Enter Lightroom.

So I actually spent a couple hours going through some of Adobe’s online tutorials to get some insight into how to really use the tool.  Very helpful.  I learned all sorts of things I would have never discovered on my own.  Then I set off to adjust a photo of the Terminal that I love, but hated certain aspects of.  Here it is:

Love the tone, hate the noise and the darkness of the Baggage Check arch.  So, I tried out a multitude of Lightroom tweaks and got this:

I could easily fix the perspective distortion, the chromatic aberration and the luminance noise, perk up some of the darker areas, and easily add back in the lens’ vignetting after adjusting the cropping.  Not bad for a first time shot at using Lightroom!

Next up…  transferring it to Photoshop to remove that damn EXIT sign…

Today was the first official day of preschool – no parents!  You can see how concerned Ariella was about this…

Of course she was fine with the whole experience.  And now she can finally tell people that she does something other than gymnastics!

Ok…  one train photo.

Of course, when we got there it was just starting to rain.  By the time I was finished checking in, it was pouring.  The category I drew?  “Rides.”  I didn’t even make it the 500 feet to where the rides started before my sneakers were soaked.  And of course, none of the rides were running.  So I figured if I couldn’t beat the rain, I was going to have to join it and tell the sad story of closed rides due to rain.  So I started by shooting this:

Ariella and Grandpa were walking around in the rain with me (Amanda stayed behind with Cambree inside where it was drier) and I figured that they made a more interesting subject.

The shot I liked best stylistically was this next one, but I shot 3 frames and each one the focus was off.  It’s tough shooting one handed with an umbrella in the other hand!  When I saw it on the computer I knew I couldn’t submit it.

Tried another ride worker shot…

Then we met back up with Amanda and Cambree and I tried a couple variations on the Ariella looking sad because the rides were closed theme.  She wasn’t very cooperative.  I really wanted to get one of these with her holding the umbrella standing all by herself.  Didn’t happen.

We had time to take one more walk through the midway and the rain had stopped.  Ariella was running from one ride to another and Amanda had the idea of putting her in front of the height measuring stick.  I had a bunch of frontal shots, then the runner up shot:

And finally, the big winner:

I was amazed to find out I won not only first place in the “Rides” category, but “Best In Shootout” too!  I was blown away!  I thought it was a decent shot, but it pales in comparison to what I see some of my pro buddies shoot on any given day.  Kudos to those shooters who work with kids on a regular basis.  I don’t know how you keep up with them and get great shots consistently.  I’m also not typically a portrait photographer, but trying to shoot closed rides wasn’t going to work without another focal point to tell a story.

I guess winning is motivation enough to try it again next year!

But, what’s the point in taking them if I’m not going to post them?  So here are some recent shots of the kids…

So, back when I owned my Eclipse I bought all these neon lights.  When I traded it in, I pulled them all out and they were shoved in a box doing nothing.  Last year I had the brilliant idea of throwing them on my John Deere LA145.  It has all these air intakes and I thought the red neons would make it look angry… like the engine was ready to spit fire.

I never got around to taking pics of it, but John Deere was asking on their Facebook page for fan photos, and I thought this was a good excuse to finally do it.

My wireless flash trigger was being a total PITA, so aside from the photo with me in it which has the flash on camera shooting through a grid, the others are all long exposures with me hand-holding and manually triggering the flash.

And so we begin with Castello Sforzesco…

And three of those ohsocute faces…

I couldn’t help notice the similar pose of Amanda and Cambree.  Cambree’s much younger than Ariella was in her pic, but the similarities are certainly there.

Although I do like the full color version of this photo as well.

Here is the original, unmodified photo:

What I loved about this scene was the cobblestone walkway against the arched walls, but the color of the photo was so monochromatic that nothing really stood out.  I made a few layers and separated the walls from the floor and then started playing with each separately.  I struck this balance by using the Vibrance tool to desaturate the cobblestones:

What I found interesting was that by desaturating the cobblestones, I think it draws attention to them by focusing on the shapes and geometry rather than the color.  I also thought the Vibrance tool did a more interesting desaturation than by simply adjusting the saturation down.  Vibrance preserves skin tones, so cranking it down left some amber color highlights in the “grout” where that color was prevalent.

I really like the effect. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Amanda spotted this tree in the graveyard and demanded that we stop and take photos of it. My Photoshop skills leave much to be desired, but this is roughly the effect I was going for.

I will finish before Christmas. I will finish before Christmas.