I should note that I am using a Samsung UN40H5201AF TV as a monitor and these pictures look completely different than on a computer monitor. The settings are Backlight: 11, Contrast: 70, Brightness: 59, Sharpness: 63, Color: 53, Tint (G/R): G47:R53 and the color tone is Standard. My camera, a Canon EOS R100, with a RF-S 18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM.
September 20, 2024
On this day the clouds were about 2,000 feet above sea level over Orange County. On the left top photo we started heading inland where the clouds were low enough to skim over. The center photo was mid-turn just a few feet above the clouds and you can see where the beach was just peeking through. The top right was taken about 10 feet above the clouds, and you can just make out the outline on the plane. The rainbow is caused by the light refraction from the plane to the clouds. And the bottom picture here was shortly after we landed, the color gradient was something that caught my attention. I have not GIMP’d up any of these photos and will do so at a later time.
September 15, 2024
Went to a local temple today to see some of the festivities for the Mid-Autumn celebration. I watched a dragon show performance with some very fun colors. In these photos I tried capturing from left to right frame by frame of the dance. To bring out some of the more vibrant colors, I saturated the primary hues to 65, blue at 50, and yellow at 50 as well. I like how the blues tend to pop out a bit more.
September 13, 2024
Today I wanted to try and take some photos from a bit of a distance, in this case about 3,500 feet up, in an airplane, a Cessna 172 more specifically. On the left is Crescent Bay Beach and Shaw’s Cove along with other beaches on the coast. In the middle is Spur Ridge in Laguna Beach, and to the right is some residential homes in Laguna beach as well as the high school. There was a bit of haze from the recent fires, so the next time I’ll have to try a different set up than auto, and use GIMP to clear out the haze.
July 28, 2024
I took some more closeups of these cute little ladies and gents. Some still a bit curious, others not so much, and I finally had some of the smaller ones stay still enough for the photos. For the camera settings I decided to use the “Action Setting” so that it takes multiple photos over a short period of time. I was able to pick and choose some of the better ones here.
Top left I caught her just as she was waking up. Top middle I caught him mid closing his eyes. Top right she was curious about the camera mid scratch. Bottom left, he was more curious about the camera than posing. And bottom right, she was running around and stopped for her photo shoot. And was adopted two days later.
July 20, 2024
I wanted to start taking some up close photos of animals and see where I’m at with this. Luckily I had some good subjects who were curious enough about the camera to stop and give a bit of a pose. I left the settings on automatic, just being lazy here, but took many, many, many pictures before finding the right ones that gave me a good expression.
July 13, 2024
The moon was out at night between a few trees and took the opportunity to use a long exposure. The first few were a light show that looked like a child on a roller coaster took the photos. A few did turn out pretty decent once I found a stable place to hold the camera still. On the left is a one second long exposure, but it also caught the flood light lights on the trees. It came out okay but I didn’t like the the cloud coverage. In the center I took a shorter 1/250 of a second and zoomed into it on the right. Its a good camera but I still have settings to mess with.
June 23, 2024
Went to a cat hangout/shelter and had to bring the camera. In this case I left the settings on Auto, but what I wanted to see was the inside lighting and how well the pictures would come out. There were some blurry ones, but over all they came out well. The next time I go I’ll have to change the ISO settings and aperture settings as well.
These little fellas were curious about the camera and actually stayed still for the photo shoot. The green eyes didn’t come out as much as I would have liked, but I’ll take the poses.
Cats, cats, all the cats. Black, orange, grey, calico, main coon, they had them all. Distracted by everything, playing king of the hill, or sleeping the day away. This was a great way to learn more about the different personalities they all have. There’s even a room just for kittens.
June 15, 2024
Wrightwood is a small town in SoCal near Mount High, During the snow season, super packed place. During the summer though bikes are out driving along the Angeles Crest, and a nice time to grab some sunset photos.
For these photos, I was near the top of Mount High by the ski lift. My settings are ISO100, and from left to right the Aperture settings are F8, F9, and F10. I have not photos hopped these in any way and wanted to see the types of sunsets I could get based off of the settings. I still have a ways to go, and I should invest in a tripod for better comparisons.
These are from the same spot, but the ISO is set to 200, and the Aperture from left to right is F8, F9, and F10. Again these have not been photo shopped and look similar to the ones above. Unfortunately I did not have much time to take pictures as this was a little after 8pm, and the place closed.
June 02, 2024
Day two here, and none of the same cars made their appearance, so I had to make due. European cars on Saturday and the American Classics on Sunday.
Again the same settings from the day before, Aperture Priority, F8, all other settings on automatic, except… it was still overcast. Nice. What I like here are the colors come out bolder, and the shadows do not contrast with the colors as much. Also, the colors seem to blend nicely with the grass which I think is a better contrast than a dark shadow. I’ll keep that in mind for future experiments.
June 01, 2024
I went to a car show, today, but… the sun came out a few minutes after I got there. Luckily there is one tomorrow, and I was able to get a few shots in. I gravitated to the primary colors here and some of the fun classics. My settings were on Aperture Priority, F8 and all other settings automatic. I wanted to try and see the difference in what direct sunlight versus overcast does for the cars.
Here I noticed that although the colors pop without any editing, and the chrome stands out, the shadows are too much of a contrast to really appreciate the lines in the cars.
May 26, 2024
Using only manual exposure, I wanted to see what a slow versus faster aperture would do for a still picture. On the left side, the building and drain from the park look fine and dandy. However, a faster aperture, and taken at the same time gives it a darker and almost haunting look. I was using this as an inspiration for a short story I’m writing and hopefully it should provoke a darker tale.
I took a close up of a brilliant pick color. In GIMP I increased the red and green saturation while also increasing the shadow’s presence for something a bit sharper.
May 11, 2024
Sometimes the picture just takes itself. I wanted to highlight the reds and browns of this photo, but can’t seem to get the shadows to fade a bit more. Also the sun wasn’t in the best position for the lighting, and I’ll have to experiment with that a bit more. I increased the red hue and lowered the contrast in hopes to darken the grass a bit. That will be next time. I’ll have to experiment with different times of the day next.
May 11, 2024
At one of the fairs I went to, there was a bit of jousting. It was about 12 in the afternoon, and the sun was directly above, not great lighting for what I wanted to capture, but beggars can’t be choosers. I used the “Sport” capture mode, with all other settings at auto. With both eyes open, I watched until the jousters began approaching each other and started the “Sport” shots as soon as the lances appeared on screen. The bottom three going left to right are the jousters entering the shot, and the top picture is post lancing their shields.
May 8, 2024
I wanted to start working on making the primary colors come to life an “pop” out of the photo. I took this from 3.5″ away on the macro settings on the camera. Using GIMP, I changed the following settings: Color Balance (Red: +10, Green +12, Yellow +18), Hue Chroma (Chroma +9, Lightness -6), Shadow’s Highlights (Shadows -23, Highlights -21), Adjust Color Levels (Black Point +36, Clamp Input 1.39, White Channel +255). It made the back more green than I would like, so that will be the next step, to select the “main” image, and blur the background to gray scale.
May 5, 2024
I decided to go to a zip-line park, over the weekend and use my camera for some nice shots, however they reiterated that I’m responsible for what I bring. And so, five year old phone tech is what we get. I did however get a chance to use GIMP and the distortion features on the picture to the left. Grabbed a quick shot of our tour guides Tony and Amilio on the right side. And a nice panoramic view from up top, with some post color, hue, saturation, and brightness changes.
May 04, 2024
I’m really digging the Macro setting on the camera. I took a picture of these from about three and a half inches away. The left and bottom with full sunlight, and the other two in overcast weather. Without making any changes using GIMP, I find that having direct sunlight makes the colors come out nice and bright, the only issue being shadows caused by the surroundings. I like the overcast weather because getting a close up shot is much easier and the light is less directed on the subject. Lighting will have to be my next course.
May 02, 2024
During one of my visits to the park, I found a family of little demons with feathers and their demonettes, also with feathers. I was about 20 feet away, and used my knee as a stabilizer. Nothing fancy, just a steady hand, zoomed in as much as I can, (so as not to disturb the demon queen), and a snap.
April 30, 2024
On one of my walks, I found a nice blue hue flower. The Phacelia campanularia (California Bluebell, Desert Bluebell). I wanted to capture a good solid primary color so that I can learn to use the different settings in GIMP. I wanted to make the blue really pop out of the picture. The left is the original photo using the Macro setting on the camera from about three inches away. The middle picture used the following adjustments: Color Balance (Green: +15, Cyan +5), Color Temperature: (Original: 6500, Intended: 10000), Hue/Chroma: (Chroma: +15, Lightness: -3), Hue-Saturation: (Lightness: -9.8, Saturation: +20). The right picture has the same settings and in addition to those the Brightness/Contrast: (Brightness: -95, Contrast: +80). I thought that the blues really came out in that one, but of course looks unrealistic. Fun to play with the settings though.
April 28, 2024
Today I wanted to play with the scenic settings on the camera, as you can see I still need a bit of work understanding the best settings to remove the haze. On the top left is a shot of downtown LA zoomed at the max, 45, no other settings were made. I did use a water bottle to stabilize the camera. The top middle was a lucky shot of a bird mid flight, with a nice shot of the hazy LA weather in the back. Top right, I thought was a neat picture with a mostly dead tree, and LA in the back. After playing with the saturation settings, I was able to get a mostly blue sky with the Hollywood sign in the distance. Again I zoomed in this one and used my water bottle as a stand. I should invest in a tripod, and maybe some cleaning materials for the lens.
April 27, 2024
While walking down what was once used for water runoff, now a bastion of filth, discarded drug use, and garbage, there lies a few spots of some lonely bridges. All is not lost however, as nearby the city is slowly turning the area into parks and recreation.
The left picture is one of the lonely bridges, I took in Scenic mode, with a slightly longer exposure time. I have yet to edit this one in GIMP and merely playing with the settings. The middle and right pictures gave me a great opportunity to use the Miniature Effect filter on the camera. I thought they came out a bit fun.
April 21, 2024
In addition to the waterfall, I went to a park and found a water fountain I thought was interesting. Again I tried to play with the Shutter Priority settings as this was slower moving water and had a bit of an arc to it. This is also the same place I met Oliver the squirrel, not sure if its his real name, or if its a boy, but that’s not the point.
From left to right, and top to bottom, the shutter speeds are 1/250, 1/400, 1/800, 1/1600, 1/2000, and 1/2500. I noticed again as the shutter speed decreased, the picture was darker and darker. My conclusion is that for this type of water flow, the 1/800 or 1/1600 works just fine and allows for more than enough light and captures the individual droplets for what I wanted to capture. I’ll call this one a good learning experience.
April 21, 2024
After a bit of a drive, a shady parking attendant, plenty of graffiti, and a warm hike ( I brought a good amount of water and sunscreen), I was greeted by a waterfall. Wanting to try out something a bit different, I was playing trial and error with the Shutter Priority on the camera. From the top left shutter priority is 1/400, the middle 1/800, the right 1/1600, and the bottom 1/2200. I noticed that the pictures are noticeably darker and found that it is due to the shutter speed. I can use GIMP to brighten it up, but I have yet to play with the ISO settings which I’ll try next. Also the lighting was just bad at this place. Luckily I was there early enough before another 35 hikers were coming up as I was leaving.
April 21, 2024
While playing with the micro settings and exposures, I found this bizzy bee that took at least a little longer so that I could take a picture, at least that’s what I tell myself. I liked the colors and ran it through GIMP. Being that I thoroughly enjoy the hands on approach, trial and error, I started playing with the different settings in the various color menus in GIMP. To be honest I was trying to make the colors bolder and “pop” a little more and have no clue to what I changed. However, I did increase the shadows to darken the background, and increased the yellow and blue hues to add some more contrast to the bee and the flower. Original is on the left, and the “trial and error” is on the right.
April 20, 2024
I met this little fella a the park today while I was photo venturing. Climbing on the fence, through the wire, and ate his snack on the other side. After catching wind of him, and sizing me up, he came right up to me and dared me to take a picture. Oliver is a cute little fella looking for a friend, or snack. Or he was just telling me to come at me bro. Each of these were taken with the auto-focus and a slightly higher exposure.
