Capitol’s Knife Ridge, originally uploaded by bubba911t.

This is my attempt at using Photoshop CS2’s Shadow/Highlight feature under the image adjustment section. I am still a little skeptical of this feature because of the noise it introduces into the image, but overall, it is a pretty neat feature, especially on a shot like this where I wanted to really show Capitol Peak’s “Knife Ridge” and its exposure (no pun intended).

Angeluca, originally uploaded by Sheba Wheeler.

I participated in my first Colorado Strobist Flickr group meet-up earlier this month and definitely fell in love with the technique of using off-camera flash. To set up for this shoot, we draped that gorgeous satiny red fabric over a couch and turned the couch around so the model, AngelucaK could perch atop it.

The background is light by an off-camera flash on the floor behind the couch. A blue gel gives the background that cool undertone. An Alien Bee strobe with a grid was set up camera left as the hair light, while another Alien Bee with a soft box set up camera right served as the key light. I love how the strobes give an even light to the subject’s body while Photoshop and Portraiture give Angeluca that luminous sheen to her skin.

I just ordered my own Alien Bee strobe set up yesterday. I can’t wait until it arrives.

Cathedral Immaculate Conception, originally uploaded by Chester Bullock.

Geotagging is becoming more popular, but there is still a large number of people that don’t geotag their pictures. For me personally, I do it in case I capture an image of something people want to see when they come to Colorado, or in one of the other places I might go for fun or business. I know it helps me to know what the opportunities are when I go to a new place.

Geotagging used to be hard work. You would have to make note of shooting locations as a waypoint in a GPS (which I don’t have), place them on a map in something like Flickr, or go through a program like Google Earth and make note of where each shot was taken. Luckily, there is a new crop of geotagging software coming out that is taking the pain out of this task.

For my most recent round of photos, shot near downtown Denver on February 13, I turned to RoboGeo from Pretek, Inc. RoboeGeo truly takes the pain out of geotagging your images. If you have a GPS, you can load your GPS log into the program, and it will match timestamps from the log with timestamps in your images, automatically inserting the appropriate coordinates.

Since i don’t have a GPS, I opted to use one of the other options - geotagging via Google Earth. I loaded the images into RoboGeo, and then selected the Google Earth icon. This launches Google Earth (assuming you have it installed), and overlays a small dialog box on top of the program. You go to the location you took the photo, center the cursor as close as you can to either your vantage point or the object itself, and then hit the “Geotag” button in the dialog box. Once you do this, the next image (in order of filename) appears. You repeat the process until you have tagged them all. Close the dialog box, and RoboGeo comes back to the forefront. From here you tell it to add the location info into the EXIF headers of your files and save them. At this point you can overwrite the originals, or save to an alternate location. Once you have saved, you can also choose to upload into your Flickr account. I did this once, and the process was as painless as using Flickr Uploader or any other tool. For this specific batch of photos, I had other things to do first, so I uploaded via Flickr Uploader later.

RoboGeo was exceptionally easy to use, particularly for a relative geotagging newbie such as myself. At $40 for a non-commercial personal copy, this is well worth it for anyone who takes a lot of pictures. Don’t take my word for it though. Download the demo version (after you see what the limitations are) and give it a try.

Even if RoboGeo isn’t right for you, do everyone a favor and start geotagging your photos. The next time you need to find a specific location, you’ll be glad someone did.

P2021790_mod, originally uploaded by bubba911t.

I love snow, more than a lot of things in the world! This picture, like my horse picture I posted a few days ago, was taken in the Gunnison Valley, 20 or so miles east of Gunnison. The amount of snow Colorado has had so far this winter has been historic. Every year, my wife and I go on a couple’s retreat to Wuanita Hot Springs, roughly 9 miles to the north of Tomichi Dome, a prominent hill (even though its elevation surpasses 11,000 feet) off of Highway 50. This year was our 4th year and the amount of snow the ranch had was simply mind-boggling. This picture was taken while snowshoeing on the property last Saturday.

P2021784_mod, originally uploaded by bubba911t.

I realized this past weekend that I am horrible at wildlife photography. Horses may not be considered wildlife, but to me and my complete inexperience in this field of photography, they are. I was with these horses for nearly half an hour trying to capture the bitterly cold winter these animals have to endure in the Gunnison Valley. The following day, the snow had melted off their backs, creating a completely different feel to their existence.