Dave Johnson's Photography

Photos & Thoughts


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Never ending options

As I move forward with my photography I am always looking at better ways to manage my image workflow. Currently I am using Aperture for organizing and processing my Canon RAW files. Whilst Aperture is extremely powerful, and with an apparent endless array of external plugins, I am always on the lookout for other software that will allow me to showcase my work. Since buying the iPad I have been using a program called Snapseed which is produced by Nik Software. What this piece of software gave me was the ability to upload photos to my iPad and then process them whilst on the go. I was impressed by the different filters and styles that could be applied to an image, however, the only downside was that I was constantly having to synchronize my photos to my main image library. This afternoon, after much reading on the ‘tinternet, I decided to get Snapseed for my iMac. The desktop version works pretty much in the same way the mobile versions do yet I feel that you get a little extra in the way certain portions of the image can be manipulated. One of the benefits of having snapseed on the desktop is that I can send images from Aperture for external editing and then have the changes update automatically back into the Aperture library – HEY PRESTO! no more manual syncing of images!!

I am sure there are many great reviews of Snapseed available on the web so I will only leave you with two images. One manipulated with Snapseed and the other with no modifications (aka straight out of the camera) so that you can see the kind of results you can get with a little jiggery pokery!

Trying out Snapseed on the iMac

Straight out of the camera

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Barry Trotters Train!

The North Yorkshire Moors railway runs between Whitby on the east coast of England, to a market town called Pickering, approximately 20 miles inland. The station of Grosmont is, give or take a few miles, half way between the two. Grosmont is one of the key stations on the line serving as the starting point for many of the scheduled services, as well as for the specials that run throughout the season. Growing up not far from Grosmont, I have fond childhood memories of being taken to see the trains by my Nanna, who incidentally was born and raised in the town. Now that I have children of my own, I am reigniting those memories by taking them to see the steam and diesel trains.

As well as providing a fantastic opportunity to take pictures of steam trains, the surrounding countryside, in my opinion, is some of the most stunning in the world. To add weight to support this outrageous statement, is the little fact that some of the scenes from the Harry Potter movies were filmed on location on the NYMR!

To clarify why I’ve chosen an unusual post title. Well, for some reason whenever my son asked to watch Harry Trotter I would respond with ‘Barry Trotter’ in a fake mockney accent. Needless to say he didn’t find it very funny…but I still do it anyway. What else are Dads for apart from to be annoying?!