Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/644136
30 UCW FEBRUARY 24 - MARCH 1, 2016 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM JIM JONES, Motorcycle Enthusiast, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200 MARCH 12 • 1ST ANNUAL "WAYNE'S WORLD" MEMORIAL RIDE at Little Reno Billiards, 115 S Eastern Blvd.Registration at 10:30 a.m. Kickstands up at 11 a.m. Door prizes, refreshments. Call 584-8968 for information. APRIL 23 • 2016 HOGS & RAGS MOROTCYCLE RALLY Visit Hogs&Rags.com for more information. APRIL 23 • NC BUFFALO SOLDIERS M/C OF FAYETTEVILLE 6TH ANNUAL PONY EXPRESS CHARTY RIDE at Fort Bragg Harley Davidson. This is a charity motorcycle ride, police escorted, to raise funds to benefit the community. Registration 9:30 a.m. Kickstands-up 10:30 a.m. $15/ riders and $5 passenger. For more information call 494-4513. MAY 7 • ALS CHARITY MOTORCYCLE RIDE in Sanford. Registration at 9:30 or online at www.Alscharityride.com. Lunch, DJ music, People's Choice Bike Show, silent suction, 50/50 raffle and more. Benefiting the ALS Association Jim Catfish Hunter Chapter www. Alscharityride.com Brian Weaver Dreamweaver8@embarqmail.com 919.542.6102. PATRIOT GUARD RIDERS The Patriot Guard Riders is a diverse group of patriots from every state that come together to honor fallen soldiers at funeral services across the country. Visit www.patriotguard.org for more information about the group. 4624 BRAGG BLVD. Now online! Flip our pages for news, views art and entertainment! www.upandcomingweekly.com Call and ask one of our marketing representatives to help you grow your business. 484-6200 These days we are all movie stars. From social media to the perp walk. Every day we are photographed and processed across the digital world. Most of the time we are not aware of it. We turn on the six o'clock news, and there is often a picture of a guy on video robbing a store, a wreck at an intersection and so on. In Fayetteville, if you run a red light the chances are pretty good that you will get a letter in the mail with a bill and a picture of you running that light. We are everywhere and so are cameras. Most motorcyclists love to take pictures of their ride, their friends and their friends' bikes. When I rode to Alaska a couple of years ago, I had camera attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. I knew that documenting my trip was going to be important to me. I took a total of four cameras, a laptop and a 2-terabyte external hard drive. In my bag, I had two Hero GoPros for High Definition video, a Sony DSC- H20 camera and my iPhone. My iPhone was mounted on a RAM Mount case that fits my OtterBox protective case. I used my iPhone for most of the pictures going through the states. Once we got to the point of video-worthy photography, I mounted my GoPros and took off. When I stopped to turn off the cameras, they were completely covered in bugs. After several attempts, I decided to put the GoPros back in the luggage. I pulled out my Sony camera to take pictures of bears, but I discovered that by the time the camera booted up (for a lack of a better term), I had lost my shot. Finally, I turned to my iPhone for 99 percent of my photographs. About every other night, I would fire up my laptop and copy my pictures to the laptop and my external hard drive. I had read to do both in the event the laptop or the hard drive was damaged. It was a cheap insurance plan. It also let me clean my memory for a new day of photography. I am not a professional photographer, but photography is much easier than it used to be for the average person. The camera is the window into what you are thinking and your story. The camera's lens is your eye, for not only yourself but for others to enjoy. In today's world, software can help you retell the story a little easier. Software can touch up our mistakes, move the object to give the photo more depth, improve the light, and give the depth of the story. While on the Alaska trip, my friend Danny bought a Nikon CoolPix AW100 with a built-in GPS. His camera took great pictures and booted quick enough to get the shot he wanted. Technology improvements allow the camera to tell you more than a story. If you use a camera with a GPS or smartphone, the camera has metadata that tells everything about that picture to include the date, time, location and settings. Even when you transfer your pictures to another device, that information goes with it. This is great on a long trip so that you can see exactly where you were when a picture was taken. To tell your story, here are few things I have learned to make your pictures better. Know what the subject is. Don't put the main subject in the middle of the picture but off to the side, so the background tells a story also. Using the rule of thirds, line the main subject on the right or the left side of the photo or the top or the bottom third of the frame. Make a copy of your pictures and learn to use your software. Although my Mac comes with iPhoto, I get more control by using Adobe Photoshop. I also have a mobile version on my iPhone in the event I need more control of my photo. On my phone, Facebook does a nice job of putting canned filters in the app and does a nice job for most posts. When I download a photo on my computer, I always make a copy before I start manipulating the picture. Learn to adjust your software to bring out the story you want to tell. Another trick I use on my iPhone is to put it in video mode and make a movie if I am moving. Later I will watch the video and stop the video at the right moment. There I can press the sleep/wake (side) button and the home button at the same time and it will take a screen shot of the video. From there, I can chop out and manipulate the picture. In this picture, the first thing you notice is my bike. Next, you notice the flags and think patriotic. Probably for most, you see the Airborne and Special Operations Museum in the background. If my picture is worth anything, hopefully, it tells more of a story than a picture of a bike. If there is a topic that you would like to discuss you can contact me at motorcycle4fun@aol. com. RIDE SAFE! The Camera's Eye by JIM JONES Photography is much easier than it used to be for the average person.