E.L.E.

My daughter and I love looking at the stars, and we both get excited at the prospect of one day getting chance to shoot some awesome Milky Way shots. While discussing that and the awesome film Interstellar we had watched yet again the other day, we chatted about some of the amazing craters across the world caused by comets. So, for my awesome daughter, here’s a scene I captured during an epic Route 66 adventure! Enjoy!

On another note, I’ve been using Wacom tablets in my photo editing workflow for years, and love them dearly. I’m, currently using an older Wacom intuos 4 (Model PTK-440) small pen tablet. Is it worth considering an upgrade to the newer tablet? If so, do folks recommend the new Intuos Photo Pen and Tablet (CTH590PK) over the Wacom Intuos Pro tablet and pen (PTH451)?

A little bit of this…

… and a little bit of that. Â That’s basically how I approach my post-processessing work (the editing of the images) when it comes to my photography. Â For example, I talked about the new Aurora HDR 2018 software the last couple of days, but for me to be truly finished with one of my photographs, in this case, I typically employ more than just one pieces of software. Â Today’s shot is a great example: I used the beta version of the new Aurora HDR 2o18 the merge the five separate images (which capture the various levels of light I encountered at the location) into one base file, made a few slider adjustments to spice it up just a tiny bit, and then exported the file into Luminar (another Macphun product). Â In Luminar, I used a few filters, selectively brushing the effect into the parts of the photograph where I wanted them. Â And that was it. By the way, I’ll discuss both Aurora HDR 2018 and Luminar in greater detail here on the blog, as well as in upcoming video tutorials on my YouTube Channel.

Roadkill

Long day today (that would be on 7 August, the day before I post this), but awesome for sure. Â Spent the night in a great old motel on Route 66 Seligman, Arizona, following a great dinner at the Roadkill Cafe. Â Breakfast there in the morning, before we headed down Route 66 to Williams. Â From there, it was off to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon (spectacular!!), where we spent the day. Â Then back on the road to Page, Arizona, for a night of rest, before we continue on into the National Parks in Utah. Â May try to get to Horseshoe Bend, very near Page, if it all works out, but we’re playing that one by ear. Â Here’s a shot I grabbed before dining on ?????? at the Roadkill!

Gas for Less

I’ve still got a HUGE backlog of photographs I shot during my epic Route 66 explore this past fall, many shot with my DSLR, many shot with my iPhone, and many shot with my Fuji Â X100Â (like this one here). I decided to play around with Nik’s Silver Efex Pro a bit to process this one, so here it is… Vic’s Gas for Less. It’s all that remains of this particular gas station across the street from the Ariston Cafe in Litchfield, IL. Â By the way, I’m planning, at some point, to make it easier for folks to get quick access to all my Route 66 photographs by Â clicking a Route 66Â menu button at the top of this page, so keep checking back for that little addition to the site.

It’s for You…

Many are called, but few are chosen. Will you answer the call? That’s the big question today. Think about it.