My Life, my photography, my passions
The clouds in Nebraska take on a life of their own and offer a landscape panorama that takes your breath away
A lone buffalo stands guard between Omaha and Lincoln Nebraska at the Lee Simmons Wildlife park. While he may not be wild, or even real, the buffalo inside the park are real. It is ironic this buffalo stands next to a fence, which to me symbolizes how barbed wire and man civilized the prairie to the point where the only buffalo can only be seen in captivity.
The above shot is straight out of camera shot, a little over exposed. When I adjusted the exposure the scene was just too contrasted for the texture of the bronze buffalo. So I turned him to black and white in Lightroom 4. This is a reach for me as I LOVE the blue of the sky and high contrast.
I adjusted the clarity in the clouds and reduced the shadows in the grass.
What version do you like best?
The grass is belly high, the cow have calves by their side and the sun is setting on the horizon. How I love the Midwest! Angus and “black baldy” cows are the norm around this part of the country and after “talking” to them a little I got their attention.
Editing notes: Used Lightroom 4 to increase the exposure and increase clarity in the grass and the brush to decrease the exposure in the sky. The last thing I did was use the masking brush and open up the the highlights in the cows, their black coloring was hard to separate individuals.
A Field Guide to Cows: How to Identify and Appreciate America’s 52
Cattle: A Handbook to the Breeds of the WorldRaising Beef Cattle For DummiesKnow Your CowsThe Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals: Choose the Best BreedsSmall Cattle for Small Farms (Landlinks Press)
I love country barns (okay, it’s really a corn crib) in Nebraska is one of my favorite photography subjects, yet this shot is my favorite. I pass it at least twice a day and it sits in the middle of a field with nothing around it, solitary, no trees, just in the middle of a field with either corn or soybeans growing on all sides. It has different moods depending on the light and looks different in the early morning and at night with the sun setting behind the western sky.
My favorite barn gets my attention every time I drive past and have often taken photographs to capture the mode. They never come out exactly how it looks in real life though. But with the help of Adobe Lightroom this has changed, I can actually say that this is truly what the barn looked like that day.
From what I understand in reading various photography blogs and sites a camera has difficulty collecting all the dynamic ranges of lights and darks. In simple terms you expose for the sky or your subject. That leaves the other parts of you picture over or under exposed.
The newest version of Lightroom 4 has an amazing capability of pulling out shadows, highlights, whites and blacks without leaving artifacts in the image. This was shot in RAW and I’m very impressed, puts my Photoshop CS2 to shame. The later versions of Photoshop do have more advanced algorithms that achieve the same thing, but I can only compare the programs I use.
I will still keep using Photoshop, Lightroom is only another tool to use and does not have text or graphic design capability. I still love adding drop shadows, borders and creating custom layouts.
Stay tuned for more Lightroom 4 examples, and possibly redo’s of previous photos as a comparison.
Barns of New York: Rural Architecture of the Empire State
Barn Quilts and the American Quilt Trail MovementBarn Find Road Trip: 3 Guys, 14 Days and 1000 Lost Collector Cars DiscoveredThe Barn: Memoir of a Family during the Nazi Occupation of Holland in 1940-1945
Country Roads and Friday Finds – Keeping With The Times
Barns along Polling Station Road | Hoof Beats and Foot Prints
D.L. Marriott » Blog Archive » Living in a Fairy Tale
Whoever called Nebraska a boring fly over state has never really opened their eyes. I see such spectacular scenery every day driving home from work it takes my breath away. Made me think of the One Hit Wonder song. “Futures So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades” by Timbuk 3.
Enjoy this video blast from 1986, back when MTV actually played music videos. Can anyone remember where they were when they heard this song?
