Tag Archives: Scotland

Using the Parchment Texture Presets in Luminar

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Attention “serious photographers,” you should probably look away. You’re not going to like this, as it’s little off the rails from what you’re used to doing, but I make no apologies, I’m posting it anyway.

The other day, I decided to dig in and try some of the different presets in Luminar 2018, just to see what I could come up with. You know, to be extra creative. Instead of just tweaking the highlights, vibrance and clarity like we always do with so many shots, I was in the mood to come up with something a little different.

That’s when I came across Nicole S. Young’s Parchment Preset pack, which was included in the initial launch of Luminar 2018. If you purchased and downloaded the program right around launch time, then you should have them too. (If not, or if you never got the download, you can grab Nicole’s Parchment Preset pack right from her webstore.)

I’ve used the Dramatic Presets, before, and they can be pretty fun, but I’d never used any texture presets in Luminar, or in any other software. That’s usually not my style. I tend to go for straight image making with little processing.

However, as artists, we should never be closed off to new ideas and creative experimentation, so I fired up Nicole’s Parchment Presets and started playing around with the different textures. Initially, I thought, “meh, not for me,” but as I dropped those unnecessary inhibitive barriers in my mind, I began to see the potential. I actually liked what I was getting.

This image of the mountain landscape above was the first one I tried it with, and I quickly found a texture I liked. It’s an image I shot recently during my trip to Islay, looking across the bay towards the Isle of Jura. I felt that the muted color scheme and moody feel of the image worked quite well with the texture.

I decided to post the finished version on the Skylum Facebook Group page, just to get it out there. As I suspected it might, the picture garnered quite a collection of interesting comments and critiques. One person wasn’t so keen on the “folded page” line down the middle effect, so I went back in, chose a different preset and posted this one below.

What do you think? Is there one you like better?

Of course, the obvious question that begs to be asked is “why?” This style of processing is all new to me, and as I indicated above, most “serious photographers” would, in all likelihood, not be the slightest bit entertained by this.

That’s actually too bad, because it’s those people who need the most help. Those are the ones who could use a massive dose of fun-ness in their creative process.

My answer is the same as it always is. Because it’s fun. As I’ve said many times before, creativity should be fun, and it should be open to an unlimited variety of ideas that can propel your artistic process in new directions.

Photography is about personal artistic expression, it’s not a contest that revolves around extreme sharpness, vivid colors and the lowest noise possible in our imagery. It’s about what YOU like and what evokes a mood within you or your viewers.

Tools like this, and any of the other presets found in Luminar and other photo software are designed to provide inspiration. They’re like playing new chords or mixing different color paints, or picking up a new instrument or brush that you’ve never tried before, and seeing what comes out.

I love how easy Luminar is to use, it’s been my processing software of choice for over a year now. It’s packed with a huge selection of tools that vary from straightforward image correction/enhancement tools to stylistic creative tools that can help you take your images down totally different roads.

These parchment textures are just one example, and as with any of the other Luminar presets, you can dial them up and down to your liking and combine them with any of the other tools and filters included in the program. Will I use them all the time? Hardly, but they’re there if I need them, when inspiration strikes.

If you haven’t seen my full review of Luminar 2018, you can read it here. And again, if you don’t have Nicole’s Parchment presets included in your version, you can grab them from her website. 

If you haven’t checked out Luminar, learn more about it here. Also, you can use this special coupon code DANBAILEY to save $10 on the program.

Sunset over the Shores of Bowmore on the Isle of Islay

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The highlight of my most recent Scotland trip was a week spent on the Isle of Islay. Pronounced “Eye-la,” with the syllabic emphasis on “eye,” Islay is part of the Southern, Hebrides, a chain of islands off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The southern tip of Islay sits just 25 miles north of Ballycastle, Ireland.

Islay is famous for it’s fine Scotch whisky, specifically, the smoky peaty stuff. There are eight distilleries on Islay, most of which are known for producing the most heavily peated whisky known to man. It’s the home of whiskies such as Laphroaig, Lagavulin, Ardbeg, and Bowmore. If you’ve every had a sip of scotch that takes like a campfire, chances are it was made on Islay.

After my super fun hike up Beinn Sgulaird near the town of Oban, we caught the Sunday afternoon ferry to Islay, landing in Port Askaig, and made our way to the small town of Bowmore.

Situated on the western shores of Loch Indaal, Bowmore, (pronounced with the emphasis on “more”, from the Gaelic Bogh Mor, meaning “big rock,” or “big sea rock”) is home to the one of the oldest single malt distilleries in all of Scotland.

Established in 1779, it’s still one of the only distilleries that spreads malted barley on the floor in their malt barn, turning it by hand every few hours before kiln-drying it right there on site. Most distilleries buy and ship in barley that’s already been malted and dried to their specifications. To meet demand, even those distilleries who do floor maltings still ship in some of their malted barley, as they simply don’t have enough floor space.

I seem to have a fascination for gold-colored, traditionally produced, old world liquids. Exactly fifteen years previous, I did a solo cycling tour in southern Spain that was driven by my love of good olive oil. As I pedaled around Andalucía, I discovered Spanish Sherry. Given that many of the Scottish distilleries mature much of their whisky in old sherry casks, I felt like this trip was a serendipitous throwback to that memorable cycling adventure.

In fact, I had a sip of one particular whisky during my Islay trip that was matured in Manzanilla sherry barrels, and when I brought the glass up and took the first sniff, I was instantly transported to the sunny seaside town of Cádiz, Spain, where I remember sipping glasses of cool, dry fino sherry in tapas bars back in February of 2003. That was a very special year for me. Here’s one of my old Cádiz photos from way back when.

Flashback to the town of Cádiz, Spain. Shot on Velvia film back in Feb, 2003.

 

Anyway, back to Islay. We arrived in Bowmore with enough time to check into our quaint little hotel, the delightful Harbour Inn and then head outside to catch a few sunset photos along the shores of town. The Harbour Inn is actually owned by the Bowmore distillery.

They also have some wonderful cottages, which I was really hoping to get, but unfortunately, those were all booked, as I’m sure they often are, months in advance.

Whereas I usually just wing it when I travel, and find places to stay or camp right there at the end of each day, this was a short trip, so I made reservations before heading to Islay. Plus, it was my 50th birthday trip, so I treated myself to enjoy this one in style.

We had a few cloud afternoons during our week on Islay, but as luck would have it, we were fortunate to have a rich, colorful sunset on our fist evening in Bowmore. All of these were made with my Fujifilm X-T2 and XF50-140mm f/2.8 zoom lens.

I don’t often take the 50-140 with me when I travel, and I never take it on bike trips, so it was a nice addition to have this lens along with me. After all, it’s a fast workhorse zoom with incredibly sharp glass and great image stabilization capabilities. The last photo in black and white shows that off, I shot that one handheld at 1/13 sec.

 

 

Hiking Beinn Sgulaird, My First Scottish Munro

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I just got back from Scotland. Yes, you read that right. Scotland again. That makes my third trip over there in 9 months and officially means that I visited Scotland in all four seasons in a single year. I must like the place. When my friends ask me if I’m moving there, I tell them that I already have my street picked out.

Being my 50th birthday trip, I figured why not go back and visit a place I’ve fallen in love with. Actually, the idea of returning for my birthday this winter arose after a few beers at the Black Isle Bar in Inverness with my new friends Rueben Tabner and Callum Rankine on the last night of our September bikepacking trip. So yea. Beer talk. That was all it took.

Although the framework for this trip was primarily focused on visiting the Isle of Islay, and enjoying the winter solitude, wind and whisky of the Southern Hebrides, I started the trip in a special way, by bagging my first Scottish Munro with my friend Colin.

For my non UK readers, a Munro is a mountain in Scotland a height of over 3,000 feet (914 m). They’re named after Sir Hugh Munro, who first compiled the list in the early 20th century. There are 282 officially notated Munros in Scotland, and as you can imagine, Munro bagging is a very popular activity for people who like to hike.

While some people strive to make it up one or two of them, many intrepid hikers strive to bag all of them. The hardiest of souls have climbed them all numerous times. The current record holder for speed is Stephen Pyke, who completed his fastest round in just 39 days and 9 hours back in 2010.

During our hike that day, we actually ran into a local legend named Hazel Strachan, who is currently on her 10th round. Yes. You read that right. Her 10th round. She shows not sign of stopping.

Anyway, the idea for this came from my friend and fellow adventure photographer Colin Henderson, who I’ve known via social media for about 6 years, and who we hung out and biked with during our May Scotland trip. As we were getting ready for our trip, Colin messaged me that he’d be hiking near the town of Oban that same weekend.

That seemed like a great way to start, so I threw some winter hiking gear into my duffle bag, and when we arrived in Glasgow, we took the train up to Oban and met up with Colin and his three friends, Dave, Frank and Christine. After a glorious reunion with my good friend, we set out the next morning to hike up Being Sgulaird, a 937 m mountain located in the southern Highlands, between Glen Creran and Glen Etive on the west coast.

Coin Henderson on the sort of steep snowfield.

Although western Scotland doesn’t have nearly as much snow as Alaska, nor is it 20 below zero (usually), that in no way implies that it’s a simple walkup to hike a Munro in the wintertime.

In fact, most of them require at least an ice axe, if not crampons as well, and a full set of winter clothing. Although it wasn’t Alaska cold, the constant 45 mph winds on the higher slopes certainly made it feel like winter, even with mittens and hand warmers.

The lower ridge was mostly snow free, but as we got up higher, the terrain was mostly covered with snow and some ice. I had sturdy hiking shoes and an ice axe, but not crampons. Fortunately, the snow was soft enough that we could kick steps in the steeper sections.

It was certainly a fun adventure, and no part of the climb was too tricky. The weather was awesome, and from the top of Being Sgularid, we were treated to amazing views in all directions. We could even see 4,411 foot high Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in Scotland, as well as the southern valley leading towards Glen Coe.

This was the perfect outing for using my new Atlas Athlete photo pack, which was tailor made for this kind of adventure. I carried my Fuji X-T2 around my neck/shoulder during the entire day, but the pack allowed me to fit my extra glass as well as food clothing and water and provided adequate support on the rugged ground and high winds. For lenses, I mostly used the 14mm and 50mm f/2 all day long, so wide angle and short telephoto.

It was so much fun to play outside with Colin again (I keep enticing him to come to Alaska!) and I had a great time meeting new friends and enjoying pizza and a few drams later that evening back in Oban. What a great start to our trip, even though I was a little get lagged from the long travel day, but it was nothing that a ferry ride and a few days sipping whisky on Islay couldn’t fix.

So, that’s one more thing to check off my list of “Things I never did until I was 50.” Hike a Scottish Munro. One down, only 281 to go. I don’t think I’ll be able to catch Hazel.

Using Luminar – Saving vs. Exporting Your Processed Images

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We were woken up by an earthquake last night at 12:30am. The house was shaking and the pots and pans were banging around in the kitchen for about 30 seconds during the Magnitude 7.9 event that occurred off the coast of … Continue reading →

Back to Scotland for More Bikepacking. (And Whisky.)

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It’s been a very quiet month here on the blog. I have a good excuse, though. I’ve been on vacation. After a very busy summer shooting, flying my little Cessna, teaching workshops, editing photos and writing my X SERIES UNLIMITED eBook, … Continue reading →

I Made the List of Top 100 Travel Photography Blogs!

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I’m excited to share the fact that my blog was recently selected as one of the Top 100 Travel Photography Blogs on the web. In a list compiled by Feedspot earlier this week of the “Best Travel Photography Blogs,” my blog was … Continue reading →