Randomrants

I’ve made no secret of my love of shooting with my Nikon, my love of my Tokina 11-16mm, nor my love of Lightroom. So we can move past that mutual appreciation society and cut to the chase.

Running short of time, between moving from work to meet Mrs Wolfcat and the Cubs, I spotted a pretty sunset.  Of course, like any good photographer I had my camera and not just my phone on me, so I fired off a couple of shots.  In Auto-mode the camera just didn’t balance how I wanted, the sky just blew out the shot.  So quick flick to manual mode and start shooting.

The first shots got the sky closer to what I wanted, and the foreground element, but not the middle ground subject matter.  Never mind I said to myself.  Lightroom will be my friend when I get home.

So here is the process…
Stage 1 – Import – This is the Raw shot.

Stage 2 – Auto Tone ( to see what it does, never a final, always a starting point )

Stage 3/4 – Lens Correction and Camera Profile ( in this case Vivid )

Stage 5 – Saturation and Vibrance ( I want the colours to sing )

Stage 6 – Bottom Graduated Filter ( to bring up the shadows in the bottom and foreground elements )

Stage 7/8 – Top Graduated Filter ( Drop back the sky and introduce some shadows and contrast )

Stage 9 – Spot Removal ( in this case the bird, that wasn’t sharp at the shutter speed )

Stage 10 – Stuff around with Crop Angles… and export.

EXIF Data:

• NIKON D7100
• ISO Speed – 320
• Date and Time (Original) –2014:07:28 17:43:00
• Exposure Mode – Manual
• White Balance – Auto
• Focal Length (35mm format) – 16 mm
• Scene Capture Type – Standard
• Gain Control – None
• Contrast – Normal
• Saturation – Normal
• Sharpness – Normal
• Lens Model – Tokina 11.0-16.0 mm f/F2.8

This image is available to buy at both Redbubble and at 500px ( where it can be licensed as well )

Buy the print on Redbubble.

 
See the funny thing is, I would like to do more photography, but raising kids and camera gear don’t go hand in hand, so you really do need to buy my prints 🙂
 

Tags: D7100, Missing from the Exif by Wolf
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Hard to believe, that it has been 3 years since the #wolfcatcubs came home.

Seriously, what was the hospital thinking.  No one came to do a building inspection, no one checked the car seats, no one check to know if Cat and I had any idea what we were doing.

I’ve had to provide more proof for a bank loan than I did to bring these monsters adorable little things home.

It has been harder than I thought it would be.  There have been so many sleepless nights, so much angst, so many nappies, so many times one child stopped crying for the other to start.

Now, I am facing a little faces that get out of bed before I do standing next to me saying wake up Dad. Yes, even the Mummy and Daddy have changed to Mum and Dad, such is the change.

We now have two little enquiring minds that want answers to everything and books read every night…  so that is 3 years down, the next 3 will be very different, but just as hard I am sure.

Tags: cubs by Wolf
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In under a week the Liberals have managed to find, no wait lose 2 boats with nearly 200 people in total on them. Ignore that these boats have women and children, hold a non press conference where Scott Morrison said he isn’t holding a press conference, but say he was only doing a door stop to say he wasn’t doing a press conference. ¹

Then, change the law so that the Commonwealth Bank can screw its customers over even more, then say there is no need for a Royal Commission into the Banking Sector screwing over its customers.²

Follow that with ignoring the outrageous events that are happening into an inquiry into what is happening to children in detention… You know those children that don’t exist because there are no boats. ³

Then not hold a press conference. Despite having 95+ media advisors in the Immigration Department to not talk about the boats that everyone knows exists, expect it seems the minister.⁴

Follow that up with on boat processing of one of the non existent boats, violating countless UN recommendations for the treatment of “LEGAL” asylum seekers.⁵

And then to top of today, they go an appoint an ex Liberal and a well known ABC hater to the panel that appoints board members to the ABC, I wouldn’t be surprised if they announced Ivan Milat as special advisor for NSW Regional Tourism at this rate.⁶

Also taking  a leaf out of the don’t talk about the boats, because as we all know, not talking about an issue means their is no issue, the Liberals have also removed mention of extreme climate change from the Department of Environment’s website.⁷

For extra bonus points, to ensure that the cleaners in Parliament got paid less, Abetz screwed the workers there out of 9k a year.⁸

Only 2 and 1/2 years to go… The damage the Liberals have done this week alone to our nation, our economy, the weak, the vulnerable and our precious Aunty will take years to recover from, if ever.

Yes a week is a long time in politics… this week has been very long already, and it is only Wednesday.

1- Image of Morrison Transcript

2- Self-funded retirees left bankrupt

3 – Storify of #HRinquiry into children in Detention

4- Spin costs Immigration Minister Scott Morrison $8m a year

5 – Boats screened at sea

6 – Conservative commentator Janet Albrechtsen appointed to ABC panel

7 – Extreme weather official advice rewritten to remove climate change link

8- Jaunty minister makes a clean sweep to cut costs

( Appendum: Thurday: Scott Morrison ignores the High Court and says he will change the rules to not allow any refugees that he doesn’t personally approve, making him Judge and de-facto execution, or of boat people http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/scott-morrison-looks-to-national-interest-test-to-circumvent-high-court-ruling-on-permanent-protection-visas-20140703-3bbbz.html )

Tags: Annoyances, General by Wolf
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