For the last few years, I have been slowly getting into photography, or at very least, I have been enjoying taking photos of all kinds of things that catch my eye throughout the day, with my cell phone camera. Cell phone cameras continue to get better and better all the time and my last few phones (I seem to have a bit of an affinity for the Samsung brand…so I have had the [easyazon_link identifier=”B00AB7FVCY” locale=”US” tag=”scrmus06-20″]Samsung Galaxy Note 2[/easyazon_link] & [easyazon_link identifier=”B00N2Y5ALK” locale=”US” tag=”scrmus06-20″]4[/easyazon_link], as well as the [easyazon_link identifier=”B00BV1MVJ0″ locale=”US” tag=”scrmus06-20″]Samsung S4[/easyazon_link] & [easyazon_link identifier=”B00J4TK4B8″ locale=”US” tag=”scrmus06-20″]S5[/easyazon_link])…all of which have respectable cameras! And as many photographers are fond of saying, “the best camera is, the one you have with you.” And these days, it seems everyone has a cell phone with them…hence, my journey into photography 🙂
Earlier this year, I decided it was time to get a ‘big girl’ camera and purchased my first DSLR camera ([easyazon_link identifier=”B00I1CPA0O” locale=”US” tag=”scrmus06-20″]Nikon D5300[/easyazon_link])…and I have been having a blast getting to know my camera and also teaching myself how to do some photo editing with [easyazon_link identifier=”B00VWCKJVA” locale=”US” tag=”scrmus06-20″]Adobe Lightroom[/easyazon_link]. So when today’s Blogging101 assignment was to get out into the blogosphere and find a blogging event and participate in the next round. I ended up stumbling across an Image Reboot event, where you share some photo editing techniques to rescue or enhance an ordinary photograph. Which I decided looks like it may be just the type of event that would be fun and that I would like to participate in. Although technically, I am a little late for the most recent round of the event (typically runs monthly, the second Friday of the month), I couldn’t help myself and wanted to jump on board. Better late than never 🙂
EXIF INFO: Nikon D530o, Tamron 150-600mm, ISO 100, 600mm, f/6.3, 1/125 sec
So without further ado…
This is a photo that I just sort of lucked out in capturing. Was not prepared at all!! It was shot shortly after I had purchased my DSLR camera and I just happened to have walked out my front door to let my dogs out to go potty, around about lunch time, and we happened to interrupt this raccoon, doing raccoony-y things in the woods right in front of the house. Of course my dogs thought this was all very exciting and ended up tree-ing this poor guy. Which then led me to run back inside and grab my fancy new camera and try to get a pic of him. This turned out to be more of a challenge than I thought it would be. The poor scared raccoon kept climbing higher and higher into the tree…until he was at the tippet-y top! (Thank goodness for telephoto lenses!) Eventually the little guy started a slow descent down…and this pic I ended up capturing from a second-story window in our entertainment room, which looked right out into the tree that he was in. Which was good, because it ended up making the distance much closer…but it was dark inside the tree, close to the trunk, so the lighting wasn’t very good.
So after playing with exposure (increasing +4.00 or +5.00) and temperature making it warmer in [easyazon_link identifier=”B00VWCKJVA” locale=”US” tag=”scrmus06-20″]Lightroom[/easyazon_link], I was just not all that thrilled with the results…
The image was definitely ‘saved’ but I didn’t really like the coloring…so on a whim, I decided to see what it looked like in Black & White… and in the end, I think I prefer the B&W version best. However, all the while, this whole process was all still very new to me…I had only had the camera a few weeks, was just learning to play around with Lightroom…literally just playing with the sliders and see what happens….so for me to see the difference and the ‘rescue’ was pretty awesome!
I am very happy that I was able to rescue a seemingly, horrible photo, as it isn’t often that you get such an up close and personal view of wildlife…at least, not without putting too much effort at seeking wildlife out….so I am happy with the end results 🙂
You are not in the minority. If you where a white MALE christian American, you would definitely be in the minority these days.
Enjoyed hearing about your personal zoo! Unfortunately, we only have one particularly dorky cat, named Dash by the humane society we adopted him from at the end of 2010.
Plan on getting a full sized dog down the road now that we are in the process of buying this house. Leaning towards adopting an Alaskan malamute type of animal or German Shepard half breed from a humane society. The animal will have full run of the back yard, except when temperatures dive below freezing. In that case it can stay in the garage that is under the house. Tends to stay warm down there.
Enjoyed your writing.
Wow those teeth! This is awesome. I love it. It’s amazing to have rescued this almost black image. And to then discover the face with teeth bared? Awesome. Thanks so much for sharing with #imagereboot