Topaz Labs

Last “W” stories voting reminder . . . and snow on Mauna Kea

Note: If you are using the WordPress App in Android and reading this with the Reader in Dark Mode, you won’t see much of the post because of a bug in the behavior of the app.

The “W” stories voting block is about 20 hours from closing. As usually happens late in the voting block, we have fairly significant movement by one of the stories.  If you like a particular story, in addition to voting for it — and if you feel like it — now is the time to nudge friends and family into reading it (and also ask them to read the others in case they don’t agree with you) and to cast their votes.

No matter how you come to them or who you vote for, if you’re a reader of our stories and someone who votes, the writers wish to express their gratitude and appreciation. Links to the stories and the poll for voting for “Alphabet Challenge W-Stories” are HERE(link) Votes will be accepted until  Noon (Central Time) on Monday, January 25th, 2021.

So, snow on Mauna Kae (the Big Island of Hawaiʻi) . . .

Composite of six photos taken in portrait mode.

That shot was taken from Highway 19 just north of the Kawaihae port while heading up to Waimea.

Continue reading →

Two days left in “W” stories voting block, a little rant . . . and a Cactus Ent

Note: If you are using the WordPress App in Android and reading this with the Reader in Dark Mode, you won’t see much of the post because of a bug in the behavior of the app.

The “W” stories voting block has a little over 48 hours before it ends and the results recorded in the annals of insignificant history.  If you like a particular story, in addition to voting for it — and if you feel like it — now is the time to nudge friends and family into reading it (and also ask them to read the others in case they don’t agree with you) and to cast their votes.

No matter how you come to them or who you vote for, if you’re a reader of our stories and someone who votes, the writers wish to express their gratitude and appreciation. Links to the stories and the poll for voting for “Alphabet Challenge W-Stories” are HERE(link) Votes will be accepted until  Noon (Central Time) on Monday, January 25th, 2021.

So, photos . . .

These were shot in Central Illinois last July. They are dead now.

Continue reading →

A “T” stories voting reminder . . . and Topaz Labs sale

Getting down to the last few days — three — of the Alphabet Challenge “T” Stories voting round. We’re on our way to another pretty good turnout, as far as votes go.

It still looks like there are lots of visitors who abstain from voting (and probably from reading), but, overall, the writers are pleased that after twenty rounds, we’re still getting a decent turnout, especially considering all the stuff that’s going on and the fact it’s a holiday week.  

If you are a reader of our stories and someone who votes, thank you in advance for casting a vote for your favorite of the three. Links to the stories and the poll for voting for “Alphabet Challenge T-Stories” are HERE(link) Votes will be accepted until noon, Chicago time, on November 27th.

Today, I want to do something different. Let’s begin by looking at this photo . . .

As shot

That’s an unaltered photo of our 2010 Tahoe (which we sold when we moved to Hawaiʻi). What’s so special about the photo? Nothing. It’s basically a prop.

Continue reading →

Alphabet Challenge “B” Stories poll hungry for votes

It’s falling on deaf ears, but here’s another reminder — if you’ve not already done so — to vote for one of the stories in the “B” Alphabet Challenge Submissions. You can vote HERE and for them who have yet to read them, there are links to each of the stories in that post.

I’ll be closing the vote for the “A” Alphabet Challenge Submissions (HERE) on Wednesday. It’s seeing little traffic but in case there be a straggler or two out there, I’m giving fair warning.

To be clear, you can read the stories and not vote (as some people have done). It’s also perfectly OK to not like any of them (it’s one of the voting options).

Any reader involvement is appreciated and we welcome comments and questions. They will be answered anonymously, but answers you’ll get (if you have questions, of course).

Click for a larger view. Full-size can be seen HERE.

That’s a Topaz Glow 2.0 conversion of the previously shared flower photo.

Continue reading →

Reminder: vote for favorite Alphabet Challenge “A” Story

Another quick reminder to vote for your favorite story out of the three Alphabet Challenge “A” Submissions. You can vote HERE and for them who have yet to read them, there are links to each of the stories in that post.

If you’re a person who talks to your plants, they will enjoy hearing you read the stories to them aloud and it gives you 30 minutes of quality time with your green charges. Reading them on your own is also good and it takes even less time. You have a whole month to read them before the voting closes. But that’s not what I suggest. The opposite, in fact. Get to it now! Chop, chop. And tell all your friends.

Remember: it’s a win-win. If you like any or all of the stories, you can direct your good friends to them and thus strengthen the bond between you and your friends. If you hate all the stories, you can forward them to any annoying friends you may want to alienate and remove from your life.

And now, a reworking of the photos from the previous reminder.

Topaz Lab’s Impression app – click for larger view.

That’s Mauna Kea with snow and observatories atop it. Right now, superstitious indigenous people are doing their best to stop the construction of a new telescope. Something about the mountain being sacred and an ancient burial ground. Funny that because the whole island is a burial ground.

Lots and lots of people lived and killed each other all over those islands. By those standards, no one should live anywhere on those islands. Honest, I tried being sympathetic to the arguments but there’s a basic lack of honesty about it that I find annoying. Other than a few — very few by my personal experience — most natives don’t seem to live the Aloha spirit or have any spiritual connection to the places they consistently trash.

Continue reading →

Topaz Labs Adjust AI Contest

I did a post about The Topaz Labs Adjust AI offering . . . and I’m now following up with another post because Topaz Labs are running a contest (entry by July 1st) for the best use of Adjust AI.

The winner gets a copy of Adjust AI . . . which seems strange since the winner likely already has Adjust AI. Wait; someone could download a trial of the software and hope they win the software.

Regardless, I’m entering for the fun of it since I’m confident I will not win.

These are smaller versions of the photos I’m considering for the contest. When I choose the submissions-worthy photos I’ll send the full-size versions  . . . but, you can see all the full size photos right now by going to the SmugMug Gallery HERE.

So, the way this works, I will show the original and then show the version processed using Adjust AI.

Continue reading →

Topaz Labs Adjust AI

It’s no secret I’m a fan of the various offerings from Topaz Labs and I just got notice of their latest offerings, Topaz Labs Adjust AI.

I should disclose that since I purchased the original Adjust plugin, I received this particular stand-alone program for free. The question then is this: would I pay the discounted introductory price of  $60 for this product? The regular price will eventually be $80.

Well, there are two paths to the answer and the first always leads to “Yes” because I buy their products both to support them and because they stand by their “free upgrades for life” policy (or, they have so far). Per my past experiences, even when their initial offering is perhaps a bit shy in quality and utility, within a short while, the updates and new releases have always risen to being useful quality products that I rely on in my photography workflow.

The other path involves actually trying the product and evaluating its usefulness as I did for their other AI products. That’s a trickier path because that way subjectivity lurks.

Continue reading →

Photography Stuff – Part Three: if I had a Nikon P1000

This is primarily about photography and a camera (Nikon P1000) and post-processing. There are photos but if you’re not interested, watch this video and then go look elsewhere for something that interests you more. 

Clicking on an image below will open the image in a new window. The image will have a maximum dimension of 1280 pixels. If your cursor shows a (+) sign after the image opens, you can click to see the image at its maximum resolution.

If you want to see the images at their full resolution, the SmugMug gallery of all the images is HERE. For obvious reasons (the images are not mine) the shopping cart is not enabled for this gallery.

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

Continue reading →

Photography Stuff – Part Two: Nikon P900 Post-processing limits

This is primarily about photography and camera (Nikon P900) and post-processing. There are photos but if you’re not interested, watch this video and then go look elsewhere for something that interests you more. 

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

Continue reading →

Photography Stuff – Part One: More Nikon P900

If you read a post of mine and it looks like I’m talking about photos that are not there, it probably means WordPress is messing with me again and wiped my links. In that case, let me know. In any case, the linked SmugMug Gallery will have all the photos.
For them not interested in reading, you can go directly to the SmugMug Gallery HERE.  
For a slideshow click HERE. When you click the link, it will open in a new window and you have two options:
1) Manually scroll through the photos by clicking the “<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos.
2) There’s a PLAY/PAUSE button at the bottom-left of the screen with the transition set at about 5 seconds. Note: clicking the PLAY arrow will run a full-screen slideshow. You can then still use the”<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos as this will pause the slideshow.
If you want the full experience, keep reading

This is primarily about photography and camera (Nikon P900) and post-processing. There are photos but if you’re not interested, watch this video and then go look elsewhere for something that interests you more. 

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

Continue reading →