George's posterous

St. Bridget's Church - Print-a-Day 2

Day 2 of the Print-a-Day-for-30-days experiment is this photo of two of the altars in St. Bridget's church.

This is another test shot from the same church in yesterday's photo. Photographing the church will be a longer term project for this year.

Given all of the linen and marble in the photo you might think setting the white balance would be easy. In this photo, the perception of white is more important than a technically correct white. In a print, the color of the paper has an effect on the "whiteness" in the photo.

Lightroom can help with this if you've calibrated your monitor and have accurate profiles for the ink and paper you've chosen. But the process isn't perfect. A simulation on a monitor will never perfectly match a print. So, there isn't any substitute for a test print.

gs

Posted May 25, 2012

St. Bridget's Church - Print-a-Day 1

A few days ago, Mike Johnston of The Online Photographer suggested that you may improve your printing skills by printing a different photo every day, for 30days.

Today is my seventh day into the project and I must admit that I'm getting more comfortable with printing. My skills may or may not be improving but I've learned a lot about printing through Lightroom 4.

Now that I have a 7 day cushion I'll post screen versions of the photos I've selected for prints.

St. Bridget's is the beautiful old church I attended during my grade school and high school years. I'll be returning over the next few weeks to get additional photos. This is one of the initial test shots.

gs

Posted May 24, 2012

Omaha Union Station

At one time this was Omaha Union Station. Opening in 1931, this was the terminal for every passenger railroad except the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. Burlington had their own station, connected via skywalk, nearby.

After passenger rail service ended in 1971, the station was unused and had become very run down. It has since been restored and given new life as the Durham Museum. In addition to the many travelling exhibits, the Durham has many permanent exhibits on railroad and Omaha history.

This is the main hall where people would buy tickets and wait for their trains. The Durham houses thousands of items related to Omaha and railroad history, but the station itself is counted as the museum's largest artifact.

gs

Posted May 19, 2012

Power Drive 2012

Saturday was the Power Drive 2012 Final competition. Teams of high school kids spent the last year designing and building electric cars and Saturday they finally got a chance to see how their creations performed.

It was a long day. It started at 7 AM with check-in, safety inspections and performance trials for braking and maneuverability. Then, there were three races that each lasted about an hour.

You can find several more photos here.

I've enjoyed photographing this event for the last couple of years and look forward to doing it again in the future.

gs

Posted May 10, 2012

Play Ball

I finally made it to one of my grandson's baseball games.

He's moved up from T-ball. The coach still pitches this year, but no tees. The boys move to a different position every inning.

It's a lot of fun to watch. They are starting to figure out the game and there were a few exciting plays. There would probably be more, but they still need to develop their batting skills.

More photos here.

gs

Posted April 27, 2012

Power Drive Revisited

The annual Power Drive Finals are coming up in May. High School
Students from all over the region spend the year designing and
building electric cars. The day starts early with the teams getting
in line for a safety inspection.

You can see more photos from last year here.

gs

Posted April 12, 2012

Blooming at Sunrise

This is a photo from a few years ago. It was taken in the morning while the sun was still low in the sky. The flowers are long gone, removed when the landscape changed.

It's another old photo reprocessed with some new software in an attempt to coax more detail out of the shadows.

GS

Posted March 10, 2012

Spring is On the Way

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It's getting warmer. The weather forecast is calling for the mid-60's in the next few days. Spring is on the way. One of my neighbors is already working in his yard cleaning up the winter mess. It won't be long before people will be out in their gardens planting things like these onions I found in a roadside stand a few years ago.

GS

Posted March 2, 2012

Bricks and Shadows

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The afternoon sun casts dramatic shadows along the downtown skyline. I particularly like this detail. This shadow only appears for a few weeks in the winter due to the orientation of the buildings and the low angle of the sun in the sky.

GS

Posted February 23, 2012

The Snow is Here!

I was scheduled to teach two photo classes today. The college was on the ball and cancelled classes last night, so I turned off the alarm clock.

When I woke this morning, everything was covered with snow. It was still coming down. The flakes were huge. It's expected to keep snowing for a few hours and accumulate to 8 or 9 inches.

This is a snapshot taken with the iPhone.

It looks like we're going to catch up on some of that snow we've been missing.

GS

Posted February 4, 2012