This is number 11 in the series "Print-a-Day for 30 Days."
I was in the process of taking this photo, without the woman, as an example of leading lines. The woman just happened to be walking through the park (and through my photo.) Even though it wasn't planned, I prefer this version.
I picked this photo for the printing project specifically because of the difference between the highlights and shadows. There is detail in both extremes.
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This is number 10 in the series "Print-a-Day for 30 Days"
I'm not sure why this photo appeals to me. It doesn't seem to be anything special. The shadow on the lower left is important, perhaps because it gives a hint about the time of day. There's not much going on, but there is a lot of movement in the water. Whatever the reason, I keep coming back to it. It may eventually find a place on the wall.
Processing the image for printing was a bit different than for the screen. It was necessary to open up the shadow area a bit, else the detail would be lost. After the 30 day project is over, I'll come back to this print and experiment with different papers.
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This is number 9 in the series "Print-a-Day for 30 Days"
This is one half of a pair of buildings in downtown Omaha called the Twin Towers. When you first look at this photo it appears that the other half of the pair is simply being reflected in the windows. On closer examination you see two reflections. The first is the image of the second building in the windows. The brighter, diagonal is the light being reflected onto the brickwork from the other building's windows.
This is one of those images that is much better when printed large. The reflections and the brick detail are what make the image. Click on the image to see it as big as your screen will allow.
Printing this photo wasn't difficult. I boosted the sharpening in the print version to enhance the detail in the bricks.
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This is number 8 in the series "Print a Day for 30 Days"
The strong contrast and diagonal lines in this photo are what make it interesting to me. I don't have any particular connection to the building or it's occupant. I just find it graphically interesting.
The green street sign and the blue sky were the only challenging parts of this print. For me, this was an example of trying to make a print that looked right, rather than accurate.
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This is number 7 in the series "Print-a-Day for 30 Days"
This photo was posted shortly after the 2012 Power Drive competition.
When I processed this photo I added a vignette to help the eye stay focused on the cars. I'm finding, when printing, the gradient in the print has a slightly different character than it does on the screen.
Again, if you're very critical about results, it looks as though there is no way around making test prints.
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This is number six in the series "Print a Day for 30 Days."
This duck is a visitor to a small pond in a park near my home.
The reflections on the pond surface made this one of the more challenging prints so far. Printers generally have difficulty with some of the hues in the blue-green area. There is a lot of subtle detail in the pond surface that relies on these specific colors.
It's the first print that had very significant differences in the settings between the screen and print versions. In the end, the print version looks fine, but my skills haven't quite developed to the point where I can achieve the depth that is seen on the screen. I've flagged this image for more work in the future.
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This is number 5 in the series "Print a Day for 30 Days"
The Woodman of the World building is the second tallest building in Omaha. These guys are out there a lot. In this photo they're somewhere near the 17th floor. Whenever I caught sight of them in action I was glad I had an inside job.
Printing this photo was very much about the paper stock. The color of the paper influences the color of the highlights. As I've said before, Lightroom's soft-proof can only get you close. If you have a specific result in mind, you'll need to select your paper stock carefully and make test prints.
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Number 4 in the "Print-a-Day-for-30-Days" project.
This is my grandson in one of the few moments where he is standing still. I caught him in the window light while he was on his way out to play with friends.
This was the easiest photo to print, so far. Everything seemed to fall well within the capabilities of the printer and nothing special needed to be done.
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Mike Johnston of The Online Photographer suggested that you may improve your printing skills by printing a different photo every day, for 30 days. This is the third photo in the series of 30.
This is a detail from the interior courtyard of The Burlington Building. Originally built in 1879 as the Headquarters for the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, this building has been remodeled several times, and is now general office space.
A skylight provides most of the light to the atrium. It’s supplemented by several electric globes. This extremely high contrast lighting was more difficult to photograph than to print. The HDR treatment compressed the high contrast range into a relatively flat, easier to print image.
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Day 2 of the Print-a-Day-for-30-days experiment is this photo of two of the altars in St. Bridget's church.
This is another test shot from the same church in yesterday's photo. Photographing the church will be a longer term project for this year.
Given all of the linen and marble in the photo you might think setting the white balance would be easy. In this photo, the perception of white is more important than a technically correct white. In a print, the color of the paper has an effect on the "whiteness" in the photo.
Lightroom can help with this if you've calibrated your monitor and have accurate profiles for the ink and paper you've chosen. But the process isn't perfect. A simulation on a monitor will never perfectly match a print. So, there isn't any substitute for a test print.
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A few days ago, Mike Johnston of The Online Photographer suggested that you may improve your printing skills by printing a different photo every day, for 30days.
Today is my seventh day into the project and I must admit that I'm getting more comfortable with printing. My skills may or may not be improving but I've learned a lot about printing through Lightroom 4.
Now that I have a 7 day cushion I'll post screen versions of the photos I've selected for prints.
St. Bridget's is the beautiful old church I attended during my grade school and high school years. I'll be returning over the next few weeks to get additional photos. This is one of the initial test shots.
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At one time this was Omaha Union Station. Opening in 1931, this was the terminal for every passenger railroad except the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. Burlington had their own station, connected via skywalk, nearby.
After passenger rail service ended in 1971, the station was unused and had become very run down. It has since been restored and given new life as the Durham Museum. In addition to the many travelling exhibits, the Durham has many permanent exhibits on railroad and Omaha history.This is the main hall where people would buy tickets and wait for their trains. The Durham houses thousands of items related to Omaha and railroad history, but the station itself is counted as the museum's largest artifact.
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Saturday was the Power Drive 2012 Final competition. Teams of high school kids spent the last year designing and building electric cars and Saturday they finally got a chance to see how their creations performed.
It was a long day. It started at 7 AM with check-in, safety inspections and performance trials for braking and maneuverability. Then, there were three races that each lasted about an hour.
You can find several more photos here.
I've enjoyed photographing this event for the last couple of years and look forward to doing it again in the future.
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I finally made it to one of my grandson's baseball games.
He's moved up from T-ball. The coach still pitches this year, but no tees. The boys move to a different position every inning.
It's a lot of fun to watch. They are starting to figure out the game and there were a few exciting plays. There would probably be more, but they still need to develop their batting skills.
More photos here.
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The annual Power Drive Finals are coming up in May. High School Students from all over the region spend the year designing and building electric cars. The day starts early with the teams getting in line for a safety inspection.
You can see more photos from last year here.
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This is a photo from a few years ago. It was taken in the morning while the sun was still low in the sky. The flowers are long gone, removed when the landscape changed.
It's another old photo reprocessed with some new software in an attempt to coax more detail out of the shadows.
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It's getting warmer. The weather forecast is calling for the mid-60's in the next few days. Spring is on the way. One of my neighbors is already working in his yard cleaning up the winter mess. It won't be long before people will be out in their gardens planting things like these onions I found in a roadside stand a few years ago.
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The afternoon sun casts dramatic shadows along the downtown skyline. I particularly like this detail. This shadow only appears for a few weeks in the winter due to the orientation of the buildings and the low angle of the sun in the sky.
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I was scheduled to teach two photo classes today. The college was on the ball and cancelled classes last night, so I turned off the alarm clock.
When I woke this morning, everything was covered with snow. It was still coming down. The flakes were huge. It's expected to keep snowing for a few hours and accumulate to 8 or 9 inches.
This is a snapshot taken with the iPhone.
It looks like we're going to catch up on some of that snow we've been missing.
GS
The tree is decorated. The shopping is done. This is as close to a Christmas card as I will get this year.
Now, on to the gift wrapping.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.
GS