3 Quarters Today

My Life, my photography, my passions

elmwood

Correcting White Balance in Snow Photography

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Winter in Nebraska can be fickle. We can have a season of blizzards, or just a couple of big snow storms that dump 8-12 inches a few times during the season. This year we have had no big snow storms, just a slight dusting at Christmas time, enough to say we had a white Christmas and nothing more.

The news is full of winter storm watches, bitter cold and above average snow falls from Chicago to New England, but nothing in Nebraska. So I’ve gone back into my archive photography files to get a taste of a snowy winter. The year is 2012 and in February we had a really nice, slow snowfall that coated everything. I went out with a camera I just got for Christmas, my oldest Marine son gave me his Canon Rebel before he deployed, and took photo after photo of the amazing scenery.

I have since started shooting in RAW and editing in Lightroom, so I thought I would rework a photo to see how I can improve on it now.

Winter snow on the plow
1. Before SOOC
Snow on the plow
2. After: crop, white balance, edited in Lightroom
Lightroom photo edit: snow on the plow
Click on image to see Lightroom details in editing.

First I cropped the original to a 5×7 and zoomed in a little closer. Then set the white balance in Lightroom by using the eyedropper on the snow, this eliminated the greenish cast. I also increased the highlights, clarity and contrast to give more texture. Below is horizontal crop version where I applied noise reduction. Since this image was originally a JPG shot at 400 ISO I thought it could use some smoothing out.

Which do you like the best, 1,2 or 3?

Winter farm storage
3. Horizontal crop with Lightroom noise reduction

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#2/52: Early Morning Commute, Country Style

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Early morning commute
Week 2: Early Morning Commute

I pass this barn between Elmwood and Murdock every morning as I  drive to work. My commute is about twenty eight miles and takes about 35 minutes to arrive in the parking lot at Hamilton Color Lab. My first fifteen minutes looks about like this before I get to the I-80 interstate.

The full moon behind the barn was just too good to pass by, maybe next time I’ll remember to put my camera setting on RAW.

This is Week 2 of my Project 52, here’s hoping to better and better pictures with my new camera my son gave me for Christmas.

Day 253-256, Our New House

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Just one of the major life events in the past two months was moving into our new house. I first walked through this house three years ago, the first time it went on the market. Due to various reasons, it wasn’t in my price range, and the timing wasn’t right. So why did it stay on the market for so long.

As it went through various realtors, and decreased in price I slightly said a prayer every time. Please let it stay on the market until I can afford it, and the timing is right. I guess my prayer worked. During the three years I met Randy, changed jobs, paid down some debt, and this house got a new paint job inside and just waited.

It may look like an inconspicuous ranch, but inside is a five bedroom, three bath, garage, huge backyard, deck and an AMAZING basement family room with a fireplace all in 2800 square feet. That is three times bigger than the house I moved out of three blocks down the road. By the way, my old house will be for sale soon, at a great bargain.

New House in Elmwood NE
New House in Elmwood NE
View: Dining room into kitchen, before moving the cabinets
View: Dining room into kitchen, before moving the cabinets
After moving the cabinets to the other wall, really opened up the room, love how it looks and feels.
After moving the cabinets to the other wall, the room really opened up. Love how it looks and feels. Note the counters, not so empty anymore.
Our wedding flowers given to us by Josephine, a dear friend of the family, kinda like my second Mom.
Our wedding flowers given to us by Josephine, a dear friend of the family, kinda like my second Mom. Note my clean kitchen counters, remember this, it will be a rare occasion