Fishing for a Surfer

 

 

Flights Leave Every Day

I see it’s been a very rainy and cold spring so far on the Mainland this year.  Especially the East Coast. It isn’t very often the grounds crew at the U.S. Open figure so prominently in water removal!   Just in case you’re getting tired of that weather here’s what it looks like in Waikiki this summer. 

 

 

 

Blurred Surfer

I made the leap to a DSLR in 2005 with the Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D.  The photo ops that pushed the limits of my 7D and lens combination were lowlight with alot of movement.  I took a bunch of pictures that I knew weren’t great but they had potential if I knew how to work with them.   Surfing subjects within an hour of sunset were a challenge.  I could push the ISO up to 1600 but I wasn’t happy with those results.  The highest I would go was ISO 800 with my 28-200 Sigma at full zoom.  With the lens as wide as it would go the best shutter speeds I could get were 45th or 60th of a sec. After my initial post processing I set those pics aside to wait for a better day.  Today is the day for one of them.  With recent upgrades in both hardware and software plus additional skill with the software (Lightroom and Photoshop), I’m revisiting those early efforts.   What ya think?

Great time for Windsurfing

The weather recently in Hawaii has included very strong trades.  Making for ideal opportunities for windsurfing.  By windsurfing I mean Kiteboarding and Sailboarding.  Which you do depends on if you want to keep your feet firmly planted on the water.  On Oahu, you can go to Mokuleia on the North Shore or Kailua Beach on the Windward side.

 

Windsurfing at Kailua Beach

Why I am grateful for Lightroom

In March 2005 I upgraded to the Maxxum 7D from the Maxxum 7. I made the leap to a DSLR. I looked forward to taking as many pictures as I wanted and only printing the ones I wanted. I quickly learned it wasn’t quite that simple.
Photoshop CS and ACR allowed me to process my RAW images. However, ACR was clunky in it’s ability to help me review and pick the best images. It’s one thing to take alot of pictures. It’s another to find the best of them. Then after finding them, I had to go into Photoshop to complete the process. So an 8 meg RAW file turns into a 10 or 20 or more PSD file. It was all so ungainly and not a great encouragement to go out and take alot of pictures so I could learn to make better images.
Then out of the blue Adobe announced the beta program for Lightroom. As soon as I started to use it. I knew this is what I’d been waiting for. Easy to learn and quick to use.
Why do I write about this? For the past several days I’ve been going back thru my pictures from the first year of using my DSLR. Beyond the obvious bad images. I never culled my pictures for the marginal ones. It was too tedious with Bridge-ACR-PS workflow. LR is soo much faster. Plus I can easily work with a marginal image. Play with the WB. Work in B&W or Split Tone. Easily make a creative crop. With the latest version of LR you can do selective adjustments that before required using PS.
Now I go out and take hundreds of pictures knowing I can quickly distill it down to just the ones I want. All keyworded and organized into collections that I can upload to my website.
For the average JPEG Point and Shoot user LR is more than you’d want to pay for a software program to process your images. However, if you’re making the transition to a DSLR add Lightroom to your purchasing plans. You won’t regret it. If you’re a MAC user than you’ve also got Aperture to consider. Either program will allow you to effortlessly examine your images. Learn what worked and improve yourself thereby. Helping you to present your best to the viewing public.

Kitesurfers in Maunalua Bay

Shameless plug for Hawaii Tourism

                     You know you want to be here. Don’t you.

Relaxing in the late afternoon at Waikiki Beach Honolulu Hawaii

Photo Contest

I got an email reminder of a photo contest at Outdoor Photography Magazine Top 100 Iconic Locations. I decided to put several in click to take a look at one of them.There are alot of good ones and you can vote for your favorite starting August 15th. Here’s one I didn’t include from a couple of years ago. The surf was really pounding at Sandy Beach and only the really good or extremely stupid would go for a ride. That’s the blowhole and lookout in the background.

Sandy Beach High Surf

It’s a wet job

Water skills a necessity.

If you’d like to see more of his work, the website is
Hawaiian Water Shots

Aloha! Komo mai

Welcome to my place on the web for random thoughts, interesting pics, and links to useful and/or interesting sites on Photography on the web.

Mahalo
Tim

Body Surfer at Sandy Beach enjoys a goodride