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Personal growth is hard when you leave no room (time) for it.

in reply to Neil E. Hodges

It wasn't hard, but it did take a while for me to figure out the workflow. :P I can definitely say I'm happy with the results, though.


Really happy to have a second monitor again after I accidentally broke the first one, but calibrating color balance sure is a pain in the ass, especially since the firmware versions are significantly different! :/ #photography #photog


Developing better color balance perception via raw #photo editing has ruined a lot of YouTube videos for me because the bad color balance stands out like a sore thumb to me. :( #photography #photog


Dave Heinemann 🇦🇺 reshared this.


Finally got to ride my #Yamaha Tenere 700 on gravel roads on Friday! Took it on the Mountain Loop Highway to reprise a photo from when I first started doing raw photo editing. While it's not perfect, I've come so far since then! :) #photography #photog #photo #motorcycle

(By the way, there was wildfire smoke in the area at the time, so any photos will be a little off in the colors.)

Some thoughts on the Tenere 700:

  • It feels like a sail in the wind, but it's not quite as tippy as a dual-sport. It's not as "flickable" as a dual-sport at any speed, but it does feel more stable at low speeds if I "point" my legs down.
  • The motor feels a little "sleepy" to me. It has decent torque down low, but I can feel it petering out over, say, 8000 RPM. For context, my CBR650R pulls harder the higher in the revs I go, which has become my preference.
  • The gearing is super low, such that first on it is like second on a "normal" street bike. It makes sense when you consider what the bike is for.
  • Aside from the wind, it's definitely more stable at speed than any of my street bikes thanks to the big wheels, which is perfect for touring and uneven surfaces.
  • Since I'm tall, the wind buffeting at speed is pretty bad. I'm used to some, but when the whistling starts becoming prominant, it's not my favorite. I do have a bolt-on visor extension for the windshield on the way.

The bike is pretty good at what it does, but I'd definitely choose one of my other bikes for street riding.


Neil E. Hodges reshared this.


Found these cute old sheds (still in use!) in Woodland Park while exploring a new route with the knobby-ish gravel tires on my Soma Stanyan. (1)

Definitely getting better with the color calibration tool in #Darktable. Having the flexibility to pick any hue for the illuminant is very nice! :)

#photography #photog #photos #photo #mywork #Seattle #seabikes #cycling #bicycle #mastobikes #biketooter

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Has anyone else been yelled at for taking #photos in #Enumclaw before? Maybe it's because I was using a big #camera? #Seattle #photography #photog #photo

Neil E. Hodges reshared this.


Some photos from when @clover and I went to Roozengaarde a few counties away from home to see the tulips. (Album (more photos))

I'm still working on my raw editing, so please bear with me. :)

#photography #photog #photos #photo #mywork



Had a blast riding over Stevens Pass, Blewett Pass, and Snoqualmie Pass over the weekend! I finally became comfortable with counterleaning allowing me to put my CBR650R to good use on twisty roads, and the Corbin saddle with 2" extra height over the stock seat saved my knees and wrists. This bike is so much fun! (Album (more photos))

#motorcycle #photography #photog #photos #photo #mywork


in reply to Neil E. Hodges

Try to find a commercial lighting supply house. Many will sell to walk ins. They will have a much larger inventory and selection.

Neil E. Hodges reshared this.


Just had a #Darktable epiphany: when the color balance RGB module's saturation results in far too much tint, it means that it's blowing up the color of an incorrectly chosen illuminant. 0_0 #photography #photog
in reply to Neil E. Hodges

Honestly, that's my relationship with #motorcycle riding, too. I've learned what works for me and can fire it off without having to think about it. 👍

Neil E. Hodges reshared this.


My first longer ride on the new bike! While I had a ton of fun, this ride also taught me that the bike really needs a higher seat to make my knees and wrists happy. The pain became unbearable at times. (Album (more photos))

Thankfully, I had ordered a custom taller seat a little while back and it wouldn't be long until it arrived.

#motorcycle #photography #photog #photos #photo #mywork


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Took my new CBR650R on a spin through the Cascade Foothills to see the new Oso Landslide Memorial. The memorial was cool, but riding at 40 MPH north of Monroe was honestly pretty boring! (Album (more photos))

#motorcycle #photography #photog #photos #photo #mywork

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Dave Heinemann 🇦🇺 reshared this.


Rode up to Index to get photos for selling my Ninja 1000SX. It was super cold and I almost gave up when I got to Monroe, but after some hot coffee and putting on my warm winter gloves, it was more or less fine. (Album (10 photos), 6 photos attached) #photography #photog #photos #photo #motorcycle #mywork


When you're to the point in #photography where you notice that cell phone photos can sometimes have really wonky white balance. 🤔 #photog


Would a larger sensor #camera improve clarity and contrast when shooting with a narrow aperture? #photography #photog
in reply to Neil E. Hodges

Not really. Depends of atmospheric conditions, light, qualitiy of lens used.
Can be corrected (in a small way) when develop the raw. (In LRC reducing haze and add clarity makes corrections in WB and exposure sometimes needed.)
in reply to dieter_wilhelm

Needing to edit in post like that matches my experience, too. It just feels like the initial RAW shouldn't look quite that bad.
in reply to Neil E. Hodges

Yep.Usually it takes "big time" = 20-30 seconds.... Depends of what the camera is set to. A plethora o decisions... And most picture style caters JPEG files.



. @clover and I stopped in Snohomish while running errands to get food, explore some shops, and get ethanol-free gas from the Snohomish Co-op. (8 photos attached here, 17 photos in the album)

While editing this, I discovered that the yellowish-white light filtering through the shades in the window adjacent to my monitor was messing with my color perception, even though I blocked out the lower half of the window as best I could. I ordered some blackout curtains to take care of it once and for all, but they won't be here for a while. :( In the meantime, I can only edit photos at night, after my eyes have been tired out from the day, so I won't be able to make much progress for now. #photography #photog #photo #photos

This entry was edited (1 year ago)


Went on a little spin over Snoqualmie Pass, through Yakima Canyon, and back over Chinook Pass on the way to SoSo Cycles in "Tacoma" (really Fife). Riding my #Triumph Bonneville with the aftermarket scrambler bars really hammered home how awkward the bars were, so I wanted to talk to someone familiar with cafe racers and so on. Mark at the shop gave me some great suggestions and sent me on my way. (Album) #motorcycle #photography #photog #photo #photos #mywork

I was worried that Chinook Pass might be closed, and the lack of traffic heading east as I headed west didn't help. Thankfully, it ended up being open and not too busy.

in reply to Neil E. Hodges

You have a few more weeks, usually, before Chinook closes. I suspect it might've been a little chilly, though. 😃

Dave Heinemann 🇦🇺 reshared this.


I used to think my #Triumph Bonneville T120 was slow, but recent rides like yesterday's to #Lake #Chelan taught me that all I had to do to make it fast was use more of the engine's rev range and engage my core when cornering. It's so much fun now! (8 photos here. More from yesterday's ride to come.) #motorcycle #photography #photog #photos #Washington #WashingtonState

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Some photos from when @clover and I went to the Washington State (Puyallup) Fair. #photography #photog #photo #photos #mywork (Album)
in reply to Neil E. Hodges

Some of my best raw edits yet, but I'm still not super happy about the colors. :(
in reply to Neil E. Hodges

Played around with a colorimeter app and found that my left monitor (the one I do photos on) was a bit yellow, so I turned up the blue on it a tiny bit. #photography #photog
This entry was edited (1 year ago)


Why does my peripheral vision do white balance and brightness perception better than my main vision? #photography #photog
in reply to Neil E. Hodges

It's almost like my brain can't effectively process shapes and colors at the same time. #photography #photog


Debating whether to give up on raw #photo editing. It just takes so much time and is always disheartening. :( #photography #photog
in reply to Neil E. Hodges

Maybe I should limit my raw #photo editing to photos where the camera's built-in JPEG results aren't good enough, like when something is heavily backlit. #photography #photog
in reply to Neil E. Hodges

That seems like a reasonable compromise. I find I don't *do* anything with so many of my photos because my post-processing workflow is so cumbersome.
in reply to Jesse

I never realized how commonplace this was. I've been in the same rut for months!
in reply to Neil E. Hodges

Oh yah! If someone actually forces me to get a photo to them, I'll usually do a few bang-for-the-buck changes like choose a better camera profile (Canon's Camera Faithful Landscape is so much better than I realized) and futz the exposure, crop and get it to them. I find if I try to micromanage the image too much it looks worse and worse to me.
in reply to Neil E. Hodges

raw is difficult, unless you are trying to practice/modify a workflow the cost is high.

The best photos are the ones you view.

DSLRs and phones are so good now it really raised the bar for basic photo capture.



Neil E. Hodges reshared this.


For some reason, I have a much easier time doing the white balance aspect of raw #photo editing when I enter a trance state, stop thinking with my "logic brain", and defocus my eyes. I can see the inflection points the white balance better this way. 0_0 #photography #photog
in reply to Neil E. Hodges Neil E. Hodges reshared this.

While the results are the some of my best yet, I really do understand why artists end up hating their work. x.x #photography #photog #photo


I thought I was saving time by not doing manual white balance calibration before taking photos (using automatic white balance), but the white balance (both color temperature and magenta-green tint) are much worse in #Darktable without that calibration. :( #photography #photog


I made a discovery while doing #photo editing today: the red from having the color temperature adjustment's set too high registers with my eyes more than the yellow does. If I lower the color temperature until the weird red tint goes away, the result is better than trying to focus on the yellows. #darktable #photography #photog


Something I've noticed about my #Olympus PEN E-M10 Mark III is that its greens get really blown out when the Sun or sky backlights a scene. #photography #photog


Neil E. Hodges reshared this.


Testing out the white balance calibration feature of my #camera. Some of the images still seem kind of cold, though. #photography #photog #photos #photo (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
in reply to Neil E. Hodges

Seems to me "ok" - white balance is something one photog's mind has memorize and in post dev correct the wb of the camera.

Besides mostly all cameras set the wb correctly. But sometimes not. So we correct it to what we think it was.
in reply to dieter_wilhelm

Yeah. Cameras are pretty good at automatic white balance, but there are still times when the camera fails to lock onto a good reference and produces strange results. Using a reference card should take care of that.


. @clover and I had a nice little outing at the beach, despite the water from the saturated sand soaking through our towels while we sat. (Album, 8 photos) #photography #photos #photo #photog #mywork

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Finally convinced @clover to ride with me after not having done so in what feels like years. I did a reprisal of a recent ride, albeit with a couple of added detours and without a stop in Coupeville or at Deception Pass. The weather was touch-and-go in places, but I feel like we had a good time. (And I'm sure the heated jacket helped her!) (Whidbey Island (2024-04-01), Album (51 photos), 9 photos attached) #photography #photog #photos #photo #motorcycle #mywork

(I've been riding nearly every weekend in March, but I've been spending time refining my photo editing skills.)

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in reply to Neil E. Hodges

Looks like you had a great time. I have too started going out my dear, we are still learning. Riding with passenger feels different.
Take care, have fun!

Neil E. Hodges reshared this.


My original plan for this ride was to have @clover along for it, but she wasn't feeling well and wanted to rest at home instead. I didn't feel like doing anything big since I hadn't made a backup plan, so I did a basic ride around south Puget Sound instead. (Kitsap Loop (2023-03-25), Album (12 photos), 6 photos attached) #photography #photog #photos #photo #motorcycle #mywork

(I've been riding nearly every weekend in March, but I've been spending time refining my photo editing skills.)

This entry was edited (1 year ago)

Neil E. Hodges reshared this.


The allure of Eastern Washington became too much, so I headed over there via Snoqualmie Pass (the least likely route for snow). Rather than sticking to the Interstate, I also checked out the old highway (US 10) east of Cle Elum, which was exactly the kind of riding I look for. Only when I hit Moses Lake did I turn back, after exploring the mid-century downtown. (Moses Lake (2023-03-18), Album (85 photos), 15 photos attached) #photography #photog #photos #photo #motorcycle #mywork

My #Triumph was plenty powerful enough to handle the nearly 100 MPH traffic speeds on I-90 in Eastern Washington, but the wind buffeting made me miss my Ninja.

(I've been riding nearly every weekend in March, but I've been spending time refining my photo editing skills.)

This entry was edited (1 year ago)

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. @clover and I visited Granite Falls today. I had low expectations of the falls based on discussions with friends, but we both thought the falls were pretty darn cool! Sadly, she had cold-like symptoms for much of the day, which devolved into COVID-like symptoms after we got home. (More photos to come later.) #photography #photog #photo #photos #mywork
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to Neil E. Hodges

This one turned out pretty well. Can't wait to apply what I've learned to the rest!


Did my usual daily loop for the first time since last weekend, but I was definitely not over my cold yet. It wasn't the best time. :( (1, 2, 3, 4) #cycling #bicycle #seabikes #photography #photog #photos #photo #mywork
in reply to Neil E. Hodges

Today's ride was much more enjoyable now that I don't feel like I'm not getting any air.
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Neil E. Hodges
Yep, I saw that while I was out, too.