Sunday, March 26, 2023

For Comment: April


These plants were in Warner Park and they had cool seed pods like milkweed, but they were long and skinny.  I thought they looked like calligraphy and had thought I would do a black and white treatment to enhance that.  However, I got playing in photoshop and came up with a color version that I found interesting (not sure yet if I like it).  So, first image is original image in color with a bit of tweaking. Second is the 'over-the-top' color version, Third is the 2nd image with a few layers removed and converted to B&W. 





Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Before / After Assignment

 I have not been out shooting much in the last month, and have mostly been editing images for a workshop I participated in. I've been trying to pull together a series from images made over the last few years. So here's a few before / after that I've edited recently.  The color images are straight from camera, the BW are edited. I use texture overlays in most of these as well as a 'platinum' color tone on the black and white.










Emily's Image

 My version of Emily's image

I know you're more of a realist in your image making, but the UHaul sign was pulling my eye away, so I cloned it out. (Maybe it's a statement on 'commercialism'  and how we have too much stuff?) You might go back on an overcast day and take the image again, because the backlit sky was a contrast.  So I tried to darken the sky and added a couple of textures to shape the light.  I love the darkness in the bottom of the image and the suggestion of the candles, but I lightened it slightly to see if we could keep more detail in the wood, while still retaining that beautiful mystery.   

This would be a fun challenge for foto friends, to take images that were difficult for a camera to take and each come up with our own 'version'.



Tuesday, March 14, 2023

For Comment

 



This just struck me as worth sharing.  Came across it last week while out doing errands, and was glad I pretty much always have my camera with me.  I'll be curious if any of you have a great title/caption for this one,


Plus, I was of two minds about lifting the shadows of the candelabra clutter much more than I did.  I like the suggestion of the fixtures, didn't want to detract from Resting Jesus - Curious about your thoughts on this as well.

PhotoShop Challenge, Showing Edits

 I'm totally impressed with the fantastic post-process editing this group can do.  

I, on the other hand, tend to just do a few tweaks, such as cropping/straightening and a little dodging & burning. Here are two examples.  And yes, I totally realize this is the opposite of simplifying, which I also admire and occasionally strive to do - but sometimes I like to play with the challenge of filling the frame.







Wednesday, March 8, 2023

 Just a little "Golden Hour" melody?  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CatKB-FGYx4

Al

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

For Comment: 4 days without power

 Panic sets in that first morning without power when you realize you can't get to Dunkin Donuts for coffee! 


You use whatever you have so you can see that peanut butter and jelly sandwich you are having for dinner.



This is certainly not a 5 star hotel (more like a one or two), but it is close to home, clean and a great place to get a hot shower, microwave a dinner and charge all your various devices.



If any of you are in the market for a generator, I recommend this one.  It kept two refrigerators going for the 4 days.  All frozen foods stayed that way and milk, etc,. were nice and cold throughout the ordeal.



Wednesday, March 1, 2023

For Comment: First Signs (Cheekwood)









 

For Comment--March, 2023:


Inanimate Portraits... 

For a long time I've had more than a passing interest in taking candid portraits. Since we've been discussing, studying, and trying to name what we do as series, portfolios, projects, collections, etc., I remembered taking some of these images in the fairly recent past. The thought came to me to put a bunch of them together and see what came of it. I named the collection, and then checked on Google and was totally surprised to learn that "Inanimate Portraits" is actually a "thing". So, here are a few showing the wide diversity of images which can be included: