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As some background, I’ve been using Adobe Photoshop for several years, since Creative Suite 2 came out (they are up to CS6 now) and I used several other applications from the suite over the years. I didn’t always buy the new versions of the software, sometimes letting one go if the new “features” weren’t enticing enough to fork over the money for them. And recently as my job responsibilities have changed I’ve really only kept Photoshop from the Suite.

Last year, Adobe announced a subscription based software model called the Creative Cloud, that allowed you to essentially rent their various applications on an annual or month-to-month basis. You could rent the entire suite, one application, or a mixture of them. It was an interesting idea, and I could see the benefits to Adobe (less piracy, more even revenue stream). Continue reading →

I don’t remember who I originally heard it from, but the advice was don’t delete any pictures after you download and make an intial pass through them. During that first pass, you delete the obvious problem ones – unfocused, blurry, pictures of your thumb, anything you are not going to be able to fix. But after that, before you do any post processing, burn them to a CD or save them to a hard drive, so you have the original. The picture here is a good reason for that.

This image is from Luna Pier, MI and was taken at sunrise, on a late winter/early spring morning about 5 years ago. I liked the colors, and the silhoutted bench was a nice element. But there was a huge light pole on the one side, and several other short poles along the foreground by the bench. (Not sure what they are for, unless its to keep someone from driving their car into Lake Erie?). Anyway, I saved the image and didn’t think any more about it. Technically there was nothing wrong with it, but the distracting elements kept me from being able to use it for anything.

Continue reading →

For any one wondering when I was going to do some more photography posts, here is one.

This car has been parked in a vacant lot for a few weeks on my route to work with a for sale sign on it, but the weather hasn’t cooperated with me getting some shots. Saturday the weather was gorgeous (sunny, with a few clouds), so I grabbed my camera and headed out to where it was at. I was hoping to get a few HDR images of the interior of the car, but sadly its in worse than rough shape. The front seat is full of holes, with a big piece of cardboard over one spot, the back seat is full of trash.
I was happy with this shot I got of the front hood ornament though, and the baby blue paint job must have been something to see when it was new….