by Dotti
On Photography
Do you get the weekly newsletters from Digital Photography School
and Digital Photo Secrets?
If you don’t, you might want to consider subscribing, they’re free. I’ve been
getting them in my email every Thursday for years. This week, DPS had two
articles that really sparked my interest so I decided to share them
with you.
When I first began my journey in digital photography, I shot
everything in jpeg format, for two reasons. One, because the terminology and
idea of RAW intimidated me – I wasn’t that good! Only really good photographers
shoot RAW. Such was the way my mind worked. Second, RAW files do take up considerably
more file space.
I’m not sure when I made the switch to RAW, at least four
years ago, maybe more, and I must tell you, it opened up a whole new world!
Yes, the files are bigger and I now have a sweet little family of external hard
drives (due to my OCD condition about computer backup). Not only does it protect your original image from lost pixels, the post processing
possibilities are endless! Here’s what Dave Peterson has to say about it in his
article Making
the Switch to RAW. It’s a choice only you can make but I encourage you to read
the article whether you’re already shooting in RAW or have been thinking about
it.
The other topic that resonated with me was this one on why,
when and how to use grey cards. Grey cards are those little cards that help
you get the right white balance in your photographs. Using AWB often works but not
in every situation. I’ve also found that the white balance options on my Canon
often don’t seem spot on either. This is particularly true of indoor
photography. Yes, you can correct white balance in Lightroom but it would be
nice to get it right in camera. After reading this article, I hot footed it
over to my favorite camera supply website and ordered one for myself. I’ve
thought about it for a long time, but have never done it since I wasn’t sure I would
be able to do it correctly. This article takes the mystery out of it.
On Inspiration
Photographically speaking, January is my most challenging
month. I dislike cold weather, we often have more cloudy days than sunny days
where I live and I just get the blahs. Well, we all know the blahs are not
conducive to photography.
This year I seem to have beaten that beast. I undertook at
365+1 and I started a Project Life album. These two projects go hand in glove.
Terri (aka Partner in Crime) and Pam (aka Fishgirl) have been encouraging me to
do the Project Life and I have to tell you something. They were right! I’m
thoroughly enjoying it, it stokes my creative fires and it has gotten me all
the way through January without the usual January blahs.
I also undertook another project, completing a photo book of
the three-week trip our family took to Europe last summer. I did this with the
book module in Lightroom. There are frustrations to using this module, lack of
flexibility being my biggest complaint. But after considering other choices, I
decided to stick with Blurb and the Lightroom book module. This has also helped
with the above mentioned blahs.
Since it is now complete, I’ve started another
for the Thanksgiving trip my husband and I took to Charleston, South Carolina.
After all, I still have February to get through. I guess the message is this:
the best way to keep the photography blues at bay is to immerse yourself in
photography projects.
On Life
This past Saturday, we had my daughter and granddaughter
over for a pancake breakfast. For some reason, they think Daddy/Peepaw’s
pancakes (made from Bisquick mix) are the best in the world. As we visited,
daughter and granddaughter found themselves in peals of laughter because Mr.
Peepaw and I have taken up chasing the squirrels from the bird feeder and
keeping the feeder filled even as we watch for the birds in our yard. My
daughter said, “Oh, no! I’ve never until this moment thought that my parents
are getting old. Now I do!”
Well, I’ll ask you, FOL Community – is feeding and watching
the birds a sign of getting old? If it is, I guess we’ve crossed the Rubicon.
Sheesh.
