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At the conclusion of the 2024 PhotowalksTV 3,500 mile Road Trip, my friend Terry posed an interesting question: “What was the craziest animal you saw and where was the best sunset?”
The animal was easy: I don’t know that he was crazy, but you don’t see a big, honking grizzly bear every day.
And the sunsets? That would be a tie between a big red sky at 9 p.m. in Victor, Idaho, the heart of the Teton Valley, or a great 9:30 p.m. collection of clouds set against Peet’s Hill in Bozeman, Montana.
In this newsletter I try to give you news you can use, so let’s break down each of these photos for a minute.
On the grizzly, yes, I’m known for iPhone photography, but had I shot the bear with my phone, you wouldn’t have seen much. You need a big camera with a good zoom lens for wildlife, as I explain in the next episode of PhotowalksTV, from Cody, WY., debuting Friday night. This was taken with a Sony RX10IV.
For the sunsets, both were on an iPhone 15 Pro Max. But the images above were edited, just like my old black and white photos in the darkroom. They were processed, enhanced, whichever word you’d like. Because nothing leaves my phone that’s not tweaked in some kind. Crop, boost color, convert to black and white, up the exposure, you name it, I use them all.
Idaho sunset
From the room at the Bot Motel that I told you about in the last edition, the Teton Valley, where no human being is on hand to answer questions, it was after 9 p.m. and the sky was getting red. I didn’t have a lot of choices to put something amazing in the foreground for a great sunset shot, because time was of the essence. I basically had to cross the street then and there and try to block out distracting things like street poles and the like.
For editing, I used the new mobile app from Luminar, photo software long popular with photographers on desktop for enhancing landscape photos and more.
Here I used the simple slider wheel and brightened the green and overall look of the sky.
Then I put it back into the Apple Photos app on the iPhone and upped the blacks a bit.
And that’s it! I love what Luminar did to the grass. It’s the basic dodging and burning like I used to do in the darkroom as a kid, but it all happened in seconds with a little slider wheel!
(To buy the Luminar desktop app, here’s a link.)
Bozeman
For Peet’s Hill, I used both Luminar and the free Adobe Lightroom Mobile app. Which do you prefer?
Both are a little stronger than the first photo, at the top of the screen, which used the Magic Wand and Blacks slider in Apple Photos. The Luminar photo has the wheel turned all the way up for an incredible looking sky, while the Lightroom shot just used the “Dehaze” slider, which results in colorful, but less dramatic skies.
Which do you prefer?
As for the winning sunset, on social media, the Teton Valley shot got the most votes, thanks to the skies and green grass, while many said they preferred the composition in Bozeman.
Adobe Rightfully Sued
I love Adobe products, but I hate how the company—and too many others, lock you into year-long subscriptions that are confusing and nearly impossible to exit. The Federal Trade Commission this week took action against the company, which differs from streaming subscription vendors in that it basically makes you commit to a full year of service. If you cancel, it charges a 50% “early termination” fee for the remainder of your contract. (And hides this fact in tiny print.)
So if you were to decide to give the products photographers live on, Photoshop and Lightroom, and pay $20 monthly, you’re actually committing to $239.88. If you change gears 30 days later, and cancel, you will still be on the hook to Adobe for over $100.
The FTC says Adobe “has harmed consumers by enrolling them in its default, most lucrative subscription plan without clearly disclosing important plan terms.” I couldn’t agree more.
What you won’t see on the website, is an expensive workaround. Instead of the $20 monthly package, you could go month to month on Photoshop and Lightroom individually, at $34.99 with no termination fees. But that’s rather onerous, wouldn’t you agree?
There is no logical reason anyone should have to pay any “cancelation” fee for renting a service. Period.
Live show Thursday
Juliana and Martin from Tourist to Local will be joining me Thursday at 4 p.m. PT on the live show. We'll be talking travel photography tips and techniques for making videos on the road and of course, taking your questions.
The duo have been all over the place lately--they're currently in Argentina, where they’ve been dancing up a storm, and more recently have visited Sicily and Mexico. They do a great job of going beyond the tourist traps and showing you what it's really like to live elsewhere and I’m a big fan.
I hope you'll join us for the live show.
(BTW: I had said before the big road trip that I looked to be more consistent with the live shows. So here we go: Thursdays at 4 p.m. PT through the summer.)
Thanks as always for taking the time to check out the newsletter!
Jeff
Fantastic post Jefferson! Love the pics and the details about the apps and walking us through them. Thank you!!