Recently in Photography Category

Natural History Museum - Aquatic Exhibit, originally uploaded by Zesmerelda.

I'm participating in a pretty straight-up picture meme. If you use Flickr, go to the sixth page of your photostream and pick the sixth picture there, then post it to your blog.

Description: Found this meme on Justin Korn's blog and decided to join in because my picture builds a little off of his (a starfish). This was taken at the Natural History Museum in Washington, DC on Thanksgiving Day. We went in to see the Hope Diamond, but popped into a few other exhibits. I liked the video displays in this one -- they give it a feel of actually being under water. Pretty cool.

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure: 1/13
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 400

National Cathedral - Front, originally uploaded by Zesmerelda.

I explored the neighborhoods, monuments and museums of Washington, DC with my trusty Canon Rebel over Thanksgiving week. I took photos of everything that caught my fancy and kept shooting until I got what I wanted. Ended up taking about 1400 shots.

I love the flexibility of digital photography, but 1400 pictures can be a lot of work. It's important to have a process to sift through it all to come up with a photo set that captures a trip but doesn't bore people to tears.

I whittle things down by constant editing. I have to be methodical and disciplined about managing the volume, or I'll end up with a hard drive full of photos that are serialized and ultimately lost to me. How did I get that 1400 down to 340? In five steps:

1) Delete immediately. If I'm not feeling pressured, I'll go through my camera and delete photos I'm not happy with. Anything marginal stays until I have a better screen.

2) Download daily. I create a folder on my laptop for each day of the trip and download my card. Using Apple's Preview tool, I look through the photos and take another pass at deleting. I also change the file names to something more descriptive. In this pass, I went from 1400 to about 750 photos.

3) Photoshop. When I get back home from a trip, I do color correction and other adjustments. Photos that aren't as sharp as I'd like or don't turn out well get deleted. About 10% don't make it through.

4) Flickr Uploader. I take another serious pass at editing here, getting rid of duplicate ideas and subjects in photos. Even though I keep all photos at this point, only half of the remainder will get uploaded.

5) Online Viewing. It helps to see the entire set as a batch so I see if I have too many of a particular subject. I also cull a little bit more if I find photos aren't being viewed.

That's my process for managing my vacation photos. I would love to hear yours.

Bagel Bandit, originally uploaded by Zesmerelda.

Store nuts for winter --
Important to have a stash.
Bagels are better!

1000 yard stare, originally uploaded by Zesmerelda.

I've noticed a problem with my photo labeling that only became obvious after doing a week of concentrated blogging. I have almost 10,000 photos in my Flickr stream, and they're all labeled in a very factual, concrete way. However, when I search my photos to support an entry, invariably I look for something to support a concept. Fortunately, I'm familiar with my catalog of work and have a sense of where to look for the perfect photo.

However, this means my photos are only showing up in targeted searches instead of conceptual browsing. I think it's something to be careful of when I try to sell photos to a larger audience. Then again, I don’t always know what concepts a photo may suggest to a person. Take the photo I used here. What does it convey? Wonder or boredom? Intensity or vacuity? Should I define that for someone? Would it be worth it?

I don’t want to attack my back-catalog, but it’s something to consider for future tags.