A Christmas Card Too Late

I had the best of intentions this year to create my own Christmas card. A shot I took a year ago of our dog Hurley laying beneath the tree looked to be the perfect choice for a holiday greeting card image. With plenty of on-line choices for printing services, all I needed to do was order up the photo cards - sign 'em and send 'em. Ahh ... but one problem - a little too much procrastination on my part. Here we are heading into the final week before Christmas and those cards still haven't been ordered. Out of time again. Oh well, I guess I'll keep the image on system - there is always next year. But for now ... A Merry Christmas To All.

Classic Mustang

Perhaps it is the cold weather keeping me inside that I seem to be spending more time lately working at the computer on my photo illustration projects. The latest completed piece entitled MustangClassic is up on my Cars gallery at imagekind.com Unlike many of my other images I did very little work on the car itself. The original 1964 Mustang is such an iconic vehicle I felt it was best presented with minimal retouching. Instead I focused on the background which was picked up from a different photo and merged with the Mustang shot(the actual background was much too busy). I wanted the car to really pop, so I de-saturated and softened the background with Photoshop filters to subdue it and help the sheet metal to really shine.

The 1964 Mustang along with the 2+2 fastback model that followed a couple of years later and the early Seventies "Boss" model are among my all time favorite automobiles. The Mustang is truly a classic.

Point and Shoot a Dying Breed?

Yahoo Finance ran an article the other day about how some people are turning more and more to their camera phone for picture taking. They opine that this will bring about the death of the point and shoot camera. I realize I'm a purist, but still you cannot get the same quality of image from the crappy lens of a phone compared to what you achieve with the lens of a stand alone camera, be it a point and shoot or an SLR. Yes, camera phones are convenient, people have them on their person at all times, so they can grab a quick photo when the opportunity arises and post it on Facebook or elsewhere on the internet. But if you are interested in quality images and actually printing photographs, a dedicated camera is still the best way to go.

A Camera for Christmas?

According to a story posted today on Yahoo, sales of digital SLR cameras rose by 29 percent since 2009 in spite of the recession. If you are considering buying a camera for yourself or for someone on your Christmas list, I highly recommend checking out PC World's camera reviews http://www.pcworld.com/products/cameras.html . The site offers a highly comprehensive listing of cameras sorted by manufacturer, model, price and other detailed criteria. They also have an archive of older reviews in case you find a deal on a model produced in years past. Their reviews are objective and realistic, unlike some of the photo dedicated sites that are always touting the latest and greatest (and ever more expensive) cameras. A little research prior to spending your hard earned dough is always a good idea - take advantage of this helpful on-line source to insure you that you don't experience buyer's remorse.

Photography For Your Christmas Giving Needs

If you are a photographer you may already have Christmas gifts ready to go in the My Pictures folder on your computer. If there is someone on your Christmas list who appreciates your fine photographic skills, why not present them with one of your images as a gift? Personally, I hate shopping, especially as the month of December wears on and stores become increasingly crowded. Fortunately, I can take care of at least one gift without leaving the comfort of home. My wife is an avid gardener and each summer I take several photos of her backyard handiwork. Come November, I sort through and pick out four of the best shots and work up a photo collage of her garden. I then have it printed as an 11x14 to fit the frame given as a gift a couple of years ago. On Christmas Eve I sneakily remove the frame from the living room, swap last years collage photo for the new version, box it, wrap it and place it under the tree. One less trip to the mall!

More Wintery Thoughts

When I posted previously on winter photography I honestly thought we had a couple more weeks of fall weather in front of us. No sooner had I set the last bag of leaves out at the curb for pick up than the snow flakes started falling. Looking at the weather forecast for the week ahead, our temperatures will hover in the mid-thirties. Sounds like winter, eh?

For a bit of wintertime photographic inspiration check out this link
http://www.popphoto.com/Features/How-To/Where-to-Shoot-in-December
Even if you can't find your way to the locations mentioned, you may be inspired to search out similar types of December photo ops in and around your own home town.

Don't Hide From Winter

The high temperature for the day after Thanksgiving didn't even break the freezing mark! No doubt about it, winter is moving closer every day. Out door activities are a good way to add a little joy and motivation to venturing outside on a winter day, when hiding out inside where it is cozy and warm seems much more inviting. Skating, cross country skiing and snow shoeing have all been part of my winter activity list through the years.

I'll be the first to admit that getting out to take pictures is much tougher in January than it is in July, but if I am heading out anyway for another activity, then I just make sure my camera is in hand. Ice and snow and the occasional wild creature who crosses your path while on a winter trek can make for interesting picture taking. Don't let the cold temps or a few inches of snow cut you off from the joy of winter photography. Just bundle up and do it!

Cougar On The Prowl

Just added to my on-line art gallery doctorphoto.imagekind.com is an image entitled Cougar On The Prowl. And no, this cougar is not a middle age woman looking for love or a dangerous four legged predator - we're talking the sheet metal and chrome version of a Cougar. Unlike its Ford stable mate the Mustang, Cougars seem to be pretty rare at car shows. I don't know if that is due to lack of sales during its prime years of the Sixties and Seventies or if the vehicle simply wasn't built to last, leaving few to restore. When I saw this one, I photographed it and immediately put it on my list of cars to receive an art treatment.

For my photo illustration I selected a low angle shot and applied a variety of Photoshop filters to the car and the background, treating each separately before merging the two together. As I neared completion of the project I had two versions, one where the Cougar appears relatively straightforward, while the other features a more graphic look. I went with the latter, feeling it was more exciting and dynamic.

What do you think?

A Foggy Notion

When visibility is reduced to less than an 1/8 of a mile during your morning trek to work, fog may not rank high on your list of likes, however for a photographer, fog can come in handy. Think of that heavy pea soup thick mist as natures own soft focus filter. Depending on the subject, the effect can be dreamy or eerie. No need to worry about shooting with a wide aperture setting to minimize a busy background - the fog will take care of it for you. And of you are a fan of monochromatic imagery, once again fog is there to help - muting colors without changing a single camera setting. A misty morning can provide special effects without the use of filters or post processing manipulation - take advantage of it!

Cloudscapes

Recently while paging through a book on Photoshop techniques I came across several very interesting examples of cloudscape shots. By taking his original digital files and manipulating highlights and shadows via the "Levels" adjustment then applying a "High Pass" filter overlay, the photographer created a series of truly dynamic cloud images. Inspired by these photos I began to shoot cloudy skies whenever the formations caught my eye. With a number of shots in the bank I went to work with the most dramatic ones as a starting point for my own cloudscapes. Funny how after working on a project like this the subject matter becomes burned into your brain - I now find myself paying much closer attention to cloud formations that I would have simply ignored in the past. Here are a few of my initial "cloudy" experiments. The "before" image is shown first with the altered version below it.

Morning on Bald Mountain

Mussorsky's "Night On Bald Mountain" is one of the most recognizable pieces of classical music, due in no small part to its inclusion in Disney's Fantasia. Like many people, Fantasia served as my introduction to classical music and the Mussorsky piece remains a favorite to this day. In Oakland County of course we have our own Bald Mountain, although mine was a morning sojourn rather than a night one. It happened to be one of those perfect late Fall days - relatively mild temperatures and lots of sunshine. The one drawback, with the trees mostly bare, was a general lack of color. Working with this limitation I converted a couple of images to black and white, manipulating contrast and density levels in Photoshop to juice them up a bit. Being mid-morning the wildlife was out of sight, so the focus had to be on the surrounding landscape. In the end it was a pleasant but uneventful walk in the woods.

A Visit to Goodison

If you are tooling along Orion Road between Rochester and Lake Orion it can be quite easy to just zip through the village of Goodison, after all it is a rather small area compared to the larger communities at either end of the road. Next time through do yourself a favor, take a few minutes to stop and take a look around. Cider and donuts are just two of the reasons to spend some time in Goodison on a fall afternoon. And if you have a camera in hand, you may find that the village can also be quite photogenic. As I walked around on a recent Saturday morning I spotted several visual treats to photograph along with a treat for the drive home - a bagful of blueberry, cinnamon and sugar donuts.

A Few Good Pumpkins

Okay Charlie Brown, these may not be Great Pumpkins but they are at least pretty good ones. As the fall season progresses, pumpkins await their fate - to be carved into jack o' lanterns, baked into pies or worst of all - falling into the hands of mischievous ne'er-do-wells who will smash them in the roadway. I managed to preserve the images of a few good pumpkins before it was too late.

Pumpkin Chuckin'

It's autumn, pumpkins are seemingly everywhere and pumpkins are colorful. Take a picture of a pumpkin? Sure, no big deal, right? Well it is a big deal if you are trying to capture a shot of a pumpkin being launched into the sky by a trebuchet ( a large catapult type contraption).

Attending the pumpkin chuckin' competition at Orion Oaks Park this past Saturday, I planned on grabbing pictures of the pumpkin launches along with more sedate still life shots. As things turned out, the action shots were a lot tougher to capture than expected. At first I oriented my shots horizontally but the pumpkins sailed out of the frame too quickly. Switching to a vertical orientation helped but it was difficult timing my shutter release with the "chuck". I decided to go manual and preset my focus and exposure before each launch. This gave me the best result but I had almost used up my twelve photo opportunities getting to that point. The four competing teams were allowed three attempts each, with the longest counted as their final score. By the time I had my methodology down the competition was done. Having never attended this event before I didn't know what to expect. Pumpkin chuckin' will be on my calendar next fall for another go at capturing the decisive moment for flying pumpkins.

Open Air Portraits

For years the standard for photographic portraits involved studio lighting, formal poses and painted backdrops. Then in the 1970's photographers began to experiment more with outdoor photo shoots, making use of natural light and environments and allowing their subjects to relax in front of the camera rather than assuming stiff poses. This type of environmental portraiture seems to have become the norm - on Sunday walks through the park I often see photographers working with a young couple or family on a shoot.

For several years I freelanced as a wedding and portrait photographer but realized it was not my cup of tea. In the ensuing years I sold off my old equipment and focused on happy snaps or artsy photography - no more portrait shoots for me. No more that is until one of my daughters approached me about shooting a portrait of her with her horse. Like I could say no! We picked a pleasant fall day and took advantage of the late afternoon sun near the barn where her horse is stabled. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, dealing with my daughter and a horse bigger than both of us put together, but all went well. I managed to blast off more than two dozen shots before the horse decided he'd had enough.

Farewell to cruisin' 2010

The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting cooler and pumpkins have begun to pop up everywhere you look. Summer is really over and with it the car cruising season, although I still see the occasional die hard driver, tail pipes roaring, making his way up the road. As a fond farewell to another year of cruising, here are a few shots of cool cars taken during the past months. You can almost smell the exhaust.

Nat Geo

For years my father subscribed to National Geographic magazine and I still have a stack of old issues on my bookshelf culled from his collection. In the pre-cable TV days, before there was a Discovery channel or History channel or for that matter a Nat Geo channel, National Geographic magazine offered a window on the world unavailable elsewhere. Shooters for the magazine were the photographic worlds equivalent of Indiana Jones. Although it wasn't relics for a museum collection that they sought out, but rather photographs of exotic locales, people and things. Unless you have a globe trotting adventure planned in the near future, there is an available alternative - seeking out and shooting the interesting flora and fauna that may exist in your own backyard. You never know what may be lurking out there.

Tree View Two

My previous post featured a tree converted from color to glorious black and white because black and white offered a better rendering of the subject matter. Oftentimes a monochrome image allows for greater emphasis on contrast and texture. But color, in the proper lighting situation, can do the job just as well. This tree is from the same Royal Oak park, notice the characteristic lean, and was taken in early evening with the sun low in the sky. This time of day, with the sun setting, is one of the best times for picture taking. The lower angle of the sun increases shadow and texture, and the light takes on a warmer tone than what you typically see during the earlier hours of the day. There may be no better time to take advantage of the wonderful natural lighting available to us than the next few weeks of autumn.