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Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

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Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

I don’t ride the rides very much anymore, but this roller coaster is my all time favorite. It’s called the Giant Dipper. This wooden roller coaster opened here in 1924 and is still going strong. I rode it for the first time in the summer of 1969.
The last car is my favorite one to get. The first hill down takes your breath away. My technique for riding this ride is I plant my feet firmly on the floor board, raise my arms and enjoy the ride. Oh yeah… I do scream all the way down that first hill. ") It’s wicked fun!!

Nikon D700|Nikkor 35mm f2| 1.0sec| ISO 200| Tripod

Opossum

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Opossum, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

Two tricks has a ‘possum
When danger is near.
To climb to a treetop
Or hiss full of fear.
But when these two fail
He tries this instead,
Rolls up like a ball
And pretends he is dead.

From the book "The Opossums" by Anne LaBastille

From my Winter archive: Nikon D700| Nikkor 70-300mm @300mm| f7.1| 1/800 sec| Manual Priority| Hand-held. Shot through an open window while on the Auto-tour

Aqua vitae

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Aqua vitae, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

We had a rare day of June rain earlier this week so I thought I try again to get a nice rain drop photo. I’m not good at it, but I do like the star burst I got on this drop so I thought I’d share it.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 50mm | f7.1| 1/40s| ISO 320| Manual Priority| Hand-held

House Fly- Musca domestica full face

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Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

The only time I can tolerate flies is when I’m photographing insects and in macro shooting mode, but even then I want them outside.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 180mm| Canon 500D close up filter| f8| 1/1600s| ISO 500| Manual Priority| Hand-held

A Sideways Glance…

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A Sideways Glance…, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

Working out in the yard yesterday I upset several insects, and discovered a Blue Belly lizard living in the old sandbox.
This morning I thought I’d look for bugs and play with my Close up filter.

I think this is grass-hopper of sorts, but am not sure. He hopped away as soon as I moved to get around in front of him , so this is the only photo I have of it.

Nikon D700} Nikkor 180mm + Canon 500D close-up filter| f8| 1/400s| ISO 500|Manual Priority| Hand-held

Chicken Sharwarma Wrap

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Chicken Sharwarma Wrap, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

This was my dinner Thurs. evening.
Spit roasted chicken wrapped with fresh lettuce, tomatoes, and red onions. I added a generous amount of the chili and Tahini sauces.
This is my favorite wrap from this local
Falafel House.

House of Falafel, Cupertino, California, USA

iPhone 3Gs, ProCamera app. Resized and watermark added in CS6

Test Driving Adobe’s ACR 7.0

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Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

I recently received the new version of Photoshop CS6. I downloaded it and had some time to play with ACR 7.0 today.

ACR is the acronym for Adobe Camera RAW. The latest version has had a total revamp. They’ve retooled all the sliders and the algorithm giving us more control to recover highlights, shadows the blacks, and whites.

They’ve replaced the Recovery slider with several new sliders.imagethey’ve given us a Whites, Blacks, Highlights, and Shadows sliders.

I’ve got quite a few files in my archives that I’ve been saving for the time my editing software would be able to recover the data and save the photo. Let’s look at what I’ve been able to recover today.

I took this photo in January 2012 while on a New Year’s Trip in the Eastern Sierras with friends. I haven’t done any retouching to it at all in this shot. I only added my tag, and resized it for the web.

It’s completely blow out in the upper left sky where the sun was shining, and a lot of the mountain range is lost in the shadow. I thought I used my 2 stop Graduated Neutral Density filter on this shot, but by the looks of it I grabbed my 1 stop by accident.

Here’s what I was able to recover using CS6 new ACR 7.0.

It’s amazing the amount of color  that I was able to recover, and there are even a few wispy clouds there that couldn’t be seen!

I made all the adjustments in ACR using the new highlights, shadows, whites, and black sliders. I also adjusted the contrast,  and exposure then I opened  it in Photoshop to remove some spots, add my tag, and resize it for the web.

ACR 7.0 made the upgrade worth it to me.