Words of Wisdom
“Wherever there is light, one can photograph.” – Alfred Stieglitz
Edit My Raw:
Our recent “Edit My RAW” event was a huge success and easily one of the most fun and eye-opening sessions we’ve had. It was incredible to see how differently each photographer approached the exact same image—what started as a single RAW file turned into a wide range of creative interpretations, from subtle and natural edits to bold and artistic transformations. The variety, creativity, and attention to detail on display made for a truly inspiring experience, and it sparked great conversations about style, technique, and personal vision. Safe to say, this is one we’ll definitely be doing again.
Resources:
Erwin Buske has no formal education in photography or the arts, he’s self taught. He lives in Washington and for most of his career was a Cost Analyst at Boeing. He learned the art and craft of photography from a variety of sources, including books, YouTube videos, tutorials, participation in photography club outings, photography workshops, studying the images of others, and a willingness to experiment and make mistakes. He has developed into an excellent photographer and shares his knowledge with an interesting blog.
Gear:
Motion Horizons LLC has announced Bolt Hunter, a lightning trigger for storm photographers. The device is designed to reliably capture lightning in situations where many triggers fail (I have the MIOPs trigger and have yet to successfully capture a lightning shot with it). Instead of reacting just to brightness spikes, Bolt Hunter uses predictive triggering by analysing intra-cloud activity that occurs before a visible strike, earlier detection means your camera begins exposure sooner, especially when combined with Bolt Hunter’s shutter lag reduction tool. Once a strike begins, it can queue additional exposures within milliseconds to catch return strokes.
Bolt Hunter was designed to address the complaints and shortcomings of other triggers. Instead of building a do-it-all device that’s marginal at many things, they built something exceptional at one thing, lightning photography. It is single button operation, weather sealed, auto hot shoe tightening with a 48 hour built in battery.
The device launched on Kickstarter on March 3, with full release expected at the end of April with pricing starting at $329 USD, so pricey but worth it, if it works as promised.
Tech Tips:
Self-taught Melbourne based photographer Leah Robertson believes that the best way to improve your skills is to practice. “Shoot as much as you can – it doesn’t really matter what. Spend hours and hours behind your camera. The more you shoot, the more your skills will improve.
“Don’t worry too much about shooting a certain way, to begin with. Experiment. Your style – your ‘voice’ – will emerge in time. And it will be more authentic when it does.” You can find her work in Instagram. (This was another tip from Peta Pixel)
Photography Apps:
DxO PureRAW 6 has launched. DXO is designed to clean up your RAW files before you import them into Lightroom, Photoshop, or DxO PhotoLab. PureRAW works at the beginning of the workflow. It handles colour reconstruction (aka demosaicing for the more technical among us), noise reduction, lens corrections, and sensor defect compensation. This allows you to work with a technically optimised file before you start making creative decisions. They argue that separating the technical cleanup from the artistic editing stage leads to more consistent and higher-quality results.
The key feature in version 6 is DeepPrime XD3, an AI-driven noise reduction and colour correction engine. XD3 is designed to maintain very fine detail while still reducing noise, and it now supports most modern digital cameras.
There is also a new high-fidelity compressed DNG option, which can shrink output file sizes by up to four times compared to standard DNG files without zero loss in image quality. N.B. you must start with an original RAW file, it cannot compress an existing DNG.
PureRAW 6 has an AI driven sensor dust that removes sensor dust before processing, I’d look at it just for this. Batch processing is another practical addition, allowing multiple images to be processed at the same time instead of sequentially. PureRAW 6 is available for macOS and Windows at $139.99 US for a new license, or $89.99 US as an upgrade from earlier versions.
YouTube Channels:
A short video (90 seconds) from the channel Photography Explained on the RAW vs. JPEG debate and makes a case for both depending on what you are going to do with your image.
This is a longer an more in-depth comparisons (~15 minutes) by Mark Denny, what I like about it is he has two images taken the same day, same time, same camera settings, one RAW and JPEG. If you want to try this Nikon allows you to capture flies with both formats at the same time and I assume other cameras do too. The results might surprise you, however for me it is about control, I can control more with RAW than I can with JPEG.
Featured Photographer:
Daniel Aucoin, is a macro and nature photographer from St. Basille NB. He says he’s still trying to figure out the meaning of life but photography helps him slow down and stay present.
For over 25 years, the camera has been his excuse to pay attention to the small things most people walk right past. He has some beautiful photographs and his macro work is astounding.
Photographer of The Month:
Cheryl Doucet won second place in the portraits segment of last year’s photo contest with this incredible self portrait.
Place of birth: Yarmouth NS
Member of the club: more than 10 years
Camera: Nikon Z7 but misses her D750.
About:
My name is Cheryl and I’m a retired police dispatcher and 911 call taker who spent my career being the calm voice in someone else’s emergency. Now, I’m embracing life’s adventures with a camera in hand and the open road ahead.
I love photography, camping under the stars, hiking scenic trails, biking, working out, and traveling wherever my heart leads and of course spending time with my family and friends. Many times you’ll find me singing and dancing like nobody’s watching. (Just ask my gym buddies!)
My motto? “Growing up is optional.” I choose positivity every day, because negativity is easy, but joy is far more fun to be around.
Favourite Genre
I’m a nature and self portrait photography but I dabble in other genres.
Skill Level
I see myself as a hobbyist.
Open to Meet ups?
Yes!
About The Image
The image is a self portrait done in my basement. I wanted to play with ocf and gels. I had three lights, two with gels on either side and the main light at about a45% camera right. I used a black cape to wrap around me and a mask I had purchased around Halloween.
Photo Tours:
Baffin Safari specializes in small group Arctic tours allowing guests to appreciate the amazing landscape, wildlife and people of this spectacular region of Northern Canada. Baffin Island is an incredible location for unique scenery and wildlife.
Thanks for reading! If something in this issue sparked an idea, we’d love to see what you create—bring it to the next meeting or share it with the club. Until next time, keep shooting and keep experimenting.