DECember 2017 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

Clint, I always enjoy seeing your photos. I admire how you control your lighting and depth of field to make your shots look professional. Would you mind sharing your secrets about how you go about setting up your shots?

 

Beautiful outdoor shot of some fine gear, Doug! I like how the afternoon (or morning) sun is hitting your gear in the photo.

Do you plan on squeezing more than seven shaves out of the Polsilver blade?

 

Congratulations, enjoy!

 

Congrats on a skeeter-free fun shave, Bruce! Ol' Prancer is a pretty good guy.

 

Clint.

 

Thanks very much Keith.

 

That will be a nice vehicle for you, Doug! And your grand daughter did pretty well also. Congrats!

 

Decadence continued

Todays I decided to make a super lather with Jeeves and AoS tallow and it was decadent. Today's razor was a Jerry Stark 5/8, I really like this razor I just wish it was 6/8 or 7/8. Not epic but excellent shave.

Irritation A+ Closeness A Smoothness A+ Sharpness A

Razor: Jerry Stark 5/8
Stop: Dry Gulch black latigo
Brush: 30DC LE by Jason
Pre: Proraso
Soap: AoS tallow & Jeeves
AS: Spieck AS, Edwin Jagger ASB
Scent: Zoologist Rhinoceros

 

I make 10 cups every morning. I have several small cups while getting ready then take a travel mug and thermos with me to work. Generally I finish the 10 cups total about 10am or so in the morning.

 

Me likey, Bruce!

 

Ruh roh!

 

I’d be driving a Ferrari if it weren’t for those meddling kids.

 

I’ll be here all week! Try the meatloaf and be sure to tip your waitress.

 

Thanks Charlie! Indeed he is!

 

Decadent set up, Keith! As for the cologne...

 

S W E E T!!

 

Great stuff Keith!

 

The American Dream: owning an ice cream factory, living in South Florida, AND driving a Ferrari!

 

I have two basic approaches to SOTD photos. The first approach is using my iPhone 7+ for taking the pictures. Most times this is done in photo mode but occasionally in portrait mode with depth effect. If I am in a rush crop the photo on the phone and do basic editing and call it a day. Most times I transfer the pictures from the phone to the Mac and edit them there.

The second and my most used approach is using our Canon EOS Rebel which is over a decade old. I have 2 lenses that came with the camera that came as part of the kit. The first is 18-55 zoom and the second is 100-300 zoom. I turn the flash off and allow the camera to adjust everything else. The depth of field doing this is dependent on the lighting and zoom. Very rarely, I will adjust f-stop to play with the depth of field. I only using natural lighting After the photos are taken, I upload them to the Mac for editing.

For editing, I use the software included on the Mac. I first crop the photos, then I will adjust the picture so that any writing or straight lines are as level as can be. The software has a sliding bar for lighting and color that I always use. If I want shading at the edges of the photo there is a button to add a Vignette which I use a fair amount of the time. Generally the editing takes about 2-3 minutes per picture.

The real time consuming item is taking the picture. I will often take over 5 photos of the same setting adjusting zoom and distance. This allows me to pick the best one to edit. I then upload all photos to SmugMug for sharing and posting. The entire family uses the account to backup all photos to the cloud.

The photography aspect has started to develop into another hobby. Before my back issues I rode the motorcycle most every weekend. Now I will generally spend a couple of hours during the weekend taking and editing photos ending up with 7-10 SOTD photos. Now that my back is better I am hoping to be back on the bike more. Hopefully my somewhat better photography skills will let me capture some of the places I go. I attached a mount to the bike to use Wade's small video camera when he is not riding. That should give me a whole new set of editing skills to learn.

 

Fist rate lineup and photo Keith. What is the Zoologist Rhinoceros like?