Saturday, May 3, 2014

Tillandsia ionantha


I think Tillandsia ionantha is the right name for this air plant.  So pretty, yah. I took these photos about 2 months ago but I kinda forgot about um . . . especially after my PC broke. 

I got my PC back BTW.  The guy said that a RAM chip had gone bad. Removing the chip fixed the problem.  He said that other things are going on with my computer that a system restore would fix, but that woulda cost $125 . . . so I refused.  In the end he removed the bad chip, and didn't charge me anything. 

I picked up the PC about a week ago, but I still haven't hooked it up yet. Turns out that after being forced to post process my photos on my Mac, that I like doing it on the Mac better.  I guess sometimes being forced to change and do things differently is a good thing.

I use Lightroom and Photoshop to improve my pictures, and my photos almost always need improvement. IMG_2254

Here is an example. This is an "After" picture. 
IMG_2262

And this is the straight out of the camera untouched "Before" shot. See what I mean?  I cropped out most of the background, brightened up the picture and blurred the fence.
IMG_2262-2

Here is another "After" picture.
IMG_2285

This is the actual untouched "Before" shot. I cropped out the extra space on the top, lightened up the whole photo and made it warmer (more yellow and less blue).  I also blurred the bottom just a little.
IMG_2285-2

It's actually fun fussing around with photos, and is another aspect of the hobby of photography that keeps it of interest to me. 


12 comments:

Anonymous said...

J: cool you're teaching me about photography which doesn't make me feel so bad for taking mostly all "before" pixs. I am taking an interest in it to share on my facebook page and got the Nikon hoping for bettah quality pixs which hasn't happened. My camera phone sometimes takes better pix. I'm not gonna invest in the software so now I know WHY my pixs are so lousy looking. :D But it is fun to fudge around with it. Have an awesome weekend -Aloha, N

SW said...

NICE macro!! I've always wanted to photograph my plant when it blooms too.

K and S said...

pretty!

jalna said...

N, I got my first "good" camera around 6 years ago. It was a 20D. I also bought an L lens to go with it . . . was expensive. After the first few months, I totally regretted spending all that money. My pictures totally sucked. It took YEARS of picturing taking, carrying my camera with me every day, to get somewhat decent photos. I still struggle today. It's a very challenging hobby. But that's why I like it.

SW, even though it was outdoors, I upped the ISO to 1250 just so that I could choose a wide DOF for all the spikes.

Thanks Kat!

Randism said...

nice pictures and hurray for solving your PC's problem :-)

yeah, photoshop is pretty AMAZING!

jalna said...

Thanks Rand!

Leslie's pics said...

wow, pretty!

jalna said...

Les, they already don't have the purple flowers. I wonder how often they bloom. I never really pay attention.

Nippon Nin said...

Gorgeous! Your photos are amazing! What a interesting flower.

I have to ask my husband what is ISO and DOF. The camera world is so complicated. I just take bunch of pics and hope for the best. I may have to take some photo classes.

jalna said...

Akemi, you don't need to take any lesions. Your photos are beautiful.

Mokihana said...

I can do basic Photoshop, but nothing like what you're doing. You're inspiring me!! Love those after photos!

jalna said...

Thanks Moki. Photoshopping can be fun . . . but it takes time.