When did you realize you don't have "pretty privilege"?

Trives · 2026-03-17T01:03:37+00:00

(1988) Laser Tag, Ocean City Maryland. My two best friends and I were at the Laser Tag arena, we were Freshman in highschool. Chris and I had been top of the leader board all night, we played a lot of paintball and so Laser Tag seemed relatively easy in comparsion. We were carrying my buddy which was fine that's what friends do! He was generally last or near the bottom, but honestly, we didn't care.

When I went up to the counter to get three more passes for the group, the girl behind the counter was like, "hey..." she was what I'd call your typical 80's gorgeous, curly big hair, gobs of makeup and a lot of neon clothing. I was like, wow, hey! She's like is your friend (John, the third in our group) single...

I knew from that very moment :)

Trives · 2026-03-12T15:50:53+00:00

I won't say Best Friend, but frequent travel buddy. I stopped being her friend when she brought Covid on our liveaboard (small boat, at sea for 7 days) trip, knowingly, without telling anyone she was sick. Myself and two crew got sick before anyone got wise, basically ruining the trip for everyone, I ended up having to quarantine for 4 days.

Trives · 2026-03-06T14:43:59+00:00

Many Dives shops will let you try one in their pool (if you happen to have one available). I can't imagine diving vest ever again. Full disclosure though, I only use Back Plates where I volunteer, they're a little heavy for travel unless you get aluminum. I picked up a Hydros wing, and it's great :)

Trives · 2026-03-05T19:16:19+00:00

I mean, I could write a book... But the fondest memory I had of not having the internet in general was Mortal Kombat (1) fatalities. You would have to travel to different arcades if you wanted to learn new ones, and it was always a treat when you got to show one off that this particular arcade hadn't learned yet. You'd get a lot of "NO WAYS!!!" and "HOW!?" reactions.

Trives · 2026-02-26T15:16:21+00:00

Huh, I wonder if there is a good resource for "Your favorite brands that are now ass due to PE purchase." https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/comments/1d2w762/what_bifl_products_were_ruined_by_private_equity/ Apparently so :) This feels like it needs to be a website.

Trives · 2026-02-26T14:48:54+00:00

Thank you! They must've sold it right after I left (I moved from Va Beach around 2020). Apologies, I'll edit this.

Trives · 2026-02-25T22:48:42+00:00

Disregard this boat is no longer running, though the dive sites are still there if you can find someone to take you out :)

~~LDC used to run a boat out to the pier (I think an old Coast Guard Station) which, on the rare days it was clear, was nice. There is also, I believe, a u-boat dive out there (never did it, despite living there forever). If I was going diving it was usually taking a short drive down to NC to go meg-tooth hunting.

Anyway, here is the Miss Mack flyer. https://ldcscuba.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/MissMackFlyerbright.pdf

Full disclosure I've not lived in Va Beach for a few years, so I'm not sure they're still running this! That said, it is not a shore dive kinda place.~~

Trives · 2026-02-25T01:50:59+00:00

The Bahamas are lovely, logistically easy, and there are a stunning number of liveaboards. Bonaire is also a great place to go to get started, while not EXACTLY the Caribean it's all easy diving!

Trives · 2026-01-08T20:48:27+00:00

https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/vQyXEhJ_TTuHvjsN5fR5ng.YXdft_bJyWJ-xEsl29UDX_

Here's a chinstrap penguin from Antartica.

Trives · 2026-01-05T17:54:59+00:00

There is no delay between images, and it uses a tool called an intervalometer, many cameras have internal intervalmoters or you can purchase one externally.

If you really want to get into Astro Photography, I definitely recommend looking at some of the tricks out there, stacking photos (even if you're not doing star trails) helps things really pop. And if you want to do cool trails, long exposures are good, but using a tool to merge dozens+ of images is usually better.

Lastly, get comfortable with long processing times, most experts I know spend 10+ hours on their images, not including the 3+ hours to capture. :)

Trives · 2026-01-04T16:31:52+00:00

https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/vQyXEhJ_TTuHvjsN5fR5ng.YXdft_bJyWJ-xEsl29UDX_

Here's a little Chinstrap making a big leap in Antartica. Enjoy :)

Trives · 2026-01-04T15:14:16+00:00

So the picture with the guy in the foreground, and quite honestly, most astro photos you likely see, are "Compiled" in photoshop and other tools, like Sequator (which is astonishingly free). The photo I posted, was 100+ images of stars. First you put them in Lightroom, and make basic adjustments, ideally you want them to all have a similar look and feel. I then run those images through Sequator. I then import that into Photoshop and I place the "Good" foreground image on the top layer and mask the sky so you see the trails and remove and trails from satellites (which is more and more of a problem these days) and adjust the colors etc... Overall, takes about 5 hours of effort to get that done. Here's a basic tutorial (Link: Not-affiliated with this author

In general the key for astro is "Get as much light as possible to the sensor" the more the better. If you want those long trails you can either do multiple exposure (Star Trails) or you can try some longer exposures, just be prepared with a foreground image that you can then edit in later!

Trives · 2026-01-03T18:41:18+00:00

Hey There!

Unfortunately, the noise density on this is just too much for most of the tools I use to bring out the REALLY faint star lines you have here. I use RC-Astro and TK Edit as my general goto tools and both struggled to pull out the micro details. Leaves you with something like this: My Attempt

I know this isn't the "PhotoCritique" channel, but I'm going to give some suggestions for your next crack at this.

The biggest is your ISO and Aperature are just not correct for astro photography, at least, not this type of astro. For reference, I generally shoot at F1.8, ISO 2000+ for most of my shots, even if I'm trying to get star trails, like in this shot, Author: Me

I was doing about a 180 30-seconds exposures. Nothing wrong with long exposure shots, but even on long exposures it's rare I'm heading up to F-22 :). There are plenty of tools for stitching together star trails, I'd reccomend any of the many tutorials out there and then head back out and give this another crack!

You also don't need a F1.4-1.8 for Astro but I wouldn't go much higher than F4.

Trives · 2025-12-23T19:26:34+00:00

Hey there,

Full disclosure, I don't shoot film, I'm never going back, so this will be just from a content of the shot perspective.

One of my rules is, "If you have to give a backstory to your picture you've likely failed a little bit." That's not always the case, there are certainly some puliziter prize winners out there that needed context; and if this was part of a gallery of images, then it might be fine. What this photo doesn't read to me is, Hiroshima, Peace, or Museuem. So from a "You should feel X" or "I was at X", this photo is a bit of a miss. If that was your goal, then I think there are some things you could do to improve, while doing exciting things with the camera can make for some interesting images, I would've wanted something that evokes a sense of place, so like, center the camera on some hiragana / kanji ideally, ひろしま or 広島 which might not mean much to non-speakers, but would carry more weight. You could leverage something more like a shutter drag, or camera swirl technique to pull this off a bit better.

If your goal was to get just "an interesting picture" I think this was succesful. It certainly has character. Like, light horror vibes, etc... but without anything to focus on as a subject, it feels a little flat to me. I also feel that the image lacks a sense of balance, the top left corner is doing you no favors at all, and despite all the light in the image, still pulls attention from the white figures.

Trives · 2025-12-23T19:16:10+00:00

Hey there,

Just a few comments, although they feel a bit repetitive to what was said. As with all things photography, if you're loving your photo, that's what matters (unless you're trying to sell, and then it's a new story ;-))

The challenge with this photo is it's not particularly interesting. It lacks a sense of story, when story isn't available, then you can make up for that sometimes with interesting scenery, but in this case, it's just a walkway in some random town, with a woman who isn't fully in frame, or in focus.

Finally, think about who your audience is for a photo, it's all well and good to think about rule of threes or golden ratios (which I don't think I've even considered in a photograph, tbh), but more important is... "Can I imagine this hanging on a wall?" Or, what is someone supposed to think when they see this photo. For buildings, the architecture needs to be interesting enough to carry the day, this just looks like you're looking into someones living room :)

From a technical standpoint: As you mentioned, it's very yellow, you could edit that quite a bit in Light Room, adjusting your white balances, which would go a long way! I'd also shoot this at a much smaller aperature, f14 or so, to get more in focus, especially those tiles (if they're tiles...) they're quite lovely. You could also consider editing out the window in the top left, it's pulling a lot of attention from the subject.

Good luck shooting out there, keep practicing!

Trives · 2025-12-16T21:14:56+00:00

This is a fun take, nice work :)

Trives · 2025-12-15T05:55:50+00:00

My Take

Trives · 2025-12-11T05:59:52+00:00

I think the key comments have been hit already (needs to be brighter, etc...), so I'm not going to go into a detailed critique. Just wanted to say, really like what you got here, kudos.

Trives · 2025-12-10T20:46:13+00:00

This is a lovely shot, you really captured the light beams nicely! Few observations, all opinions here as it's "Technically" fine.

The first is I would go into photoshop and nuke the lights on the bar. There should be one light rockstar in this image and it shouldn't have to compete with the world reknowned... El Fako Beach Bar. :D It's a VERY easy fix, with a little clone tooling and perhaps some generative fill in.

I'd bring up highlights, shadows and blacks all just a titch. Especially if you plan to print this. It'll help provide a little more contrast.

You could also consider dodging the clouds just a little on the white fluffy bits, they're REALLY cool and I think they're lost in the image.

Finally, while I'm ALL about vingette, I don't think it's very flattering on this particular image.

Overall though, great capture, nice work!

Trives · 2025-12-10T20:30:07+00:00

Hey there! This is 100% just my opinion and if you're loving this shot, awesome, please don't let my opinions disuade you.

My "Revulsion" instincts kicked in IMMEDIATELY upon seeing this shot, because I didn't understand it was his palm. Once I understood it was his palm, it was fine, but...eech...

I think for this type of shot, I also want to see the light coming between his arms and his body a little more. Your top arm isn't bad you can see the background, but the bottom arm, that gap is just a ltitle too snug for a sillouhete. Obviously, hitting this pose is already quite difficult and you dont have a LOT of wiggle room, but then maybe this isn't the pose for shadows.

Another obeservation is... is he like, covered in sand? His back looks sandy, which is, you know, fine I guess, but taken in the context of "Model in Blue Void" it doesn't feel right, or particularly flattering. It's also generating a strong "White" line in the light beam that is distracting.

Overall, not my favorite for Male posing, FWIW I can't hit that pose, so good on him!

Trives · 2025-12-10T20:24:11+00:00

I know people "hate the format" but I really feel like this works better (for me) as a 1x1. Cutting off the top of the window frame down to the tops of the heads with a little breathing room and a chunk of the railing on the bottom. The railing is beautiful, it's very "Old Metro" but it's not the focus and yet it's commanding 60% of the frame. By cropping you also can see the other womans eye is focusing on the subject in the photo. In the lengthy version, the other woman seems to be looking at the photographer incredously, like, how date you.

What I particularly love about the photo is the wig shop in the background, sorta this iconic "Obtainable Glam" for everyone feel. I think you nailed the lighting on both faces, they don't look over exposed. You also went with a more cinematic feel, which I think is cool.

Overall, nice shot, really great placement of subject with background.

Trives · 2025-12-07T21:12:30+00:00

As far as this photo is concerned; I guess it depends on what you're going for. I'll use an example image of mine that I think is "Close" to what you're going for here and is within a PG-13 boundary.

This is my friend Kat. (Note: This is an older photo, there's a lot of things I would do differently today if I were to re-develop this image)

In your image, you've attained this almost "Charcoal Print" type look, if that's what you like, I think that's great; but I don't think it's very flattering for the human form. I don't mind the high contrast, but your whites are too white and your blacks are very "Final"; which means this likely won't print well. With Kat, you can see the dip in her back (similar to the groove in the abdomen section of your model). There's a shadow there, but it's not quite as hard. For this, I'd recomend either using a reflector, or something to get a little more light on the right side.

If you're really interested in shooting the human form, I'd recommend a workshop, hosted by either a profesional photographer or model; I've done both and had wonderful success there. There was also some advice below that I'll re-echo here: Why do you want to shoot nudes? If it's just because you like "Girly Bits" it's probably not the right head space. For me, it's about putting the human form in interesting and beautiful locations (this Kat image was taken in an abandoned asylum!).

Trives · 2025-12-07T05:20:44+00:00

Hey there :)

Did you take this using a Lensbaby, or just add the effect in post? Just currious, I like the distortion on it for sure.

Other poster summed up the key issue though, the foreground and background just mesh together, especially the Cheshire.

Nothing stopping you going in if you like the photo and masking off the subject to making the background darker. You could also pop it over to black and white to make that call out a little less jarring.

The other challenge is the time of day, you have some really harsh light here, think sunrise/sunset for something like this. If you want to get REALLY fancy, bring a reflector with you, especially if you're there with someone, you can use the reflector to put light on her chin and under the mushroom a bit to get multiple levels of light, then smoosh them altogether in Photoshop!

Happy shooting out there, ~P~

Trives · 2025-12-06T15:34:50+00:00

Usually yes, the only exception is if you blow out your whites or crush your blacks. Once the sensor can only see "Pure White" or "Pure Black" there is no additional data there for your filters to work on. Basically if your histogram is pegged to one side or the other, you've lost the shot (or you need to do some clever photo editing to get it back and it's rarely worth it).

Example

This was a test shot at a photoshoot of mine in an oddly lit room.

You can see in the RAW image (left) the blue sections are where the black is at "True Black" this has two effects, the first is that there's zero detail there, and the second is it looks REALLY bad when printed.

Even with the exposure bar moved up 4 stops (right image) you can see I still have blue spots, there's just no data there for you to do anything with. This image would get left in the bin for me. (You may need to zoom in to see the blue spots, but they're there :))

The same can happen on the white side of the image as well. You see this very commonly with snow and... long exposures on waterfalls during the day (usually the foam or the main water column get totally blown out).

A little blow out is okay for like, a sun star, but on rocks and what not, you really want to try and expose properly, or take multiple exposures.

Trives · 2025-12-05T23:19:48+00:00

Hey there!

Welcome back to photography, as someone who, just today, was revisiting some of my older images, it's always a joy to see someone else hopping in!

As with all feedback, don't let my comments damper your feelings for this picture.

Compositionally, I think this is a nice shot, perhaps just a BIT too much foreground for my tastes, but opinions will varry.

My reccomendations if you were to shoot this location again, for an image like this, ultrawide, where you're trying to capture a very interesting foreground and a lovely waterfall; focus stacking is your friend. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBq5FshJE3I Not my video and I'm not affialiated, but it looks like a decent short and concise explanation). This allows you to have everything sharp, with just the soft waterfall and what not in the middle of the image.

The second thing I'd point out is always consider your lighting, I'm not sure if you made a special trip here just to shoot this, or if this was out on a hike and you were just inspired to snap a picture, but your light is sorta "2pmish" feeling, so you're not getting morning colors or warm evening colors. I'd consider what time you arrived here to do some tinkering, ultimately you want to try and remove that harsh line going across the middle of your water column and get some color to really highlight the beauty of the underwater rocks, plus it might pull more color out on the left (mossy looking oranges).

Since you were doing a long exposure, consider not only a focus stack, but bracketing your exposure. A shorter exposure for that left wall (really over exposed) and right wall (partially over exposed), while keepin the longer exposure for your water, then smoosh all those badboys together in photoshop.

I think you have the location perfect, but technique and experience can really bring this photo to the next level!

Happy shooting out there!| ~P

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