Cheater Cheater

In general, I have no rules or limitations to my photography. I am not a purist. I get that the image will have a certain character if I were to use black & white film. My issue is that it is so much easier just to shoot on color film and convert in post. There are so many more advantages. Chief among them is the ability to control the color tones in the final image. For example, I could just increase the blues vs having to use a red filter in the field. I can tweak all the colors and contrast to get just what I want. It is my photo and my vision anyway, so I am good with it. Part of me does scream, “You are cheating!”. I just don’t listen to that part.

Shot on 4x5 film. One of my favorite locomotives at the railway museum. The Southern Pacific 3100 built by GE in 1963. This was converted in post to black and white from color negative film.

Tag Name	Data
Title	Southern Pacific 3100 Southern California Railway Museum
Image Description	Shot on 4x5 film. One of my favorite locomotives at the railway museum. The Southern Pacific 3100 built by GE in 1963. This was converted in post to black and white from color negative film.
Keywords	4x5, 4x5 film, Southern California Railway Museum, black and white, engine, film scan, kodak ektar 100, locomotive, museum, orange empire railway museum, perris, railroad, southern pacific, southern pacific 3100, train, train tracks
Copyright	Copyright ExpertPhoto.com All Rights Reserved
Artist	ExpertPhoto.com
Make	Toyo-Field
Camera Model Name	Toyo-Field 45A
Lens Model	Schneider 150mm f/5.6 Apo-Symmar
Focal Length	150.00mm
Focal Length In 35mm Format	45.00mm
Shutter Speed Value	1/30 second
Aperture Value	22.00
ISO	100
Date/Time Original	Sunday May 07, 2023 12:50pm
City	Perris
State	California
Country	United States
GPS Altitude	430 meters (1410.8 feet) above sea level
GPS Latitude	33.7590510500444
GPS Longitude	-117.230561499975
Map	Google Map Link

Jesus Loves You

I spent some time in Old Town Murrieta the other day. I set my camera to see only in monochrome. I do this to simplify my metering and to see in black and white. It helps me hit the tones I am looking for to be able to produce crisp black and white images with good contrast. I think that black and white shots look best when there are clear blacks and strong whites.

Old Town Murrieta House

Tag Name	Data
Title	Old Town Murrieta House
Image Description	Looks to be a private residence in Old Town Murrieta
Keywords	black and white, historic downtown murrieta, house, murrieta, old town murrieta
Copyright	Copyright ExpertPhoto.com All Rights Reserved
Artist	ExpertPhoto.com
Make	Canon
Camera Model Name	Canon EOS R
Lens Model	EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM
Focal Length	38.00mm
Shutter Speed Value	1/200 second
Aperture Value	8.00
ISO	100
Date/Time Original	Sunday June 25, 2023 12:04pm
City	Murrieta
State	California
Country	United States
GPS Altitude	330 meters (1082.7 feet) above sea level
GPS Latitude	33.5531774566917
GPS Longitude	-117.213827419997
Map	Google Map Link

Clouds Over Naples Canal

I was in Naples recently, and decided to walk around and snap some photos. The cloud cover was dampening my motivation to take photos, but they didn't turn out too bad. The cloud cover later cleared up as I drove around the Long Beach area enjoying the weather and beach area.

Looking west along Rivo Alto Canal

Tag Name	Data
Title	Rivo Alto Canal
Image Description	Looking west along Rivo Alto Canal
Keywords	alamitos bay, boat, canal, long beach, naples, naples canals
Copyright	Copyright ExpertPhoto.com All Rights Reserved
Artist	ExpertPhoto.com
Make	Canon
Camera Model Name	Canon EOS R
Lens Model	EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM
Focal Length	24.00mm
Shutter Speed Value	1/400 second
Aperture Value	8.00
ISO	100
Date/Time Original	Sunday June 18, 2023 01:35pm
City	Long Beach
State	California
Country	United States
Location	Naples
GPS Altitude	6.67289997 meters (21.9 feet) above sea level
GPS Latitude	33.7555386666667
GPS Longitude	-118.123421649997
Map	Google Map Link

How Much Is That Doggie In The Window

Black and white photography is quite simple. All you need is black, and white. Correct? No, it is not that simple, it is not often in everyday life that you come across scenes that have absolute white, and absolute black in the same scene. This photo is a shot of my dog looking out the window. I knew that this would be perfect for black and white. I think it works pretty well. Just keep in mind as you shoot with either black and white film, or with black and white in mind that they call it black and white not gray and grayer.

Dog In The Window

Tag Name	Data
Title	Dog In The Window
Image Description	A small dog looks out a window.
Keywords	black and white, dog, silhouette, window
Copyright	Copyright ExpertPhoto.com All Rights Reserved
Artist	ExpertPhoto.com
Make	Canon
Camera Model Name	Canon EOS R
Lens Model	EF50mm f/1.2L USM
Focal Length	50.00mm
Shutter Speed Value	1/800 second
Aperture Value	4.00
ISO	800
Date/Time Original	Saturday August 05, 2023 06:24pm

SmugMug SEO The Problem and The Solution

A lot has been written about SmugMug SEO. I like SmugMug and will continue to use them. They are a great deal for image delivery. They are not trying to be anything else. They are never going to be your perfect place for each of your images to get correctly indexed by Google. You will get a few images indexed. They are a great service and will continue to be. I used them for years as a working professional to deliver images to clients. They are perfect for what they say they are. SmugMug SEO is fine for what SmugMug says they do.

Google does not index every page and every image of every site. Period. End of story. No amount of SmugMug SEO will fix this. But, if you want to optimize coverage by Google, and want to control the meta tags, filenames and whatnot, then build and host your own site. No image hosting platform will allow you complete control of this. There are many software packages online and off where you can build each page of your site with perfect SEO page titles, meta names, image filenames and all the other necessary ingredients. I did this and I am seeing good results so far. I hand-coded my own site to link back to my SmugMug site. It onIy exists to index my images. I don't have to handwrite every page. I just write server side code to produce each page for each image on the fly according to my own specifications. My pages are very simple by choice. It was not meant to be a beautiful site. No extra fluff. It works great on mobile devices, which Google prefers.

I once had over a 1000 images online for many years. I took a leap of faith and deleted all of them. I then removed them from Google using Google's tools. I then went back through my entire image catalog and reposted every image that I wanted reposted. The benefit of doing this was to properly title, caption, keyword and write metadata for each and every image accurately and correctly. It was fun to revisit old images and re-edit raw files. I laughed at myself sometimes when I saw how I edited something 20 years ago.

Give SmugMug a break, they are awesome. SmugMug SEO is a bit of an unfair witch hunt. If you can do better, then do it. I did.

I met Leonard Knight several times a few years before his death in 2014. He allowed me to shoot a few portraits of him. He struck me as a generous and caring individual. All he wanted to do was show me his mountain and let me know that Jesus loved me. If you have never been to Salvation Mountain, then I encourage you to visit. It is amazing what this man built. I don’t know what kind of condition it is in today. Hopefully someone is keeping it in good shape.

Tag Name	Data
Title	Leonard Knight Salvation Mountain
Keywords	Leonard Knight, niland, salton sea, salvation mountain, slab city
Copyright	©ExpertPhoto.com All Rights Reserved
Artist	ExpertPhoto.com
Make	Canon
Camera Model Name	Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens Model	EF50mm f/1.4 USM
Focal Length	50.00mm
Shutter Speed Value	1/1600 second
Aperture Value	4.00
ISO	100
Date/Time Original	Wednesday December 30, 2009 02:08pm
City	Calipatria
State	California
Country	United States
Location	Salvation Mountain
GPS Altitude	2 meters (6.6 feet) above sea level
GPS Latitude	33.25422
GPS Longitude	-115.47336
Map	Google Map Link

Right Down the Middle

This is looking northwest down Washington in Old Town Murrieta. I was on my way up to the Santa Rosa Plateau, and drove across Washington street. I saw the Highway 395 marking on the street and thought it would be interesting to take a photo looking right down the middle of the road.

Looking northwest down Washington in Old Town Murrieta

Tag Name	Data
Title	Washington Avenue Murrieta
Image Description	Looking northwest down Washington Avenue in Murrieta. Note the historic US 395 sign painted on the street.
Keywords	historic downtown murrieta, historic us 395, murrieta, old town murrieta, street, trees, washington avenue
Copyright	Copyright ExpertPhoto.com All Rights Reserved
Artist	ExpertPhoto.com
Make	Canon
Camera Model Name	Canon EOS R
Lens Model	RF24-105mm F4 L IS USM
Focal Length	24.00mm
Shutter Speed Value	1/160 second
Aperture Value	14.00
ISO	250
Date/Time Original	Sunday July 09, 2023 10:54am
City	Murrieta
State	California
Country	United States
GPS Altitude	330 meters (1082.7 feet) above sea level
GPS Latitude	33.5510723333333
GPS Longitude	-117.211383433353
Map	Google Map Link