LeggNet's Digital Capture

]]>

(Ziggy celebrates his Scottish heritage with a traditional song this New Year’s Eve)

Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Happy New Year!

LeggNet’s Digital Capture
© Rich Legg, Inc. All rights reserved.

]]>

91,954 – Visitors to LeggNet’s Digital Capture
11,778 – Photographs taken
1,259 – Most visitors on a single day
414 – Comments left by visitors
289 – Blog posts
127 – Countries represented by visitors
51 – Gigabytes of photos
3 – Blog revisions
1 – Book published
0 – Regrets for being a PhotoBlogger

Thanks everyone for a great year. I look forward to 2007!

]]>

Today’s posted capture is another example of my Hey, let’s try this shots. Sometimes a creative angle can make for an interesting photo and this capture is no exception.

While at a nearby outdoor rink with the family I set my small point & shoot camera on the ice and pressed the shutter release. I have long since became immune to the strange looks from passers-by when taking these kind of shots, but with this photo my main concern was to avoid being skated into by an out of control skater (of which there were many).

As for the resulting image, I am actually quite surprised with the quality captured. The detail in the figure skate’s toe pick is especially impressive. Reward outweighs risk, again.

]]>

This was an interesting scene to come across. My guess is that the above freezing temperature combined with the rushing water beneath the melting ice created the brilliant color. Taken in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }]]>

She was having one of those days. The earlier meltdown (her dad’s word) had taken its effect and this is the only expression she was willing to show. This would not be a day for cheesy grins and fake smiles. This would be a day for sullenness. Yes, this would be one of those days.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }]]>

(Warning: Proud parent bias ahead)

I told myself that I wasn’t going to post anymore Christmas photos after yesterday’s entry, but I’m amending that decision to say that this will be the last Christmas shot of the year.

Frequent viewers will no doubt recognize my angelic daughter Elisabeth, but this time she is donning more than her usual perceived halo and wings- she is wearing an actual set. This capture was made at our church’s annual Christmas Eve service in which my daughters each had a part in the play. It was a wonderful service. Special props go out to regular LeggNet’s Digital Capture reader Ricci who directed the play. It takes a special person to step up and donate their time and energy during this hectic season of year. Ricci is one of these people. Thanks Ricci!

Coming tomorrow: Not a Christmas picture, I promise 🙂

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }]]>

From my family to yours, we wish everyone a safe and happy holiday.

-Rich

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }]]>

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }]]>

Hey, two days before Christmas so why not a Saturday post?

This capture is of downtown Salt Lake City on the Main Street Plaza. I opted for a shot from behind the Nativity Scene to show the hustle & bustle of the people and the busy-ness of the whole scene at Temple Square.

Again, Merry Christmas!

Labels: holiday, night, salt lake city, time exposure

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }]]>

Regardless of your religious views, there is no denying that the Mormon Pioneers are an integral part of Salt Lake City history. At the center of that history is Temple Square. During the Christmas season the downtown area is decorated with lights and the locals flock there to see the displays. As a photographer, the temple is an intriguing subject. Since the building is photographed so much, it is difficult to capture a shot that feels unique. I sought to make that shot last night.

To make this capture, I extended my tripod to its full 7′ length and perched it precariously on a short 2′ wall. Placing the camera at this height was required in order to get the full reflection of the building in the pool. Since I was unable to look through the camera’s viewfinder (I’m not 9 feet tall), I had to line the shot up with a bit of guess work. After having the camera lined up, it was just a matter of reaching up to set off the shutter and waiting to catch the camera in case it fell during the 10 second exposure. I am quite pleased with the resulting image.

Merry Christmas!

LeggNet’s Digital Capture
© Rich Legg, Inc. All rights reserved.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }]]>

Take a slow moving carousel full of children, add a one and a half second camera exposure.

Now, that’s a thrill ride!

LeggNet’s Digital Capture
© Rich Legg, Inc. All rights reserved.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }]]>

“We’re on a road to nowhere, Come on inside. Takin’ that ride to nowhere, We’ll take that ride.”

LeggNet’s Digital Capture
© Rich Legg, Inc. All rights reserved.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }]]>

He was somebody’s son. Odds are he was someone’s brother. He might even have been a husband and a father. We don’t know if he perished at an old age or as a young child. We don’t know if he died 50 years ago or 100 years ago. All we know is that he is gone.

As I photographed his headstone yesterday morning, the subject caused me to pause and think about him, the “Unknown Male”. Who was he? What happened to him? Why is he in this cold, anonymous grave?

We will never know.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }]]>

We awoke yesterday to find about 10 inches of The Greatest Snow on Earth.

LeggNet’s Digital Capture
© Rich Legg, Inc. All rights reserved.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }]]>

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }]]>

I use Adobe PhotoShop to edit all of my photos that are presented on the web. I get asked about this quite a bit. There is a school of thought that some people hold that if you PhotoShop your photos that you are manipulating them and that this is ‘cheating’. I even heard a person once refer to digital photography as digital fakery. Here are some reasons why I don’t share this view.

1. I shoot my images in RAW. These images have no processing (sharpening, contrast, saturation, etc.) done to them in the camera. When viewed on the computer they tend to look dull and drab. The reason I do this is that I have a high quality digital negative with the RAW image file. I can then do the equivalent of developing the image when I convert it in PhotoShop.

2. I view the use of PhotoShop as the computer equivalent of what I used to do in the darkroom. When I am working with the image on the computer I am essentially printing the shot much as I would have done on an enlarger in the analog days. I always ask myself when editing if the edit I am doing could have been done in a darkroom. In most cases, it could be.

3. Due to the limited dynamic range of a camera’s digital sensor, it is difficult to capture with a camera what you see with your eye. The human eye has a much broader dynamic range then any digital camera on the market today. Since this is the case, I use PhotoShop to present the image closer to what I saw with my eye when I captured the shot. Sometimes this involves combining multiple exposures to achieve this result. The capture I made of a full moon over the Wasatch Range is an example of this.

My goal in using PhotoShop is to edit the image in a way that when it is viewed it does not appear edited. Today’s photograph of Noah is a good example of what I mean. I did the following to this shot:

– Crop unneeded area out
– Vignette edges
– Sharpen
– Reduce digital noise
– Increase color saturation
– Increase contrast
– Burn in around the edges and the bright areas on the forehead
– Dodge his right eye to brighten it

That’s quite a bit of editing, but the resulting image doesn’t scream PhotoShopped as much as just a beautiful golden retriever.

Labels: photoshop, tutorial

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }]]>

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }]]>

As a youngster, I have memories of my father sitting down after work in his chair and reading our daily newspaper, The Anchorage Times. With only 3 television channels, aside from the “nightly news”, this was the only way to find out what was going on in the world. Here it is 30+ years later and I find that when I want to read the news I sit down with my MacBook and an RSS reader. Many of my news sources are traditional in nature (newspapers, networks, etc.) but I have quite a few blogs in my subscription list as well. I like the independent nature of the blogs versus what the mainstream media reports.

What does this have to do with a photograph of a frozen stream? Many of the blogs I read serve as a conduit to pass along news from outside sources mixed in with a bit of commentary (digg.com for example). I am increasingly bothered by some of this blogging that purposefully attempts to be controversial or sensationalizing as a way of generating traffic and comments to their site. My goal with LeggNet’s Digital Capture is to give my readers a break from this type of blogging. I want this blog to be a safe place in hope that the few hundred people a day who visit will leave feeling enriched.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }]]>

Today is Michelle’s birthday. To honor her, I dug into the archives and found this shot of her at the base of a climb on Suicide Rock in Idyllwild California. Happy Birthday!

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }]]>

There’s a little too much “busy-ness” in this photo for my taste, but a nice crisp winter scene nonetheless.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }]]>

An in flight capture of a young Swainson’s Hawk.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }]]>

Right now the Salt Lake (Utah) valley is in the middle of a temperature inversion. I’m no meteorologist, but I’ll try to explain.

A temperature inversion is an atmospheric condition where the temperature increases with height (or elevation). The warm air above traps the colder air below. Along with the colder air, the pollutants are not able to escape. This creates the situation shown in this photo I captured today of the Salt Lake valley. This valley is highly susceptible to inversions due to being surrounded my mountains (duh… isn’t that the definition of a valley?).

If you’re really bored and would like to read more about inversions, follow this link to Wikipedia.

LeggNet’s Digital Capture
© Rich Legg, Inc. All rights reserved.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }]]>

I captured this image of a gentleman enjoying a cigar while reading a book during the lunch hour at a park in downtown Salt Lake City. This was taken a few days before the new smoking ban in city parks went into effect.

The next time I see him, I suppose he will only have the book.

Orange Rope, originally uploaded by LeggNet.

With Northern Utah in the middle of a cold spell, I feel that now is a good time to take a look back at a warm weather activity. This capture was made looking down the rope as my daughter rappelled a rock wall last summer in Big Cottonwood Canyon, just East of Salt Lake City.