We recently traveled to St. Augustine for their big Christmas celebration, and while the holiday lights and mood were fun, I was really excited about being able to do some shooting of Castillo de San Marcos - the Spanish fort built there in the late 1600s. Unfortunately, the sky was cloudy the day we went, which left the colors pretty flat. I was happy with the shots I got, but grew frustrated with what I could do with them in Lightroom to draw the eye in. What the hell was I supposed to do with these shots?

I closed everything down on my Mac and decided to give things a day or two, which was EXACTLY what I needed. The fort is built out of blocks of Coquina - a sedimentary rock comprised of tiny shells and solidified sand, and its texture was not only rough, but showed an incredible depth of history in its formation. I can only imagine most of the shells in the material were prehistoric. That's when it hit me - color needed to be removed from the photos to allow the fort and Coquina to be presented as history. I think the effect speaks for itself in the above photos!

I just looked and saw my last entry here was five months ago. I will admit I have been distracted by some great day job and family events, and it doesn't mean haven't been capturing happy snaps from that stuff - I post and manage those pictures over on Google Photos...their site and management tools are great for the 7000+ photos I have uploaded to them. And, despite not venturing out for any recent shoots, I recently spent some time in Lightroom to reevaluate, tweak, and organize all of the photos I had put in their cloud - this would explain why I quoted Led Zeppelin in the title.

It was a long due spring cleaning that happened in a summer month. 

I came away with four things from my exercise:

1. I have become more in tune with the myriad of individual variables the tool provides for tweaking. I was a fan of presets when I first started working with Lightroom as shortcuts to adjust a photo's colors, exposure, etc. I still sometimes use them as a starting point, but have definitely enjoyed fine tuning things with the specific controls until my eye is truly satisfied.
2. Speaking of my eye being satisfied, I also realized something as I was tweaking my previous tweaks on my photos - stepping away from the shots for a few months then revisiting them felt similar to something I do with my writing. Many times I will write and refine something to a semi-finished state, leave it alone for a gap of time, then review it again to see if my word and phrasing choices need any final polish...the delay gives me an almost fresh set of eyes when I revisit things.
3. Lightroom, like every other software package out there, now boasts it uses Artificial Intelligence to make masking and unwanted object removal even better. I put that claim to the test with the above shot of a sand dune on Navarre's beach and was pretty impressed. There were some footprints and other small anomalies in the sand wind ripples that have have magically disappeared!
4. Finally, and this was a hard one to push myself on - not every picture from a shoot that made the cut to be uploaded to Lightroom was a keeper. I am sure other photographers struggle with the idea of throwing out what may have once been seen as decent shots. It's never easy to toss out art you were a part of capturing, but having high standards is also a part of being an artist.

One thing I enjoy about photography is it is a merger of details from two different disciplines. First, there are the details that come in taking a shot - how it is envisioned, framed, and captured. Second is what is done with the picture in the post processing - what digital adjustments can be made to it to enhance an effect I am looking to achieve. The above shots are each examples to those two separate disciplines I continue to practice and refine.

The one on the left was about technical execution - working with the ISO and F stop settings on my DSLR to get the shutter timing and exposure just right to capture the moon. I have admitted before this type of detail work is not my favorite because I have not found an explanation of the Exposure Triangle that I can confidently understand...too many of them quickly dive into correlating seemingly confusing numbers with overall effects on a shot that seemingly need a ton of adjusting before clicking the shutter. I recall it taking me a solid 10 minutes to get things set up properly on my tripod and camera settings before I got what I wanted.

The one on the right was about post processing. While I did make a few generalized adjustments to my iPhone's camera to capture it, I also took it knowing there was more going on around the moon I wanted to incorporate - the clouds. But, to get there, I needed to sit for awhile with Lightroom and adjust the noise, texture, clarity, etc. before landing on something I liked (the moon has cloud trail effects that look like its in motion).

My diligence and patience with Lightroom over the camera may be rooted in the fact I am computer nerd and graphic designer at heart, because I know I spent more time working with it than I did when I was cursing and swearing when an ISO setting I made didn't net the effect I had hoped for.

And maybe that's really the point - there is no single path to achieving great shots. It's up to the photographer to decide what he or she wants to do to create what they envision.

The weather last night allowed me to go outside and frame a shot I have been wanting to capture for awhile - an upward view of trees behind our house that are lit with landscape lighting. I enjoy shooting these kinds of photos if there is potential for me to do something with them in the post processing. It's also a humbling angle to shoot from, because it requires me to lay on my back while the wooden giants stare down at me, annoyed.

As you can see, my session didn't disappoint, with one head scratching difference between the above two captures. The one on the left was shot with an app that allows for full control of my iPhone's ISO, aperture, etc. while the one on the right was taken with the native iPhone photo app doing the work. And again, I continue to wonder if taking shots with a full control camera saving to RAW format is for me. My journey with photography is more about unique composition and topic viewing versus getting the technical settings correct before clicking the shutter. I am sure long experienced and high end photographers would insist on the RAW approach because it's the purist's route. And, if knuckling down to learn photography's "Magic Triangle" netted me better results than my iPhone, I would consider digging in to its confusing world of decimals and engineering jargon. But, given what the sensor practically automagically captured on the right versus the left, I am getting closer to leaving my DSLR home unless I want to grab some telephoto based stuff.

I am getting better, more robust shots with the ones the iPhone grabs - which when set to "Live" is really not a single shot being captured, but a series of captures it then uses some local logic to cherry pick what it feels is the best version. The RAW shot is one and done, leaving me to wonder if what I got will be worth post-processing.

The mobile phone photography approach is my chosen way for what I intend to capture...Canon and other manufacturers need to steal some of the concepts.

According to my DNA test from ancestry.com, I am roughly 40% Norwegian. I already knew it, based on my Wisconsin-based grandparents and beyond (last name Hulsether), but was surprised at how high the percentage was...I am very picky about seafood, can't grow a beard, and despise living where it's cold. On the other hand, I do like to travel and explore, shamelessly believe I have a viking's physique, and have always enjoyed Nordic mythology...even if Marvel Comics leveraged public domain rights to take it and make endless movies about its characters. And, as far as I can tell, Norwegians enjoy a harmonious balance of how and where they live, so maybe those dichotomies agree with my 40% pedigree.

Thor was the Nordic god of thunder, and his hammer was named Mjölnir. According to the myths, he could use it as a devastating weapon to level you or as a tool for blessing you...he didn't live with a lot of gray areas. Anyway, the shape of this incredible thunderhead offshore makes me wonder if it was the inspiration for the story of his hammer. I'd like to think so and have named it accordingly.

I have mentioned before I believe sunsets in my part of the world show different personalities based on the time of year they happen. This shot was taken at the beach on the Winter Solstice, and while it would seem normal to think those shapes on the horizon are distant trees, they are actually low clouds hugging the line because the sun drops exclusively over the water from now until March-ish.

The Internet is chock full of photography websites that often overreach to be unique in explaining all of the ins and outs of what affects the out come of a shot. And, if you aren't careful, you'll be lulled into the idea that anything written is the GOSPEL - an unwavering authority that certain aspects are good or bad.

Take "noise", for example. A simple search put this site at the top of the results, with the following open salvo of comments on it - "Noise is a grainy veil in a photograph, obscuring details and making the picture appear significantly worse. In some cases, photos can be so noisy that they are essentially unusable." With writing like that and as an amateur photographer, it's harsh enough to make you think if your photos have noise, you might as well give the hobby up and take up something more appropriate like hitting yourself in the head with random objects.

I disagree - photography is an art, which means any element in its creation is fair game to be leveraged if it creates the result I want. Including noise. This shot is an example of where it works - an eerie, out of focus shot of beach houses captured at night - it reminds me of one of the creepiest album covers I saw when I was younger...Black Sabbath's self titled first album.

Photography is a technology nerd's happy dance playground - there are WAVES of complicated elements, settings, hardware, hardware accessories, and software that allow somebody to go as deep as they want to perfect their craft, all while being elitist at mere mortals who simply, "...just don't get it." Interestingly, there's a correlation - I am also a fan of progressive rock, which shares a similar elitist trait in that some of its hardcore fans are known to haughtily dismiss those who fail to worship the shear genius of their favorite band.

I have different perspectives for my above observations, but will keep to my opinions about photography here, since this IS a blog about picture taking. I am beginning to think my phone is a better platform for the typ of photography I am chasing.

Take a look at the above picture - it is of my son's cat Alex, who was intently looking out the window of our screened porch to try and force her mental will on whatever she was wishing she could jump on and kill. How did I capture it? On my iPhone 15 Pro...not on my fancy pants DSLR. Some photography enthusiasts would scream and call me a heretic, but deep down inside, they know cameras in mobile devices have advanced to a point where they aren't just a replacement for older point and shoot camera, but can also get pretty darn close to pro-grade results that most consumers would appreciate. Really? Yep.

First - consider the convenience of a phone. Chances are good you have one within arm's reach of you as you read this blog. That ease of access can't be overlooked in comparison to what an amateur photographer would need with a DSLR to catch the same shot - a macro lens aligning with the camera body settings you HOPE are right when you set up to shoot. I am not advocating convenience trumps DSLRs for a professional who is getting paid, but I would debate a modern phone is fine for the other 95% of photo shooting needs. Oh, also - I didn't have to lay on the ground and contort my geriatric body to get my camera in position...I simply extended my arm holding the phone and caught it with minimal effort.

Second - surveying the scene before you push the capture button is TREMENDOUSLY easier, thanks to the phone having a much bigger and brighter screen than the claustrophobic viewer window on the camera, or the tiny LED screen that displays the shot on the DSLR after it was taken. Case in point - my last post where I ranted about misjudging the shadows - one of the sample photos I posted from the pier I was on has some focal length fuzziness in parts of the picture I never saw until I was working on it in Lightroom. If I had a larger screen to use pre- and post-shot, I would have caught it when I shot it.

I have a feeling I may be using my phone a lot more than my DSLR on some of my future shoots. Or maybe I'll use both and see which one wins over time. I still have a lot to learn and fiddle with as I keep refining what I do. Onward and upward with an open mind...

I continue to wrestle with shots that don't happen when the sun is at its apex. We were out for a hike yesterday and purposely chose a later time with the idea a higher hanging sun wouldn't wash things out like I had experienced in this post. I clearly misjudged things with my timing, because a lower fall sun ended up giving me shadows where I didn't want them - kind of an opposite effect from that other blog.

A lower sun and longer casting light may be fine for pictures of open areas like the beach or farmland, but it gets trickier when there are trees around.

I was flying earlier this year, and while I normally try for an aisle seat, I was relegated to one at the window. It ended up being a lucky break, since the moon made an appearance in the waning afternoon sun when we got to altitude...I think we were roughly at 35,000 feet when I got the shot. My only gripe is the moon has ZERO detail because I was using my iPhone with limited exposure speeds.

The brown and orange on the horizon have an ethereal quality - I could see how you could get vertigo up there if you aren't careful.