Adventures of a Quantum Cowboy

I’ve returned from New Zealand and can’t wait to get the photos up. I have to say that currently I’m convinced that NZ must be the most beautiful place in the world. Definitely worth it. Go. Right now.

The 70-300 IS was definitely the right purchase… image stabilization was a godsend. No time for tripods + low clouds on a couple days means I would have been dead in the water without it. I also tried something new: panoramas. I’ll have to experiment with Canon Photostitch to see how to piece those long series together.

600+ images to post-process, so bear with me… I’ll get them up as soon as I can. Photos will be uploaded to the Flickr gallery first, then a few will be blogged about here.

My online gallery has moved from ExposureManager to a Flickr Pro account. You can visit it at the link below:

http://flickr.com/photos/quantumcowboy/

This gallery contains some of my better shots sorted by category. The photos posted in the gallery are of viewing resolution only. If you would like to order prints, please contact me.

I’m still working on the format and layout of the gallery, as well as the descriptions and tags of the photos. Should have all that done in January, when I return from down under. Enjoy in the meanwhile!

Sorry about the two month hiatus without any updates… work hit me like a tidal wave these last few weeks. I’m on three projects, and on top of that I’ve had to travel all over the place as well as keep up with my community theater committments. Oof! The good news is that I have indeed been taking pictures here and there this whole time, and I just got a bunch of rolls back from King that have been gathering up. So, coming soon: the Butterfly Garden at the Boston Science Center, a desert sunrise out by a farm, the old west town of Coloma, CA, and some nice B&W street photos from Boston.

Scanning, scanning, scanning….

N.

Photos from a sunrise climb of Mt. Waterman in Angeles National Forest, as well as 4 rolls from backpacking on the Channel Islands, should be posted this weekend. Safe travels everyone!

At long last I have gotten around to setting up an ExposureManager gallery. If you would like to see what I feel are my best photos and to order prints, check it out:

Adventures of a Quantum Cowboy: The Gallery.

Sorry about the long dry spell. Work and travel have kept me very busy this last month, and I have also been working on getting Hartog’s Den back up and running. My cameras have not been idle however, and I promise I will get to that enormous backlog of RAW files as soon as I can. There is another birding trip, the shuttle landing, Philadelphia, Amish Country, Cincinnati, and Indiana currently in the to do list. Stay tuned!

Sorry no posts in awhile, but lots of photos are coming your way soon. Emily and I are on the last day of a 5-day California roadtrip encompassing Los Angeles, the coast road, San Francisco, Muir Woods, Napa Valley, Sacramento, and the central valley. Also, next weekend (Memorial Day), there is a 3-day, 100-mile trek through the San Gabriel mountain range coming up. Vengeance Baden-Powell!

I know, I know. No photos in awhile. Sorry. I’ve been doing a lot of overtime trying to get stuff together for a technical review at Langley this upcoming week, and of course everyone wants everything yesterday. So, long story short, there really hasn’t been much time for photography the last two weeks. I’m about halfway done post-processing the airshow pictures, and everything else I have mentioned hasn’t even been touched. Oof.

I’ll be in Seattle this week on training, but in the evenings I plan on working some photos, so hopefully there will be some by the end of the week.

Claudia has borrowed my 18-55mm for Hawaii, so I do not have a short lens for my XTi, but the good news is that I recently acquired a Pentax ME Super with a 50mm prime f/2.0 from my dad. Circa 1979 and shoots film. It’s incredibly lightweight and fairly simple to operate, though I’m going to be guessing at exposure a lot… that’s my weak point so maybe this is a good thing for my learning process. Outstanding reviews for this thing, especially for street photography. Seattle, here I come with my first film camera!

My monitor has been calibrated such that what I see on the screen is pretty close to what comes out on a print. However, as monitor settings vary considerably, you may not be seeing what I’m seeing.

Be sure to calibrate your monitor’s brightness and contrast by using the scale near the bottom of this page. Otherwise images may appear too dark or too light. Adjust your brightness and contrast so that you can make out the difference between the first three and the last three squares on the greyscale. This usually involves cranking your contrast up nearly all the way and adjusting the brightness to about 2/3, but this can vary.

Color calibration is more complicated, and generally requires special devices, but these settings are less likely to be significantly off than your brightness and contrast. However, just keep in mind that what you are seeing isn’t necessarily how a print would look unless your monitor has bee calibrated using a hardware tool.

I’m currently working on the SB beach pics, and probably next is CA-128, Bouquet Canyon Road, and the NASPM airshow (F-22!). It’s a busy time, so the going is slow unfortunately.