Signage Series and HDR

Shot at Downtown Disney, the House of Blues outdoors. Another HDR taken with handheld camera shots. The lightbulbs disappeared after my first try at the processing so I had to go back, mask a copy and do a levels on the lights. They seem to be more a part of the photo now whereas before they disappeared. The HDR on this is very effective I think. Details are brought out and the overall feel is one of an old building perhaps somewhere in the south. Is it Happy Hour yet?

Seen on Amelia Island, this painted building sign dates back to the early 1900's. Coke may not have been around then (well, maybe it was, I don't know) but using HDR technique really brings out the age of the bricks and details. The Palace/Saloon with Coca Cola was kind of tongue in cheek I thought.

Number 5  seems to have some kind of significance but I don't know what. I just liked the lighting on the sign and the strong contrast of light and dark. Also, the linear composition is very strong...This is an HDR example even though I handheld the shots.

NEON orange

This banner, made up of my own photos taken during my travels, appears on my blog for "Location Specialist." This is a new venture for me, to have a photography angle that is solely based on travel photos in my collection.

Recent Uploads and Photoshoots

Flickr Photos!  Click here for a link to Flickr and my portfolio photos.

Here you will find my latest uploads from recent photoshoots. These are photos that were chosen particularly for their outstanding photo qualities. It is also a portfolio of sorts to show the broad range of skill and vision I like to explore.

So, welcome to my world!

From the "Garden of Good and Evil" in Savannah.  I added the vignette to give it an eerie look about it. The cement ball looks like a crystal ball. The lighting gave it a dramatic effect.

Never Drink Downstream from the Herd

Although not an outstanding photo the signage in the upper right was good advice

Photo in Tombstone, AZ, a tacky touristy kind of place. The costume on this guy was just too funny.

Monkey Mirror

Monkey Mirror
Took this photo at a zoo in NC. I discovered that taking photos of animals is more of a "lucky" shot. You have to be prepared with photo settings and focus. Then you keep shooting and hopefully one of those photos, like this one, is a winner. I did crop it to make a better composition and adjusted the color.

Contest Photos

I"ve decided to use this blog as a repository for my contest photos that I am submitting, hopefully on a regular basis. It's hard to get organized for this, but here goes.

"Mistakes" can be good!

Been working on this photo which was terribly "noisy" or grainy with artifacts all over it. Tried many things with it - filters, desaturation color enhancement, hue saturation - can't remember all the stuff I did on it.
So I decided to use the graininess to my advantage and make it look like a phototint of sorts with a bit of illustration thrown in, i.e. the dots look. The letters were originally red but did nothing for the photo. Changed it to yellow and had to go back and do some drawing of shadows under the letters. This is where drawing and photography combine. Drawing is basic to ALL art as far as I'm concerned. If you haven't had drawing courses, go out and do some. You will learn a lot from just being observant of the light and the shadow.
In the final analysis, I do like this photo now. When I took it I thought it would be a great photo, and then looked at it at home and was very disappointed.
Not bad for a "mistake."

Welcome to my new PHOTO BLOG.

My main objective is to increase my cognitive skills by trying to remember everything I did in a photo and why I did it! Writing these kinds of things down does help somewhat, but just attempting to remember what I did on a photoshoot is challenge enough most of the time.

This particular photo was taken on the Photowalk in Celebration on July 24, 2010. It was completed with an HDR technique, something that I have been quite interested in lately. It gives a sharp line and nice contrast to a photo. I find that it is most successful with architecture, but there are times when it works great with other still objects. So you will see many photos here that are probably not my best, but they are experimental at this point in time. But experiments can yield some very creative results.

I use a Nikon D70s with lenses that are wide, macro and "regular." My macro lens is a fast lens at f/2.8 and it was the one I used for this shot. My wide angle lens is a 35-85mm and is suitable for landscape shots. I didn't use it on this shot however as I like how the macro fine tunes the lines. As for the "regular" lens - I hardly use it at all.