Monday, August 31, 2009

Day #90 - X Marks The Spot....


Today, I found myself in Dallas with a few hours to spare for some site seeing. One thing I wanted to see was the place where the Kennedy assassination took place. Not out of morbid curiosity but more because I have always had an interest in history. And with Teddy Kennedy's passing this week, it seemed fitting to see where one of his brothers passed many years before his time.

I found it interesting that there is an actual "X" right on the street where the second shot hit JFK. Actually there was a fainter one just up the street a few feet where the first shot made impact. It's kind of gruesome I guess, but we humans are drawn to things like this. So much so that there were street vendors hounding us to buy memorial guides and picture books and all kinds of other "souvenirs".

I had to wait for a break in traffic to hop into the street for this shot. It was kinda crazy and got my heart pumping pretty good. Of course this shot has more than the "X". In the background is the Texas School Book Depository Building. The window where Oswald shot from is the second one down from the top right of the building.

If you get a chance to see this site I recommend it, but beware the street vendors and other street people hustling the tourists for money. It can be overwhelming!

I decided to convert the image to BW to heighten the impact of the shot and to convey a sense of history.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Day #89 - Above The Clouds


Today I jumped on a plane and headed for Dallas for a business trip. I brought along my DSLR, but it was pretty hard to get out of the bag as the flight was FULL!

So I grabbed my trusty PDA/Mobile Phone and set it to Flight Mode and then snapped a few shots. I love the look of the clouds from this perspective. Hopefully I'll get a chance tomorrow evening to use the DSLR for some shots.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Day #88 - Game On!


Today was the first official soccer game of the season for us. Cameron has been practicing for the past month and the boys were ready to go this morning!

Joey is one of Cameron's best friends and this kid puts everything into his soccer playing! It was a fun day to shoot, and I foresee more soccer shots in the next 6 weeks. I need to brush up on sports shooting techniques. Anyway, I like this shot as it shows just how much energy Joey brings to the game.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 55mm, f11, 1/500 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex: Adjusted levels, Smart Sharpened (as always), and adjusted the Contrast quite a bit for a creative look. Cropped out some boring dead space.

Tunes listened to while editing: Nothing tonight. Just listened to Cameron as he watched the movie "The Santa Claus". Cameron's laugh is great and Tim Allen is awesome!

Friday, August 28, 2009

Day #87 - Putting It In Park


Some days things just get crazy. This was one of those days. Don't worry, I'll be shooting tomorrow. Soccer season starts officially so I'll have something to shoot for sure.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Day #86 - Let's Skate!



Sorry for the hiatus yesterday. As I stated the day before, I was in a slump. I'm hoping the slump is over for now. Thanks to a good conversation with Jeff during lunch today I got excited about getting back to shooting tonight. He's at day #239 of his project and I guess I needed to know that he has off days too. Thanks for the encouragement today Jeff.

In the meantime, I had ample items to shoot tonight. Cameron had a Skate Party after school and then there was soccer practice. To top it all off Cameron lost another tooth (see my Facebook page for that story and the picture of the note he left for the Tooth Fairy!).

I was shooting at the skate party which is a real challenge. My own self imposed rule on this project is that I must use Manual Control on my images for the Pic-a-day shot. This was really fun with the skating rink lighting. The lights are really low, and then they flash off and on a lot. My meter was going crazy. In the end I had to do a lot of guessing. Anyway, I've learned that images showing movement can be really interesting. The first image shows movement during a skating rink game. I threw in a second shot that I really liked. I wanted to shoot a picture of the disco ball and other colored lights. I realized that the shot I was getting of these items were really boring. That is when I switched to Manual Focus and intentionally shot out of focus. I loved the effect.

I decided to post up the original image from which the top image came from. I think it's kinda neat to show how much I worked this image over to get where I got to! Words sometimes just don't seem to cut it.



Shot spex (top picture): RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 200, 18mm, f3.5, 1.5 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex (top picture): Adjusted levels, Smart Sharpened (as always), and adjusted the Contrast. Adjusted the snot out of the Saturation and Hue. Applied the Poster Edges filter. Cropped out a ton of crap. In general I PhotoShopped the HECK out of this one!

Shot spex (bottom picture): RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 200, 130mm, f6.3, 1/8 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex (bottom picture): Adjusted levels, Smart Sharpened (as always), and adjusted the Contrast quite a bit for a creative look. Cropped out some boring dead space.

Tunes listened to while editing: The Rainmakers - The Good News And The Bad News. The whole album. This is a great album! Gotta love the Rainmakers!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Day #85 - Couch Potato


I'm in a slump. I'll admit it. I need to do something to get out of it. I think tonight I was trying to get creative but I really don't think I got anything good.

Oh well. My idea was to capture a self portrait of myself watching TV. The problem was that I had to take a shot, then I had to get up and go look at the camera to see what adjustments I had to make. After about 10 times of this I just flat out got tired. I came up to the computer to see if I could make anything good out of my best exposure. So I guess I just have to get up tomorrow and try harder.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 33mm, f4.0, 0.3 sec., flash with diffuser attached and aimed up at ceiling (dialed in to -3.0).

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. Cropped and tried to adjust color a bit. Dropped Saturation a bit.

Tunes listened to while editing: The Afters - Never Going Back To OK. The first 6 tracks.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Day #84 - Polaroids Are Back!


What a crazy day! Mom had her knee replaced so I was up at the hospital at 6:45 this morning (which is 15 minutes earlier than I even wake up on a normal work day!), then it was meetings, meetings, meetings at work, then when I went to leave to go home, my Jeep broke down, then after my lovely wife rescued me, we had to race to Cameron's soccer practice (we were late!). Then my brother and his family called wanting to stop by so we met at the house after soccer practice, and he gave me this cool little water rocket (maybe the object of a future Pic-of-the-day post) and then he proceeded to tear into my Jeep (which meant a trip to Advance Auto Parts for a special tool) and we think we figured out how to fix it (thanks Bro!).

Anyway, at soccer practice I was playing with my latest top secret cell phone and found this little application called FX Camera. It was really neat. It uses the camera built in to the phone and gives you some nice creative options (Toy Camera, Warholizer, Fisheye and Polaroid). I shot a ton of images but I really liked this one that I posted using the Polaroid filter. I love the retro look and color tint the filter uses. I of course did some tweaking in PhotoShop.

Shot spex: No details to provide.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast.

Tunes listened to while editing: Nothing tonight.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Day #83 - Lazy Day


Today I was feeling lazy. It was actually more work to be lazy than it might have been to actually set up a shot! Anyway, we spent some time looking through pictures for a class project Cameron had to do, and I got to thinking I'd like to post something shot some time ago to compare to the current Cameron. I found this shot from a trip to a local skateboard park. It was a gray day, early in March of last year. Cameron had just started growing his hair out. Anyway, I converted the image to Black and White and bumped up the contrast.

Back to shooting pictures tomorrow!

Day #82 - Game Face


Well, I know this is a day late, but I was exhausted last night and just didn't have it in me to sit at the computer last night. So I figure better late than never and I will still shoot and post an image before the day ends today.

We went to watch my nephew Joshua play in a football scrimmage. He only got to play for a few minutes, but I managed to get a few pictures anyway. I employed what I now call the "Golden Eye Sharpening Technique" and really cropped in tight to put emphasis on the eyes.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 200, 33mm, f5.6, 1/1000 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. Cropped tight.

Tunes listened to while editing: Weezer - Make Believe, The first 4 tracks. Can anyone confirm that the word to Beverly Hills in the chorus are "Gimme, Gimme"?

Friday, August 21, 2009

Day #81 - Memory Loss


I will totally admit that this is a lazy shot.

My camera, without one of these is like a DeLorean Time Machine without Plutonium. It's just a hunk of metal, plastic and glass without one of these. My camera even has a clever little spot in the battery grip to store an extra one of these.

We had Cameron's "Back to School Bash" tonight so I figured it would be so easy to get a shot of the day. I grabbed my camera, leaving my camera bag behind, and headed to the school. I shot 3 or 4 pictures before I decided to check the histogram and that is when I realized I had no memory card inserted in the camera. Had I brought my camera bag I would have had about 20 more SD memory cards. So did I learn my lesson? Well, I did put a spare card in the special storage slot in the battery grip... I signed up to help with the school yearbook, so I better be more prepared at future school events!

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 200mm, f6.3, 1/15 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast.

Tunes listened to while editing: The Foo Fighters - Echo's, Silence, Patience & Grace. The first 6 tracks - again.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Day #80 - Jenga!


Today I caught my wife and son as they were playing the game Jenga! It was fun to watch Cameron as he carefully planned which piece he would remove from the tower. Then often he would help steady the tower when Dionne pulled out her piece as he did not want the game to end too quickly. At first I wanted to capture the tower as it was falling down, and I did get some of those images. But then I realized the better images were the ones showing Cameron's facial expressions.

I'm lucky to be alive as both Cameron and Dionne were getting really tired of the flash going off. I actually flashed myself at point blank range (not my brightest moment - stupid pun I know). Then I could only see a blue rectangle for about 5 minutes.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 48mm, f8, 1/60 sec., flash aimed at ceiling.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. Also cropped to change orientation from landscape to portrait.

Tunes listened to while editing: Between The Trees - The Story And The Song. The first 6 tracks. Seems like it is consistently taking about 6 tracks to go through all the post-processing steps.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Day #79 - Busted!


This picture today is part of a set of images I need to create for a class I will be helping my Dad with next month. I will be trying to walk people through some ways to take better pictures of people. I know this picture hardly looks like a good picture of someone. That was actually the point today. I wanted to start off with a true "mugshot" and then show how someone could employ some tips to go from "mugshot" to something more appealing to the eye. So enjoy the first image in this series.

A little sidenote - the booking number I used in the shot is not a random number. Lunch to the first person who can tell me who's booking number I used!

BTW - I carried my camera to work today and was able to do this shot during my lunch break. It was a lot less stressful coming home, knowing my image for the day was already shot!

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 400, 33mm, f8, 1/45 sec., flash aimed at ceiling.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. Also cropped to change orientation to square. Also used Replace Color technique to get rid of bland background color of dry erase board.

Tunes listened to while editing: Boys Like Girls - Boys Like Girls. The first 6 tracks. Another band I picked up some time back and had never listened to. I'm really liking it so far.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Day #78 - Late Night Fuel


I obviously create most of these postings well after the rest of the house (and city for that matter) have gone to bed. I rely heavily on Diet Coke to get me through these late night photo shoots and today thought I would capture a picture of my late night fuel. It's kind of a lazy shot, I'll admit it. I had hoped to start carrying my camera daily to work (and everywhere else) and just have not started that habit. I will have my gear packed before bed tonight though and already have a shot for tomorrow planned. I need some pictures for a class I am helping my Dad with starting next month so I'll be putting in some time on that and it should give my project some "focus" (pun absolutely intended).

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 400, 50mm, f3.5, 1/90 sec., flash aimed at ceiling.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. Also cropped to change orientation from landscape to portrait format.

Tunes listened to while editing: Echobrain - Echobrain. The first 6 tracks. Some music I got from Dono months ago and had never listened to yet. Not bad, but my iPod kept "skipping" which I thought was weird.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Day #77 - Sunset (or was it?)


I took Cameron to soccer practice tonight and knew I had 90 minutes of potential camera time on my hands. I shot about 50 pictures (everything from Cameron playing soccer, Chewey, shadows of the chain link fence and sky shots). As happens many times, I just knew the minute I pulled the trigger that I had the picture I wanted for the day in this shot. The shot pre-processing was actually pretty nice, but something came over me in PhotoShop and I decided to try to really dramatize the image. So I cranked up the contrast a ton (+48) and actually darkened it (-10). The shot was taken at almost 7:00pm so it wasn't really sunset yet. I think the tweaking I did made it look like that though. I'm pretty happy with it and I hope everyone else enjoys it!

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 400, 48mm, f13, 1/3000 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast (as outlined above). Also cropped a smidge to get rid of an annoying tree branch.

Tunes listened to while editing: Creeper Lagoon - I Become Small And Go. The first 6 tracks. Good tunes to listen to while I was working on this type of image. Kind of chillin' music.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Day #76 - Computer Screen Blues


I know there are a few followers of this project and I apologize for the unannounced hiatus. I had every intention of continuing posting to this blog while vacationing with the family in Eureka Springs, Arkansas this weekend. We left right after work Thursday night and after we got to our hotel and got unpacked I set up my laptop (the one from work) to begin to edit some shots taken that day. That is when I saw the image I share with you today. Apparently the screen went belly up. I will be visiting the campus computer clinic in the morning to remedy the issue. It works when you use an external monitor, but I need my screen several times a week so I can't let it go to long. Anyway, I will post up some of the pictures from the trip and if you are interested feel free to wander over to my Facebook albums to check them out. In the meantime, I will get back on track in earnest this week. I think I will try to do as Jeff does and will start carrying my camera daily. It will be interesting to see what images I find during the day vs. waiting till 10pm every night!

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 68mm, f5.6, 1/8 sec., flash aimed up at ceiling.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast.

Tunes listened to while editing: Wavorly - Conquering The Fear Of Flight. The first 4 tracks.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Day #75 - Tangled


Kind of getting off the reservation tonight. No great ideas of what to shoot so I grabbed my camera and started snapping whatever I saw through the eyepiece. I settled on this tangled mess of cords and cables. This is on my desk at home but those who know me can attest that this could just as likely have been my desk at work. In the mess of wires there is an old cell phone, a PSP USB cable, a couple of cell phone ear buds, some cell phone chargers and just some random books and magazines. TO make the image interesting I Photo Shopped the heck out of it.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 200mm, f6.3, 1/15 sec., flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. Desaturated the image, then applied the Neon Glow filter and then the Watercolor Filter.

Tunes listened to while editing: Remedy Drive - Daylight Is Coming. The first 7 tracks. Great band I recently discovered.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Day #74 - Mae ( A Favorite Shot I Reworked)


Today I did not get a chance to shoot a picture so I did the next best thing. I decided to play with a picture I shot some time ago (over a year ago) now that I've learned a few things.

This shot is of one of my favorite bands, Mae, taken while they played a show at The Bottleneck in Lawrence. I liked the shot before, but there were certain elements that I never bothered to fix before tonight.

Shooting concert pictures is really challenging. First off the lighting is usually very low so you are forced to either use a flash (which really makes the image look unnatural, and you loose the colored lighting that is usually present) or you have to bump up the ISO way high (which adds grain). I prefer to go for the grainy look in order to preserve the colors from the lighting. One way I have learned to enhance the grain is to use the Poster Edges filter.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 1600, 67mm, f4.5, 1/20 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. Applied the Poster Edges filter. Fixed some blemishes in the image using the clone stamp and the healing brush.

Tunes listened to while editing: Mae - Singularity (Duh!). Songs 8 - 13. For whatever reason I tend to skip to track 8 and finish out the album a lot. Nothing wrong with tracks 1 - 7, but I like 8 - 13!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Day #73 - Got Milk? Can I Have Some?


Today is an example how things don't always go as planned. I was on my way to the kitchen with the camera in hand looking to shoot a picture of the pot of boiling eggs on the stove (I Know - LAME!!). As I reached the top of the stairs I saw a great photo opportunity and I was actually ready for a change!

Cameron was enjoying his customary late night glass of milk, and his cat Bella was right there hoping for a taste.

I carefully and quietly slipped the lens cap off the camera, made a few quick adjustments, and snapped a few pictures. I shot one or two of Bella looking longingly at the glass of milk, then just as Cameron raised the glass to his mouth, right as I was pushing the shutter release, Bella reached right into his glass with her paw! It was a perfect photo moment!

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 78mm, f8.0, 1/90 sec., built-in flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. Applied a warming filter and cropped to get rid of unwanted background elements.

Tunes listened to while editing: Michael W. Smith - The Big Picture. The first 6 songs. I loaded this on the iPod a while back and just got around to listening to it for the first time tonight. This one really brings back lots of fond memories. I think I saw MWS in concert at least 10 times back in the late 80's. My Mom and I went to many of the shows and we always had fun. She was (and still is) a cool Mom and she definitely fostered my love of music. She has always shared a love of music even if our tastes have drifted apart over the years. We went to a lot of Christian Rock Concerts together (MWS, Amy Grant, DC Talk and Geoff Moore to name a few). I wonder if I can talk her into going with me to see We Shot The Moon and Hollis at the Main Street Cafe in October? More on that show in the near future!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Day #72 - Here's Looking At Me (Again!)


As I mentioned yesterday, we went to a church carnival. I spent quite a bit of time there trying to do a self portrait using chrome car parts. I used some hub caps, bumpers and finally an air cleaner cover. I ended up liking the air cleaner cover the best and so I am sharing it with you today.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 200, 90mm, f6.7, 1/250 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast.

Tunes listened to while editing: The Fold - Secrets Keep You Sick. The first 5 songs. Great album and a great band that really puts everything they have into putting on a great show!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Day #71 - Giddy Up!


Today we went to an outdoor carnival at the Olathe Bible Church. What a great place for picture shooting! They had horse rides, a car show, a military helicopter, several police and fire vehicles and an exotic bird show. I shot quite a few pictures (at least until my camera batteries pooped out!). The one I chose to edit and post today, is of my true dream car. Some guys crave Corvettes, or Hot Rods or some other exotic sports car. I've always craved a cherry, old school (1966-1977) Ford Bronco. This one even happened to be the right color as blue is my favorite color.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 200, 28mm, f5.6, 1/750 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. I then decided to desaturate the background to minimize the impact of the people in the background. I also added the Lens Flare as there was a hot spot on the left side of the windshield.

Tunes listened to while editing: We The Kings - We The Kings. The entire album.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Day #70 - Another Self Portrait


I decided to give the old self portrait another shot today. I have a few other self portrait ideas but today I wanted to show me using a camera. As I have a few photo's of me using my DSLR, I thought it might be neat to be holding something more vintage. Thankfully my Mom and Dad and a friend (Jen) have donated several vintage camera's to my collection over the years. I liked the idea of the image being more about the camera than myself. I like to be behind the camera and in so many ways I tend to hide behind it. I thought, "why fight it"? If that's what I do, it will look strained to show more of me than the camera.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 90mm, f6.7, 1/90 sec., flash aimed at ceiling.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. I then decided to desaturate the image to create a BW image and then I bumped up the Contrast even more. (Basically the same steps as yesterday!)

Tunes listened to while editing: A - Hi-Fi Serious. The first 6 tracks. Yes, the groups name is "A". Great rockin' tunes!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Day #69 - My Pod


One of the items that you can always find within arms reach of me is my iPod. The other thing is my Skull Candy headphones. For those who have not yet discovered the awesomeness of Skull Candy, these things ROCK!!! When I am forced to listen to my iPod with normal ear buds, I get really frustrated. Anyway, as most people who really know me will attest, music is a big part of my life. Obviously I started listing the music I listen to as I edit images because music is important to me. I get inspiration and motivation from the wide variety of music I listen to. Thankfully I have a friend who pulled me out of the rut I was in listening to the same 3 bands over and over. Now my collection is so big I have no idea how many groups I listen to!

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 200mm, f6.3, 1/30 sec., flash aimed at ceiling.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. I then decided to desaturate the image to create a BW image and then I bumped up the Contrast even more.

Tunes listened to while editing: Story Side: B - Everything And More. The first 5 tracks. This is a group I forget about a lot and then when I remember them I really wonder why I keep forgetting about them.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Day #68 - "Napoleon, give me some of your tots."


Okay, so today I was really grasping for an idea. I saw these tator tots left over from our dinner and decided to stack them in the same way that Pedro had his stacked in the movie Napoleon Dynamite. Then I thought, "Why not shoot these as my picture of the day"? My wife thought (and still thinks) I was nuts, but she's always thought that.

What started out as an easy shot, quickly became a learning opportunity! I've noticed a few shots I've done lately change in color quality when I use the "Save for Web" option in PhotoShop. This image was one of those ones that really turned flat when I did that tonight. No one would think these tots looked very tasty had I left them the flat color they turned using that option. So I set out to figure out the solution to my problem. It turns out that I don't need to use the "Save for Web" option at all. So I learned something from this simple "Tot Shot"!

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 200mm, f6.3, 1/30 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. I then created a duplicate layer and applied the Smudge Stick filter. I then erased the are where the tots were to bring back the sharpness there. The Smudge Stick filter was really used to make the pan look better.

Tunes listened to while editing: Diffuser- Injury Loves Melody. The first 8 tracks.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Day #67 - Soccer Season Starts Again!


It seems like just yesterday that Soccer season ended. In fact it was 67 days ago! I started this project the same day that we went to the end of season soccer picnic. Wow!! Time flies right by! One minute summer has barely started, and the next, summer is almost over!

Anyway, tonight we had the first practice this season and I decided to shoot a picture to celebrate that moment.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 200, 90mm, f8, 1/500 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. I then applied the Poster Edges filter.

Tunes listened to while editing: Bleu - Redhead. The first 4 tracks. Great feel good album!

Monday, August 3, 2009

Day #66 - The Shadow Proves The Sunshine


Maybe a lazy shot today. I was pondering using an image I shot yesterday, and was idly gazing around my office when a cross that my Dad made for me years ago caught my eye. I've always cherished it and try to leave it hanging somewhere visible. The shadow it was casting really intrigued me. I was able to shoot it with no additional light and then did some layer trickery to get the effect I wanted. I actually made a duplicate layer, then I applied the Cutout Filter to one layer and erased the cross area to bring back the actual wood of the original exposure.

The title of today's post comes from the Switchfoot album, Nothing Is Sound. The song by the same title is a great one if you ever get the chance, give it a listen. It's track #4 on that album.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 200mm, f6.3, 1/30 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and cropped to my liking. I made a duplicate layer, then I applied the Cutout Filter to one layer and erased the cross area to bring back the actual wood of the original exposure.

Tunes listened to while editing: Acceptance - Phantoms. The first 9 tracks. Great disk!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Day #65 - Speedy Gonzales!


We decided to take a walk up to Brookridge Elementary School (where Cameron starts 3rd grade in 2 weeks!) for a walk today. It is one place where we can let Chewey off the leash so he can get a good run in. The walk was pretty nice. I still can't believe that it's August and the weather is still so nice and cool! Chewey got a good run in and I was hoping to catch a good action shot of him. I think I got it here. He is one super fast dog!

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 100, 200mm, f6.3, 1/180 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and cropped to my liking.

Tunes listened to while editing: Van Halen - The Best of Album. It was nice to revisit some old faves.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Day #64 - Home Grown


I love home grown tomato's! I finally decided to plant some this year so I could quit mooching off others for home grown tomato's and while my regular tomato plant is doing okay, it's my cherry tomato plants that are doing really good. I've finally reached a point where I am getting several ripe ones each day. I have enough to fill a small bowl now and decided they would make a nice still life photo for today. Then I ate about 5 of them!

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 200mm, f6.3, 1/10 sec., flash with diffuser aimed directly at subject.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and adjusted Brightness/Contrast.

Tunes listened to while editing: Mae - The Everglow. First 5 songs. Probably my favorite album of all time. If you've never heard it, do yourself a favor and go get it and listen to it from beginning to end. You'll thank me! Oh and to the person who introduced it to me, "Thanks Donovan"!