Scott O. Smith Photoblog

Canon XTi * Canon EF-50mm f/1.8 lens * ISO 100 * 1/100 second

Today’s macro of Abraham Lincoln was taken from a $5.00 US bill. I used the poor man’s macro technique with my Canon EF-50mm f/1.8 lens. My buddy Rich Legg did a great write up on his blog last week about why everyone should have a 50mm f/1.8 in their bag.

The poor man’s macro is where you take your lens off of your camera and reverse it holding it against your camera’s body. I like using my 50mm because it’s small and light. I’ve been able to get some cool and unusual shots. You can read more about this technique from JPG Magizine: Poor Man’s Macro

Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1861 until his assassination on April 15, 1865. To read more on what this man accomplished and what an influence he was click here.

My daughter and I went to Hogle Zoo last week in Salt Lake City. These turkeys have got to be the ugliest things alive but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to capture the heart shape formed by their heads. Happy Valentines Day!

I was asked last week to teach a merit badge class on photography. My first initial thought was why me but I gladly accepted the opportunity. I’ve learned over the years that I benefit more for preparing to teach or speak to others about a subject or technology. After looking at the merit badge requirements about film cameras and what I needed to discuss it donned on me that I had an old Nikon 35mm camera in my closet.

My parents bought me this Nikon L35AF as a High School graduation present about 20 years ago. After doing some research it turns out this was Nikon’s first auto focus compact camera. It was introduced in 1983 and has a simple Nikon 35mm f2.8 lens with a manual dial to set the ISO/ASA to match the film.

As a teenager I didn’t have an interest in photography like I do today. This has been a good little camera and has gone from my closet to a shelf in my den.

p.s. If anyone has any great ideas how to make the merit badge class fun for a large group of kids I’m open to suggestions.

I’m a frequent visitor to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips by Matt Klowskowski. Matt writes a weekly Monday Preset post on his blog where he provides a preset that he has created with an explanation of how to view the sample file and a link to download the preset that can be easily imported into Lightroom.

For today’s post, I used Matt’s Aged Texture presets on a couple of photos I took recently. It’s a quick easy way to give your photos a cool texture look. He did things a little differently this time and incorporated Photoshop into the process. It’s not really a Lightroom preset per se but you can still incorporate what he provides into your Lightroom workflow.
If you use Lightroom, make sure you read Matt’s blog on Monday’s to see what preset he cooked up.

Original file of cowboy here, water tower here.