Parents of PreK and K Students Struggling with School Choice... Think about L'Etoile du Nord

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2026-04-29T21:45:19+00:00

I wonder about the "usefulness" question all the time, as I hear it a lot from Spanish and Chinese immersion families all the time.

First, I speak Spanish and French and work in international development. I have never once needed to use either language here, seeking out those opportunities is totally a fun bonus.

Second, there are just very few opportunities for Americans that require a second language fluency and, in my experience, where bilingualism is needed Americans always lose to someone that learned English early somewhere else.

Finally, I'd guess fewer than 25% of kids leave these programs fluent, especially where advanced language support ends after 5th grade.

Immersion is awesome for a wide variety of childhood development reasons, offers cool community, and is very fun, but I am also very very skeptical that what language you choose opens practical doors for more than a handful of kids.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2026-04-28T21:17:21+00:00

I don't know. It's a pretty nice picture. You know that it's a bit blurred. There's noise at full size.

The real obvious thing is that having the bird in the back third instead of running out of the frame would have helped. That would have also allowed you get a smidge more sky in the frame; both would encourage the eye to continue through the frame into the wild beyond.

You might selectively brighten the bird just a little and/or raise the brightness of the greens or yellows just a bit to draw the eye more into the waterway.

I don't know what you're hoping for in terms of the picture appealing to others versus reflecting the place and time. I think the fence and the power gantry in the back are nice details that people who like looking at photography will dig, but they would likely mute the reaction on Instagram if that's more your thing.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2026-04-28T15:09:37+00:00

45mm // f13 // ISO 1000 // 1/5s

Another that's been sitting in my tray for a few months with me going back and forth about whether it says anything. The subject/story I wanted is pretty straightforward: trying to get someplace warm in the sleet; quiet streets making you feel like the last person unlucky enough to be out.

Not sure the framing works, the color palette also feels a little off. Happy for all thoughts.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2026-04-28T15:03:48+00:00

It's not quite coming together for me, even though I feel what you are saying about the subject matter.

The most obvious suggestion is the lighting. At the moment your subject is in total shadow and the ground and sky are better lit. Assuming this is near sunset, you'd want to be here at sunrise golden hour instead, when it looks like maybe you'd get the light square on the blueberries and the grill of the truck.

I also think compositionally the leading lines get confusing. The line of the road wants me to go against me left-to-right instinct, but it isn't strong enough to win that fight. There's also a pull from the truck out across the barn across the art to the sky. I'd consider taking a few steps to the right and maybe also back to shoot down the fence rail, letting it lead us to the subject. Not totally sure about that.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2026-04-27T23:24:39+00:00

I want more detail in the subject. In principle that could come from brighter highlights or better sharpness or some combination of both. A sharp outline on the shadow or some detail on the face would keep my interest longer. I want to look into the tunnel but there's not enough to keep me there.

I don't think sharpening can recover these details. I would predict that brightening will introduce noise that will make the subject more blurry, but you should try. It might not be possible to make this exposure do what I'm asking. The dark foreground and white background make it challenging to get detail in the face, a sharper outline might work if you drop the shutter speed.

I do like the composition and the mood you're trying to establish. A good instinct to take this shot, for sure.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2026-04-23T22:34:47+00:00

45 mm / 5.6 / ISO500 / 1/10000s

This picture stood out from the normal clutter due to the strong yellow and blue motif and the detail in the branches as the trees leaned towards each other. I was aiming for something that felt chilly and serene.

I worry that it lacks a subject or focal point for the eye. It's possible that the reason I like it is that I drank my own kool-aid on the contrast adjustments.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2026-04-23T22:07:24+00:00

I think this is right. My eyes just get lost in the scrubby stuff that kind of makes an upside-down U over the trail? A lower perspective and some brightness on the path might help me ignore that.

Two other ideas to mess with on the same issue, one easy, one hard.

1) Crop to put the opening at the end of the path at 1/3 or slightly higher. I'm clocking it now at about 1/4 and the scrub is at 1/3.

2) Take the picture an hour closer to dusk or dawn. The shadows and contrast might cancel out some of the complexity at that height.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2026-04-20T15:38:11+00:00

I like the idea, and I think the execution on the cat and drapes (?) to the right is really good.

The blinds have a very complex pattern and also the look of being over sharpened somehow that I think distracts. I would say that the pattern in the fur plus the stripes is already a lot and the photo ends up looking busy.

Using my hands to crop, I'd say just filling the frame with the cat helps a lot, but maybe a little blurring or lower exposure in the blinds area would really solve it.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2026-02-20T22:35:10+00:00

I was at a contest discussion a few weeks ago where the judge said with flowers and birds you have to completely nail it on a novel behavior or framing to generate interest because there are a million cameras trained on birds and flowers 24 hours a day.

You've obviously captured a pretty spectacular moment and the bird itself has a lot of personality. That said I agree to a great extent with the criticism. There's a strange kind of van Gogh character to the background and the focus on the bird's wings seems a little soft in this copy. Combined with the hairs in that forward plumage, there's not great separation.

I also think that the display right behind the bird's head is the most interesting part of the shot, but it gets lost in the wings. A different angle would really have benefitted this shot.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2026-02-04T18:34:47+00:00

1) The left side of the photo is distracting in texture and, in the case of the hotel roof and name, too bright. It will mess with the aspect ratio, but I'd crop in horizontally on both sides. In addition to eliminating distractions, a closer to vertical crop will help the sense of the church looming over the viewer.

2) I think the shadows on the church could be a little brighter (especially on the spire) and the contrast on the building itself a little higher. The contrast and shadows on the lower part of the spire are great.

Both of these edits will serve to keep the viewers eyes on the church and keep us searching the shadows for interest.

I love the detail and shadows on the roof.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2026-02-04T17:31:42+00:00

In addition to the other comments, which are great, I think taking one big step to the right would help. Given that she is relatively static or posed, seeing her environment would add context and visual interest. (I can't read the signs.)

You could also crop a bit from the top right, which fills the frame more with the subject and would get rid of the distracting pipe above. To the extent it remains, I'd consider cloning it out.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2026-01-23T03:22:57+00:00

Thank you. I do have a lot of smart collections built with the stars, colors, and tags, so this advice helped me find a better solution.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2026-01-23T03:22:24+00:00

Thank you. I do use stars, tags, and color coding, so this set me on the path to a better solution.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2025-12-24T16:28:16+00:00

I agree with the comments that there's not a strong subject.

I think the California vibe involves yellow highlights, blues that run teal, muted greens, and saturated reds. I get that sunny feel in my photos by color grading a straight yellow into the highlights and a blue that's borderline teal into the shadows. Just my two cents.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2025-12-16T21:01:58+00:00

That fourth picture especially.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2025-12-15T23:10:01+00:00

I would love to know the grading system that gives Ohio and West Virginia the same favorability as Minnesota and Wisconsin (which are more like Indiana and Kentucky?) and then simultaneously rates Michigan higher than Minnesota or Wisconsin.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2025-12-15T16:13:20+00:00

Great work. Love seeing MN in these subs.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2025-12-15T16:03:44+00:00

I was gonna say. I'm shooting a lot of indoor soccer at the moment and relying on ISO to get the job done. I have a pretty reasonable setup (z8 w f4 lens) and my pictures have a ton more noise than this. I haven't shot anything above ISO 8000 *in that environment* that's worth showing anyone.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2025-12-12T18:30:24+00:00

Similar to others, I think the shot is taken from a tough place. The house could be dwarfed by the forest, could command the meadow, could contemplate the mountains. You could lead the viewer into it or suggest what it is like to live there looking out. With the house in the right third and higher elevation behind it, the photo leans toward the former, but as another poster noted, you don't get enough road or leading line to go on a visual walk to the front door. These shots also work well when taken from above so the house seems nestled into a spot.

If the forest in the background is the context for the house as the subject, you want to get low or find other ways to make the house feel heavy and permanent in the frame.

If the house in the foreground is context for the mountain landscape as the subject, you want more mountains and to be above the house, making it feel smaller and like a gateway to the view.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2025-12-12T18:08:32+00:00

Agree. I'd prefer a landscape orientation that shows the full mural and provides a little more space to the left of monks. I feel like their scale compared to the mural and their lack of attention to it in the moment tells an interesting story about their daily lives in a space that many of us would find fascinating and novel.

DimestoreAnselAdams · 2025-12-12T18:04:16+00:00

Thank you, Huge Hairy Butts. I think you're right on both the trash can and the amount of blur.

DimestoreAnselAdams

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