Odds and Ends

Halloween. Here we are. I'm not much of a Halloween person. I had been looking forward to photographing the community Halloween event, but we were advised to cancel it. What pissed us off is that we got two very different suggestions from different arms of the provincial government. One said, sure go ahead no problem. The other, the one that uses actual health data, said no it's a social gathering limited to 20 people even if it is outdoors. But you can do shifts. We thought about that and said no. It's a technical challenge and fun getting good photos in low light, plus all the dark in costumes.

There is a bag of good candy here and when it's gone we'll turn off the lights and shut down. Last year, there was a batch of 4 kids that showed up as I was getting tired of the game. They were in good costumes, and didn't have to be prompted to say trick or treat. I held out the bowl and told them they were the last and to split it between themselves. They were pretty pleased.

I've been busy creating collections of photos for a new website. The theory is that I can connect my version of Lightroom to this site, and any changes I make in Lightroom will be reflected in the site. Pretty slick if it actually works. I hope to find out today.

But the thing about sorting through looking for photos is that in some way it's almost worse than Image of the Year. For that I typically have a couple dozen photos to start with and winnow it down. Some of the winnowing down has already happened because some photos are not in the running. Which reminds me, it's almost time for October Image of the Month. I think I already know which it will be.

But with the new site, if I can get permissions, and nobody has said no yet, I can include them. This gives me several thousand photos to consider, and I'm still waiting for one client to get back to me. If they say yes, I'll have several thousand more to consider.

Readers that have been paying attention know that I recently upgraded Lightroom. It offers new tools to make some things quicker, like selecting the sky or the subject, and then manipulating the information relating to that specific area. It's much more flexible and powerful, and I'm still exploring. Now I see a photo from several years ago while looking to populate a collection, and several thoughts go through my head. 

Like:

• Is this still one of my best photos?
• Now I can make that sky better, but should I? Because if I fix one, does that commit me to fixing more of them?
• Should I make another general editing pass, and if so, should I save the old edited version?
• Which set does it belong in and why?
• Do the photos in that set make a cohesive whole?
• As a general rule, such a portfolio is only as good as the weakest photo, so should I sleep on it and make another pass determined to find and remove the weakest photo?
• Should I get another photographer I trust to review the selections just to make sure I'm not out in left field?

I was out for a walk the other day in the wooded area just north of the dam, between the river and the bike path. I'd been to some of that before when the dam path reopened, but this time I was more along the river, with a bit of a scramble up a path at the end to get on top of the bluff. Then on the way home Fish Creek called me.

Part of the river bluff, converted to black and white. This may be a tad overexposed.

This little chunk caught my eye, and I spent more time getting into position without the brush eating me, than it took to actually take the photo.

I'm a sucker for bench shots. In hindsight I should have come here first as the sun was setting. The sun is now a little low for this particular shot.

Fish Creek. I've never been here this time of day. It's interesting seeing the change in the light.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Peony

Lily

Dragonfly with a serendipity bee

Eagle, but first a serendipity dragonfly from 2017. It makes me wonder if I could find an eagle and bee pair of images?

Owl. It wasn't trying to eat the finger, more like an affectionate nuzzle.