Autumn is nice in New Mexico, but...

 ...monsoon brings out the very best in photographic opportunities!

Lightning captured from the front porch. ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about our monsoon:

"The North American monsoon is a complex weather process that brings moisture from the Gulf of California (and to lesser extent the eastern Pacific and Gulf of Mexico) over northwestern Mexico and southwestern US resulting in summer thunderstorms, especially at higher elevations. Monsoon rains account for 35% to 45% of total rainfall in the desert Southwest"

Thunderstorms mean heavy (but scattered) rain, and more importantly, lightning! Nothing is more satisfying than capturing a great lightning image.  For a long time, before the digital era, nothing was more frustrating than trying to capture a great lighting image! One had to stand in the rain with a cable release in hand, and the shutter dial set on "B"... push the plunger for a set amount of time and hope that a lighting strike occurred when the shutter was open. Lather, rinse, repeat.

With the advent of digital imaging, many cameras of the advanced amateur and pro levels came with an intervalometer setting. One could specify a certain number of exposures, at a specified interval, and the camera would then do the heavy lifting, while the photographer enjoyed a cold beverage in front of the TV. When the storm subsided, the memory card was loaded in the computer, and the hunt for any frames with a lightning strike would begin.  That's how I captured the image below way back in 2011, also from the front porch. To this day, I think this is still the best storm to ever pass over our heads heading West.

Monsoon lightning. ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site 2011

This method had it's obvious drawbacks, of course. The number of shutter actuations vs the number of images of lightning was excessive, considering the lifespan of shutters back then.

The solution was having a device that would only fire the camera when there was actually a lightning bolt! These devices did exist then, but for many of us the price was prohibitive- $500 and up.

Then, in 2016, I began to see ads for a device that didn't cost an arm and a leg and promised I'd be able to capture lightning, and a whole lot more! That device was the Pluto Trigger ! It was only $119 then, and it's still $119 today. I bought one, of course, and have been very pleased with it's capabilities, not only for lightning capture, but so many other functions (but more on that in another post). The image at the top of this story was made possible, in part, with the Pluto Trigger. (Follow the link to learn more).

Notice I wrote "in part" when referring to the use of the Pluto Trigger in making the shot up top. It made sure I got the RAW data I needed, to flesh out a memorable image. To do that, I needed the right software.  

Raw (Fujifilm RAF), unedited image. ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

And to tell you how I got to the right software, I need to give you a little historical review of my contentious personal history with photo editing technology:

Way back, in my early days of photography, photo editing took place in the darkroom and, for me, at least, consisted mainly of cropping with the enlarger, "burning and dodging" (darkening or lightening certain parts of the print by letting more or less enlarger light hit different areas of the paper.. sorry, that's as simple as I can make it), and primarily making sure a minimum of dust makes it on to the image, a thankless task that frankly, I had little time for, and it shows up in a lot of my black and white prints from that era. But I digress...

When circumstances caused me to begin my professional career much earlier than I had planned, I didn't need to worry about editing. That fell to the technicians at the labs that processed my film of the many canine events that I photographed. In other words, the minimum wage folks running the minilabs at WalMart, Meijer, Sam's Club, et al.  For the most part, they did a great job, and my customers were happy. I was not shooting much for my own enjoyment back then, so I was happy too.

 In 2003, my life changed when I reconnected after 35 years with my first girlfriend (you know her as Margaret, LOL), and amazingly convinced her that it would be fun to travel the length and breadth of the country in an RV and shoot all manner of canine events, and do it with digital gear, not film. I would take the pictures, and Margaret would load them, display them to the dogs' owners, take orders when necessary, and make the prints on site when that was possible. She did the editing, with a number of software products, most of which I don't remember at this point, but also standbys like Photoshop Elements, and ACDSee.  The editing was out of my hands, and I was very content with that. Until...

...In January of 2009, we decided to retire, and plunked ourselves down in a $60,000 house with a $1,000,000 view 15 miles outside of Deming, NM.  I began to shoot primarily for pleasure, and felt I should begin to do my own editing. Margaret was very happy with that decision, and I was woefully behind the curve.  I'm pretty sure I did most of the edits with our old copies of ACDSee and PS Elements.  I asked Margaret a lot of questions, and got some answers, but mostly I was on my own. I just fumbled around and way over edited most of my images. Then it was Google to the rescue! I discovered Picasa, followed by Picasa3!  While by no means as comprehensive as the big buck editors, it had two things going for it: It was simple. It was free. It was fun. Okay, three things.

Good things don't last. Google discontinued Picasa3, and I was scrambling for another free editing platform online. Fortunately, some folks from Picasa were also scrambling, and they started PicMonkey. In addition to all the tools I was used to, they added dozens more.  

Some time around 2015 or 16, I started using the "Nik Suite", primarily for their amazing Silver Efex Pro  black and white converter. It was free, and remained free even after Google acquired them. Then Google, being Google, sold Nik off to DxO and it was no longer free. But DxO had a pretty good editing lineup as well, and I bought into that, too. It only had one drawback at that time. I could not edit Fujifilm RAF files. 

There were drawbacks, in fact, to all of the software I was using at that time. At least to me. I was intimidated by the tools, the terminology, the user interface, especially with the Adobe products, and even the DxO tools. In fact, it almost seems like Adobe intentionally makes their Photoshop tools intentionally intimidating to all but the nerdiest of artists and photographers. I was flying blind. And then? Then I heard about editing software that was simple, intuitive, and used AI.... artificial intelligence to do the grunt work, leaving photographers freedom to get out and do the art they were meant to do, and leave the Photoshop nerds to ruin their posture for life in front of their screens.

And that brings us up to the present. Whew! I didn't intend to go on that long. What a "shaggy dog story"..

So, how did that image way up at the top get from the raw file, to its current pretty damn good looking photo? With just a few clicks and sliders? I'll tell you... Luminar Neo with the HDR Merge extension. 

And that's a story for another post. Soon!