Nature Photography Tips

Just discovered this nifty little site full of tips for nature photography:

National Wildlife Federation's "Photozone"

Definitely worth taking a look at.  I'll be going back to read more, but what I've seen so far has been quality stuff.  It includes some of the basics you'd expect to see, but other tips as well - like how to photograph in wet weather.  Could come in handy in this Pacific NW climate.

Easier Said Than Done

I'm trying to follow my own advice, but this is tough.  I just bit off a very small chunk of the vast quantity of photos currently on my SD card. I grabbed the 83 photos I took while walking the Cedar River trail last weekend.  I've only managed to eliminate 11 on the first go 'round, leaving me with 72.  I've got to get better at this!  After all, how many photos does one need of spawning salmon and yellow leaves??   And I haven't even begun to touch the following day at the Pumpkin Patch with my grandson -- or the week long camping trip back in September! Ahhhhhhh!!!  OK, back to see if I can whittle away a few more...

Photoshop Elements Software

A few weeks ago I got an email from Adobe allowing me to upgrade to PSE 11 at a good discount.  I've been on version 9 for quite a while now and it seemed like a good deal (of course I did a bit of research first, not being one to part with my hard-earned $'s easily).  So I snagged it, only to have them announce a week or so later that version 12 is available.  Now they tell me!  Well after being mildly perturbed, I did more research and other than 12 having a new "pet-eye fix" I didn't see much to be disappointed about.  Some of the upgrades are enhancements for those of you who want to integrate your Elements photos with your smarty-pants cell phones.  I don't have one - a smart one that is, so I'm happily sticking with version 11 for the foreseeable future.

If you're thinking about upgrading or purchasing your very first copy, here is a link that compares some of the latest versions:

Adobe Photoshop Elements Buying Guide

If you're planning to buy, be sure and check out pricing at Amazon.com before purchasing elsewhere. They usually have at least a $10 discount, even on the latest version.  Also if you're going for your very first copy, I would definitely recommend version 12.  There isn't that much of a price difference and you might as well start with the latest & greatest.

Now that I'm armed with my new software, I'll start playing around with the included "Element's Organizer". Got to get these massive amounts of images under control!  I have a feeling that this very intensive exercise will teach me to be a little more selective with the amount of picture taking I do in the future. 

Where to Put All Those Photos?

So guess what I've been doing for the last week?  Well lots of things involving life in general and totally unrelated to photography, BUT...  I've actually spent a bit of time deleting some of my oodles of photos (per my last blog post).  Now it's just a fraction of what needs to be done, but the point is I'm trying!!!

I've also come to realize that my tidy, little mind (with OCD tendencies) had not been using the best system for organizing my excessive collection of images.  Here's what my "Pictures" folder looks like.  As you can see, I'd oh-so-neatly dumped everything into it's corresponding year, with a few specialized folders for miscellaneous type items.

I'd then broke it down further (as any obsessive organizer would), so that within each year we have (of course!) the 12 months of the year.

Yes, it's worked adequately for a time, but here's the deal.  If I want to find pictures of my grandson's 3rd birthday, I can pretty quickly find what I'm looking for.  March is March and always will be - just get the year right.  But what if I want to find all the pictures I've ever taken of yellow roses?  Or pictures of my dog?  Holy cow!  Now we're getting into some major time issues!  

Obviously I should have taken advantage of key words and some type of organizer.  So that's my next task.  I've never really explored the organizer that comes with Photoshop Elements. Stupid, I know - been right under my nose all this time.  So does anyone have any advice?  Has anyone used the PSE organizer or have any other program to suggest?  

Keep Only What You'll Use

Something I very much need to drill into my own routine.  If I come away with nothing in the next year but manage to accomplish this, I will feel like a huge success.  I don't even know how many thousands of digital images I have stashed away on my computer (since 1999 so you can imagine).  It's not so much about space these days, now that computers have more than ample hard drive capacity.  It's the simple matter of being organized and saving yourself time in the long run.  Months or years from now, who wants to sort through that extra 50%, 75%, or whatever, looking for that certain something?  So I will probably die without ever making this happen with everything from 1999, but starting NOW, here is the plan:

• Each and every time I go to load pictures from my camera, I will (at a minimum) quickly cycle through them on the big screen and delete any shots that are an obvious waste of time - the out of focus, the wrong angle, that gal who normally has such a nice smile but now managed to look as if she's ready to puke, etc.

• Then I will cycle through again, more carefully and decide things like this:  Of those 10 nearly identical shots, let's just see if we can't narrow it down to 2 or 3 keepers - or even 6 would be an improvement.  Discard the rest.  Why would you ever need them?   (Follow this advice if you like, but I'm really speaking sternly to myself here.  I can literally spend hours scrutinizing things to pieces and what a waste of time!  I could be out shooting more pictures or taking care of some worthwhile task that would otherwise suffer - like laundry!  So pick the first 3 or 4 that initially grab ya and be done with it!)

Now that we've got our keepers, we'll need to talk about how to best organize them, but that's for another day.

Groupon Deal for Metal Prints

I haven't tried doing any metal prints yet, but I just came across a very affordable way to give it a whirl.  For the next 5 days Groupon is offering an 8x10 metal print for only $5.  Of course there is shipping on top of it, which happens to be $14.95.  Still for $20 you're getting what is normally $30 plus shipping @ RitzPix.  Could make for a nice gift with the holidays coming.

Groupon Link

I just purchased two.  Now the hard part... How to narrow down which 2 images I want to use!

Back in the Saddle (so to speak)

Well obviously I wasn't quite ready to "get crack'n" as I'd mentioned in a previous post.  It's been a beautiful, busy summer (lots of photo taking) and I've also spent some time creating my photo website.  I'm still working on adding more to the galleries, but other than that it's up and running.

www.images-byramona.com

Back to this blogging thing.  I'm excited to get going, but I also want to be realistic.  As much as I'd love to do more, I'm setting the hopefully, obtainable goal of a weekly post or the equivalent of at least 52 posts by this time next year.  That may not sound like a lot, but since it's my intention of learning something with each one, there could be a fair amount of time spent behind the scenes.  The quick snippet on the blog is simply a recap and something for me (us) to refer back to. 

If only the day job didn't get in the way of the things I'd really like to be doing!  Ah well...