I encourage everyone to take the time to enhance their photos, especially the ones you admire the most or consider precious. Even pictures taken with the cheapest of point-and-shoot cameras can benefit from a little digital improvement here and there. You’d be surprised at the difference it can make.

I liken this process to preparing raw meats for a meal. Rarely do you simply cook and consume a piece of meat as is from the store, without flavoring or marinading it at least a little. You almost always have to resize the meat somehow and then marinade it for taste, even if that only means a dash of salt or pepper to enhance its flavor. Well, rarely do images captured with any camera (high-end ones included) come out prepared perfectly, the best it can look. Once in awhile you’ll get lucky with that great money shot, but even then I bet it still can benefit from a little bump in contrast or recovery in the highlights (a little salt and pepper).

This becomes even more true if you’re shooting in RAW format these days (which most of my photos are taken). Your camera is outputting the best possible image quality that it’s mechanically capable of shooting (100% color/levels/white balance etc information). But it then becomes your job to tweak all that information so that it comes to life. It’s like the butcher giving you the best quality meat he has. Its up to you to season and prepare it so that you bring out the best flavors of that meat. Ever see pieces of raw footage from a hollywood movie or commercial before it’s been sent to the highly paid Colorist for grading? It’s almost unrecognizable in a lot of cases. The difference in before and after are stunning. And we’re talking about ridiculously high quality cameras shooting this raw material.

Which brings me next to my software of choice, Adobe Lightroom. Unlike Photoshop, which to me is more of an image manipulation software, Lightroom is a photograph enhancing tool. This is different than manipulating a picture…nothing is physically altered in the image. It’s simply enhanced… toning this detail down, bringing that one up.. until its digital information is balanced the way you like it.

Lightroom is built for the photographer and purist. Getting familiar with its specific sequence of Developing tools alone can be an education in the fundamentals of photographic principles. Starts with white balance to tonal balance to color ranges, and finishes with vignette correction… exactly the natural sequence of logic that a seasoned photographer would follow. Its quite easy to learn the software by experimenting, and you can start slow. It doesn’t take much time before you figure out the necessary tweaks and what they accomplish. Can’t say enough positive things about this tool. Give it a shot if you haven’t already. There isn’t a photograph of mine that i care about that doesn’t pass through Lightroom at some point.

As a side note, I might consider making some of my own video tutorials on topics such as this (showing my photo touchup workflow, etc). I’m trying to gauge interest, so if there’s anyone actually still reading this blog who would be interested in that, do let me know.

I needed a creative workaround.  Let’s treat video just like photography and show snippets/captures of time!  A first xmas, a funny expression, any memorable instance.  No time for full features or storyboards either. Keep it short. And its all about fun with the gear and technology too!

Then one day as I was deconstructing an animation piece of a motion designer I admire (it helps me learn software and thought processes), it turned out to be a perfect template for some fun with Samantha video (so I can’t take credit for the design, but the actual content is mine own of course). Lets create a small series of short vids, with a fun opener.

Well, here are the initial results.  Sorry Windows/IE users, they’re quicktime .movs for now (with my parental and work responsibilities, its the quickest workflow if I’m to do this at all). Either download QT/iTunes or toss them onto your ipod to watch on your way to work (cause I know you want to watch Sam all day long ). Maybe if I have time to figure out the whole Facebook youTube Vimeo Podcast thingy one day, it’ll be more accessible. Any suggestions, do share!

That’s it for now.

“Most people come back from their trips with handfuls of snapshots of friends and family, strategically posed in front of some monument or view of significance. My family, on the other hand, look through the photos that I take on our trips and wonder, how come there are never any pictures of us? My daughter, who jumps at any chance to model, looks at me in dismay when flipping through the shots, all she finds are pictures of slices of pie, signs of restaurants and, if she’s lucky, her hands offering up some local seasonal fruit. My work tends to bleed over into my personal life more than a little.

I find that I just want to bring home all the little details of the places that visit. I want a memento to remind me of the silky smoothness of the goat cheese ice cream we had in the century old farmhouse in the Loire Valley or of the bright crisp redness of the sweetheart cherries from a Yakima farm stand. My photos aren’t proof of a visit… they are portals that transport me back whenever I need a little escape.”

I thought breastfeeding encourages weight loss, but I don’t think it’s working fast enough for me. Of course all the holiday candies and sweats doesn’t help either. I need to get back to my normal weight. I have so little clothes to wear these days and i hate the way I look in pictures. Too bad I don’t have membership to the gym anymore and it’s too cold for me to jog outside, so I rented pilates DVDs to work out at home. I tried it the other day and it proves how out of shape I am. The moves that I used to be able to do are now difficult for me. I guess I need to keep trying to get back in shape. My plan is to do pilates every other day and do cardio in between (if weather permits).