Daily 2013
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In the Street!, Columbia MO Ah, it feels so nice to type the words Columbia MO again! I typed it so many times before it’s like an old friend rolling off my fingertips! This is one of my favorite photos from Megan and Eric’s wedding. We had a lot of fun playing in the street! It’s almost time for their one year anniversary, so I think I’ll surprise them with a few newly reprocessed photos. I reprocessed this photo for my wedding portfolio, which will go live on my new website any minute now! I’ll post an update here as soon as it does. My facebook business page is bare bones, but up and running here. Your words of encouragement have been very helpful as I launch a new career. Hopefully the photography market in Montana will treat me well. See the original version of this photo here and let me know what you think of my new processing style. It’s crazy how far I’ve come! CreativeLIVE is live and FREE with two courses today! One course on wedding photography and another on compositing. Both are good! Check them out at www.creativeLIVE.com Critiques are always welcome. UPDATE: My site is live!!! Check it out! www.paulbellingerphoto.com Daily photo: May 31, 2013, taken July 28, 2012
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Wedding Landscape, Huntington TX Emily and Dalton’s Huntington wedding has been one of my favorites from this year’s wedding season. They were both great sports to pose for a full hour with us after the ceremony before kicking off the reception party. One of the last things we had them do was to walk all the way around this pond so we could make some reflection photos for them. I think it was worth it! This is a freshly processed version my original wedding landscape photo that I took while assisting the amazing Sarah Williams and the Silhouette Studio. I’ve reprocessed the photo for my wedding portfolio, and for the front page of my wedding website and wedding business page on facebook. Both sites will be launching within 24 hours and I’ll post the links here as an update later today hopefully. I’m really excited things are starting to take off! CreativeLIVE is live and FREE for two more days with Doug Gordon's Wedding Project. If you're a wedding photographer or just want to learn some lighting and posing techniques from a pro, be sure to tune in to http://www.creativelive.com/live Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: May 30, 2013, taken May 11, 2013
east texashuntington weddingsarah williamssilhouette studiotexasweddingwedding portfolio
Light Writer, Houston TX This little cutie was doing her best to send off the bride and groom with a spark! I am so grateful to the amazing Sarah Williams for letting me assist her on this and all the weddings we’ve shot together this year! Sarah is awesome! This photo is straight from the camera, using the same speedlite and slow shutter technique I’ve been posting about the last two days. The speedlite freezes the action while the slow shutter captures the movement of bright lights, such as the sparkler. Sarah and I love experimenting with these kinds of shots every chance we get. Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: May 26, 2013, taken March 16, 2013
Blurry Night, College Station TX Sarah Williams and I shot a beautiful College Station wedding last weekend at the Messina Hof Vineyard. The reception had a very cool wall of lights that we played around with throughout the night. This is one of the more artistic photos I created. The bride and groom were really into silhouettes so I hope they will enjoy this one. I hope it helps them to remember the little moments they had alone on what must have seemed like a blur of a day. I love how wedding photography pushes me to focus on mood and emotion rather than technical discipline. There is so much more to telling a story than exposure and focus. Today is a big day for me because I’m unveiling my new logo, seen here as my watermark. I bought a font and tweaked it in Photoshop. I plan to use it in the banner of my new photography website that will hopefully launch soon. What do you think? Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: May 24, 2013, taken May 18, 2013
college stationsarah williamssilhouette studiotexasweddingwedding portfolio
Ladies First, Houston TX These two danced up a storm at Bianca and Taylor’s Houston wedding at Agave Road! Bianca and Taylor had a wonderful day and danced the night away. Check out Sarah’s blog post for more beautiful photos from this Houston wedding. This is a single 0.8 second exposure edited in Lightroom 4. The light flare and streaks were created entirely in camera. I used a speedlite on the camera to freeze the children in place, while leaving the shutter open long enough to create the light streaks. I’ve seen a lot of wedding photographers use this technique and always thought it was fitting for crazy receptions, because it conveys movement and a little craziness. Sarah and I have used this technique a few times since and always have fun playing around with it. Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: May 23, 2013, taken May 03, 2013
A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall, Nacogoches TX
Well this is pretty much the oppesite of a glamour shoot! We had a very strong storm pass through Texas yesterday and as far as I know we were lucky that there weren’t any major incidents. We were planning for the storm all day and it ended up not hitting us too hard. I was standing in the carport, watching a wave of rain come through and it hit me that I needed to practice my rain shots in case it’s ever raining on a wedding day. So I set up a couple of speedlites on stands, just as I would at a wedding, and begged Nini to go out and pose in the rain. The only catch was that we could only find one umbrella! And I needed it to prevent my lens from getting drops all over it! So Nini had to actually pose in the rain. She was not happy about it, but her attitude fit perfectly with the lighting I created.
I processed this photo in Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS6. In CS6 I used a batch of actions that I recently purchased from http://www.florabellacollection.com
I was really impressed by the actions and have learned a lot about photoshop by going through and dissecting their actions and seeing all kinds of new tricks I never knew how to do before. Exciting!
Trivia question: Where’d I get the title for this post? Don’t google it!
Critiques are always welcome.
Daily photo: May 22, 2013, taken May 21, 2013
Glamourous Fashion Experience, Nacogdoches TX This time my beautiful wife Nini is posing in the home studio (spare bedroom). I tried to replicate the natural outdoor lighting that we got earlier in the shoot. I used a giant four foot softbox to create a very soft light source. The strobe was just above Nini’s head height, and was positioned directly behind me while I was shooting just below eye level. You can see my silhouette in the catchlight in her eye. I processed this photo using Lightroom 4, Photoshop CS6. The light leak and vignette were created in Exposure 4, by Alienskin. I’m two days in to a free Alienskin trial and I’m a sucker for light leaks! Thanks for all of your suggestions on what to call these beauty makeover photo sessions. I’m still toying with various phrases. UPDATE: Thanks for your question Terry. The inspiration for all of my modern beauty makeover shoots is the one and only Sue Bryce. She's won a ton of international awards, including most influential at this year's WPPI. See her head cropping style at www.suebryce.com Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: May 21, 2013, taken May 10, 2013
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Southern Belle Bridal, Huntington TX Emily is a quintessential Southern belle! She’s got that larger than life Texas beauty and epitomizes Southern hospitality with a smile that can make anyone feel welcome. I’m sure glad the amazing Sarah Williams let me tag along for this bridal session and subsequent wedding! See more of this beautiful bridal session on Sarah’s blogpost. Thank you for all of your suggestions yesterday on what I should call my beauty sessions. I’m still undecided, leaning towards words such as luxurious, beauty, modern, makeover, glamourous, elegant, style, fashion, model experience, etc. To answer one question, yes, each session comes with professional hair and makeup, either on location or at a salon. Eventually it would be nice to have it done in-studio, but first I’d need a studio! Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: May 20, 2013, taken April 26, 2013
Nini’s Glamour, Nacogdoches TX This is the final product from Nini’s modern beauty makeover shoot on the day she got the call from Montana State. Yes, we celebrate good news with a photoshoot! I shared the before and after version a couple of days ago, and mentioned that I would use it to market this style of shoot. But what should I call this shoot? Sue Bryce calls this style “glamour.” But she’s from New Zealand and maybe hasn’t noticed how bad of a name “glamour shots” have in the US. So if not a glamour portrait, what would you call it? I’ve been calling it “modern beauty makeover,” but I’d love to hear other suggestions. This photo was shot with only natural light and I did the retouching in Photoshop using Sue’s two minute rule. But of course the retouching actually took me 10 minutes instead of two. I’ll get my time down eventually! I've shot two weddings in the last two days! I'm wiped! Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: May 19, 2013, taken May 10, 2013
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Emily and Dalton’s Landscape, Huntington TX Emily and Dalton had a beautiful wedding at the Sawmill Lake Mansion in Huntington Texas. I was thrilled that the amazing Sarah Williams let me assist her for this wedding, because I also helped out withEmily’s bridal portraits a few weeks earlier and she was awesome! So Sarah and I had high expectations for their wedding and they did not disappoint! After the ceremony Emily and Dalton put up with us posing them for about a full hour, and were willing to go all the way to the other side of the lake for this shot. I hope they like it! Well I haven’t posted a landscape photo in May yet, not one without a bride and groom in it at least, so I think I’ll finish off the month without posting one. In fact, I haven’t shot any landscapes since I was in Chicago back in mid-April. Part of the reason is that I’ve decided to start a wedding and portrait business, and I’m trying to practice as much as possible before we move to Montana. The other part of the reason is that I’m just not inspired by the landscape around me in East Texas. I may not shoot another landscape until we get to Montana. Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: May 18, 2013, taken May 11, 2013
east texashuntington weddingsarah williamssilhouette studiotexaswedding
Dylan’s Superstar Senior Portrait, Nacogdoches TX I’ve been really lucky to work with the amazing Sarah Williams on a few senior sessions recently, and she gets the best senior clients! Dylan was fun and easy to work with. He has a great outlook and will have bright future at Texas A&M, so we wanted to send him off looking like a superstar! We used the Joel Grimes three light technique to light this portrait. If you check out ESPN the Magazine, or Sports Illustrated, you’ll see a lot of athletes are lit with this technique. I’ve practiced it a few times with Nini and my soccer superstar little sister Taylor. Working with speedlites we were able to set up the lights in downtown Nacogodches in only a few minutes and get the shot right away. Click the link to Taylor’s photo above to see the lighting setup. See Sarah’s blogpost for more great photos from Dylan’s senior session. Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: May 17, 2013, taken May 1, 2013
Nini’s Modern Beauty Makeover, Nacogdoches TX A before and after shot of my beautiful wife Nini, who has recently accepted a job at the Montana State University! We celebrated the good news with a “modern beauty makeover” photoshoot. Montana State is in Billings Montana and we’ll be moving in July. I could not be more excited! We have enjoyed our year in Texas, but I have always hoped of moving to Montana (as a close second only behind Nebraska). Big Sky country has two of my favorite national parks, Glacier and Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons are just around the corner. It is a landscape photographer’s paradise! While Nini will be starting a new chapter in her career, I’ll be starting a new career altogether, as a photographer doing shoots just like this modern beauty makeover shoot and weddings. I can’t wait! This before and after photo is an important piece of marketing for my new business. It is inspired by Sue Bryce’s before and after marketing that she trained us to make in her 28 Days challenge on creativeLIVE. The goal of that workshop is to train a new photographer to shoot Sue’s modern glamour style in 28 days. Well I’ve been following Sue for a lot longer than 28 days and have yet to master her style, but I’m getting there! Both shots were taken using natural light. Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: May 15, 2013, taken May 10, 2013
homenacodochesninipaul bellinger photopaul bellinger portraittexas
Emily’s Bridal, Nacogdoches TX I had the great pleasure of shooting Emily’s bridal session a few weeks ago with the amazing Sarah Williams. Emily and Dalton had a romantic wedding this last weekend at the Mansion at Sawmill Lake in Huntington Texas, and now that Dalton has seen his beautiful bride, I can show her to you too! Emily is a client from heaven. She is so patient and always posing for the camera. She was always ready on time and gave us her undivided attention. Thanks to her efforts, we made a ton of amazing photos that her and Dalton will treasure throughout their long life together. Best of luck Emily and Dalton! You deserve all the best! This is a composite photo that I created in photoshop. First I started by creating an HDR image from five exposures using Photomatix. Then I layered in the best exposure of Emily and the traincar using photoshop. When I made this photo I was still very new to photoshop and learned a lot in the process. The biggest issue was getting her skin tone right and I think I’m still going to tweak it further. Thanks for your comments on Nini’s photo yesterday! I agree with those who suggested a “dad crop,” which is smugmug daily lingo for a wide crop that would cut down the foreground. I tried that first, but also wanted to try expanding the foreground in photoshop. The final product I print will probably be somewhere in between. Yes, we have big news that I’ll be announcing on facebook as soon as I can today, and will post about tomorrow in the dailies. No, Nini is not pregnant! UPDATE: Live and FREE on www.creativeLIVE.com today starting at 11AM central time: Crazy Stupid Light with Scott Robert Lim! This should be an amazing workshop for everyone who wants to get an expensive studio lighting look out of their cheap speedlites. Don't forget, the rewatch will be shown over and over all night long. Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: May 13, 2013, taken April 26, 2013
Under the Bridge, Nacogdoches TX
Nini and I have big news but I’m not able to say anything about it until Monday. But, in celebration, she had her hair and makeup done at Julia’s Salon, and we went for a photoshoot. I have seen several local photographer shooting at this location before and figured we should try it out. I’m glad we did! We only spent about 10 minutes there but it was fun lifting Nini up into place.
I did some wacky processing on this photo! I expanded the concrete frame around the outside of the photo so that I could make a better crop and there wouldn’t be distracting dirt and rocks in the frame below. The powers of photoshop are amazing.
Critiques are always welcome.
Daily photo: May 12, 2013, taken May 10, 2013homenacodochesninipaul bellinger photopaul bellinger portraittexas
Cheech’s Portrait, Nacogdoches TX Well of course I could not leave out Cheecher. Cheech is usually my best poser, but he was afraid of the new light I was using just like Big Red was. Well Cheech was a little better than Big Red, but I still only took about 10 shots. For some reason I’ve been processing most of Cheech’s portraits in black and white these days. I’m not sure why. I like black and white portraits in general, but there must be something about him that is drawing me to black and white. I can’t put my finger on it. This will concluded the one light dog portraits and hopefully I’ll have Nini to pose for me and post a portrait of her tomorrow. This is the same one light technique I used for Sala’s portrait. Click the link for more info on the lighting. Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: May 9, 2013, taken May 5, 2013
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Scaredy Boy, Nacogdoches TX Of all three of the boys, Big Red was the most frightened by my new light setup. I only managed to take a few shots before he jumped off the bed. I think it was the popping sound the Alien Bees make that was scaring him because he’s usually pretty good about posing. But on the bright side, his fear made for a very expressive pose. This is the same one light technique I used for Sala’s portrait. Click the link for more info. Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: May 8, 2013, taken May 5, 2013
bianca and taylorhoustonsarah williamssilhouette studiowedding
Here Comes the Bride, Houston TX Here’s a before and after look at one of my favorite photos from Cara and Keyl’s Houston wedding. The wedding ceremony was held at the magnificent St. Lukes United Methodist church in downtown Houston. The photo on the right was processed in Lightroom 4, where I tried to correct the color balance issue, but could never quite the color just right. This church had natural lighting towards the altar, but it was filtered through stain glass and mixed with artificial light from above, creating a strange mix of colors. So instead of spending too much time try to correct the color, I took it into Photoshop and created the black and white photo you see on the left. What do you think? I often write about my techniques, but now that I have Photoshop and know how to make collages with ease, I decided to show you. I would say this is one of the more heavily processed of my wedding photos. To me, the altar area is too bright in the original and it immediately attracts the eye to the piano player, and not Cara, the bride. Since I want the bride to be the focus, I darkened everything in the photo except her. Then I lightened up the cross and priest so that the eye is drawn to a vertical line leading from the bottom left rows of pews, all the way up to the top of the cross. And of course I had to get rid of the chandelier in the top left corner. That’s my thought process, what is yours? I was very lucky to assist the amazing Sarah Williams and the Silhouette Studio for Cara and Keyl’s Houston wedding. Check out Sarah’s blog post for more awesome photos from this wedding! Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: May 7, 2013, taken April 20, 2013
Sala’s Headshot, Nacogdoches TX The amazing Sarah Williams let me borrow a pair of Alien Bees studio strobes, and I put them to work yesterday making portraits of the boys. I got one portrait of each but this time it was Sala who was the best behaved and willing to pose the longest, so he got the best portrait. I really like playing around with studio lighting and hope to make some more portraits with these strobes this week. This portrait was shot at f/5.6 with a gridded 28-inch beauty dish about a foot above Sala’s head and slightly to the camera left about a foot and a half. Sala is facing straight into the light and you can see the beauty dish catchlights in his eyes. Keeping the beauty dish above Sala creates the nice shadows under his cheeks, creating a slimmer look that would be very flattering on a person. Using the grid on the beauty dish prevents the light from spilling anywhere other than where it is pointed, so the whole room isn’t lit up. If I had taken the grid off the back wall behind Sala would be fairly well lit. Tomorrow I’ll trying using two gridded beauty dishes to create a different look. Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: May 6, 2013, taken May 5, 2013
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What’s Up?, Nacogdoches TX
Our black-faced tiger boy looking a little confused. Sala is a curious pup, and at eight months old there are lots of new things for him to discover every day. Lately he’s been learning to catch the frisbee, which is really awesome for me because I love throwing the frisbee around. And he is fast enough to run it down and catch it in the air! So cool! Big Red and Cheech have no interest at all.
I used a reflector for this shot, a piece of white cardboard propped up against a rubbermade tub. The reflector was positioned to the left of the camera and you can see the catchlight in Sala’s right (camera left) eye. I really like using reflectors. They are cheap and easy use but add a very professional looking touch.
Critiques are always welcome.
Daily photo: May 3, 2013, taken April 23, 2013
Tears of Joy, Galveston TX Lindsay broke into tears of joy as she walked back down the aisle and Kevin was quick to console her. They had a private moment together, even though they were surrounded by people cheering them on. It was really refreshing to see a young couple so uncontrollably in love. This is one of the shots taken right after the top two photos on the left of yesterday’s Uncle Bob collage. Thanks for all of your commentary on that collage, a lot of people had great comments. But as you can see with this shot, it was not difficult to work around Uncle Bob and get the shots we needed to get. Uncle Bob was good at reading our body language and moving out of our shots even though I did catch him a few (seven) times. It’s totally okay to be an Uncle Bob, but a little common sense goes a long way. For this photo I actually urged the bridesmaid on the camera right to get in closer to the one on the left, framing up the couple with blurry foreground objects. It’s a style choice I’ve been keeping my eye out for. It’s not for everyone, and we’ve had this discussion before. I like the depth and framing it creates, but many people find it distracting. What do you think? This wedding was a great learning experience for me and I’m really thankful to the amazing Sarah Williams and the Silhouette Studio for letting me assist. For more beautiful photos from this wedding check out Sarah’s blog post! UPDATE: HAHAHA! I love Uncle Bob's comment! I got in his way for this shot! HAHAHA! See Uncle Bob is a great guy, with great sense of humor! Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: May 2, 2013, taken March 13, 2013
Uncle Bob!, Galveston TX Today I’m posting 6 unprocessed photos of a character known in the wedding photography community as “Uncle Bob.” Who is Uncle Bob? Well I’ve been studying wedding photography for a few years now and I kept hearing stories from wedding photographers about Uncle Bobs. Uncle Bob is a person that shows up to the wedding very seriously intending to shoot (or video) the entire wedding, despite not being the hired wedding photographer (or videographer). I’ll confess, I’ve played the role of Uncle Bob myself once. For the most part, Uncle Bob is a friendly photo enthusiast that just wants to get out and put their expensive gear to work, and they can be fun to talk to. Uncle Bob is not a serious problem for professional wedding photographers, who usually have plenty of experience in dealing with them. But as you can see in these six photos Uncle Bob can sometimes be quite a nuisance, and this is why they get such a bad reputation amongst wedding photographers. The top two photos on the left are probably the ones that irked me the most. Both shots were taken right after the ceremony, which was a very emotional and beautiful moment for the newly married couple. Lindsay was crying with joy and Kevin was consoling her, and there was Uncle Bob, going in for the closeup from behind, in a way that was nearly impossible to compose him out of the shot from where we (and about 20 cell phone shooters) were standing. The same goes for the cake-cutting photo on the top right. Why did Uncle Bob need an extreme over the shoulder closeup of the cake cutting? Uncle Bob also used the same technique in the middle photo on the right while the groom was waiting at the altar. Lastly, when Uncle Bob was done shooting the ceremony, he decided to enjoy the beach with his family, which is very understandable. But why play on the beach right in the background of our family photos (which are by far the most stressful and rushed part of the whole wedding day for the wedding photographer)?! Uncle Bob you are just too much! I politely asked him to move down the beach behind us and he was very happy to comply. Overall Uncle Bob is a pretty easy going and nice guy who just wants what’s best for the newlyweds. If they get in your way, politely ask them to cooperate with you, or better yet, have a bridesmaid or groomsman do it for you. Give them a task if you want to be proactive, and that way they’ll feel included in the photography crew, while staying out of your way. This wedding was a great learning experience for me and I’m really thankful to the amazing Sarah Williams and the Silhouette Studio for letting me assist. For more beautiful photos from this wedding check out Sarah’s blog post! By the way, this is the first collage I’ve ever made! I used Photoshop CS6. Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: May 1, 2013, taken March 13, 2013
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Dramatic Grandeur, Houston TX I was very lucky to assist the amazing Sarah Williams and the Silhouette Studio for Cara and Keyl’s Houston wedding. The wedding ceremony was held at the magnificent St. Lukes United Methodist church in downtown Houston. Cara was so nice and easy going. She’s an awesome person and Keyl is one lucky guy! Sarah did a great job at this wedding, coordinating herself and two assistants to get lots of amazing shots from every angle. This was a difficult venue to shoot because we were not allowed to shoot inside the room, except from the back balcony. So naturally I concentrated on the wide shots and composed the scene as if it were a landscape. The 50mm was the perfect landscape focal length for being way back in the balcony and it produced a lot less lens distortion than my 24mm. It was really fun working with a team of three photographers; we had a great time hanging out. Check out Sarah’s blog post for more awesome photos from this wedding! Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: April 30, 2013, taken April 20, 2013
Wabash and Wacker, Chicago IL I love walking up and down Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago. It follows the Chicago River and provides great views and historic buildings. For instance, the clocktower you see in this photo is the Wrigley Building, built in the 1920s. Just on the other side of Michigan Ave from the Wrigley building, is the Tribune Tower, completed in 1925 as the headquarters of the Chicago Tribune. The huge building taking up most of the left side of the frame is the Trump Tower completed in 2009, the twelfth tallest building in the world, and the second tallest in Chicago. Personally I’ll take the mountains over a city any day, but these historic skyscrapers are the mountains of the Midwest. This is a single 25 second exposure taken well after sundown during the blue hour. The lightstreaks are from an ambulance. I also saw several firetrucks going by at one point but never figured out where they were headed. I only shot for about an hour or so during the whole trip, but I’m happy with the shots I got around Wacker Ave. Check out the oppesite view from last year from the other side of the road. Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: April 29, 2013, taken April 13, 2013
Lonesome Cheech, Nacogdoches TX
Cheecher is lonesome without Nini. He is really her dog more than he is mine. We’re both missing her and she’s missing us. But at least she’ll have a new Cheech portrait to enjoy.
I grabbed my 135mm lens and a piece of white carboard for a reflector and set out to make some dog portraits. I propped the cardboard up on a rubbermade tub and coaxed Cheech into position so that he was facing the reflector, and you can see a little bit of it in the top of his eye. I made all three dogs pose, but Cheech was the best behaved, so he got better looking portraits. I processed the photo in LR4, then Photoshop, and then LR4 again. I used LR4 for the black and white conversion and exposure, and then used Photoshop to remove some unwanted things and to fine-tune the exposure, then back in LR4 I increased the clarity and the highlights just a touch before exporting to jpg. The whole process took under ten minutes.
Critiques are always welcome.
Daily photo: April 28, 2013, taken April 23, 2013
Beautiful in Black and White, Nacogdoches TX Nini is away and I miss her! This is one of my favorite photos from our anniversary shoot and I made this black and white version before but never shared it. So here it is! My favorite photo from the shoot is still this full body beauty on the bricks. I’m a sucker for the wider portraits! I really like the shadows created by using only one light. Click here for more info on my lighting technique. I processed this photo in Photoshop CS6, which I’ve owned for about a week and a half now. I followed Sue Bryce’s retouching techniques from her 28 Days challenge. Sue gave us over an hour of retouching instruction on one of the recent challenges and it is truly awesome to see her retouch photo after photo spending only two minutes on each. She is so fast and uses only a few Photoshop tools over and over again. She makes it look easy, but it’s not! This photo was supposed to be retouched in two minutes, but it took more like an hour. Hopefully I can get my time down as I get used to the tools in Photoshop. I spent a lot of time over doing it and then trying to back track, when I should have just done it right the first time. But practice makes perfect. Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: April 27, 2013, taken February 9, 2013
Black Faced Tiger, Nacogdoches TX
The black faced boy keeping guard over our backyard, grazing like a cow! He’s such a mysterious looking dog and his mystery has only grown since we named him the black faced tiger. Now parents around our neighborhood tell their kids to beware of the black faced tiger! Just joking, we’re the only ones who say that! But you do have to be on the lookout for him because he blends into the shadows so easily we often lose track of him when he’s right under our nose.
All of this talk of the black faced tiger reminds me of a few lyrics from Mos Def, one of my all time favorite artists: “I’m blacker than midnight on Broadway and Myrtle.” I can’t believe that line has been in my head for going on 14 years! The lyric refernces the corner where Mos Def is from in Brooklyn. It’s from the song “Mathematics,” on Mos’ 1999 debut album “Black on Both Sides.” The song also makes note of grazing cows, although it’s not a pretty image: “Killing fields need blood to graze the cash cow.” See below for the rest of this rhyme.
Not many people wanted to discuss Chicago’s alarming murder statistics yesterday, or Kanye West’s poignant lyrics about murder in the Chi, and I understand that. I wasn’t expecting much on a busy Thursday and am guessing that the smug daily community is not super fond of rap music. But I encourage you to check it out if you’re interested in Chicago or have never read any rap lyrics. The lyrics are quite unique as Kanye points out “they say you can rap about anything, except for Jesus.” The post is here: http://smu.gs/15UB9lR
Now to continue the rhyme from Mos Def’s “Mathematics” :
Killing fields need blood to graze the cash cow
It's a numbers game, but shit don't add up somehow
Like I got, 16 to 32 bars to rock it
But only 15% of profits ever see my pockets
Like 69 billion in the last 20 years
Spent on national defense but folks still live in fear
Like nearly half of America's largest cities is one-quarter black
That's why they gave Ricky Ross all the crack
16 ounces to a pound, 20 more to a key
A 5-minute sentence hearing and you're no longer free
40% of Americans own a cell phone
So they can hear everything that you say when you ain't home
I guess Michael Jackson was right: "You Are Not Alone"
Rock your hardhat, black, cause you in the Terrordome
Lyrics copied and pasted from http://www.rapgenius.com , where you can find every line annotated in case you’re not fluent in rap lyrics.
Critiques are always welcome.
Daily photo: April 26, 2013, taken April 23, 2013![Breathless, Chicago IL<br />
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Longest post ever!<br />
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The view from the 96th floor of Chi-town’s Hancock Tower. We make it a point to visit the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor every time we’re in downtown Chi. You can see the Sears Tower in the top right (now called Willis Tower). This was taken handheld in the dark of night so the image quality isn’t very good. The photo was already noisy and lacked sharpness, so I added grain and converted it to black and white in Lightroom for a grungier look. Note: Scroll down for the answers to the Bob Dyan lyric quiz from Monday.<br />
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Speaking of grungy, and continuing on with my musical inspiration lately, this photo reminds me of a lyric from one of my favorite artists, Kanye West:<br />
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“I walk through the valley of Chi, where death is, <br />
Top floor, the view alone will leave you breathless.”<br />
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The view certainly will leave you breathless, but it’s also accurate to describe the city as a valley of death. Chicago had more murders in 2012 than any other US city. According to the CPD, there were 500 homicides in 2012, 435 of which were committed with guns. Chicago had 2,400 shootings in 2012. Over 400 school-aged children were shot in 2012, and 62 of them were killed. So while the view is beautiful from up on the mountainous skyscrapers, down in the valley, on the streets and in the schoolyard, the shadow of death is everywhere. <br />
<br />
UPDATE RE ART'S COMMENT: Art is right, I've never felt unsafe in the Chicago Loop, and according to the homicide maps I've searched on google, very few murders occur inside the loop, which is where visitors are most likely to go. But the murders are not relegated to just a few bad neighborhoods either, as there are shootings and murders damn near everywhere in Chicago outside the loop. For instance: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/this-map-of-chicagos-2012-homicides-shows-what-its-like-to-have-dozens-of-shootings-every-weekend-2012-7">http://www.businessinsider.com/this-map-of-chicagos-2012-homicides-shows-what-its-like-to-have-dozens-of-shootings-every-weekend-2012-7</a><br />
<br />
Kanye revisits the theme of murder in the Chi in a pair of verses in the song “Murder to Excellence” on his 2011 album “Watch the Throne” co-authored with my favorite rapper Jay-Z. He closes the two verses with this gem:<br />
<br />
“I feel the pain in my city wherever I go,<br />
314 soldier died in Iraq, 509 died in Chicago.”<br />
<br />
Kanye is quoting the numbers from 2008, and they are accurate. They lyric quoted at the top is from the song “Jesus Walks,” which was nominated for song of the year at the Grammy Awards, won a Grammy for best rap song and is currently ranked 274 on Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest songs of all time. The song is on Kanye’s 2004 debut album “The College Dropout,” which received 10 Grammy nominations, including album of the year, and won three, including best rap album. Rolling Stone declared it the album of the year. Rap music often gets a bad rep, so I thought I’d continue the lyric from Jesus Walks I started above, because it’s a pretty good one and one that I don’t think is too offensive for this crowd (although there is one curse word, beware):<br />
<br />
I walk through the valley of the Chi where death is<br />
Top floor the view alone will leave you breathless *gasps*<br />
Try to catch it *gasps* it's kinda hard<br />
Getting choked by detectives: yeah, yeah, now check the method<br />
They be asking us questions, harass and arrest us<br />
Saying "we eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast"<br />
Huh? Y'all eat pieces of shit? What's the basis?<br />
We ain't going nowhere but got suits and cases<br />
A trunk full of coke rental car from Avis<br />
My momma used to say only Jesus can save us<br />
Well momma I know I act a fool<br />
But I'll be gone 'til November I got packs to move I hope<br />
<br />
[Hook]<br />
(JE-SUS WALKS)<br />
God show me the way because the Devil trying to break me down<br />
(Jesus walks with me)<br />
The only thing that I pray is that my feet don't fail me now<br />
(Jesus walks)<br />
And I don't think there is nothing I can do now to right my wrongs<br />
(Jesus walks with me)<br />
I want to talk to God but I'm afraid because we ain't spoke in so long<br />
<br />
To the hustlers, killers, murderers, drug dealers, even the scrippers<br />
(Jesus walks for them)<br />
To the victims of welfare for we living in hell here, hell yeah<br />
(Jesus walks for them)<br />
Now, hear ye, hear ye: want to see Thee more clearly<br />
I know he hear me when my feet get weary<br />
Cause we're the almost nearly extinct<br />
We rappers is role models: we rap, we don't think<br />
I ain't here to argue about his facial features<br />
Or here to convert atheists into believers<br />
I'm just trying to say the way school need teachers<br />
The way Kathie Lee needed Regis that's the way I need Jesus<br />
So here go my single dog radio needs this<br />
They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus<br />
That means guns, sex, lies, videotape<br />
But if I talk about God my record won't get played, huh?<br />
Well if this take away from my spins<br />
Which will probably take away from my ends<br />
Then I hope this take away from my sins<br />
And bring the day that I'm dreaming about<br />
Next time I'm in the club, everybody screaming out:<br />
JE-SUS WALKS!<br />
<br />
Lyrics from <a href="http://www.rapgenius.com">http://www.rapgenius.com</a> , which has every line annotated in case you have trouble deciphering the lyrics. <br />
<br />
To answer the Bob Dylan lyric quiz about wind the other day, the three wind references I had in mind were:<br />
<br />
The song “Blowin’ in the Wind,” written by Bob Dylan in 1962.<br />
The lyric “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” from the song “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” written by Bob Dylan in 1965.<br />
The song “Idiot Wind,” written by Bob Dylan in 1974.<br />
<br />
Critiques are always welcome.<br />
<br />
Daily photo: April 25, 2013, taken April 12, 2013](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Daily-2013/i-PmqBw6B/0/18a5fdb2/L/5DIII_20130412_7002%2C%20hancock%20view%20south%20downtown%20chicago%20illinois%20photo-L.jpg)
Breathless, Chicago IL
Longest post ever!
The view from the 96th floor of Chi-town’s Hancock Tower. We make it a point to visit the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor every time we’re in downtown Chi. You can see the Sears Tower in the top right (now called Willis Tower). This was taken handheld in the dark of night so the image quality isn’t very good. The photo was already noisy and lacked sharpness, so I added grain and converted it to black and white in Lightroom for a grungier look. Note: Scroll down for the answers to the Bob Dyan lyric quiz from Monday.
Speaking of grungy, and continuing on with my musical inspiration lately, this photo reminds me of a lyric from one of my favorite artists, Kanye West:
“I walk through the valley of Chi, where death is,
Top floor, the view alone will leave you breathless.”
The view certainly will leave you breathless, but it’s also accurate to describe the city as a valley of death. Chicago had more murders in 2012 than any other US city. According to the CPD, there were 500 homicides in 2012, 435 of which were committed with guns. Chicago had 2,400 shootings in 2012. Over 400 school-aged children were shot in 2012, and 62 of them were killed. So while the view is beautiful from up on the mountainous skyscrapers, down in the valley, on the streets and in the schoolyard, the shadow of death is everywhere.
UPDATE RE ART'S COMMENT: Art is right, I've never felt unsafe in the Chicago Loop, and according to the homicide maps I've searched on google, very few murders occur inside the loop, which is where visitors are most likely to go. But the murders are not relegated to just a few bad neighborhoods either, as there are shootings and murders damn near everywhere in Chicago outside the loop. For instance: http://www.businessinsider.com/this-map-of-chicagos-2012-homicides-shows-what-its-like-to-have-dozens-of-shootings-every-weekend-2012-7
Kanye revisits the theme of murder in the Chi in a pair of verses in the song “Murder to Excellence” on his 2011 album “Watch the Throne” co-authored with my favorite rapper Jay-Z. He closes the two verses with this gem:
“I feel the pain in my city wherever I go,
314 soldier died in Iraq, 509 died in Chicago.”
Kanye is quoting the numbers from 2008, and they are accurate. They lyric quoted at the top is from the song “Jesus Walks,” which was nominated for song of the year at the Grammy Awards, won a Grammy for best rap song and is currently ranked 274 on Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest songs of all time. The song is on Kanye’s 2004 debut album “The College Dropout,” which received 10 Grammy nominations, including album of the year, and won three, including best rap album. Rolling Stone declared it the album of the year. Rap music often gets a bad rep, so I thought I’d continue the lyric from Jesus Walks I started above, because it’s a pretty good one and one that I don’t think is too offensive for this crowd (although there is one curse word, beware):
I walk through the valley of the Chi where death is
Top floor the view alone will leave you breathless *gasps*
Try to catch it *gasps* it's kinda hard
Getting choked by detectives: yeah, yeah, now check the method
They be asking us questions, harass and arrest us
Saying "we eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast"
Huh? Y'all eat pieces of shit? What's the basis?
We ain't going nowhere but got suits and cases
A trunk full of coke rental car from Avis
My momma used to say only Jesus can save us
Well momma I know I act a fool
But I'll be gone 'til November I got packs to move I hope
[Hook]
(JE-SUS WALKS)
God show me the way because the Devil trying to break me down
(Jesus walks with me)
The only thing that I pray is that my feet don't fail me now
(Jesus walks)
And I don't think there is nothing I can do now to right my wrongs
(Jesus walks with me)
I want to talk to God but I'm afraid because we ain't spoke in so long
To the hustlers, killers, murderers, drug dealers, even the scrippers
(Jesus walks for them)
To the victims of welfare for we living in hell here, hell yeah
(Jesus walks for them)
Now, hear ye, hear ye: want to see Thee more clearly
I know he hear me when my feet get weary
Cause we're the almost nearly extinct
We rappers is role models: we rap, we don't think
I ain't here to argue about his facial features
Or here to convert atheists into believers
I'm just trying to say the way school need teachers
The way Kathie Lee needed Regis that's the way I need Jesus
So here go my single dog radio needs this
They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus
That means guns, sex, lies, videotape
But if I talk about God my record won't get played, huh?
Well if this take away from my spins
Which will probably take away from my ends
Then I hope this take away from my sins
And bring the day that I'm dreaming about
Next time I'm in the club, everybody screaming out:
JE-SUS WALKS!
Lyrics from http://www.rapgenius.com , which has every line annotated in case you have trouble deciphering the lyrics.
To answer the Bob Dylan lyric quiz about wind the other day, the three wind references I had in mind were:
The song “Blowin’ in the Wind,” written by Bob Dylan in 1962.
The lyric “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” from the song “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” written by Bob Dylan in 1965.
The song “Idiot Wind,” written by Bob Dylan in 1974.
Critiques are always welcome.
Daily photo: April 25, 2013, taken April 12, 2013
Blowing in the Wind, Nacogdoches TX
Well I pretty much only listen to rap music these days but I’m a huge Bob Dylan fan too. I remember the first time I heard “Subteranean Homesick Blues” and I thought the rhymes sounded like rap verses. Off the top of my head I can think of three classic Dylan lyics about wind, can you? The title above is the first one. I’ll post the other two I have in mind tomorrow.
Back on the subject of rap music, my favorite rapper Jay-Z recently claimed to be “the Bob Dylan of rap,” which only makes him more endearing to me. He also once said he was “the black Warren Buffet,” the sage of Omaha, so I like his taste in role models!
This shot is from the SFA Arboretum. Speaking of quotes, there is a Rick Sammon quote that often goes through my head when I'm shooting something like this: "The name of the game is to fill the frame!" I heard him say it on CreativeLIVE in a workshop that seems long ago now.
Critiques are always welcome.
Daily photo: April 23, 2013, taken March 24, 2013
Trump Tower, Chicago IL
I was really tired from our conference in Chicago and barely made it out in time to shoot sunset photos on the only day that wasn’t completely overcast. I was searching around for a new composition and had to settle on this one as the colors arrived. This is on the North side of the Chicago River between Michigan and Columbus aves, on a sidewalk know as the River Esplanade.
This is a manual blend of three exposures and it’s the first manual blend I’ve ever made in Photoshop. I’m lucky to have a very sturdy tripod so it made the blending job in Photoshop really easy. I don’t think I could have done it if my camera moved even a tiny bit, without learning some complicated technique at least. I also used a two-stop soft-step graduated neutral density filter to reduce the exposure in the sky. Someone asked why I use Lightroom and Photoshop to process a single photo. The answer is because I’m much faster in Lightroom and prefer to do as much as possible in Lightroom before using Photoshop for anything. Then when I’m done in photoshop I might make a few minor tweaks back in Lightroom before exporting to a jpeg. I’ve really enjoyed learning Photoshop on the fly.
Thanks to everyone who has gone out and voted for my photo in the photo competition I’ve entered. Unfortunately I don’t think I will win the fan favorite part of the competition as there are a few photos that have doubled in votes recently. My social network is apparently pretty weak, even for East Texas standards. But a lot of smuggers did go vote for me and I really appreciate that! Hopefully I will fare better in the judging categories.
It has been a really long weekend! Sal Cincotta was rocking on CreativeLIVE and I assisted Sarah with a wedding and an engagement shoot. I’m wiped! And just in time for Monday!
Critiques are always welcome.
Daily photo: April 22, 2013, taken April 13, 2013
Chicago Skyline, Chicago IL I happened to be up for a sunrise and figured I try my luck shooting the sunrise on Lake Michigan. The sunrise was way too cloudy, but it made for some nice blue hour light over the city. So I changed my composition and took a few skyline photos. I think I would really enjoy shooting cityscapes in a big city like Chicago if I ever live in one. This is a single 30 second exposure processed in Photoshop CS6 and Lightroom 4. Urgent! I’m in second place! I’ve entered my first photo contest at the Texas Forest Trail Region Facebook page. One of the awards is the fan favorite voting contest, which comes with a $100.00 award. If you smuggers can help me win I’ll donate the $100.00 to the National Parks. If you don’t mind “liking” the Texas Forest Trail Region facebook page, please vote for my “Warm Grass Sunset” photo here. You have to actually “vote” by clicking the vote button, you can’t simply “like” or “share.” You can vote each day through April 26th and after you’ve voted once it just gets easier the second time around! Right now I’m behind by a few votes, so every vote counts. So please vote! THANKS! Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: April 20, 2013, taken April 12, 2013
Steal an Embrace, Galveston TX After Sarah is done creating her awesome pose, and getting all the shots she needs, she puts down her camera. At that exact moment, Linsday and Kevin steal a private embrace together on the beach. They thought no one was looking, but I was ready to capture their every move. It didn’t take me long to figure out that this would happen almost everytime Sarah put down her camera, so I started keeping an eye out for it, and we’ll use it to our advantage at the next wedding for sure. For more beautiful photos from this wedding check out Sarah’s blog post! Urgent! I’m behind by 10 votes! I’ve entered my first photo contest and one of the awards is the fan favorite voting contest, which comes with a $100.00 award. If you smuggers can help me win I’ll donate the $100.00 to the National Parks. If you don’t mind “liking” the Texas Forest Trail Region facebook page, please vote for my “Warm Grass Sunset” photo here. You have to actually “vote” by clicking the vote button, you can’t simply “like” or “share.” You can vote each day through April 26th and after you’ve voted once it just gets easier the second time around! THANKS! Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: April 19, 2013, taken March 16, 2013
Smoky Woods, near Broaddus TX A black and white view of the controlled burn less than a mile from our favorite beach at Lake Sam Rayburn. The ground was still hot from the burn so I couldn’t really enter the woods very well. When I did enter my feet started heating up and there were fallen trees all around me so I got out right away. After that I pretty much took shots from the perimeter with my 135mm lens. I hope the burn worked and will preven forest fires, but it sure was a gloomy sight to see. I’ve entered my first photo contest at the Texas Forest Trail Region Facebook page. One of the awards is the fan favorite voting contest, which comes with a $100.00 award. If you smuggers can help me win I’ll donate the $100.00 to the National Parks. If you don’t mind “liking” the Texas Forest Trail Region facebook page, please vote for my “Warm Grass Sunset” photo here. You can vote once a day for the next week. THANKS! Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: April 18, 2013, taken March 29, 2013
Bright Future, Galveston TX Lindsay and Kevin have a bright future to look forward to. After the ceremony was over and everyone headed for the reception, Lindsay and Kevin finally had a few moments to themselves to look out at the ocean and contemplate their new life together. And Sarah and I were there to capture the moments that makeup their love story. What an awesome job we have! For more beautiful photos from this wedding check out Sarah’s blog post! Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: April 17, 2013, taken March 16, 2013
Faded Rose, Nacogdoches TX
I really like this photo and I processed it about five different ways. This is Nini’s favorite. See the previous version here: http://smu.gs/15cs8nH
Critiques are always welcome.
Daily photo: April 16, 2013, taken March 22, 2013
Chicago River from Michigan Ave, Chicago IL
Nini I spent the last four days in downtown Chicago for a conference and I managed to break away and shoot one sunset and blue hour. We were busy and it was cloudy and rainy most of the time so I didn’t do much photography. I really like to shoot up and down Wacker Ave between Michigan Ave and Wabash because the river bends between those two streets and so does the city around it. This shot is actually from the sidewalk on “Lower Michigan Ave.” The bridges offer great compositions right over the water but they also bounce as cars drive by so it can be a little tricky to get a sharp shot.
This is a single 30 second exposure processed in Lightroom 4. Check out my photo from Wabash last year here: http://smu.gs/159v1pa
Critiques are always welcome.
UPDATE: Thanks for your critiques! I think I tilted it a little too far to the right in cropping so I will fix that this evening and you can see if it worked. I did do some distortion/perspective adjustments in Lightroom but I don't like to push it too far. Maybe I'll post a before and after now that I now how to make collages in Photoshop.
Daily photo: April 15, 2013, taken April 14, 2013
Aunt Meghna, Houston TX
I made a few portraits of our Aunt Meghna the last time we visited her and Jai in Houston, but I just now got around to processing this one. She’s Nini’s aunt, but she’s about the same age as us and she is soooo pretty! She has nearly perfect skin and mesmerizing brown eyes. Unfortunately I was really off my game that weekend and my lighting was just terrible. Somehow I added 20 years to her face! But alas, with Sue Bryce’s two minute retouching technique I was able to salvage this portrait and make Meghna look at least half as beautiful as she really is. And it only took me five minutes! I’m getting faster!
Nini and I are in Chicago this weekend for a conference and haven’t had much time for photography or smug, but I hope to get out and shoot today. I brought a few photos to practice retouching on but so far I’ve only done this one. Maybe more tomorrow if the weather doesn’t clear up.
Critiques are always welcome.
Daily photo: April 13, 2013, taken September 1, 2012
Fire in the Woods, near Broaddus TX
We passed this controlled burn less than a mile from our favorite beach on Lake Sam Rayburn in the Angelina National Forest. There were lots of great views through the woods but the dogs were crying to get to the lake. The ground was covered with burned pine needles, which looks like hair or shag carpeting. It was hot where I was standing and obviously dangerous with trees falling over. We didn’t see any trees fall but I was nervous and only took a few shots before heading on to the lake.
Thank you for all of your kind comments yesterday.
Critiques are always welcome.
Daily photo: April 10, 2013, taken March 29, 2013
Pink and Purple, Nacogdoches TX
The beautiful pink and purple Azaleas. I’m back in Nac after a quick trip to Nebraska for my grandpa’s funeral. He loved to take flower photos (especially of his roses) with his digital camera way back when the first digital cameras were coming out. He was always way ahead in technology. He had the first computer and CD player I ever saw and he turned me on to google way before any of my friends heard of it. It’s pretty unique for a grandpa to be more technologically advanced than his kids or grandkids. He went peacefully.
I wasn’t sure if I’d post anything about my grandpa here, but I had to mention it so I could say thank you to everyone who has already been very supportive of our family while we’ve mourned our loss. Thank you in advance to everyone else!
You can read more info about this photo here: http://smu.gs/ZKE9bP
Critiques are always welcome.
Daily photo: April 9, 2013, taken March 26, 2013
Peaceful Sundown, Lake Sam Rayburn TX Colorful serenity on our favorite beach in East Texas. This photo was taken shortly after this warm grass photo that I’ve entered into an East Texas photo contest. This is a single 1/8th of a second exposure taken with my backup camera. I like setting up multiple cameras on tripods so that I can experiment with alternative compositions. I didn’t use any filters for this photo, but did use a circular polarizer. Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: April 8, 2013, taken January 21, 2013
Love Closeup, Galveston TX This is one of my favorite photos from Lindsay and Kevin’s Galveston wedding. I assisted the amazing Sarah Williams, and she created this romantic pose. While she was shooting with a wider angle lens, I stayed back and captured this beauty closeup with my 135mm lens. They are such a good looking couple, and so in love, that this has to have been one of the easiest weddings we’ll come across. I used Sue Bryce’s Photoshop retouching technique for this photo. I tried to keep the retouching to a minimum so that Lindsay’s natural beauty is preserved. For more beautiful photos from this wedding check out Sarah’s awesome blog post! Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: April 5, 2013, taken March 16, 2013
Sundown Blues, Lake Sam Rayburn TX The high water washed out part of our beach, creating this great little line and reflection pool. Since this photo was taken the water is now much higher and this part of the beach is completely under water. But there is still plenty of beach for us to play on! This is a single six second exposure. For an even longer blue hour exposure see my current Sam Rayburn favorite. I love shooting after the sun goes down. I like the longer exposures, blue tones, and the reduced dynamic range. Not to mention it’s just a peaceful time of day to be relaxing on a beach! Read about my filter set up for this shot here. Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: April 3, 2013, taken January 21, 2013
Beautiful in Black, Nacogdoches TX She’s an angel but she looks amazing in black! We love looking through all of our old photos and occasionally picking out a new one to process. There are still a lot of unprocessed photos from our anniversary shoot and I am slowly working through them. My favorite photo from the shoot is still this full body beauty on the bricks. I’m a sucker for the wider portraits! I really like the shadows created by using only one light. Click here for more info on my lighting technique. I processed this photo in Photoshop CS6, which I’ve owned for about a week and a half now. I followed Sue Bryce’s retouching techniques from her 28 Days challenge. Sue gave us over an hour of retouching instruction on one of the recent challenges and it is truly awesome to see her retouch photo after photo spending only two minutes on each. She is so fast and uses only a few Photoshop tools over and over again. She makes it look easy, but it’s not! This photo was supposed to be retouched in two minutes, but it took more like an hour. Hopefully I can get my time down as I get used to the tools in Photoshop. I spent a lot of time over doing it and then trying to back track, when I should have just done it right the first time. But practice makes perfect. CreativeLIVE is LIVE and FREE all day with Ben Wilmore’s Photoshop Fundamentals in case you missed my note in the Smugmug Daily group on Facebook. You can join the group here. Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: April 2, 2013, taken February 9, 2013
Wedding Landscape, Galveston TX Lindsay and Kevin are such an awesomely in love couple that I’m pretty sure they don’t even remember I was there! But their special day on the beach was a special day for me too. I’m so lucky that the amazing Sarah Williams let me assist her with this beautiful wedding. I learned so much from her and she has so much more to teach me. I can’t wait to do it again soon. Being a wedding photographer’s assistant and second shooter is such a fun job! You get to enjoy all of the excitement of capturing the precious moments of the day with very little of the stress, especially if you’re working with a pro like Sarah. Of course I’m naturally stressful but Sarah kept me under cool the whole day (unfortunately she couldn’t prevent the sunburn though!). There were times when I was running around carrying camera bags and keeping track of heels and sandals, and I most definitely sweated through my shirt several times, but it was so exciting that it didn’t seem like work at all and I was happy to do whatever I could to help. For more beautiful photos from this wedding check out Sarah’s awesome blog post! Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: April 1, 2013, taken March 16, 2013
Pink and Purple Azaleas, Nacogdoches TX
Happy Easter! This spring has me feeling like flowers and I think pink and purple are the official hallmark colors of Easter (along with yellow probably). Usually I’m not much of a flower photographer but the SFA Arboretum and Azalea Garden are just too pretty not to photograph. Not to mention it smells really good there and it’s conveniently located right on campus. We’ve been taking the dogs for walks and have even walked it without the dogs. It’s probably the best place to be in Nacogdoches, other than in bed sleeping in! We’ll do both this Easter!
This is a single exposure processed in Lightroom 4. I really like the Canon EF 135mm f/2 L series lens. It creates beautiful bokeh and shallow depth of field, on full display here at f/2. I’m learning flower photography on the fly. For me the biggest challenge is finding a way to create a strong composition while still showing off the landscape of the flower garden. It’s easy to isolate a single flower for a closeup and move around until you get a nice background to achieve a strong composition. But in doing so the flower gets removed from its surrounding environment. In this photo I think I successfully pulled off a strong composition while still showing off a little more of the garden than just a single flower or two. Of course the composition doesn’t matter at all if you don’t have good light!
Critiques are always welcome.
Daily photo: March 31, 2013, taken March 26, 2013
Pink and Yellow Azaleas, Nacogdoches TX
The yellow Azaleas are my favorite at the SFA Arboretum. While there are many many purple, red and pink Azaleas in the arboretum, there are only two yellow Azalea plants that I’ve found, and this is the bigger of the two. I’m still figuring out how to shoot them, and hope to get back to the arboretum this weekend for some Easter shooting.
This is a single exposure I’ve processed in Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS6. Now that I’ve kind of got the hang of using layers in Photoshop I don’t see how I ever worked without them. I’m studying up on Sue Bryce’s retouching techniques too and hope to share some portraits/wedding photos using those techniques soon. It’s supposed to be a stormy 80 degree day, so I think I know what I’ll be doing!
Critiques are always welcome.
Daily photo: March 30, 2013, taken March 24, 2013
Colorful Caboose Revisited, Nacogdoches TX I found out about a cool East Texas photo competition yesterday and started deciding which three photos to enter. I think this photo makes a good entry because it’s pretty and showcases some of Nac’s railroad history. I reprocessed it using Photoshop, and this is the second photo I’ve actually exported out of Photoshop. More on Photoshop below. The second photo I chose is this beauty of the Japanese Maples in the SFA Arboretum, which I have a 20x30” print of hanging in our bedroom and really love it. For my third choice I want to enter one of my Lake Sam Rayburn photos, and have tentatively chosen this one of the warm grass on our beach at sunset. But I don’t know, this isn’t my personal favorite, it’s just the one I think will be most useful for the Texas Forest Trail Region website. My current favorite of Sam Rayburn is this blue hour beauty, but I think it might be too abstract for this competition. Another Sam Rayburn favorite is this this colorful long exposure, but again I think the long exposure might be too abstract. Lastly, my all time favorite Sam Rayburn photo is this red and pink long exposure. Can you help me decide or give any other tips and tricks for entering photo contests? This will be my first. This photo is a reprocessed version of my original Colorful Caboose photo. I liked the previous version, but wish I had used a smaller aperture to achieve a longer depth of field and sharper focus on the caboose. I also didn’t like how underexposed the caboose is, mostly due to the graduated neutral density filters I used to reduce the exposure in the sky. So what did I do to fix it up a little? I went back to the archives to see if I had an overexposed exposure from the same spot, and I did because I usually always take multiple exposures before changing my composition. I brought the overexposed photo and the original into Photohsop in that order, and layered the original over the overexposed and used a layer mask to allow the caboose from the overexposed version to shine through to the top layer. I also applied a sharpening filter to the overexposed layer so that I could get extra detail in the caboose only, without introducing too much noise, which is what would have happened if I tried to sharpen the original too much because the caboose is so underexposed. Lastly, I added a vibrance layer to exaggerate the colors a little. I’m such as sucker for color it’s hard for me to not over saturate everything! How do you like the changes? Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: March 29, 2013, taken February 28, 2013 reprocessed March 29, 2013
