Lots Of Nice Comments And Q’s About My Photos Lately

Photos are a big part of blogging in my mind. They do indeed speak a 1,000 words and anything that can reduce the amount of words a blogger writes, especially me, is a good thing in my book. Over the month of October, I’ve spent a bit more time than usual on the photos I’ve taken of all the places that Paulette and I go to for our daily walks. The results have been very pleasing to me and, it seems, to many of you who have left very nice comments about my photos – for that I thank you!

Even in the old days, photographers always enhanced their photos

Naturally, a lot of readers are curious too and have been asking me “do you enhance your photos?”  Some bloggers bristle at the word ‘enhance’ preferring to use the term ‘edit’ instead. To be honest I’ve got no problem with either ‘edit’ or ‘enhance’ with mine as I’ve always wanted to make my pics look as good as I can. So, I plead guilty!  It’s just that lately I’ve spent a bit more time doing just that. When I started this new blog back in May, I purposely put the word ‘Pics’ in the title because it was to be one of my new focus points of interest – at least to me.

My Own Personal Thoughts About My Blog Photography

• taking pictures should be fun and enjoyable
• it doesn’t really matter what type of camera you use  
• every pic tells a story so they’re all good
• don’t spend time editing or enhancing photos if you don’t enjoy it
• all photos of grandchildren are perfect and do not need enhancing
• never post a photo of your wife in a blog without express permission
• always remember that ‘less is more’…too many pics reduce their impact
• always try to keep the number of photos to 15 or less 
• try and post photos at max blog size as few folks ever ‘click to enlarge’

The above points are not suggestions, recommendations or guidelines for anyone other than myself. They are simply points I try to follow with respect to blogging.

Langford Lake ‘Fall Colors’ after I did a bit of photo enhancing

This is how the original photo looked out of my camera

While on a walk around Langford Lake last week with Paulette, grandson Mason and Rylie, I happened to look across the water and see a bright red-leafed tree reflected in the lake. The picture was nicely framed by two dark evergreens in the foreground. What a great picture I thought but when I transferred the photo to my computer I was disappointed because the light and glare off the water had fooled my camera’s sensor resulting in the red tree and reflection being overexposed.

Photos of grandkids are always perfect without editing – this is an iPhone pic

The Langford Lake picture that came out of my camera was definitely not what my eyes saw. In the old days of film processing this would have been one of those pictures that got thrown in a desk drawer never to be seen again. But, not now. Just a few simple edit’s using Picasa 3.9 enabled me to enhance this photo so that it more clearly resembled what I saw with my own eyes. Which photo would you rather look at?

Edits I Normally Use With Picasa 3.9

1. I try to keep it simple and quick – this is not a lab experiment
2. ‘Crop’ is perhaps a photographer’s best friend – use it freely
3. I Click on “I’m Feeling Lucky” – if the pic looks better I keep it
4. I Click on ‘Auto-Colour’ – if the pic looks better I keep it
5. If the top 1/3 is kind of washed out I’ll try ‘Graduated Tint’
6. Last maybe a bit of ‘Sharpening’, ‘Fill Light’ and ‘Saturation’

Generally, when I do a few quick edits as described above I end up with a better looking photo than I started with.  It takes me all of about 30 seconds to apply these edits and the best part is it’s fun. To see a very poorly exposed photo turned into one that I like that more resembles the subject as I saw it when I took it is very rewarding

Too many photos in a blog reminds me of ‘the good old days’ of torture

The last method I use for blog photography is difficult sometimes but essential. It’s having the discipline to limit the number of pics I show in my post. I’ve always felt that including too many photos in a blog detracts from the appreciation of the good ones. Once a blog posting runs more than 20 photos I automatically revert back to memories of the good old days of having to sit through a Kodak Carousel slide show of a relative’s family vacation. There surely is a room ‘down-below’ that has this.

Take lots of pics, keep the good and throw out the bad

As always, good photography still comes down to subject matter and composition. No amount of enhancing can turn a poorly composed photo or bland subject matter into a great picture. Also, how many spectacular shots have we passed up only to say later “could’a, should’a, didn’t”!  Luckily, there’s a cure for both these ills and it’s simple – take lots of pics, keep the good ones and throw out the rest!

Sue Malone (The Moho …….) who along with Erin Erkun (Two to Travel….) are, in my opinion, perhaps the 2 best photographers in blogland, said it best when she left this comment on my recent post:

Photography no matter what is a process of enhancement. The camera is doing it internally from the moment the digital data is captured…….The goal is to show an image that best approaches what your eyes saw.

So, there’s another lesson for me – Sue said in one simple paragraph what I’ve tried to explain in this entire blog. I should’ve just taken a picture!!

Thanks for visiting!