The Eyes are the Windows...

Shaunna Rai

April, May and June are busy months for a drag queen.  Well, I should say for a specific drag queen.  Shaunna Rai.  Every year, since I've known her, those three months have been jam packed with drag shows.  This is more a statement of fact, than a complaint.

To be honest, without those shows, I wouldn't really have much to do.  In the past, I've spent barely any time editing photos...and instead, merely waded through the initial 20 pictures, which turned to 200 pictures, and is now in the ballpark of 2-4k pictures.  Take a couple seconds, and look through each picture, for something that may disqualify it. Then, post it on Facebook.  As I started taking more photos, I began to actually edit some photos.  Looking through old albums, I could see what I was going for, but I can also see now, that I had no idea what I was doing.

During the start of the busy season, I got the joy of meeting and photographing Shangela, with one of my photography idols, Lauren.  Lauren took photos of Shaunna Rai a few years ago, and last year took photos of Amber, as you may recall. Lauren asked me if I had used Adobe Lightroom in any of my editing.  I remembered seeing her using it, the first time I met her.  And, I hadn't used it, based on the fact that I figured it was going to be too expensive, and it wouldn't be something I'd use often enough to justify it.  Little did I know, that conversation would change not only the look of my photos, but it would also change the way that I look at my own photos.

Shangela

Editing the photos from the Shangela show, I started caring more about the story that my photos were telling, if viewed in order. (Which, by the way, is nearly impossible to do on Facebook photo albums, if you decide to add all photos at the same time.  I spent more time putting them in the right order than I did, actually editing them.)

Having discovered the Exposure button on the camera itself could change how a photo looked, I started playing with that, in addition to starting to understand that for most of my drag photo needs, I would need the largest ISO setting that was available on the camera.  (For anyone who knows nothing about photgraphy, I apologize for using unknown terms, which I couldn't explain out loud, even though I understand the concept of how they're used.)

Lightroom, added options.  I tend to get overexposed photos, which are washed out.  By playing with the exposure, I realized I could get rid of some of the white, and actually save some otherwise useless pictures.  It's not an exact art, but I'm starting to get a feel for what I'm doing.  I've never really been a huge fan of black and white photography, in general, but, I have a newfound appreciation for it, because of presets for the program.  (Presets are groups of settings, that were already saved, so, you literally just click a button, and it changes your photo in specific ways.)  Creative cropping, which, up until now, hasn't really been a huge part of how I do my photos.  But, I've played around with it for a few

Miss E'on

selfies, to enjoyable results.

Finally, it all came together, after Dragapalooza, when I started editing photos.  The lighting was good, for the most part, the performers moved slowly enough that I was able to get a few good shots of them.  And, the editing has me wondering if I should go through every photo that I've ever taken, and edit it this way, so that it will be more enjoyable to me.  I think that's the perfectionist in me, who finds fault in everything that he's ever done...

Anyway, I can't say enough good about the Lightroom program.  It's definitely worth $10 per month. And, definitely a program that I will continue to use, both for what I consider to be my "more professional, but NOT Professional" photos, and my lame selfies on #bowtiefriday.