my travels in pixels

Our 15 weeks here in Puerto Vallarta is coming to a close, so what has it been like to live with the Mexicans? As I sit here writing this, there is Mexican music blaring from somewhere in the street, I can hear the lady talking in the condo across the road because they have their windows open and we have our bi-fold doors open. I learn some local costs, how much she pays her cleaner, the quote to paint her room. A dog occasionally barks. The pastry man calls out trying to sell his goods. Some builders are using a grinder. A few roosters crow as if they're communicating. Car alarms go off in our neighbourhood most nights. It's the local boys playing soccer below just below our window. If the cars are new, it's not long before they have a few dents in their shiny exterior, and they don't look new anymore :( Most nights they play until 11pm, or someone is playing music or has their TV on, so we never plan on getting an early night's sleep. a typical house in ...

Why is shooting wildlife different to say landscape? Because they move and there is often not much light as the best times to shoot are just after sunrise and just before sunset. When we came to Yellowstone for the first time we had no idea how to photograph wildlife. I was still photographing in P mode most of the time which works fine if there is plenty of light and your subject isn't moving. I would change to shutter priority to slow the water down for waterfalls and again to freeze anything taken out of a helicopter. I couldn't get enough light and I couldn't get a sharp picture. I tried shutter priority on animals but the pictures were just too dark. There are a number of ways to get a good photograph, you just need to find what works for you. When shooting something that is moving you need to freeze the action, so you would naturally think to use shutter-priority and let the camera work out the aperture, not so. Light is a very important consideration which is...

You've taken some photos, now what? Adobe Lightroom is a lot cheaper and less complicated than Photoshop and will give you great results. I put off changing from Camera RAW to Lightroom for years, I am so glad I changed. I still find Photoshop better for cloning and removing unwanted items, but the majority of work can be done in Lightroom. A great learning tool are You Tube clips. Just type in what you want to know e.g. Lightroom catalog. You will learn a lot. The Catalog The hardest thing to come to terms with is the Catalog - it is where all the information regarding your changes are held. The Catalog files are located under Pictures/Lightroom and will start with the words: Lightroom 5 Catalog unless you have given it a unique name. The first task is to import your pictures. When you open Lightroom, click the Library tab. Then click the Import button at the bottom left hand side of the screen or choose file/import photos or videos. From Then you need to work thr...