Restoring Honor - A Few Thoughts

I made it down to DC for the Restoring Honor rally Saturday. I spent my time down there mostly walking around, never did commit myself to sitting down anywhere. Any reports of "tens of thousands" of people would be akin to saying Bill Gates has "tens of thousands" of dollars. Technically true, but "hundreds of thousands" would be a better way of stating the obvious. I think the 500,000 figure is much more accurate than "tens of thousands". At any rate, there were a lot of people there. And it was mostly a white crowd, which is disappointing, but in the end, so what? I suspect that Al Sharpton's rally was mostly black, but you probably won't hear that as the media describes the Restoring Honor rally as mostly white. As I walked the crowd though, I kept wondering if these were the same people the Dems believe are extremists, haters, bigots, and astroturf. Can Obama and the Dems actually look into these people's eyes and say they are not representative of a large section of America, or that their beliefs are no longer welcome in America?

As for the tone and message of the event, I am a bit conflicted. I give Glenn Beck a great deal of credit for putting on this event. He laid a lot on the line both financially and personally. My question going into Saturday though was how much of this event was going to be about Beck. If I had my way, Beck would have gotten up and spoken for about 5-6 minutes at the beginning, laying the framework for the reason for the event. For the next 2 hours, 45 minutes, the people he selected would speak and perform, all building the case for restoring honor. Beck would then get up at the end and speak for 10 minutes, challenging the crowd to respond. With this kind of format, in the end Beck could effectively say that this event was not about him, but instead about restoring honor in America. It would have spoken volumes to the crowd and to the critics.

I don't think the event became a full blown "we love you Glenn" event. Thematically everything seemed to stay on course. But there were multiple times when speakers heaped praised on Beck for his efforts, and in the end Beck's voice was heard during more than one third of the program. With 20 hours of on air time during the week, do we really need to hear more from him?

Time will tell whether this event will have any lasting affect. In the immediate aftermath, it seems much of the analysis revolves around the personality and celebrity of Glenn Beck rather than about the message. Where the message is discussed, specifically the importance of God in our culture, it inevitably ends back with whether Beck is the right person delivering that message. All of this makes it difficult for Beck to ever effectively claim that it is not about him. When Obama says it is not about him, how many of us actually believe him? I want to believe that Beck is sincere and really is a humble man. I just think a more humble man would not have taken such a large role on stage. As he stood there among the giants, Beck could have stepped aside and let the people speak.

Photography 101: Session 07

One of the great things about digital photography is the Menu on your camera. Most point and shoot photographers don't want to mess with details. They just want to point and shoot. So the menu is more of a menace than a help. But inside the menu is a host of settings and preferences that can enhance your photo shooting experience. I'll try to cover some of more important items that you should pay attention to within your camera's menu, starting today with Image Quality. Your camera manufacturer might have a different name for this, but basically it is where you choose the compression level of jpg: usually something like Fine, Normal, and Basic; as well as whether you want to shoot jpg vs raw.

Most people have a familiarity with jpg files. Jpg is what we usually use for getting prints, posting photos online, or emailing to each other. A jpg file is a compressed file. In other words, you take a photo with your camera, your camera takes all the information associated with that image: the exposure, white balance, sharpness settings, saturations settings, etc; and then the camera's built in computer interprets that information, determining which information should be saved and which should be discarded. In the end you have a processed image. Now depending on what setting you had for image quality, your final image will either be lightly compressed (Fine) to heavily compressed (Basic). The primary difference between these settings is the physical size of the file. Depending on your camera, a Fine image file might be 3-5 mb in size, while a Basic might just be around 250-500 kb in size. These settings came in handy when memory cards were only 250 mb in size; but today with cards of 8-32 gb in size, there is no excuse for shooting anything less than Fine.

The "Fine" setting retains the most information your camera can give you with a jpg file. The more information you have (the less compression) translates into an image that you can than print larger. If you plan on bringing the image into Photoshop or some other image program to play with, you definitely want to use an image with the highest resolution, that being a Fine quality file. I always recommend that people set their image quality to the highest resolution possible. You can always resize an image downward if you need to, but if you shoot with the image quality of Basic, you end up with an image that has been severely compressed and degraded right out of the camera. There is very little you can do with this kind of image, other than email it or look at it on your iphone. If your photos ultimately don't mean anything to you, then set it at whatever image quality you want. But if you are shooting images with the intent to save and archive and possibly do something with them, then by all means shoot at the Fine image quality.

Now all the previous info had to do with jpg files. On most serious cameras you will also have the option to shoot a Raw file. A raw file is a data file. In a sense all images start as a raw file. When you have your camera set for jpg, you are telling your camera to take all the information, interpret it on its own, then spit out a compressed jpg file. With a raw file, you are asking the camera to just save all the captured data and not to process it. With a raw file you will end up with a great deal more information. In fact a raw file will end up being several times larger than a fine jpg file. Personally I like having all that information. If I am going to spend time composing important shots, I don't want to randomly lose important information from each image. Raw files not only keep all the information, but it keeps that information separate. A jpg file, when it gets compressed, basically mixes the exposure information with the white balance information and all the other information. So when you open the image in Photoshop to tweak it,  when you change the exposure, you are also affecting the white balance. With raw, when you change the exposure, that is all you are affecting.

So what do you do with a raw file, and why would I want to shoot raw files over jpg? I guess I should first of all say that there are many professional photographers who shoot only jpg, and they are fine with that, and that is fine with me. It seems though that there are more and more photographers who are shooting raw files. I think beyond having more information to work with, the main reasons people shoot raw is because it gives them more control in the processing decisions of an image, and they feel they can sort through and edit images quicker with a raw software program than they can with jpg files. Of course if your idea of shooting again is simply point and shoot, you probably don't want to mess with your photos after they have been captured. So jpg would make more sense. But if you want more control and plan on going through your images to edit anyway, then raw might make more sense.

There are several raw software programs on the market today. Probably the most widely used are either Adobe Camera Raw (found in Photoshop), Adobe Photoshop Lightroom or Apple Aperture. Adobe Camera Raw and Adobe Lightroom are essentially the same engine. Lightroom is specifically geared for photographers, is raw specific, and is not just a raw processor but also good for managing your images, composing slideshows, and printing. Aperture likewise is a full featured program. I personally use Lightroom. I find it the more intuitive program, with more flexibility to fine tune your images. There are plenty of places online where you can learn more about these programs. You can also download a 30 day demo to try it out.

I am a big fan of raw files. Raw processing has been the focus for many photographers today. Some are able to do all their image work within a raw program and never need to open it up in Photoshop. If your camera has the ability to save your image files as raw, give it a try. Most higher end cameras give you the ability to save your images as both raw and some form of jpg, so you can have both worlds. Don't be afraid of raw. Give it a try.

Slow Website

If you notice my website responding slow in loading pages, you are not alone. The people behind it say they are working on fixing it. Apparently it is a system wide problem. Thanks for your patience.

Brian & Laura at Bluemont Vineyard

One of the things I enjoy about many of the weddings I photograph is that they are like mini-reunions. The August 7 wedding of Brian and Laura, two Loudoun Valley grads, was a reunion on steroids. First, it was fun working with Brian and Laura and their families. They were all very gracious. Pretty much everyone at the wedding, beyond extended family, had LVHS roots. That included the Bluemont staff as well as the entertainment provided by Acoustic Burgoo, who were all great. Here are a few quick shots before I dive into the whole batch of images. Click on the image to enlarge.

Paul & Jessica at The Birkby House, Leesburg, VA

I meant to post a few of these images several weeks ago, but got sidetracked. The Birkby House is one of my favorite wedding venues. Paul and Jessica were great to work with throughout the day. Click on image to enlarge. To see more images, click here.

Loudoun County Wedding Venues, Part 2

Awhile back I posted some thoughts about a few wedding venues around Loudoun County. If you have not read that post yet, you might pay it a visit after reading this one. Anyhow, I figured it was time for me to update that list. The first three listed here I like very much, not only for what they have to offer, but because they are all within a mile or so from my home. Let me say right up front that my reviews here are primarily from a photographic point of view. I might stray here or there beyond this photographic perspective, but my intent is not to talk about the overall wedding experience. I will say that in all cases the owners and staff of these venues treated me very well and seemed to have a good relationship with their clients. So here it goes.

* Murray Hill (Leesburg) Murray Hill is a private residence with a fantastic hillside view of the Potomac River. There is so much to like about this place. First of all, and this has become one of my chief judging points for any location I shoot: there are all kinds of spots on the property that can give you a wide variety of images and looks. Some venues have only one or two good spots for photos. It can be a challenge to make picture number 50 look different from picture number 25. Murray Hill has a lot of variety if you know how to scout out the good spots. You want rustic? No problem. You want gardens? No problem. You want a classy estate? Yeah, no problem. I get the impression that since it is a private residence, they purposely do not book a lot of events at Murray Hill. I really like this place though. Here is a link to some sample images from a wedding I shot at Murray Hill.

* Rust Manor House (Leesburg) The main house at the Rust Manor House is very nice, especially inside. And generally speaking the grounds are pretty nice too. Not much in the way of flowers and color, but the gardens have a nice feel to them. I have only shot one wedding at Rust, and it was really, really hot that day, so I suspect that with nicer temperatures Rust would be very nice. I actually liked the place though better than I thought I would. Personally I would like to see them dress up the grounds a bit more and improve on the walkway out from the house to the ceremony site. The walkway is really uneven . . ripe for someone to trip and fall . . not something you want as you are processing down the aisle. Photographically, as people are walking down the aisle, they are looking down, concerned about not tripping. Makes it hard to get good shots (unless they do trip and fall!). But beyond that, the location is nice and the tent worked out well despite the heat that one day. Here is a link to some sample images from a wedding I shot at the Rust Manor House.

* Morven Park (Leesburg) Morven Park is a beautiful property. Everything is very well kept. No problems here with trash or cars or building debris in the background of photos. The mansion has a "wow" factor to it, and the outbuildings have character to them that make them different than the mansion. And the gardens are very nice as well. For photos sake I wish they had more flowers, but I guess that is not the style of these kind of gardens. Although I have done other kinds of photo shoots at Morven Park, I have only done one wedding there (they just started hosting weddings there). That day was very bright out, which always makes it difficult to photograph in some areas at certain times of the day. In these kind of situations it is always nice to build in some extra time for photos when the lighting might be more forgiving. Morven Park is a large property with several great spots for photos. Here is a link to some sample images from a wedding I shot at Morven Park.

* Sunset Hills Vineyard (Purcellville) Sunset Hills is a very popular winery. It is packed on weekends. But Sunset Hills suffers from what many other Loudoun wineries suffer from: they are usually young and still a work in progress, so the grounds can be kind of rough. By rough I mean that they are still building out the property, and it is a working farm, so there is often debris around. The inside of the barn is nice (for a small wedding), but photographically there is nothing on the outside of the barn to work with, other than from a distance as a backdrop. There are cars and other eyesores right around the barn. Plus it is a too small a venue to overlap their winery visitors with the arrival and set up of their weddings. I believe Sunset Hills would be well served to build a completely separate building for weddings, away from the barn. The day I shot a wedding there, it was also very bright and very, very hot out. The options for group shots were almost nil. I can't imagine what it would be like if it rained. Having said all of this, the guests at the wedding seemed to be enjoying themselves quite a bit. Again, my review here is primarily from the photographic perspective. On that particular very bright and sunny day, this was one of the most difficult locations I have ever shot. Perhaps on a more favorable day my experience would have been different. Sunset Hills definitely has a lot of potential. Here is a link to some sample images from a wedding I shot at Sunset Hills Vineyard.

Update (5-24-16): Since my original post Sunset Hills has added two open air pavilions that serve as tasting rooms when the barn is in use for weddings. I just photographed a wedding there and it rained pretty much all day (after 3 weeks of rain), so the ground was pretty mucky and outside options were limited. I think generally speaking everything went okay despite the rain (fortunately we had some moments when the rain slowed to a drizzle, enough to get out for some photos). Sunset Hills has matured over the past few years, so a lot of the debris and riff raft I experienced a few years ago were largely addressed. I have done two weddings at Sunset Hills, one when it was 100 degrees out and not a cloud in the sky, and the other on a very rainy day. One day I would like to experience an ideal weather day there because there are some nice photo opportunities at Sunset Hills. One personal comment I will make is that I have never liked photography in a barn, especially at night. It is very difficult to do well. It is dark, the wood sides and ceilings deaden the light and can create color issues, and it is just hard to re-create the mood and feel. Something to consider when planning a barn wedding.

* Hillsborough Vineyard (Hillsboro) Since I am on the vineyard mindset, let me do a quick review of Hillsborough Vineyard. Hillsborough has some very nice spots for photos around the main building. They have done some pleasant landscaping, and the vineyards are right there by the terrace. Like many of these places, there are not many trees, so the best lighting for photos is much later in the day. But there are several spots that provide a good photographic backdrop for both individual and group photos. The terrace where they have the outdoor ceremony is also very nice, with a good backdrop. Apart from photography, having a wedding at Hillsborough is kind of like having a wedding at a someone's home. The outdoor, dancing area is in a different spot from the dinner area. It can work though, and if the weather is good, moving everyone outdoors is kind of nice. I would recommend not overpacking the dinner area. It was hard for me to move around to photograph people during the dinner, toasts, cake cutting. If you do a wedding at Hillsborough, I think you would be smart to not try and cram as many people in there as you can. This would become even more important if you had to move the ceremony inside there due to weather. Here is a link to some sample images from a wedding I shot at Hillsborough Vineyard.

* Briar Patch Bed & Breakfast (Aldie/Middleburg) I like Briar Patch. They did a great job with the inside of their new main building. The outside could still use a bit of work (photographically), but you do have the original house to work with for those kind of shots. There are two primary spots for the ceremony. Both work well for photos. And the way the house is situated with surrounding trees, you have some good shade to resort to for group photos. It is also nice to be able to separate yourselves at the house while your guests are over at the reception hall. I would love to see Briar Patch somehow "restore" the barn area behind the guest house, because that could be another spot for more rustic images. All in all though, Briar Patch is a good venue for photos. Here is a link to some sample images from a wedding reception (ceremony was in a church) I shot at Briar Patch.

My Liberal Friends

I had to laugh when I saw these two posts on my Facebook page.