To be young, gifted and sweaty (18 July 2007).

Chelsea running back Nick Hill takes a break during passing camp. Hill, now a sophomore, made quite an impression his freshman year, breaking into the Bulldogs’ starting varsity lineup just a few games into the season. After showing occasionally dominant physical ability even as a freshman — at times dragging junior and senior defenders down the field, or breaking their tackles altogether — he is entering his sophomore season with high expectations.

(Full passing camp gallery.)

It is a fountain, but it is not of Wayne (01 July 2007).

Not long ago, I found an excuse to take another trip to Belle Isle: though my parents have lived in southeastern Michigan for about 40 years now, they had never visited Belle Isle.  So, two and a half weeks ago, we corrected that oversight.  And since it was a gorgeous day — yes, the sky really was a brilliant blue — I took the opportunity to take a few more pictures.

See the full gallery.

After noting how compliments have changed thanks to nearly flawless photographic alterations in the modern digital world (“Wow! It looks photoshopped!”), I thought it would be worthwhile to show the processing I perform on my photographs.

I maintain a deeply-held dislike for time-consuming post-processing of digital images. This dislike does not spring from a purist’s demand for untouched images; rather, it stems from my own impatience for the process and the details. Some photographers perform a great deal of detailed processing, and some of those photographers achieve stunning results; I do what I can with a relative minimum of processing. It’s a matter of taste, and my tastes run toward not putting an ax through my computer on a weekly basis due to impatience and frustration. Some images take more processing than others, but almost all of them stay below my ax-wielding threshold.

Now, since a picture is worth a thousand words (or 1,043.34 Canadian words), here are three examples of my processing; before is on the left, and after is on the right. (Click on the image to see the larger version.)

First: an image from the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory on Belle Isle.

The change in this image is fairly obvious, but it didn’t take much to make that change: in addition to my normal adjustments of contrast, vibrance and sharpening, I brought the exposure down. Take a look at my adjustments. (For comparison, see the default settings.)

It is important to point out that if I were a more careful, more thorough photographer, I might have taken the time to get a lot closer to the “after” picture when I was actually shooting. This will be illustrated in the third example.

Second: an image from a recent Chelsea high school football camp.

There isn’t much of a change to this image; the original looked just a little flat and washed out, so in addition to my normal adjustments, I bumped up the Blacks slider just a bit. Unlike the previous image, I did not adjust the exposure. Take a look at my adjustments.

Third: an image from a Great Lakes Myth Society concert.

If you’re having a hard time noticing any significant difference between the before and after images, don’t sue your eye doctor; there really isn’t much of a difference. I did increase the exposure just slightly (in addition to my normal adjustments, of course), but the image was close enough to good that those adjustments made only a very minor difference. Take a look at my adjustments.

For this image, unlike the first image, I was a more careful, more thorough photographer; I took the time to shoot the scene a few times and change the camera’s settings until I finally saw what I wanted. The result? A reduction in necessary processing.

The moral of the story is twofold:

1. Post-processing is a part of photography, even for those of us who sometimes (oftentimes) wish it weren’t.
2. More work at the beginning often results in less work at the end.

Wrapped up in the second moral is an important principle for those who are lured by the blithe promises of software advertisements:

• Don’t just take a picture and plan to make it good on the computer; take a good picture, and use the computer to make it better.

Also, for those of you who might be curious: I use Adobe Lightroom to process my images.

Finally, the detail-oriented might have noticed that I did not adjust the Clarity slider for the last two images. There is a good reason for that: I processed those images before the Lightroom 1.1 update was released, and Lightroom 1.0 did not include the Clarity slider.

Years ago, people looked at an altered photograph and said, “Wow!  It looks real!”

Now, people look at an unaltered photograph and say, “Wow!  It looks photoshopped!”

Last weekend, official Mindreader storyteller Andrew and I traveled to Kansas for a wedding. The wedding was in Wichita; since we arrived Friday morning for a Saturday afternoon wedding, we had a bit of time to explore some of the city.

Wichita has made an effort to create an attractive downtown riverfront, and part of that effort is a pair of eye-catching pedestrian bridges serving a city park.

On Sunday, we started making our way up to Lawrence.

At a scenic overlook in the Kansas countryside between Wichita and Topeka, there were signs explaining some of the vegetation. This particular sign made us curious about domesticated wildflowers.

The scenic overlook did provide a pleasant view. And yes, the sky was as gorgeous as it looks. In fact, it was that gorgeous all weekend.

To get to that view, we strayed off the highway, but our original purpose in leaving the highway was not to find that view. Rather, when I was looking at the map, a small town caught my eye.

Strong City, a small town southwest of Topeka, is the site of the Flint Hills Rodeo. Its heyday was back when railroads were king, but it is still home for just under 600 people (2000 population: 584).

Its downtown is a classic small town downtown; unfortunately, a number of the storefronts are vacant.

It’s always a joy to find a town that shares my name. (Observant readers will notice that I made an effort to represent my state while I was traveling.)

After our brief tour of Strong City, we made our way to Lawrence, the home of Kansas University. When we drove through campus, I was happy to discover that KU has a building that shares my name.

Strong Hall, located in the middle of KU’s campus, is a large building that houses a number of administrative offices. In fact, it is large enough that I suspect Strong Hall has a larger population than Strong City. But obviously, both are equally tastefully named.

Other notable sights:
Kansas Sports Hall of Fame
Knute Rockne Memorial

(Full Kansas gallery.)