youtu.be/NL_vaT76C28

Her eyes met mine as she walked down the corridor peering apprehensively into the kennels. I felt her need instantly and knew I had to help her.

I wagged my tail, not too exuberantly, so she wouldn’t be afraid. As she stopped at my kennel I blocked her view from a little accident I had in the back of my cage. I didn’t want her to know that I hadn’t been walked today. Sometimes the overworked shelter keepers get too busy and I didn’t want her to think poorly of them.

As she read my kennel card I hoped that she wouldn’t feel sad about my past. I only have the future to look forward to and want to make a difference in someone’s life.

She got down on her knees and made little kissy sounds at me. I shoved my shoulder and side of my head up against the bars to comfort her. Gentle fingertips caressed my neck; she was desperate for companionship. A tear fell down her cheek and I raised my paw to assure her that all would be well.

Soon my kennel door opened and her smile was so bright that I instantly jumped into her arms.

I would promise to keep her safe.

I would promise to always be by her side.

I would promise to do everything I could to see that radiant smile and sparkle in her eyes.

I was so fortunate that she came down my corridor. So many more are out there who haven’t walked the corridors. So many more to be saved. At least I could save one.

I rescued a human today.”

Facebook entry was made by Terri Weissenberg and republished on my blog.

Nothing should stop you from trying

At the age of 76 there are a lot of things I have come to love in my life, some things more than others. But if I was to pick just two, in order of what I love most, it would be my life partner, my wife, and second would be all aspects of photography and videography, or simply creative imaging.

In the same vein there are also a lot of things I have come to have great disdain for at this time of my life. But again, if I was to pick just two, not necessarily in any order as they are both pretty equal, one would be Donald Trump and family, and the other is chronic pain – everywhere.

So what does this have to do with anything? Actually quite a bit. Over the last 10 years or so I have been making great strides in learning to live with a minimum of photographic gear. At first the reasons for this was simply wanting to lighten the load that I was carrying into the field every time I went out to create images.

I have gone from weighty dSLR gear which at times could add up to a big backpack or shoulder bag with a load that could go anywhere from 15 pounds to 30 pounds, not including a tripod, to mirrorless cameras together with a variety of small lenses either in the Panasonic, Olympus and in the end Fuji. The mirrorless systems reduced the weight load to half of what I had been carrying.

My last “system” was the Fuji X pro 2 and three small prime lenses. The whole kit weighed about 7 pounds not including the camera bag. Finally I was a minimalist. But sadly while I loved my little Fuji outfit, it was not to be my forever gear.

Everyone I know and those I do not know all face creative challenges and many people overcome those challenges to become highly impactive image makers.

My personal challenge is chronic back pain and leg/feet pain which was brought on from getting spinal surgery to my lower back. It was failed surgery I did have a painful bad back prior to that surgery, and the surgery while many tried to dissuade me I went ahead. I suffered a great many problems because of the surgery such as kidney failure, peripheral neuropathy, and clots. I survived, but was left with a level of chronic pain that has stayed with me right up to this writing. And yes, I have tried just about every method of pain management to offset the pain, none of which has been successful.

Okay! Enough of all that. It really leads up to where I am at today.

No matter what it takes and what anyone has to endure being able to create images, art, your story, it is paramount to do just that.

Because of that and because I am forced to become even more minimal with to gear I have chosen another Fuji and it is called the X100f. It is a fixed lens camera, using the same sensor and modes of operation as my previous larger Fuji x pro 2. It was really a hard decision, but after going back and looking at a great many images I had shot with the X pro 2, it became obvious that most were produced at a focal length of 23mm 2.0 which is 35mm on a cropped APS-C sensor. The Fuji X100f has a very sharp 23mm 2.0 lens. The camera is incredibly light, small, and built like a tank.

In conjunction with the X100f I also have my iPhone Xr, and a very neat little device, the DJI Osmo Pocket gimbal camera. It fits in something as small as a shirt pocket and can take incredible 4k video, stills, panoramas, and so much more. It ways less than my phone even though it contains a 3 axis gimbal.

So now I can get out and about with one heck of a lot less weight to haul around while letting me get the images I so much want to create.

I still have challenges such as walking and bending, but with less gear to deal with I can get passed all that, and if you have challenges you too should figure out ways to overcome them if you can.

Good luck and good health.

youtu.be/VOgFZfRVaww

Watch this Fuji video.
— Read on fujifilm-x.com/en-us/create-forever-ian-macdonald/

The latest movie from Claude Lelouch has just opened at Cannes, and he described the iPhone as allowing the director to go further than ever before. And that Orson Welles would have loved it.
— Read on www.forbes.com/

Smartphones have advanced at an incredibly rapid pace as have the accessories that turn them into professional video cameras.

In this article about Claude Lelouch you can read about his love of using an iPhone with a variety of inexpensive accessories to make full length films.

I hope you enjoy the article that was published in Forbes.

A very close and dear friend had posted what is below on Facebook and I decided to copy this part of the conversation because it is so important for all decent Americans too stand up and be counted in a protest to the Washington establishment that what Donald Trump and his supporters are turning our country into.

It has become the pits of hell for so many Americans and for those who are seeking refuge from places of hate. The sad part is that they have run from hate into more hate perpertrated by our President and his followers and the whole republican political establishment. If you care about your future and the future of your country then you must act NOW.

————————————————————

“Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how . . . it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough.’’

These remarks came not from some barstool conversation but the President of the United States. These comments are racist, white nationalist, xenophobic, and un-American. They are dangerous and immature. Our fore fathers allowed for foreign born citizens to be elected and govern, because they were foreign born, as was most of our country. Immigration, leaving poverty and oppression for a better life is deep in our soul as a country. (BTW 3 of these Congresswomen were born here, and 1 is a naturalized citizen)

What could be worse than this? Silence. Silence from the Republican Party that is deafening. I don’t care what your political persuasion is, this, THIS is immoral. And you can not rationalize or justify this away because you like some of what he is doing or you want to WIN. You may win, but we – all of us, will lose that which is most dear – our soul, our country and our democracy.

For the love of God, open your mouths, don’t defend, don’t rationalize, don’t normalize this behavior. IT IS RACIST! And if you allow it to happen, then I have the right to question whether you are too.

Everyone, please not only vote, but write and stand up in anyway you can. Write to Republicans that are in your state or district. Write to your democratic reps and senators as well, both at the state and federal level. They need to know and hear from others than his base. They need to know what they stand to lose or my real fear is he can win in 2020. I was someone who was not surprised he won in the last election and I am very concerned he can win again. Please, please, don’t be complacent!! This is too IMPORTANT.

Nizo is a filmmaking and editing app that includes a ‘Showcase’ to highlight other filmmakers and techniques.
— Read on mobilesyrup.com/2019/04/28/nizo-video-app-review/

I have always felt that an image, a single image must produce a emotional reaction. For me images done in black and white have always done that.

Of late I have been delving into trying to learn simple video through the use of my IPhone XR and my Fuji X pro 2. Because of that I watch videos done with this kind of gear and watch tutorials on how to edit.

Truthfully, I find still imaging a lot easier to do but of course I have done that all my long life.

This video, according to the artist was done with a Fuji Xt3, and was shot and edited in one day. All I can say is I am inspired by what I see.

www.youtube.com/watch

I am not selling an Apple Product in the video blog. But I thought it was so well done and different that I would share it if you have not yet seen it. Enjoy.

youtu.be/yyNtm0LZiKc

WOMEN,WOMEN,WOMEN. Do not ever forget that the creative talents of women and they are many, have been applied to photography before most of us were ever born and it for sure continues on in our lifetime and beyond. HURRAY TO WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHY PROFESSIONALS AND ARTISTS.

Out of Life’s 101 staff photographers from 1936–72, only 6 were women. Despite the endemic sexism they faced, they helped define modern photojournalism.
— Read on www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-6-women-shaped-photojournalism-lifes-heyday

Thorsten Overgaard Official Homepage Since 1996 – Thorsten von Overgaard is a Danish writer and photographer, specializing in portrait photography and documentary photography, known for writings about photography and as an educator and photo compeition judge. For specific photography needs worldwide, contact Thorsten Overgaard via e-mail. Some photos are available as signed prints and limited editions via galleries or online.

— Read on www.overgaard.dk/the-story-behind-that-picture-0202_gb.html

www.youtube.com/watch

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-robert-deniro-mueller-report-trump-20190620-story.html

The Muller Report Out Loud
https://www.facebook.com/LawWorksAction/videos/314946506057200/

This was sent to me by my friend Mike, who always sends me great things to view and it is about an 83 year old street photographer whose passion is street photography and life as it happens. As he says photography is for his soul and he has had another job to sustain him.

I hope you enjoy this as much as did and do.

www.youtube.com/watch

My friend Mike always finds these neat videos which brings back where photography was over the years, it’s history.

I enjoyed this and hope you do too.

This is the link

It almost seems like Apple and other Mobile Phone manufacturers but most certainly Apple’s IPhone team  figured out how to make their in phone camera and camera app understood by their users.

Phone cameras and their supporting softwares have come a very long way in a very short time frame and as an original nay sayer have to admit that I am truly enjoying to convenience of having a great camera in my pocket all the time to capture everyday moments as they happen, instantly and in the spur of the moment.

Take a look at some of the educational  material Apple supplies. Here.

In the next couple of months I am going to be using the IPhone XR primarily and different raw processing software to create images of every day life around me.  Stand by.

I actually copied this from someone’s Facebook post.

I have been fortunate in my various careers in photography to been honored to work with incredible women photographers and came across this article which you should take the time to read and learn from.

Women Photographers

This article speaks to the accomplishments of female photographers through history but lest we forget there are thousands and thousands of women photographers in our midst today.

A Dedication to the people of New Zealand

Excellent explanation of raw and jpeg files. Nik bhatt (1) who is the creator of “Raw Power” and was an essential player at Apple in regards to imaging, not once mentioned his software which is a raw processor and jpeg processor for Macintosh computers and Ios devices. I have been using this program since it hit the market place because it afford continuity between the devices I use to process my image files. The programs have both been adding important processing features and DAM capability in a relatively short period of time.

What has remained consistent however is the incredible image processing that the program is capable producing in a very precise yet simplified manner.

I love this program on my Ipad Pro 10.5 and really like the fact that it is running on the Mac and Ios platforms with exactly the same controls and capability.

I do use Capture One Fuji Pro for tethering and processing in my studio but that that does not replace what I use “Raw Power” for. It is a creative, elegant, accurate and a delight to use.

It is a very inexpensive processor but would be well worth the investment at a much higher price.

READ THE ARTICLE HERE

(1)”Nik Bhatt spent 14 years at Apple, first as a Senior Director of Engineering on the Aperture and iPhoto teams. Later he served as the CTO of the Photo Apps group, working with the Core Image and RAW teams before founding his own company, Gentlemen Coders.

His first app, RAW Power for Mac, built on his knowledge of Apple’s Photos and iCloud frameworks to provide a robust RAW editing workflow as a Photos for Mac extension and a standalone app. RAW Power for iOS brings all of the features of the Mac version and more to your iPhone and iPad.

Nik Bhatt spent 14 years at Apple, first as a Senior Director of Engineering on the Aperture and iPhoto teams. Later he served as the CTO of the Photo Apps group, working with the Core Image and RAW teams before founding his own company, Gentlemen Coders.

His first app, RAW Power for Mac, built on his knowledge of Apple’s Photos and iCloud frameworks to provide a robust RAW editing workflow as a Photos for Mac extension and a standalone app. RAW Power for iOS brings all of the features of the Mac version and more to your iPhone and iPad.”

I just finished writing way too many words and I have deleted every one of them.  While I reference a journey, I found that I had written hundreds of words about my journey in photography from the time I was five years old.  That is really more than anyone needs to know.

What you should gather from this blog article is that I have been involved in photography for a  long time and in that very long period which is about 70 years I have worked as a professional freelance photographer, worked for wholesale camera companies such as Nikon and Berkey Marketing (long gone), worked retail, taught photography, and did a stint as a military photographer in the United States Coast Guard.

One might think as I approach my 76th birthday that I would be pretty much done with all things about photography but that is not the case.  I am as passionate about the art of photography, and the storytelling that photography provides as I was when my dad put my first camera in my hands.  My dad was a professional photographer at one time in his life.

I have been fortunate to work with some extraordinary photographers, used some of the most wonderful photography gear and had the pleasure of passing on my knowledge and adventures to those who had a desire to learn more than they already know.

Photographers know what they know and do what they do quite well, but in reality, I have never met a photographer who knew everything.  The reason for that is simple.  As photographers, we tend to move towards a specific type of photography and that might be landscape, portraits, street, industrial, etc.  While the rules of dealing with light remain consistent,  how a photographer gets from point A to point B with lighting varies quite a bit.

For years, having worked for Nikon and being with Nikon when they first introduced their incredible flash system I came to rely on that flash system and camera metering to virtually handle all my lighting needs pretty much, automatically.  I had gone from loving ambient light for many things and manual flash for other things and found myself using more auto flash control to manipulate lighting for my images.

When I talk about a journey never really ending I feel that in time photographers can and should revisIt things they have not used or done for a long time and photographers who have stuck to a favorite way of shooting and never learned beyond that favorite way of shooting should open their minds to learning new things. Sometimes, we  do just that because certain things happen in life that might cause us to adjust how we deal with our photography.

That is what happened to me. Back injuries and age wound up taking its toll and I found myself somewhat limited in doing the more adventurous types of photography I loved and suddenly, even though I carried a camera bag with a minimal amount of gear all the time, I was not reaching for it. I was not reaching for it because the shot I wanted to take required more than I could do physically to capture it. What to do?

I decided that there was no way I was not going to produce images, create “art” or tell a story and if working outside was too limiting for me then I would move inside. I set up a studio in a bedroom that was 10 x 10 x 7.5 feet, purchased some inexpensive Godox and Flashpoint studio lighting and Glow lighting modifiers, and spent literally hours watching educational studio lighting Youtube videos. I practiced daily, step by step what I was learning. I learned a lot from the instructors on the Adorama educational channel. They were Gavin Hoey and Daniel Norton.

What you hopefully gather from this first chapter is that there should virtually be nothing that stops you from doing some form of what you like and nothing that would want to make you stop learning something new every day.

Chapter two coming soon. The Studio

This is a very good video from a professional photographer that is worth listening too.  Try to put aside one’s own brand loyalties and come to understand it is not what about what you own that determines how good you are as a photographer.  It is not about switching but really about what works for the photographer as opposed to what impression your gear leaves.

I know I write about a lot of different softwares and honestly quite a few of them are pretty darn good.  Some are not quite so good.  I can write about them because I own them or subscribe to them and I do that because I have the time to do that which a lot of other wonderful folks do not.  So while I find almost everything I use helpful in furthering the look of my raw and / or Jpeg images, every once in a while one program will stand out as exceptional.

What makes a program or app exceptional in my mind is the quality it brings to an image and how simple it works to achieve that quality.  While some programs are the perverbial kitchen sink, others are meat and potatoes and truthfully working with the down to earth meat and potatoe software and app without feeling I have to dive into all the multitude of effects and layers which usually result in less than desirable image quality or image looks.  However that does not mean I do not mean that I shall not use features of other programs once I have established a really good base image.

But for the everyday meat and potatoe processing of an image I now have one program that fits the bill.  It lets me make incredible adjustments that bring me to a finished product quickly, simply, and elegantly without spending needless hours.

That product as I am sure you can tell my the title of this blog post is Raw Power and I have watched its development for over a year now for both my Apple Macintosh and Apple IPad 10.5 and have to say that right now, today, Nik Bhatt, formerly the developer of Apple Aperture has announced the birth of version 2.0

The additions he has added to an already incredible processing engine or way beyond expectations and has now made this program one of the easiest to use, most powerful raw and other format processor at the top of the image processing game.

Just to be clear I have no business relationship with Gentlemen Coders or Nik Bhatt or for that matter even a personal relationship.  I am simply a customer of the company and have taken the time to use and watch and enjoy the development of this software.

O RAW Power 2.0 for iOS and Mac Now Available Edit on Mac, continue on iOS. Same adjustments, same exceptional RAW processing. On Mac, view multiple parts of your disk at the same time with the new tabbed file browser. Edit multiple images at the same time too! Presets come to iOS, along with five new adjustments for both Mac and iOS. New space-saving design on iOS allows you to collapse and reorder adjustments to make the most of your screen. On iOS, work with multiple images at once. Apply presets and adjustments, revert your edits, or make high quality JPEG previews for RAWs. On Mac, you can also batch apply presets or adjustments. In addition, export multiple images with custom size and naming options. New RAW Power 2.0: Free update. iOS includes a new in-app purchase for some of the new adjustments. Demo videos of the 2.0 features on YouTube Tons of other improvements including: Improved sharing on iOS to the Photos app Additional Metadata on Mac including a map for images with GPS Full Dark Look on macOS Mojave Learn more on our website

Grounded by injuries, an Air Force combat photographer turns her lens on fellow veterans.
— Read on www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/portrait-exhibit-casts-light-on-womens-underrecognized-military-service/2018/11/18/f6d50d5e-e9e9-11e8-a939-9469f1166f9d_story.html

Celebrate women every day. Remember and admire their contributions to the world we live in and learn everything you can about too many unrecognized achievements.