When I began this article, I set out to prove that RAW was king and JPEG was for the naive. While I still think shooting in RAW mode is the best strategy for overall image quality and creative control, I did learn a new way to improve JPEG images using Adobe RAW processing techniques and exposure compensation. In this article, I compare RAW and JPEG by running them through the same processing techniques. The results are startling. For this post I'm making the grand assumption that you are using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Raw. If you don't have those two programs and have splurged on a Digital SLR and corresponding kit, you should seriously re-evaluate where you are spending your photography dollar. Like it or not, Photoshop will give you far more control over your final image than any other piece of hardware you can buy. If you don't believe me, download a trial version here and see for yourself. Exposure Compensation: RAW vs JPEG I started off with an underexposed image that I shot last month on the Oregon coast. The image was composed on a Canon 5d with a 17-40L lens and was shot from the balcony of our hotel. Now ...

  Last October I was faced with one of my toughest challenges as a consumer - I was getting married and I needed to hire the photographer.  My now wife knew this would be an impossible task and was not going to touch it with a 10 foot pole - no, this one was mine.  Here's how I went about hiring my photographer, the steps I took, and what I feel is important to know when hiring your own wedding (or any event) photographer. The Process of Hiring a Photographer Figure out what you want in a Photographer - My process started with a long period of procrastination.  Periodically I would scan local photographer's websites, but was often underwhelmed by the stock poses and overwhelmed by the "packages."  Not that it put my wife's mind at ease, but all this waiting and perusing allowed me to get clear on what I wanted in a wedding photographer. To me, wedding photography is all about image quality, style and story-telling.  Our venue was not the traditional pew lined isle of a church, but rather a pecan grove in central Phoenix.  Liz and I both love the outdoors, so it just made sense to make that a ...

I have long been a pursuer of the ancients.  Maybe because these relics of the past add complexity and rhythm to the landscape.  Be they old cars dissolving into the ground, a half collapsed hotel, or a sagging barn; my camera inevitably drifts towards the past. They gage our past and our progress, and serving as reminders of where we've come from.  They provide endless textures, muted colors, and forms that defy convention.   These modern day monuments tell stories of an ever mobile society carried on the winds of change.  So in honor of these weather beaten-buildings and bullet ridden jalopies, I present the Decayed Earth Project.    

If you're like me and enjoy the shallow depth of field and graceful lines of macro photography you have undoubtedly explored ways to extend your macro capabilities.  My quest to improve my macro work started out as a quest to gain Tilt and Shift capabilities on my Canon Digital SLR. While that goal has remain elusive, I have improved my macro capabilities in the process.   Enter the macro bellows.  Similar to a large format view camera, the bellows attachment give you the ability to increase the distance between the sensor/film plane and your choice of optics. None of the lenses that I had for my camera did a particularly great job with the macro, so adding extension tube, while an option, would not be a complete solution for my dilemma.  One of the primary purposes for the macro bellows was to duplicate slides.  A secondary attachment to hold a slide or film negative would be mounted in front of the lens and the bellows  would allow for the focusing on the image.  Snap a picture, and now you have a duplicate.  Keep in mind that these were popular in the days before drum scanners and other digital reproduction solutions.  But with the duplicator attachment removed, the bellows ...

Liz and I decided that it would be a good idea to go camping for my birthday.  We set out from Phoenix to do a loop through Prescott, AZ up through Ash Fork to Williams, then down the dirt roads from Williams into Jerome, AZ before heading home after this short two day, one night get away. Storm clouds threatened us nearly from our door step, but we felt good that we were finally getting the little M416 Jeep trailer on the trail.  This was a project that I took on just before the table saw incident and has been a long time to completion.  She ran perfect; straight, quiet, and took the harsh beating that Arizona roads are known for.  And, this trailer setup is so light, you hardly remember that you are dragging it along.  Our day started early and we were in Prescott for Breakfast.  We hit the store for supplies, then headed north on 89 to the town of Ash Fork.  The skies were dark and as we approached I-40, they opened up and flooded the streets.  We slowly motored up the street through what seems to be a deserted town, then picked up interstate 40 and headed for Williams.  More to ...

Well, we’re off again on this year’s trip. Tonight we find ourselves in Overgaard, AZ. It’s about 4 hours north east of Phoenix and was a good choice to avoid the traffic getting out of town. Tomorrow we push to Taos, NM where we have what looks to be a great B&B to stay at. This trip was a long time coming and both Liz and I are excited to be on the road last. The road out of Payson travels up on top of the Mollogon Rim which reaches into the sky some 7000 feet. On our way up, we passed through a summer storm that dropped rain in front of us most of the way up. We were greeted at the top by a double rainbow and a bright orange sky that looked as though the surrounding pines were ablaze. Not a sight unfamiliar to this area as the surrounding hills are still charred from wildfires in recent years. Thankfully the BLM is wising up and cutting down the underbrush that fuels these fires and we saw plenty of evidence of that on the way here. Tomorrow will be a mildly long day in the truck; traveling from Overgaard, through ...

It has been a while since I've added any content to the site. Life has been busy and it is fixin' to start moving even faster in the next couple months.  Both Liz and I have business travel that will take us from coast to coast over the next few weeks.  Since we will hardly see each other for a good stretch, we decided to take last weekend and hit the open roads of Arizona. Our trip started on Saturday and took us out through Globe and Superior, the later of which I think is a real estate investment boom waiting to happen.  We cruised up route 88 which is a lonely stretch of asphalt that traverses through the outer fringe of the Superstition Mountains before spitting us out at the top of Roosevelt Lake.   The plan was to camp on top of a mesa overlooking the lake and with any luck, we would have the place all to ourselves.  The recent and abundant rains had lifted any chance of fire restrictions and we have a bed full of wood to burn - good old fashion camping. Eventually route 88 turns to 288 and with that came a gravel road. I think the last ...

9/21/2003 - Departure from Reality   I left Phoenix about 7:30 am and was in Flagstaff by 9:30.  There I did some chores before moving on the Page/Lake Powell area.  I arrived at the horse shoe bend of the Colorado around 2:00 pm and loaded up the camera gear for the short hike over the hill.  I struggled to get the whole scene in with my wide angle lens and was shocked to find out that you practically need to shoot strait down over a cliff to get the shot.  I think the right lens would be a 8 – 10 mm fisheye if you are shooting digital.  I may stop on the way back and shoot the film body to make sure I get it.  I’m sitting on a cliff that must be 2000 feet above Lake Powell watching the sun set over my shoulder and lighting afire the canyon walls before me.  This was a nice surprise with today’s flat skies.  Water is extremely low exposing much of the low level shoreline. It’s pretty clear that we are suffering from a wide scale drought.    My lookout is known as Alstrom Point and proved a difficult find even with the modern ...

It all started with a red trailer from Fred Meyer, some plywood from Home Depot and a whole lotta stuff. Completing the ensemble was a maroon 1980's Datsun 200sx and two college kids who had no idea what they were getting into. "No problem, we'll just drive strait through from Mukilteo, Wa to Phoenix, AZ". "The car is reliable and the trailer is brand new, what could possibly go wrong?"....   I guess the answer to that is “plenty.” It started with the trailer assembly, which was no small feat since it came in a box of about a thousand pieces and had more hardware than the audience at a Puffy Daddy concert. After a couple days working with another friend piecing together the trailer, I stood back to marvel at the beauty of a 4’ x 4’ x 8’ plywood box on wheels. Hook it up, time to move. As always, packing took considerably longer and more space that originally calculated. Why can’t guys do anything that doesn’t take at least fours longer than their most conservative estimate? After staying up most of Sunday night packing, we managed to shoe horn most of my things into the trailer and hatchback of the ...