Take your Kids to the Booth Museum During the Holiday Break

Ansel Adams never looked so good. The Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia is hosting an exhibit of 131 photographs printed by Adams himself until Feb. 20, 2011. Both these book cover photographs pictured here are included in the show. (I did not see the books in the museum shop though.) His images are all black and white photographs framed in a light wood frame. The photograph to the left is of aspens and one of my favorites from the show.
I enjoyed the presentation by John Mariana a few weeks ago at the Roswell Photographic Society. He is presenting Ansel Adams again at the Southeastern Photographic Society on Jan. 7. It was a nice slide show/history of the man and his work.

As a special bonus... the museum hosts a presidential room, which includes photographs, a letter, the translation and four facts on each President of the United States. My children enjoyed this room and read all of the materials and asked questions. This was a really nice family outing to the Booth Museum. This museum is in the north eastern section of Georgia off highway 75 and exit 288, not too far from Tennessee and Alabama, well worth the drive.

Pictured to the left here is a photography platform that Adams created for the top of his car. Wouldn't I love one of those on top of my Highlander! Would other photographers buy one of these? Maybe my luggage carrier could be converted into a platform.

John Mariana Speaks at Roswell Photographic Society

This past Monday John Mariana presented highlights from his two books to the Roswell Photographic Society's members. John showed us many photographs and illustrated the before (photoshop) and after versions of many shots. One of his suggestions was to darken the corners of the photograph using the burn tool.

I didn't realize that you can really change a photograph in camera raw before bringing it into photoshop. He showed us the sliders on the different screens within raw. Pictured to the right is a flower photograph that I altered only using camera raw. Not bad... I will note that you cannot view the photograph without the "layer" if you don't have layers, so this means you have to start over if you can't remember what you did to the photo.

Another tool John pointed out was the ability to change the color within the photograph using the targeted adjustment tool. This looks cool and could save a lot of time pulling out highlights in shadows for example. He used many other buttons duing our meeting, but I think it might be easier to buy the book then decifer my notes.