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Last summer the U.S. Navy held the RIMPAC Exercises around the Hawaiian Islands. This year we saw an Assault ship operating off of Bellows                                        practicing beach landings the morning I was up on the ridge launching hang gliders. I liked this image because the clouds acted as giant reflectors.                                   Illuminating portions of the bay.  In particular, the Assault ship, whose gray body disappeared in the changing light. It seems so small in just this                                               little area.

 

 

 

I’ve used Lightroom since it’s first public beta.  Over the years I’ve added different presets, mostly in the Develop Module. (How many B&W presets do I really need!!??)   I’ve also incorporated additional editing software.  Various iterations of On1 products ,The Nik collection (Efex Pro, Viveza,Dfine Etc.) and recently added Perfect Exposure.  I was reminded that I have the NIK Collection ( It’s Freeee. ) after seeing this blog post How to Sharpen Your Photos using Lightroom and Nik Efex by Pete Demarco  I had a picture I could practice on. A Mother Duck and ducklings were out feeding in the morning recently. There was some nice early morning light giving them a bit of backlit effect.  However, I  was not happy with my results.  They were just too soft.  I’ve got a low end zoom lens so it wasn’t a surprise but it was disappointing.  Enter  the Output Sharpener. After adjusting the settings per Pete’s recommendation. I got this result:

 

On the left is the result using Output sharpening. Compared to the right Mom’s feathers are just a little better.  Where it’s more noticeable is the chicks fur and the water droplets on their bodies.  I outputted this from LR without any additional sharpening.  Now I need to practice with the other parts of the Collection!

I always feel a little more elbow room with a panorama.  Digital makes it soo much easier to create them.  With landscapes it tells a more complete story.

Last year I made the plunge into the smart phone waters. I got the Nexus 5x with Google fi.  I’ve gotten some nice shots with it. This is one of them.  Recently, Google updated the OS to 7.1.1. They improved the camera app by adding EV controls among other things.  This particular photo was enhanced with ON1 10.  I kicked things up a bit more than I usually do and cropped it so the bird is more easily seen.

For several hours today we got a good soaking of rain.  It even kicked up a notch and pushed out a stream of debris from a nearby storm drain into the canal I live next to.

 

A sailing regatta around the Island of Oahu took place during the recent Memorial Day weekend.

I happened to be at Makapuu while the boats came around the point.

This interesting sail boat was just about to pass behind Rabbit Island on its way to Kaneohe.

 

Not on this particular afternoon.  This wind came from the west and allowed kite boarders a rare chance to have fun in Maunalua Bay.

We’ve had a lot of days the past couple of months with northerly trades bringing in dryer air.  Makes for almost cloudless sunsets.  Of course having some clouds can add interesting color and shadow to the sunset. Not on this particular occasion. 

 

It’s useful to go back to previous years pictures and take another pass thru what images you’ve kept.  In the days after I’ve taken pictures, I’ll get rid of the obviously bad ones.  I’ll find the one or two images  I definitely want to post here or elsewhere and move on.  Now I’m going back again and further culling what I don’t want to save for various reasons.  Plus I’ll take a little more time to study what I’ve got left.  Here’s an image I cropped down from the wide angle shot I’d originally made. It makes the setting sun, the back side of Diamond Head and the family walking back to the nearby beach more prominent.  The family adds a sense of proportion and movement and makes for a more compelling picture.