I finally decided to cancel my American Express Delta SkyMiles yesterday. After evaluating my current spending and travel plans, I didn’t feel it make sense to continue to pay $95 annually for the privilege of using the card.

One of things that surprised me was the customer service rep made no effort to eliminate the fee for a year, just trying to talk me into keeping the card. Even that effort wasn’t that strong …

From some random place on the internet. Felt it was worth sharing …

The Primer

Exposed, by Claire Lewis, is a quick, fun read into the neurotic world of wedding photography. Claire gives quick, funny, and insightful comments on a wide range of weddings – from the quirky to the disaster to the perfect. And perfect, isn’t what most young brides think of – it’s what works best for the couple, their families, and their friends. About every three chapters, Claire gives a quick autobiography of her life – both professionally and personally.

There’s not necessarily a lot to learn from a technical standpoint outside of the additional equipment list that she carries in her bag. But wedding photography (from an outer sider’s perspective) isn’t about technical skill (which is mandatory), it’s about how to run a business and survive what ever gets tossed your way.

Final recommendation: Read a copy from the local library. It’s enjoyable, but necessarily something that you’ll want to read again. If you enjoy the story, you may also want to lurk on the wedding forum at Fred Miranda – glimpses into a spectacle that can be like watching a train wreck, but at the same time, seeing some amazing photography.