Day 266: Tiny Bubbles

Photo of the Day

Tonight I was yet again trying to think of a shot. It was 92 degrees so trekking a long distance after work did not seem like much fun. A cloudless sky was also a bit boring. We went out on the deck, and opened up a new toy to play with. It was a bottle of bubbles with a few implements to use with it. I don’t know who was more excited the three year old or myself. After watching (and playing) for a while I ran into the house. How could this not be my picture of the day? I was sitting on the ground trying to get some shots aiming up, but the dog kept licking me and getting in the way. I then moved up onto the deck box to put some distance between the dog and I. That ended up being a great decision as this picture would not have happened had I stayed on the ground. In the camera I was just trying to capture a bubble as it floated through the air. As I looked at the image on the LCD screen I was pleased to see the outline of the house. It wasn’t until post production that I noticed the colors on the bubble along with the house and a setting sun! Needless to say I was very pleased with my shot. If you have read this blog for very long you will know that liking a shot is not something that happens often.

Technical Data

This is another good example of how Lightroom has changed my photography a bit. I changed things up a bit and added a second photo today. I thought that I would show the picture as it came out of the camera. When you are capturing bubbles in the wind you have to be quick and crop later. I only had my kit lens (18-135mm) on anyway so getting close was not working. I liked how this popped when I saw it in Lightroom so I decided that out of the three pictures that I chose this one would be the one that I worked on. I hit the develop button and decided to see what I could do. I always relied on HDR to help make my images pop a bit. This one I thought I could get to do that without Photomatix. I increased the clarity a bit to mimic HDR a bit. I also lowered the exposure a bit. I raised the vibrance slider to give the colors on the bubble a bit more pop. Of course the biggest change as you can see was the crop. I actually did that first in order to see what my adjustments would look like on the final image. In all I think that I improved the image a bit.

Other News

One hundred days away from completing this challenge. I usually call it a project, but it really is a daunting challenge. Now that this site gets a good amount of views it makes it even more challenging to find something that people may think is interesting everyday. It is a challenge, but at the end of the day I think that it is making me better. Tomorrow morning I have a post scheduled that talks about a special anniversary for me. I have already written the piece so I can tell you right now that I like the pictures on it as well. That will be two posts in a row! What is going on here?