Photographic Things to be Thankful For

Being that it's the tail end of the Thanksgiving weekend I was musing about things that have to do with photography for which I am thankful. A big category is jets, rental cars, on line reservations and all of the services that make modern travel so much easier than in the past (the TSA is not one of these) and permits you to get to photographically interesting places.  The image above is from the Pacific coast of Costa Rica which took less than a day to reach from Toledo.   It was taken with a mirrorless camera - small enough to carry without needing a chiropractor afterwards, fairly inconspicuous, high quality, and yet not so expensive that if I'd have dropped it overboard I would have been heartbroken.  My Canon M is a great back up camera for trips that aren't designed as hard core dawn to dusk expeditions and is a reasonable primary camera when I'm accompanying the wife somewhere that's not supposed to be a photographic outing (Chris has already learned there's really no such thing!)  Digital itself is another blessing.  I've heard it said that a real photographer has to learn by shooting film first but I disagree.  The instant feedback showing your mistakes makes a digital camera a far better learning tool.  I do not miss the days of slide film when I would review my images from a photography workshop by placing a large trash can next to a light table, peering at slides through a viewing loop, and then pitching many of them into that trash can. It's been derided as  "chimping" when you look at your images on the camera monitor right after capturing them, but the best way to learn is to set the viewscreen to show the image along with the RGB histogram and review as you go.  HDR software is another plus.  When it works, it's sure better than trying to put together a series of exposures by hand.  However, I do often start with the HDR program but then blend that image by hand with one of the original images, usually the one with the best sky, because I find that HDR software often makes a mess out of the sky.  Panoramic software gives you the chance to widen your opportunities for compositions (bad pun intended.) Seriously though, panoramic technique gives one the freedom of composition far beyond the traditional 2x3, 4x5 or square formats.  My last thanks goes out to grocery stores everywhere as I don't have to spend time like the fisherman trying to capture food - I can capture images instead.