Michael Stanaland

I haven’t done much shooting or posting in ages — I blame the new job, new schedule and new stress levels. But with spring fast approaching I figured it’s time to get over myself and put all that equipment I spent ungodly sums of money on back to use!

I’ve officially dumped Aperture and switched to Adobe’s new Lightroom 4. I’m far from adjusted to it, but it’s clearly well designed and, most importantly, much more responsive than Aperture.

I’ve also been playing with a demo of Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro 2, which is far more awesome than I ever imagined it could be. I’ve used it to add structure and depth to the three images in this post. I’ll be downloading Nik’s other plug ins soon to give them a try!

Pictured above: A Japanese Magnolia on the 17th St. side of the Old Executive Office Building; Buds from the Tidal Basin cherry trees; A statue with a broken nose in Meridian Hill Park.