Your Camera's Eye

 First off ..... HALLELUJAH ..... I think I've found the answer to the skunk problem in California.  These metal pieces with tines that stick down in the dirt at the bottom of the fence just might do the trick.  They were actually made to keep your puppy dog from digging underneath and getting out.  If the tines are long enough, it just might keep the skunks OUT!!  It would be nice to get my lawn furniture back that is now laying upside down next to the fence!!  Woohoo!

In other exciting news, the Chance family and I had great afternoon in the comfort of air conditioning and the most fabulous theatre chairs I've ever experienced.  Talk about cushy and oh-so-adjustable!  We went to see Jungle Cruise at 1:30.

Of course there were the obligatory 39 commercials for all the movies to come.  It seems the creators of cartoons have been hard at work this last year.  There's hardly a movie out there with real people in it.

At last our show started with a bang.  I do love The Rock, Dwayne Johnson, mostly because he's such a hard worker.  This guy has gone over and above when it comes to work and always preaches work ethic.   He says failure is what made him keep trying.  He started out wanting to play football, but when that didn't happen, he went into the wrestling business, following his Dad's footsteps.  This was the real early slam bang wrestling of old TV fame.  

After receiving every title you could possibly ever get in the "game", he turned to movies and has been a hit ever since.  I follow him on Facebook occasionally, and he's always at the gym by 3:30 am before he heads off to Movieland.  That is dedication.  His latest endeavor is a new brand of tequila.  I'll pass on that one.

Jungle Cruise is action packed, funny and a cross between Pirates of the Caribbean and Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Just don't pay any attention to all the snakes.  I'd give it ten stars!!

When I got home, my new book had arrived.  Photographers are always trying to get better, so we order book after book to help with our hobby.  Your camera's eye doesn't capture what your REAL eyes see.  It doesn't see the lights or the darks the way your natural eye does.  You take this amazing picture, then when you get back home, it doesn't look the same.  Very disappointing!

Cameras make images in two forms (there's more, but no need to mention them).  RAW which is how I shoot pictures, which captures millions of points that are later adjustable.  JPEG is the other way, which is how most cameras shoot.  Your camera actually adjusts the image in camera BEFORE you download it, giving you a pretty picture.  With RAW, you have to do all those adjustments yourself, so you have more control over the outcome.

Truthfully, I really don't need more control, but I took this class once that got me hooked on the process of photography and how you can make your images look so much better.  Now it's become a hobby that I can't put down.  I have to admit though, many pictures I take are with my iPhone!

I've never used Lightroom, which is what all the Pros use.  I have always chosen Photoshop.  I have to say, all this time I should have been using Lightroom.  This book is starting me down a whole new path.  By the way, since my computer won't use my old Photoshop program, I now have to pay $9.99 a month to have access through the internet.  Lightroom is one I am paying for but have not been using.

Page after page directs you to download the images and gives exact adjustments to make so your images will look more like what your eye saw, instead of the camera's eye.  Here's a quick example.  This is the original picture I took.

Pretty dark and not all that exciting.  THIS is the AFTER image.  It's much improved, you can actually see the flowers and is what my eye was really seeing when I snapped the shutter.  

I could probably go crazy and make it look unnaturally bright and colorful, but it's best not to have a heavy hand.  This is the real beauty of my back yard when the sun rises.  

I have a lot of book to wade through, so we'll see how it goes.  They say practice makes perfect and this book has you doing the same adjustments over and over with exacting precision until you get it down.  I may just be on the computer all day today!!!