Posts Tagged ‘Washington’

Earth Day

Greenhouse flower - ©TimeLine Media

I am a day late on the Earth Day celebration of our planet and the efforts of the modern environmental movement. Similarly to other photographers, photos of nature from flowers, and landscapes are a popular subjects. Take Ansel Adams, Galen Rowell for example. These nature photographers have inspired and continue to inspire those that are passionate about capturing their world. Moreover, these images are made to preserve scenes for future generations.

Greenhouse flower - ©TimeLine Media
Greenhouse flower – ©TimeLine Media
Washington DC Cherry Blossoms - ©TimeLine Media
Washington DC Cherry Blossoms – ©TimeLine Media

Spring Blooms

Our world needs to be conscious of how we are affecting the natural systems with advances in technology and our growing population. With all the coverage of the missing airliner in the Indian Ocean, the search has been complicated by so much floating trash that confuses humans and satellites that are combing the area. Undoubtedly, there is need to find, refine, and deliver fossil fuels. However, there are impacts to the environment that needs to be managed by companies, governments, and everyone concerned with preserving a healthy planet.

Daffodills blooming - ©TimeLine Media
Daffodills blooming – ©TimeLine Media
Washington DC Cherry Blossoms - ©TimeLine Media
Washington DC Cherry Blossoms – ©TimeLine Media

I admire the many nature photographers that are capturing environment today to help illustrate the effects that we are having on the world around us. With this in mind, John Paul Caponigro and James Balog come to mind. Their images of animals, glaciers, and alien-like landscapes really give you a sense of how diverse, connected, and beautiful Earth is. It makes no doubt in my mind that their work will influence decision makers of all kinds. There has been so much progress in my lifetime, but clear that this is a drive that needs to continue. The continuing observance and support for Earth Day initiatives is encouraging! Here is hoping for more good decisions for a healthier world.

Flowering cactus - ©TimeLine Media
Flowering cactus – ©TimeLine Media

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703-864-8208

Creating a Facebook Cover photo – Tech Thursday

Sunrise Tidal Basin and Jeffeson Memorial - ©TimeLine Media

The use of a good cover photo in Facebook is something I have underestimated in my social media marketing. I do not change my profile photo very much. However, I am thinking that the cover photo can be changed more frequently. Hopefully it will not change how visitors recognize and remember my photography site. Recently, I used some images from my cherry blossoms photo walks to create a new cover page for my personal Facebook page. Here are the steps I used to make it.Looking through the Facebook help files on cover photos, they give the exact dimensions that the application uses:

At this time, cover photos are 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall. If you upload an image that’s smaller than these dimensions, it will be stretched to this larger size. The image you upload must be at least 399 pixels wide and 150 pixels tall.

Looking at this ratio, I know that it will be a panoramic photo – one with very long dimensions left to right compared to the dimensions top to bottom. Consequently, there were two photos that immediately came to mind:

Social Media Templates

Sunrise Tidal Basin and Jeffeson Memorial - ©TimeLine Media
Sunrise Tidal Basin and Jeffeson Memorial – ©TimeLine Media
Sunrise Tidal Basin and Washington Monument - ©TimeLine Media
Sunrise Tidal Basin and Washington Monument – ©TimeLine Media

These two were taken with the X100s which has a fixed 35mm lens. It is not very wide, and I wanted to get the entire Tidal Basin from the Washington Monument to the Jefferson Memorial. However with all the other photographers setup there at the time, I needed to work quickly. So I just made some photos looking straight ahead to the Jefferson first, then panned my camera to the left to get Washington Monument. I checked the camera to make sure there was a lot of overlap between the two photos before moving out of the way. After processing the photos in Lightroom, I brought them both into Photoshop CC which has some nice automated tools for combining photos into a panorama. This is the result:

Photos combined by Photoshop CC - ©TimeLine Media
Photos combined by Photoshop CC – ©TimeLine Media

The crazy bend in the perspective comes from the movement of the camera focal plane with respect to the horizon. Photoshop combines all the important elements seamlessly in the middle of the frame. I then brought this combined PSD file back into Lightroom because I like how the crop tool works there.

Cropping in Lightroom for Facebook cover photo - ©TimeLine Media
Cropping in Lightroom for Facebook cover photo – ©TimeLine Media

For cropping, I entered in a custom dimension of 8.51 x 3.15 to match the settings from Facebook. When you do this, your photo will look its best as a cover because there is no stretching or converting being done before it is displayed.

Cropping settings in Lightroom - ©TimeLine Media
Cropping settings in Lightroom – ©TimeLine Media

After uploading, it looks great on both the PC and mobile versions! Let me know if you have any other tips for making these.

Cherry Blossom Facebook cover photo - ©TimeLine Media
Cherry Blossom Facebook cover photo – ©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

2014 DC Cherry Blossoms – Part 1

Jefferson Memorial and Cherry Blossoms - ©TimeLine Media

Counting on the predictable weather in the Washington, DC Metro area is not a good business to place your bets. There are so many factors that the meteorologists will say contribute to the fickle nature of weather in this area. Predicting the peak bloom for cherry blossoms is also an annual ritual that can be difficult to time correctly. We have invited many out-of-town guests to come for the occasion, but the window for their best viewing is only a few days at most. This year had to have been some of the best blossom-viewing time I have ever witnessed. After a LONG winter, we had warm mornings with no precipitation. The winds were kept to a minimum so the fragile blossoms stayed on the trees for as long as they could. I took advantage of the luck, and made a trip to the Tidal Basin early before sunrise, and in the middle of the day just to see the blooming trees, the flowers, sun, the crowd, and all the activities.

Washington Monument and Cherry Blossoms Washington, DC - ©TimeLine Media
Washington Monument and Cherry Blossoms Washington, DC – ©TimeLine Media
Peak Cherry Blossoms Washington, DC - ©TimeLine Media
Peak Cherry Blossoms Washington, DC – ©TimeLine Media
Jefferson Memorial and Cherry Blossoms - ©TimeLine Media
Jefferson Memorial and Cherry Blossoms at sunrise – ©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

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