Eli's Photography Blog

Tuesdays With Eli – WPPI, Las Vegas, & Friends!

Today is Tuesday! I have to apologize for not getting my “Tuesdays with Eli” blog post up sooner for you guys. I’m still here in Las Vegas for the giant WPPI convention and things are a bit crazy! There is so much going on I really don’t have time to blog, but I know that you guys are waiting on it! Haha. As I’m typing this, I’m sitting here in the MGM Hotel’s lobby up against the wall using their electricity and free WiFi. This is Vegas, it’s 2010, you would think there would be free WiFi everywhere…there’s not. This week has been so much fun! I’ve meet so many people and seen so much stuff. My feet hurt, because for 3 days I’ve walked everywhere and let me tell you this place is not small. I still have 2 days left, and I’m trying to get as much as possible out of this trip. I really am have a super great time, but I’m also really starting to miss Leslie. The people in the photography industry are some of the best, positive, friendly, and inspiring people. To get this many people in one area that all love what they do radiates excitement! I can’t wait to get back and share all that I’ve seen and heard with my friends back home that didn’t get to come. I’m sure thankful that I’ve had the oppertunity to go to WPPI! God has blessed my life immensely, and I’m excited to share with others!
Here are a couple photos for you guys that I took while walking the Vegas Strip! I also wanted to let you guys download them if you wanted for prints or desktop wallpapers if you want. So here you go, Enjoy! Full downloads here: PhotoA, PhotoB, PhotoC.

Tuesdays with Eli – Vegas Baby

Hey, hey everyone! Well I made it safely to Vegas. Vegas Baby!

I landed yesterday and my brother picked me up at the airport. He lives about an hour away from Vegas in a little town called Bullhead City, Arizona. I’ll be staying here at his place for this week before the WPPI convention next week. I’ve got lots of planning to do before the convention, but I have to say, this is one sweet pad I’m staying at. I can work from the back deck still pick up WiFi and look right over the flowing Colorado River. Pretty Sweet!

Here’s a couple iPhone pictures from the flight!

Tuesdays with Eli – Adobe Lightroom Tip #1

Hey everyone, today is Tuesday, that means you’ll be hearing from me again. Since I’ve been doing so much personal blogging lately, I decided to share with all you interested photographers and photo enthusiast a couple tips I’ve learned for my post processing. First of all I want to say I’m no expert, there are plenty of great ways to post process your photos, the key is to just find a great system that works best for you. I’m just sharing with you my current system that’s working for me. The first part of my workflow after capturing the photos onto my hard drive, is using a program called Photo Mechanic. It cost $150 bucks, but makes selecting, re-ordering, marking, and re-naming the original files much faster that trying to do it in Lightroom. I save tons of time doing it this way first. I shoot a lot of pictures, so that means I get rid of a lot too. I like to shoot a lot because sometimes I’m just looking for the difference between a half smile and a real smile. I try to catch that fraction of a moment that’s just right, so I shoot a lot and I’m liberal with trashing the ones that don’t make it. When I ready to import into Adobe Lightroom, I make copies of the selected photos as backups. When I import into Lightroom I always make sure that I’m adding the copyright metadata to the images during import.

I choose to add the photos to the catalog without moving them. You can do it either way, just make sure you have a backup. After the photos are in Lightroom, I go through every photo in order and make my adjustments. In my opinion, the key to great post production is subtle adjustments. You want to get it right in camera before you begin to process in Lightroom. I make small adjustments to preserve the look of the photo. Too much post processing can kill a great photo. Here you can see the before and after. I also want you to be able to see what I adjusted in Lightroom.

I shot this with my Nikon D90 at 1/1250 SEC at f / 1.8 200 ISO 85mm. You can see the original photo was pretty nice as is. I just made a few small adjustment to the photo in Lightroom to make it pop a little more. The older I get, I realize the things that my parents taught me can be used in just about any area of life. “Everything in moderation.” I basically only make small adjustments to the exposure, blacks, sharpness, sometimes vibrance and color. Then After I have processed all the images in that set, I make another backup. You don’t want to have to do the same work over again. Hope this helps, Thanks for listening. : )

Tuesdays with Eli – Community, Helping, Sharing, Giving, Growing.

To quote the KJV Bible in Acts 20:35, Jesus Christ said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” To quote John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address of 1961′ “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” One more quote made famous by Albert Einstein, “The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable receiving.” These three men didn’t share a whole lot in common. Their passions, interest, and personal lives were all different, but they all seamed to understand one universal truth. Giving anything to anyone, is much better than waiting to receive. It’s much better because its positive, it helps others, and something magical happens to the giver… they are in turn blessed back. I am sharing this with you guys on my “Tuesdays with Eli” for a couple reasons. One, I’m seeing first hand right now in my life how this basic principle works. Two, I’m hearing the stories first hand of my friends and family that are also working this principle, and three, I hope that this blog post might inspire someone to do the same. With all of that said, I am young and naive to a lot of things in this world. Yes, I did just read a couple books recently that jazzed me up and made me think that it is that easy. But, I’m just telling you from what I am experiencing, that this stuff does work wonders.

Community:  Most of you may know that for the last couple months, I have been organizing and inviting fellow photographers to a lunch meet-up once a month. A bunch of like minded photographers sit down and eat and share with each other. I think this is great for the photography community here in Little Rock, and the feed back that I’m getting is that everyone really enjoys it. I hope that I helped give just a little to the industry. I gave a little bit of my time and now I’m reaping HUGE benefits. I now have more photographer friends who all bring something unique to the table, and I’m also feeling much more comfortable meeting new people. If there are any new photographers reading this that would like to join us in our monthly lunch, please let me know. Shoot me an email, tweet me, or facebook me.

Helping:  I am quickly learning that every successful person has only become successful because of inner drive and more importantly the help of the people around them. The tricky part to this equation is that you must help others before looking for help yourself.

Sharing:  The photography industry is not exactly the same as it used to be. Modern technology has forever changed the face of Photography. Blogs and social media have made sharing information just about as easy as tying your shoes.  However, people still wear slip ons….don’t they?  Sharing is super easy and everyone has something to share. Photographers in this age will NOT survive by hoarding up all their tips and advice because the don’t want others to know their secrets.

Giving:  Just do it. It feels good and good things happen to you when you give. I could share with you all the great things that have been happening to me because of giving, but I’m trying to wrap this thing up. Plus I bet your thinking I’m just going over and over the same stuff by now. Give… just do it.

Growing: Like most of the photographers I know, we are never quite satisfied with our work. I’m always looking for ways to grow and master my craft. Reading books, watching instructional DVDs, taking pictures, and trying new things are all great ways to get better. However, don’t forget about the other ways to grow. “Let the information flow both directions.”

My sincerest thanks from the bottom of my heart to every single person that has ever affected my life and helped me get to where I am today. – Eli : )

Arkansas Sunset

Tuesday’s with Eli – Roadtrips

I have always loved road trips.  For one thing I do some of my best thinking on the road. All the distractions of the “day to day life” are taken away when you only have one simple task to do…Drive. Because I had dated Leslie for 3 years long distance, I got pretty used to long drives. I really only need a couple things to make me happy on a road trip: Plain sunflower seeds, bottle water, possibly a Rockstar Energy drink, and if it’s a really long drive… an audio book. These simple things make all the difference to me if I’m driving by myself. However, if I have a driving partner, that is something else. This weekend Leslie and I took a roadtrip to Nashville, Tennessee, her hometown. We we going there for her sister’s birthday dinner at her grandparent’ house. The weather was really nice the whole weekend, just a bit chilly, but made for a super pretty drive most the way. I was major excited to listen to my new audiobook “Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi, and the 11 hour drive was a perfect fit. I’m glad Leslie didn’t mind either. As long as the narrator has a non-annoying voice we’re good, haha. It was a good book, I definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to get a little better at networking, and not in an artificial way, but in a genuine making friends and lasting connections kinda way. My friend Geoff Duncan recommended it to me, and I’m sure glad he did. Now I say pay it forward!

Here’s a quick little photos Leslie grabbed on the drive. Have a great week!

Eli

Road Trip Sunset