April Squares: Top Shots, Trip of a Lifetime

ISO 25 f/2.2 1/1538 sec 4.2mm

Day 12, find other responses here.

Date and Location of Photo: December 8, 2017. I took this photo within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania. A somewhat unexpected development while I was living here in England was that I had the opportunity to go on a safari trip in Tanzania. I jumped at the opportunity as this was something I had wanted to do for a long time.

Thoughts on the Edit: This edit has the Luminar Look, Enigma, applied at 67%. The initial edits did require lightening the shadows quite a bit.

April Squares, an Explanation:

When Becky announced that the April Squares theme was going to be “top”, I thought it over and then sent her a message, then pitched my idea. She was open to my theme within the theme and the result is my response to the April Squares challenge.

I move a lot and I have a move pending. I’ve lived here in England for about four years and will be heading to the United States. Exact dates to be determined, given the current world situation, details have yet to be worked out. My April Squares is a “top shots” reflection on the last four years. Each square represents some moment or place that was meaningful to me. They are in chronological order moving forward in time. I’m attempting to post every day. All photos will be edited in Luminar 3. I hope you enjoy following along, I’ve enjoyed the process of creating. Your comments and thoughts are welcome below.

Cheers!

What I Am Working On: Method and Madness

I write a lot about how I edit my photos. I also write quite a bit about how I have a method for discarding files. Today’s post is about the exception to my usual approach.  At the time I am writing this, I have sorted through, edited, and discarded files through early July 2018. The exception is my trip to Tanzania. I was there in December 2017 and I still have almost all of my files from that trip. That trip was one I wasn’t sure if I would ever really have the opportunity to make and it meant a lot to me to be able to go. I have a lot of files that are still not edited, but this week I picked this one to work on:

ISO 1000 75mm f/16 1/640 sec

These young elephants were just off the road, seemingly content to munch away and ignore us. When it came to the edit, I wanted to express the serenity of this moment. Here is the edit:

ISO 1000 75mm f/16 1/640 sec

I started with a crop. From there, I created another layer to work on just the sky, as that was probably the element I was least pleased with in the original file. I recently posted about a new method I have been using to create a sky, so the details for that can be found here. My other edit was to use the Orton filter within Luminar to create the slight jewel-like glow in the final edit, to replace the harsher tones of the original file.

What do you think of these edits? Does this edit have a serene feel to it? Feel free to comment below.

Cheers!

Added to Lens Artists Photo Challenge, Wild.

Picfair version is here.

 

Safari Photo

When I got back from Tanzania, I was faced with a wonderful problem, a lot of photos. I have been through them several times, but there are not many files that I have completely thrown away at this point. I just want to be sure I’m not getting rid of something that I actually could edit in the future. Usually, I discard absolutely awful photos right away. Then I wait at least two months before throwing anything else out. I find this time helps me look more critically and objectively at the files I have. From this trip I have a lot of files with potential, like this one:

ISO 400 78mm f/18 1/125sec

It wasn’t good enough to make the cut for the book I had made of the trip. But I liked it. When I went to edit it this past week, the first thing I wanted to accentuate was the elephant that was looking at our vehicle. The crop helps with that. Then I applied a filter to help make the color and textures in the image pop a bit.  At that point the one element that was bothering me still was the tusks, they were completely blown out and appeared smooth and almost white. In Lightroom, I applied the adjustment brush to just the tusks. Then on just those areas, I dropped the exposure. The image was a RAW file, so there was some detail information there and the tusks now appear more as they did in real life, textured and dusty.  My final edit is below:

ISO 400 78mm f/18 1/125sec

This edit is, to me, a quintessential safari image. What do you think, do you like the edits? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Cheers!

Added to: A Photo A Week, Quintessential.

Picfair version is here.