Actually the paraglider in the foreground is practicing.  The other paraglider just landed and is walking up the landing zone to move out of the way in case someone is landing behind him.

In an effort to find an alternative to LightRoom (I don’t want to pay a monthly fee to use it. I prefer a Perpetual License.), I’ve been looking at other programs.This pic I developed with the latest version from ON1. I liked the ease of using the Develop section.  The different options available to develop a photo are straight forward and show fairly quickly in the preview. Plus there are plenty of presets you can play with to get inspiration.  I’m still learning the ins and outs of the program.

The one negative occurred when I exported this image.  First it took forever and a day to actually export.  When it did the bottom portion up to the bush was cut off. Eventually I changed the photo size to just the long edge and the image came out as you see it.  Also during the export process the program hung up on me and I had to wait for it to work again.  If you force close it the history for the image is lost. 

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.