SARA BAREILLES

A while back I posted my thoughts on discovering Jared Leto and mentioned I was amazed I was unaware of his existence until I watched the movie "Prefontaine".


I'm embarrassed to say that once again, I am guilty of not knowing anything about another artist by the name of Sara Bareilles.  I love her!  I watched her last night on Jimmy Kimmel Live and then afterwards browsed her music videos so I could find out more about her.


I must admit, once I watched and listened to her perform "Gravity" I was hooked!  She wrote the song as she does her other ones and the way she wrote the melody and sings it, well, it's hard to describe, but I would call it being in "love song heaven".  I listened to the song three times in a row.


Here's the link:  http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Sara+Bareilles+Gravity&FORM=VIRE2#view=detail&mid=21C40512C1F67712E3F721C40512C1F67712E3F7YouTube

EMMANUEL

I discovered a beautiful song called "Emmanuel" and linked it to this blog in an earlier post.  That's when I also discovered Lucia Micarelli, a master violinist who was traveling with Josh Groban on his concert tour. She performed and recorded the song with trumpeter Chris Botti. 


I remembered the song when I was trying to decide what music to use for a slide show of my landscape photos. Since it's copyrighted, I needed to get permission to use it and needed the name of the composer as well. In that search for information, I found that a Frenchman named Michel Colombier composed it.  I decided to use the version with Lucia Micarelli and Chris Botti as background music to my slide show mainly because it's more dramatic and a longer version.



YouTube has several different artists performing Emmanuel, including guitarist Antonio Onorato and harmonicas Toots Thielemans.  Here's the link to Onorato's version for your enjoyment :  http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Michel+Colombier%2Fyoutube%2FEmmanuel&qs=n&form=QBVR&pq=michel+colombier%2Fyoutube%2Femmanuel&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=#view=detail&mid=113115303FD9F3018D31113115303FD9F3018D31

UNDERSTANDING HISTOGRAMS

It's real easy to let our digital cameras adjust our images automatically for us.  After all, most cameras have an auto setting don't they?  Yes, but if we've learned anything, we've learned that not every light level or source is the same.  Contrasted subjects especially can make it difficult, if not impossible for our cameras to adjust to how our eyes see it. Spot metering and filters can help correct low and high contrasted scenes, but to get an overall look at everything our camera graphically sees, the histogram never lies.

True, most histograms will show us where a correction might be called for, but it may be that we want high contrast or to show a whiter or darker scene.  Therefore, we should take the time to understand how histograms can help us make these decisions.  Otherwise we're shorting ourselves the advantage of a very useful tool.

Attached is a link to one article on the Digital Photography School website by Darlene Hildebrandt that will help you understand the usefulness of the histogram.  CLICK HERE.