3 Quarters Today

My Life, my photography, my passions

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#16/52: My Favorite Country Barn, Edited with Lightroom

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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.

Photographing Country barns
Barn against a Cloudy Sky

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.

More Historic Country Barns

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Barns along Polling Station Road | Hoof Beats and Foot Prints

Drive along with me on a windy country road. Polling Station Road in Harwood, Maryland offers views of a variety of country barns. Most of them from a past era of tobacco farming in southern Maryland and stand in the …

D.L. Marriott » Blog Archive » Living in a Fairy Tale

It draws up images of pumpkins and scare crows, hay bales and country barns framed in russet leaves. I grew up in the city, and although my husband and I have spent all our child raising years in the suburbs, pretty far out in …

#15/52: Prom Season 2012

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Prom season kicks off early at Elmwood-Murdock high school and my daughter did what all teenage girls do before prom, searched for her dress (bought it online), had her nails done, her hair done and then have their Mom take way too many pictures.

Elmwood-Murdock does prom a little different than the bigger schools where kids rent limos which takes them to dinner and prom. The school prom committee raises money throughout their high school years and rents coach buses which picks the kids up at the school, where everyone rides together to a dinner, dance, and  then takes them to the after prom party. This years prom was held at Dave and Busters in Omaha.

Students walk out of the school on a red carpet while parents get a chance to take pictures paparazzi style. Really a lot of fun, at least from the Mom perspective. Enjoy the images of the Elmwood-Murdock 2012 Prom.

Red Carpet Walk at Prom 2012
Red Carpet Walk at Prom 2012
Glamorous Hollywood Walk at Prom 2012
Glamorous Hollywood Walk at Prom 2012
Yellow Prom Dress and corsage
My daughters yellow Prom Dress and corsage
Blue Prom Dress with Sequins
Blue Prom Dress with Sequins
Prom Dress Fashion Shoot
Prom Dress Fashion Shoot

By the way, all these images were edited in Lightroom 4 (still in the 30 day trial period) starting with the RAW files. I seriously miscalculated the exposure and almost all the images were over exposed. I am now soooo super impressed with Lightroom capabilities.

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#13/52: Sun’s So Bright, Gotta Wear Shades

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Blinding Sun in Nebraska Big Sky Country

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?

Moon Venus Conjuncture

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Twice this month my friend Beth and I have gone into a cornfield to take pictures of the Moon, Venus and Jupiter conjuncture. In layman’s terms it’s when the two planets share the same space with the moon.

Our favorite barn serves as a backdrop, yet both nights we had weather challenges. The first night was so cold our fingers froze. Tonight the wind was blowing 30 mph. Here’s what I got, may not be technically perfect, but I accomplished a goal. I learned how to take a bulb shot on my Canon ES Rebel.

Moon, Venus and Jupiter together in the western sky
Moon, Venus and Jupiter together in the western sky

The sky was hazy and cloudy, made for a difficultly viewing the moon, but did create a wonderful sunset.

Moon, Venus and Jupiter conjuncture
Moon, Venus and Jupiter conjuncture


The photo below was taken the end of February, note the position of the moon and planets is now a little northward and Venus is closer to the moon.

Moon, Venus and Jupiter together in the night sky
Moon, Venus and Jupiter together in the night sky
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Photoshop Friday: Sunset Silhouette

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I’m starting a new series, Photoshop Friday. In one way I miss my 365 Project and blogging on a more regular basis, and between picking just one photo per week it leaves me little room to experiment with Photoshop. So I’ll be choosing photos which I think I can improve with post production. So here is week one of Photoshop Friday.

Photoshop and Raw through Gimp