Winter Without Sun

As another long weekend approaches, the last of the summer, I’m looking forward to getting out and making the most of it for photos as well as having a little down time. For the photos, a key thing will be to load up my camera backpack and try to take only the things I really need with me. That’s always a challenge!  

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t tend to collect a lot of equipment (well, not too much..) or talk about it that much, but it is important to have the right pieces to work with. When I’m out for the day (rather than a few), I’ll take my backpack with one camera, 1-2 lenses and maybe a tripod. It’s important to leave room in there for other things too – reading glasses, wallet, mobile etc – and not be too weighed down. My Nikon D850 is quite chunky and heavy, even moreso with the 28-300 mm lense attached to it!  I might also take along the 16-35 mm lense, which rounds everything off in terms of what I can carry. I think of it as a little bit of weight training subtly slipped into my activities for the day. 

The photo essentials don’t just stop with the camera equipment, though. Once the photos are taken, and I’m back home, they have to be uploaded to the computer for processing. I take all my photos in RAW, which means I have to process (edit) them and save them to a format that makes it possible for other people to view them. I upload them into Bridge, (I’m not using Lightroom right now), do initial edits in Camera Raw then move them to Photoshop for the more detailed processing. This processing can take from 15 minutes for basic edits to weeks or even months, depending on what I’m doing and where my creative thoughts are. The images go through stages of being processed as Photoshop files and the final version is saved as jpegs for printing and internet. 

It doesn’t end there though! Producing the images is one thing but promoting and selling is another, and these things also need lots of tools. You’ll see my website has a number of galleries where you can go in and look at what’s available, the different sizes and ways the images can be printed, and you can have a wall preview to see what the framed image would look like in an office, a living room etc. You can even choose the colour of the room to see if the image would match your decor!

For posting to social media, newsletter etc, I also use another similar app – Canvy - that shows what an image can look like with different types of decor. And that’s what the photo at the top of this page is about! It helps you visualize how a certain image can be printed, framed and put on display in a home or business setting. Great tools, don’t you think?