Photography | Rudy Lopez Photography

Photo tips: Preparing for a day trip

By Rudy Lopez, on November 12th, 2009%

Jumping in the car and hitting the road for a day of exploring is a great way to expand your horizons and improve your photography skills. But before you snap a single photo, you will need to cover a few bases. Listed below are several tips designed to help you avoid making mistakes . . . → Read More: Photo tips: Preparing for a day trip

Road Trip: Sunset in Merino, Colorado

By Rudy Lopez, on November 11th, 2009%

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This was a short trip during the late afternoon on Halloween. While many people were partying at places made up to look scary, I was looking for places that were actually scary. I drove the side roads that run along Interstate 76 as the afternoon light grew shorter. I . . . → Read More: Road Trip: Sunset in Merino, Colorado

Abandoned Colorado: The Last Chance Motel in Last Chance, Colorado.

By Rudy Lopez, on November 11th, 2009%

The town of Last Chance is barely more than a few dozen buildings at the intersection of highways 36 and 71 in eastern Colorado. Limon is 40 miles to the south, Brush is 80 miles to the north. Denver is 80 miles west. An abandoned motel slowly deteriorates on a large lot at . . . → Read More: Abandoned Colorado: The Last Chance Motel in Last Chance, Colorado.

Middle of Nowhere: 3/21. Storm chasing in Eastern Colorado.

By Rudy Lopez, on March 21st, 2009%

Following Storms

Watching a storm build from tiny popcorn clouds to an enormous rain maker is an amazing sight that can take hours and cover hundreds of miles. During the journey, you are likely to encounter small communities and other interesting stuff that would have remained a mystery to you, had the storm not . . . → Read More: Middle of Nowhere: 3/21. Storm chasing in Eastern Colorado.

Manual Mode – Understanding the basics of the Digital SLR

By Rudy Lopez, on September 10th, 2008%

Most of the time the automatic exposure setting on your Digital SLR will produce fine images. The camera’s brain along with the lens’ impressive array of sensors can usually figure out the best balance between shadow and highlight and provide a decent image. A perfect record of a moment in time. To me, photographers are the ultimate historians, but that is for another time. Historical photography theories aside, there are times when you want to convey more than just a moment in time. Perhaps you want to add more light to a sunny country garden scene to give it a misty impression. Or maybe you want a portrait to have a dark, brooding feeling. Automatic settings will capture the moment in time, but to express yourself you need to be able to twist and bend the light like a sculptor does with clay. As with any tool, the quality of work it produces depends entirely on the competence of the user. The tool itself is merely the apparatus your mind uses to create a physical object from the neural info stored in your brain. A Digital SLR (or any manual camera) is designed to be intuitive. The basics are simple, and the learning curve is short, if you practice. Take your camera everywhere, shoot everything on manual mode. Erase nothing. Keep track of your settings, figure out what works best. I will show you how to use the manual mode on your camera, my bet is that you will never use automatic settings again after a little training. . . . → Read More: Manual Mode – Understanding the basics of the Digital SLR

Photography Quick Tips: Five ways to immediately improve your photos

By Rudy Lopez, on August 19th, 2008%

Here are a few things you can do to make expressing yourself with photos easier.: Must you stand so close? It doesn’t matter if you are taking a photo of a person or a landscape, it is important that you get as close to the subject as you can. Our brain interprets distance and . . . → Read More: Photography Quick Tips: Five ways to immediately improve your photos

Photography Quick Tips: The rule of thirds

By Rudy Lopez, on August 18th, 2008%

Composition and exposure are the two major elements in creating a pleasing photo. Getting a good exposure is a technical skill. After all, there are only so many combinations of shutter and aperture that you can use on a specific shot. Composition is a different matter entirely. Composition cannot be defined, there are no . . . → Read More: Photography Quick Tips: The rule of thirds

Aperture 2 Tutorials #1 – Importing and Organizing Photos

By Rudy Lopez, on August 16th, 2008%

Aperture 2 can be a daunting program without any guidance. The following video is the first tutorial in a series designed to make using Aperture 2 easier to use. This video covers workflow from beginning to end, importing photos and getting organized. Excerpt from the video:

Create a folder called “dump folder” on your desktop. This is a permanent folder, you will use it to temporarily hold all new pictures until they are uploaded into an Aperture 2 Library.
Create a folder with a name you would like to have for the project. We will call this folder “House Plant Photos.”
Set Image Capture to import into the “dump folder.” Download Images.
Drag the images from the “dump folder” into the project folder.
Watch the video below to learn the rest!

DSLR Basics – Understanding the Digital Camera

By Rudy Lopez, on August 6th, 2008%

D300

With image sensors getting cheaper and more powerful, most serious amateur and semi-pro shooters are opting for the versatile Digital SLR, merrily leaving their film cameras behind. This guide is geared toward people that are already familiar with an SLR photography, but are unfamiliar with the digital process. Shooting with a DSLR is just like shooting with a film camera. All of the common mechanical functions are there, right where you would expect them to be. And, while there aren’t any chemicals to deal with, each image still has to be processed before it can be shared with the universe.

THE SENSOR

In film photography, a chemically treated segment of plastic is exposed to light for a predetermined period of time, permanently embedding an image onto the film. The film is then processed to create negatives, which in turn are processed into photographs or slides. The concept is the same for digital photography, except instead of a segment of film being exposed to light, a CCD (charged coupling device) is exposed and the light is converted into electrical signals that are recognized by the camera’s processor, the files are then stored on a solid state memory device such as a CF card. Each pixel on the sensor captures red, blue, and green information. . . . → Read More: DSLR Basics – Understanding the Digital Camera

An examination of existence, from Roxborough State Park

By Rudy Lopez, on August 1st, 2008%

There are some things that seem to bring a person closer to their essential being, closer to whatever it is that defines ‘you’. There are things that we experience that are so personal that there is simply no one on earth that could understand but you. Now that I look at it, that statement sounds a little more grandiose that I intended. I mean to say that there is something in each of us that connects to our souls in a way that cannot be described. It doesn’t matter whether it’s watching your favorite NASCAR driver succeed (whatever it is that is considered success), or being able to lay down a nasty blues riff, it is that connection is what makes a person an ‘individual’. . . . → Read More: An examination of existence, from Roxborough State Park

Rudy Lopez Photography