Today was wet, snow melting and rain failing, so I thought I’d try something else. I happened to see Abi looking out the Window and thought it would make a nice picture.

By the time I got out lights, the rain stopped, so I had to ask James to join me in the garden and point the garden hose at the window! The picture came out ok though.

Interestingly, since I have been posting images I’ve had a number of questions from people about Photoshop. So I thought I should comment.

Every single professional image that’s posted anywhere is Photoshoped. From magazines to billboards, post processing is here to stay. Now some people say that this doesn’t count as photography and consider it “cheating”. But even the famous Ansel Adams was a king in the darkroom and spent hours perfecting “dodging and burning” while images developed. Today, he would do this in Photoshop.

So what kind of things do I do in Photoshop? The answer depends on the image. At a minimum, every picture is sharpened and color corrected so it accurately represents what I saw. If necessary I can change everything, from color, tone, exposure, brightness and noise reduction to lens and distortion correction. If that’s not enough I can remove blemishes and wrinkles, smooth skin and even re-sculpture a face or body. I can also remove distractions and composite a fake image from multiple parts.

At the end of the day the goal is to create an image that draws you in, makes you think and insights some kind of emotion.

In reality I’m still learning how to do all this well. I have some successes but shoot thousands of images for a few nice ones (literally). And to be honest there are very few I personally like.

So what can’t Photoshop do? Well it can’t create a good composition if one wasn’t captured and it can’t regain complete darkness or blown out highlights. So you have to know what you’re doing with the camera in the first-place and know how to use ambient light and how to augment or replace it with your own.

Hopefully at the end of the day you end up with a picture that looks great.

Today’s image was sharpened and I added a small vignette (to make the corners a little darker and draw you in). Hope you like it.

We went out for Mexican tonight and I had a Margarita.  I turned my back for 30 seconds and found this scene…

This afternoon I went out with the camera to see what I could shoot. I drove round Snoqualmie and got some great shots of the old railway station house and some of the old trains and on the way home stopped by Snoqualmie falls.The conditions really weren’t that good for photography. A lot of snow is melting and there was a huge amount of water going over the falls, so much so that the water spray at times came up to the observation area like rain. There was loads of mist and I was lucky to get the shot I did.The observation area is quite high up and doesn’t really do the falls justice. While not that wide, these falls are 268 feet high (that’s 100 feet higher than Niagara Falls). In the background (top left) you can also see the Salish Lodge & Spa which is a very nice (posh) hotel.

Maybe later in the year I’ll do the hike down to the bottom of the falls and get another picture from a better position.

After a busy week you need  a break, maybe a date out to the movies?

So I’m really tied of the snow so I thought I’d post a snow free picture today. This shot was taken in Tolt McDonald Park. There’s this great suspension bridge that crosses the river and on the other side is the park with nature trails and BBQ and picnic areas. The bridge actually sway’s as you walk across it very cool.

I like the cables in this picture that start in the corners and lead up to the top of the first tower. That and the slightly blue sky peeking through looks great.

More snow tomorrow, probably.

Using Bing to find out information is a daily occurrence for me, so when the Halo guys said they needed some information I pointed them there…

Are you sick of the snow pictures yet? Well this is what happens when you take a picture a day and it’s snowing outside! Anyway I went out today (even though Lisa said I shouldn’t coz it was bad conditions) and took this shot.

This is a picture of our community center. This is the place that James (my son) painted when he was 5 years old. When I say painted, I mean Lisa and I were there for a community meeting and we put the kids in the “safe play area” (no such place) and they found some paints and proceeded to paint the walls, floor and furniture. Some other younger kids were doing most of it and I suspect James realized pretty quickly they shouldn’t be doing it but didn’t know what to do. You could argue it wasn’t him (he tried to) but the paint on his hands kind of gave him away! Needless to say I paid for the place to be cleaned and painted, the other parents just ran off. – So I feel in some strage way I own part of this building 🙂

OK slightly off topic… but it was a pretty scene and the picture came out well. Expect more of the white stuff tomorrow, and the day after, and after that etc. etc (yes I am sick of it).

So Carter here (blue dude) is actually standing up, but like me needs to go on a diet as he’s neck deep…

This water catchment area behind my neighborhood looked beautiful after the snow came. The kids sometimes come down here to play (or catch frogs) and there’s even a golf tee for some guy who likes to practice.

Anyway I walked down to the pond and took some shots. It had just stopped snowing and the clouds parted just long enough to catch some blue sky. I thought the pond, tree line and blue sky looked great. The big tree in the front was just a bonus 🙂

More snow play, tell me you have never wanted to do this to someone?  I know I have…