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In the summer of 2006, I got my first DSLR: an EOS 30D and its "better" kit lens, the EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM (which shit the bed on me like 3 years later.)  I went on a road trip with a friend from scenic western MA to southern Vermont.  VT is a beautiful state, and I have many happy (if, ahem, somewhat hazy) memories of attending college there.  I took along my shiny new camera and snapped a bunch of shots. I had no idea what the fuck I was doing.  The photos were terrible, largely because me having not understanding exposure.  I uploaded a few at the time, but ignored the rest for 18+ years.  I revisiting them this past January and applied some modern editing tools and 20 years of photo editing experience. The view I had every day at Landmark College in the mid 90s.  I had no idea how good I had it.   Same view in 1996, taken by my then-girlfriend.  Did I ever mention I had a red haired girlfriend from Maine?  I still have at least one from her... We then went on and saw a logging operation that was on the VT/NH border.  It was quite a spectacle of machinery, dust, smoke, sprinklers and of course huge piles of logs.  I took a bunch of shots and they more or less all came out terribly. I particularly like the puff of smoke on this one. For all of these shots, I loaded them into Luminar 4 and spent quite a bit of time working them over.  Luminar 4 applies pseudo-HDR math, but with careful tuning, it's possible to keep it out of the cartoonish territory most smartphone cameras reside in.  For just about all of them I also applied a lookup table.  I did some final edits in Photoshop and in a number of cases cropped them to 16:9.  I am an absolute goose stepping Nazi about aspect ratios and 16:9 is not one I normally use.  With that said, I didn't like all the empty space above in many of these shots.  I did much of this work while still recovering from covid, which might have had some effects on my decision making process.  In the end, I'm quite pleased with these edits.  The old "F/8 and be there" adage looms large here.  As long as a shot is even halfway framed and exposed correctly, it can probably be salvaged in editing. Tune in next time for more of the same, but with hot air balloons!

The Heat Is On by The Isley Brothers (1975) https://album.link/7hgzhp5b2zmd8 Example: 50 years ago as it is today. - I agree with the Brothers.

Please, don't let the next post be roast duck!     Run Daffy run!

I loved the Beasties and MCA turned into such a great human that is was extra tragic to lose him so young. Seems weird that was 13 years ago.   I saw them twice, 20 years apart. In 1987, I saw them at small club on a the Licensed To Ill tour, their first headlining tour, with Fishbone or Murphys Law opening, which was fucking nuts. In 2007, they were at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, which isn't the biggest joint but still a very different experience. 

Poolside Picnic. With unexpected guests.