After Weeks of Waiting

My Final Photo for October 12, 2022. - https://bit.ly/3g2mfGq

Another day with a construction photo. I’d been trying to shoot the Veterans Memorial construction but didn’t have a My Final Photo worthy frame. Some were very good but today turned out to be the best.

I know most of the contractor’s crew but there were steelworkers there today and I stayed a respectable distance away until workers got onto the roof and this sky appeared.

Then I waited until one of the workers moved around the roof occasionally making a turn past the edge of the top. There are several similar frames I didn’t edit. His body position and stance made this frame work better than the others.

Shot with the Lumix wide-angle. Also shot some drone photos before the wind picked up. They’re unusual because of the angle but certainly not very newsworthy.

My Final Photo for October 11, 2022. - https://bit.ly/3MnXTmm

Finally made a photo of this construction site that was worthy of My Final Photo. Shot it numerous times before with every camera and lens I have in my daily carry bag. Shot it with the drone also.

All the others weren’t very good. One of them might have worked if I was under a daily deadline, newspaper style, but I’m not. I waited until I could see something I liked.

I’d shot this angle before but today it was three stories tall and the angle removed the distracting trees in the background. A clear blue sky. The carpenter sat idle for a few minutes making it easier to get a good pose. Also, the graphic design of the two windows is balanced by the carpenter above and between them. A good triangle reinforced with the angles of the woodwork behind them. The photo is also divided into thirds with the sky about one-third of the photo and the building the remaining two-thirds.

Simple photo that took weeks to get done properly.

My Final Photo for October 10, 2022. - https://bit.ly/3VitaeM

I’d made an earlier trip to the Braun Farm but didn’t make any photos as the light wasn't pleasing. I see the farm every Monday and am always looking for something different or better than before. This time I found new with this differential grasshopper perched at the top of a teasel flower.

This photo with the cloud in the background was among the first I shot. I would have shot more but the cloud quickly moved away and dissipated. I spent a great deal of time trying to find a good angle on the grasshopper as it moved around the flower sometimes onto the side. Had enough time to go back to the car for more cameras and lenses for different looks.

I should have stopped after shooting this frame. All the others without the cloud were two-dimensional. Tried backlight, adjusting f-stops for depth of field changes, and a long telephoto. All were not as good as this early frame.

Let me know …

if there is a photo of mine you’d like to know more about. I will be selecting some from the last almost 18 years of My Final Photo to talk about. Comment below.

Editor’s Note:

I’ve been asked about the editing process I use for almost all my photos.

The plugin for Photoshop I favor is Luminar Neo. I’ve used just about every plugin available for Photoshop and there are some really good options. My favorite is Luminar Neo. It’s simple to use. And its AI technology adds lustre to raw photo capture. (This is an affiliate link.)

I use Photoshop. The subscription is $20 a month for Photoshop and Lightroom, both essential for a photographer

I use Photo Mechanic to ingest from card, camera, or hard drive. Photo Mechanic is the standard for news photographers making it simple to ingest photos adding all the IPTC, keywords, camera data, copyright information, and metadata very quickly. Far faster than any other software I’ve used. It is also great for selecting best images for editing and opening them in the preferred editing software. It is not an editing program.