Hey Y'all ! Hope you're having a great week. Me? Well I came down with the Covid so I've got some time to catch up on my blogging so that's a good thing I guess. I recently took a photography trip with a couple of photo buddies down to the Low Country of Georgia and South Carolina. This was a 4 day trip with all kinds of photography to be had. Landscape, CityScape to Street Photography and even some Infrared. So there was a lot. What did I learn from this experience?  Well I learned that we did a lot of walking and being quick and nimble means that my kit needs to be that also. I thought I had it figured out. Not so much. My thoughts were that we were going to have 2 full days of shooting street photography and a full day or so of Landscape. So being me I figured that I would bring my street kit a Full frame Sony with some lenses and my trusty Landscape crop sensor kit with some zooms.  That made good sense to me at the time of packing.  My companions had it figured out more than I did they brought one camera and one maybe 2 lenses when we went into the streets of Savannah or Charleston I had my Full frame and at least three lenses with me .  I was carrying a 16-35, 28-60 and a 85 prime.  I just had too much stuff with me so I spent a lot of time changing out lenses and fumbling with equipment. Now don't get me wrong I got some good shots in but my comfort and my photography would have been better suited if I just had one lens and one body.  Maybe a 24-70 or a 24-105 would have suited me better than the combo of lenses I was taking with me. Of course my landscape stuff went with out a hitch .  So why is being a nimble photographer important?

Being quick and nimble especially in a city or urban environment is important because you are usually walking everywhere.  We were putting 10 to 12 miles in each day and lugging unnecessary equipment wears you down especially in the latter part of the day. The first day we were taking night time photo's of the fountain at Forsyth Park in Savannah and I was pooped.  It could have been a lot of factors that worked against me but one of them was the equipment that I was carrying. Having not to change lenses so often also makes you a better photographer because you can concentrate on the composition and not the focal length of the the lens that you have to change too. So even if I had made myself use just one lens like a 50 or a 35 I would have gotten better photo's .  But for me I think a 24-70 would have done the trick. Also I had two camera kits with me on the trip. I think for the next trip it will be one kit only. The reason that I took two kits is because I could. We had plenty of room in the truck we were riding in. This was the first time that I ever took two kits and may be the last.

What else did I learn? Well maybe for the street and urban stuff I don't need a super wide and if I do I can use my phone. Both of my photo buddies had iPhone 14pro and 14proMax and their shots with them were stunning. I have a iPhone 2020 SE which is an iPhone 8 hardware with iPhone 11 chipset in it. I still got some good photo's with it but am looking to upgrade to a better quality phone. For the landscape stuff I'm pretty dialed in I have three lenses that give me a range of 15mm to 525mm all I could ever want . My main lens is a 16-55mm 2.8 lens ( a 24-80 mm equivalent) that I love and 90% of my photo's are taken with. I also had a converted infrared camera with me that I got from one of my photo buddies. It’s a Canon EOS M that has been converted to Super Color IR and a 18-55 lens. I was able to switch back and forth pretty easily between my Landscape Sony and the Canon without having to unpack anything and enjoyed shooting both. Although this was the first time using the Canon and I don't quite have it all figured out yet. I do believe it will become a good addition to my Landscape kit replacing a point and shoot Lumix that I bought converted years ago.

So summary on what I would do different. Only take one kit. When shooting in an Urban environment one camera and one lens .  Use my phone more to take Wide and Panno's.  If you want to know more about being a Nimble Photographer there is a blog by Derrick Story called the Digital Story and he also has a website called the Nimble Photographer where he has many discussions and Tips on becoming a Nimble photographer.  I didn’t coin the phrase Nimble photographer but I try to live by it. Now I will always keep going out with friends to shoot new and old places. Because that's what photography to me is all about going out and having fun. So until Next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey y'all ! Hope you've had a super week! Mine? Not too bad. This week I want to talk about Photoshop and the New  Generative Fill AI
that the Beta version has in it.  There has been an uproar on the internet on how this is going to change photography. And maybe it will. From the beginning of photography photographs have been altered. Whether is was dodging and burning in the darkroom like Ansil Adams was famous for or in the digital age of many photo manipulations. Photography is around us in everything we do from print in Magazines and Newspapers to online.  Almost every photo that you have ever seen has been manipulated in some sort. Beautiful women have been photographed and made even more beautiful by removing a blemish or smoothing out the skin to where people don't even look like people anymore.  The art of making someone loose weight just by the movement of a brush stroke has been with us awhile. Even the artful painters of years gone by used their judgment on how the subject they were painting looked. So why all the uproar of the new AI? All this has done is taken the people with the skill needed to do the manipulation out of the job. 

Since layering came out in Photoshop you could do what the new AI is doing. It was just harder. You had to have skill to do it. Now it's just easier. Just like when the healing brush and content aware fill came out it was like magic. Or when sky replacement came out. These things were going to change photography. And they did . They just made it easier. Will it change photography as we know it? It's hard to tell. But in my opinion it will just make it easier for the everyday man to do the job instead of a specialist. You will be able to add things to the photo just by typing "add hat" or " sunglasses" but you could do those things before but it did take a while. You had to go out to the internet and find those things in a photo cut them out add them to your photo make it look real by dodging and burning to make the light look right . Sound familiar ? Kind of what Ansil Adams was doing in the early 20th century. We've always had the way to do it. The new AI just makes it easier. I think its just a progression in what skill is needed. Let's use an analogy to kind of explain what I'm talking about.

When man used to roam the earth looking for food he walked and carried everything. Then the wheel was invented and they figured out how to use a cart to put things in. Then they figured they could put an animal on that cart to pull it. Then they figured out how to make a horseless carriage with a motor. But you had to be skilled to drive it. Changing gears and all. Then they came out with Automatic transmission and everyone could drive it putting chauffeurs out of business. Now they have gotten rid of the gasoline motor and have an electric motor car that can drive itself. Almost. But it will be coming . It's evolution . You either except it or not. The same is with the new AI in photoshop. You can do it the hard way like all the composite's that I've put in this blog or you do it the easy way with the new AI. Eventually it will be the new AI. Its evolution just like taking photo's with your phone. Who would have thought that that was ever going to happen. But its really made a whole type of camera (point and shoot) disappear .  Only very few even exist and they are specialized camera's that are very expensive for what they are when you can just carry your phone with you.

The moral view. A lot of AI has come out where it does all of the thinking and grabbing info from all of the internet causing copyright issues/concerns. There is even a statement with all of the smart people in the world that AI (not photoshop AI) will be the new doom and gloom event that will end the world with machines taking over the world. But I think that's a little on the far end of the spectrum of things. With the new AI in Photoshop they have taken the high road only sampling photo's from what is in Adobe Stock photos. I think eventually they will pay the contributors to Adobe Stock if their photo is used. It may be only a fraction of a penny but it will be something. I think that in the future there will be a credit type of system for using the AI. With the new AI it is using the internet to go to a server in Adobe and all of that cost money so I'm sure there will be in the future a credit. If your a subscriber maybe you get so many credits a month for free and have to pay for extra. But either way its good that Adobe is trying to take the high road in this. And of course you must be connected to the internet and I am assuming that you should have a fairly fast computer to run this new feature.

If you think about what the new AI really is. A new way of doing something that we could already do but easier its like going from stick shift to automatic in cars. It could bring out artist that were out there that didn't have technical skills needed to do the same thing in photoshop. Maybe the next Ansil Adams is just around the corner and will use AI instead of a dark room and dodging and burning.  Anyway those are my thoughts on the subject. The according to Max side of things. Until next week please get out and shoot!
 

Hey Y'all ! Hope you had a great week! This week I want to talk about something that I just figured out. I recently went on a trip with a couple of photo buddies to the low country near Savannah Georgia and Charleston South Carolina and I found out that I'm  a Checker player not a Chess player when it comes to Photography. I always thought I was a Chess player but no.  What do I mean when I say this? A Chess player is thinking many moves in advance and a Checker player is mostly reactive. My photo buddies Mike and Robert were showing up to different sites with shots already in mind. They knew when and where the sun would come up or go down. They knew in advance what the keeper shot was going to be. Me on the other hand I was just showing up and trying to get what I could get playing it loosely and what moved me at the moment. They were playing Chess and I was playing Checkers. Now there is nothing wrong with playing Checkers and I think that most of us are playing Checkers. Being reactive instead of proactive. Lets look at some of the advantages and disadvantages to both.

Playing Chess. Being proactive. These people have shots in mind well before arriving at the location. They have the composition, what lens they will use, the camera settings and most important the patients to wait until the moment is right before pulling the trigger or shutter. They do not take as many photo's as the Checker player but the quality ratio of the ones they do take is high. Being a portrait photographer, landscape photographer or shooting architecture are all very much in their wheel house. But being spontaneous like street photography not so much. These are the thinkers of the group and usually have lots of experience shooting many different situations. They know what they like and are not willing to sacrifice.

Playing Checkers. Being Reactive. These people are a make the most out of the situation. They show up and figure on the fly how to shoot the scene .  They take many more photo's than the Chess Players with a less quality ratio photo's although they do get their keeper shots in.  They are more spontaneous and quick to the draw taking photo's of almost anything .  Sometimes they miss a shot because they didn't think ahead but they get other shots because they are thinking out of the box. Which can be a good thing. They are shooting what the situation gives them and not a pre-concieved shot that they were wanting to get. Street photographers and Sports are in their wheelhouse. We all start as snap shooters or Checker players and then either grow into the Chess player or stay the Checker player.

Photo trips with friends is a good way to see how others think when they are shooting. It always astonishes me how me and another photographer can be only a few feet away and shooting at the same thing but the photographs are totally different. Their thought process may be totally different than yours but it might be better too. The difference between Chess and Checker players can be the difference between Photographers and Snap Shooters some would say. I guess I fall under the category of Snap shooter or Checker player. Where my photo buddies fall under the title of Photographer or Chess player. In the big wonderful world of Photography I think there is room for both. Which one are you? Thats all for this week until next week get out and shoot some!