Up Close

Went down to the NHRA Drag races in Topeka last weekend trying to get some action shots. Got lucky when two dragsters blew up. Those pics will come later. But for now here is a shot of Courtney and John Force watching Shawn Langdon beat Tony Schumacher up close at the finish line. 3.75 secs and 324.20 mph.

Finally Got One..........

We out the other day to Lake Manawa in Iowa to see if I could find me some eagles. There were a bunch of them. Unfortunately the longest lens I have is a 55 to 250 mm zoom so even at the 250mm setting I was still too far away to suit me. So here is one that I ran through some heavy post processing. I almost like it but the processing caused some artifacts. But I got close to one on my bucket list.

Thanks for stopping by. Contact me or visit my web site( papagphotos.com ) if interested in buying anything.

Extreme Processing

I'm back..... just like a bad penny. Today I am posting a photo that I took at the NHRA drags in Topeka  KS last year. I took this from the finish line more than 1000 feet away. I applied some cropping and extreme post processing because I wanted to create a poster feeling to the event.

What I did was crop it in Lightroom and then take it to Photoshop for some heavy hitting. First I ran it through Nik Define to remove noise (there is always some noise in digital images). Next came a run through LucisArt for some grungy HDR like foolin' around. After that I took it for a dip in OnOne Perfect effects for some amazing detail and color boost. After applying these I next took it for a trip into Nik Color Effects Pro 4 for the border treatment. So here it is. Top is original and bottom is the extreme image.

Thanks for stopping by. Contact me or visit my web site( papagphotos.com ) if interested in buying anything.

Before and After

Well my buddy over at Iowa farm boy has thrown down the gauntlet. He just did a before and after blog showing how he improved an image using lightroom, photoshop and some filters. So I just had to give it a try.

The first thing i did was take the image into Lightroom and apply only the camera and lens profile to it. Next, into Photohsop and ran it through the Nik Define noise reduction filter. All digital images have at least a little noise so I do this with all my images. Next I ran it through a Lucis filter. This filter has some unique processing that can bring out a lot of detail in an image. In the filter you can mix different amounts of filtered settings and original image to get the look you want. Every image you process will need different settings. Next I took the image as processed to this stage into OnOne softwares Perfect Effects 4. There is a couple of presets in there that I use called Amazing Detail and Auto fix. You can adjust the strength of these presets to your liking. While I was in OnOne I decided for this image that I needed to brush in some more detail in the sky (yes you can do that in OnOne). I next applied all the OnOne settings and returned to Photoshop to add just a little levels adjustment. I should also point out that at the beginning of this process in Photoshop I removed some annoying power lines and cropped out a pole on the left side.

So here are the images. Top on is before and the bottom is after. Let me know what you think.

Thanks for stopping by. I know I have not blogged much lately but maybe I have got my juices flowing again. Check out my web site papagphotos.com for a gateway to my other images that are currently for sale.

Can't we All Just Get Along..............

Well it's January 1, 2013 and I am going to do something that I generally don't do. Make some new year resolutions.

First off let me say that I am guilty as anyone when it comes to my resolutions of what I am not going to do. I know that sounds a little confusing. But , this is my attempt to try and make things better and less stressful for what ever time I may have left (only God knows that). So here goes.

I resolve to do things on my schedule and only my schedule. If you want my help with anything, we make an agreed upon schedule. If you do not live up to the schedule, it is on you and the task is over. Same for me. I am no longer going to keep changing my schedules to accommodate you constantly changing yours. Remember, "A failure to plan on your part does not constitute a crisis on my part".

I am no longer going to be anyone's personal computer geek, photography guru, automobile rescuer or handy man (which I am not anyway). If you want my help in these areas, see above paragraph.

I resolve to try to lose weight, cut down on my drinking and get the hell out of the house and get some fresh air and exercise. And I don't want to hear from anyone on how I am doing. Leave me alone on this.

I resolve to leave the premises whenever I have to listen to family members bickering about trivial things (and this is an area that I am guilty of doing also). People need to learn to get back to talking to each other (yes REAL talking). Text messaging, in my opinion, is the worst thing that has come along. It is so easy to misinterpret, misunderstand and just go viral at someone through texting. I hate it.

Now there are probably more things that I should resolve, but I think this is a good start. I am sure this is going to probably piss off my wife, family and who knows who else. If some of the things I ranted about above change for the better, maybe my resolutions will change too.

Folks, the bottom line is Life is too short. Get closer to your friends and families ( me too). You will miss them when they are gone. I really don't know why people have developed into the attitudes I see today. Maybe it is the economy or government or both. I know the economy and helping others (and my not being able to say no when it came to expenditures) has caused stress in my life. That is why I had to file bankruptcy.  Got only four more years to go and only four more years of Obama. If I make it, things should start looking pretty good.

Ok, let the comments begin. I got my big boy undies on.

Happy New Year.

Pint Size Footballers

I don't have the opportunity to photography sports like my friend Steve Branscombe but I did manage to shoot some photos at a couple of my grandson's football games this year. His name is Jake (sounds footballish doesn't it). He plays on a team called the Chiefs (somewhat better than the Kansas City kind) and are 8 and 9 year old's. He plays both offense and defense. I was lucky enough to be permitted to actually go on the field and take my photos (I can still move enough to get out of the way of 8 and 9 year old's). I hope you like the pictures. Some of these mighty mights really gave it everything.

Thanks for stopping by and if you have time checkout my portfolio images for sale at papagphotos.com

Winding Down......

Now that it is November golf season will be winding down. I managed to work five days last week but this week is looking pretty slim. That said, I now have a little more time to work on my photography business. I took the shot below from the second hole on the Shoreline Golf course where I work. Our Omaha Camera Club had an assignment of "panorama" this year so I decided to give it a try with this image.

I may get some future business from my golf course. When I showed them my work they were impressed and they may be putting one of my images on their web site. They also talked about me doing Christmas cards for them to send out this year. Let's hope.

Anyway hope you like this and please stop by my web site at papagphotos.com .

Some people are like Slinky’s. Pretty much useless but make you smile when you push them down the stairs :)