The Kennedy Center Arts Integration Conference ended each day around 4:00, so we had the evenings to ourself to explore the DC area. On the first evening, we headed into Old Town Alexandria. Alexandria became a city in the 1700s and sits along the Potomac River.
It was a warm, but beautiful early evening. Alexandria is quite charming and colorful, so I was very glad to have brought the new camera with me. My colleagues were very accommodating as I wanted to stop every few steps to take a shot of something pretty.
Being a very old city (old for the US anyway), it has many historic sites and landmarks including Christ Church and George Washington's town home. It is said that Washington was a frequent visitor to Alexandria.
Inside Christ Church, there were plaques noting that both Washington and Robert E. Lee were parish members.
We spent most of our visit walking along King Street from the Metro station, ending at the Potomac where we had dinner overlooking the river.
There was more comfort using the new camera this go around. I was pleased with the photos from this trip.
Yes, they are quite good aren't they. You've taken 1500 in two months ?. That's good going.
ReplyDeleteHave you it set on Vibrant. That lime green seems more lime green that it really needs. Sometimes that setting can shove a colour that you're not really expecting, and only that colour. And if you are taking in the early morning or evening the yellows will shoot up the saturation and luminescence of the green. Don't get me wrong the setting is very useful when you are inside or in the midday harshness it's just sometimes it can turbocharge a colour. And usually an orange or a green
I forgot the darn :-) at the end of the first sentence. Translate quite good to very good.
DeleteYah, no I haven't taken that many with the camera. I'm not quite sure where that number is coming from. Maybe I've imported that many into iPhoto, but even then I'm not sure 1500 is accurate. I've probably taken about 500 with this new camera.
DeleteI can't seem to figure out where that bright green is coming from. I had been playing around with the settings to see what I had before I left on the trip, and I know vibrant is an option. But I just checked and it's set to the standard. I have noticed that in certain light the color is REALLY saturated. I've played around some with the editing, but when I reduce that fluorescent bit I lose good color in the rest of the photo...in Photoshop I could select certain areas to work on without editing the whole photo, but in iPhoto I can't.
Looking at the traffic light in #2 and #3 there's something odd going on. I've been looking at the native setting for your camera in Standard sub-menu of Picture Style, it's 3 for sharpening and 0 for contrast, colour tone and saturation.
DeleteWhat does that mean? The camera/I took it that way? Or could that be the result of me playing with it in iPhoto?
DeleteThe green in the traffic light, it's off, way off where it should be. I needed a general known and a green light is a green light. Except here it very much isn't.
DeleteOK, there are two ways the camera processes files. Raw or Jpeg. With Raw it does nothing, it is just a great maw swallowing light for you to process/develop on your PC/Mac.
With Jpeg, the camera itself does the processing. But you set the processing parameters called Picture Style in the Canon, in the form of general presets, Vivid; Standard, Landscape, Auto, and the best, Neutral. Now each of those settings have a four sliders, Sharpening; Contrast; Colo'u'r tone; and Saturation. I reckon those setting have been cranked up. And if they haven't been moved I suggest you bring it to a camera store and take some photos of a colour passport because it's a bit odd it's cranking the green channel into turquoise.
OK, I'll go back in and check. There are a lot of settings, and I may have missed one.
Deletewe were there a few years ago.. it was a great little town.. great pictures
ReplyDeleteI wish we had more time to explore as we stayed mostly on the main drag. It sure is quaint. I enjoyed just looking at everything.
DeleteFrom you and that new camera comes AMAZING photos! Wow. I want to be there too, but I kinda feel like I was thanks to your travel journalism. XO
ReplyDeleteOh, thank you. Still figuring it all out. It's a beautiful little city though. Old. We don't get the opportunity in the West to see that.
DeleteI really loved Alexandria when I lived in Washington DC! I thought it was very pretty. I am glad you enjoyed it.
ReplyDelete