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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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.