A visit to Grandpa's and Grandma's home

Just a quick update. Brooklyn (and her parents) came for a visit tonight so of course Grandpa had to take some pictures. She is now over a month old and very pretty.

OK Enough Already

Sometimes when I get a few hours to play, well a few minutes to play, I like to take an image and just see what I can come up with. 

Today I attended the funeral of our neighbor whom we have lived by for 30 years or so and since we knew all of the family quite well I went to the cemetery after the services at the church and arrived just as the flowers were being taken to the grave side. I quickly photographed them and then photographed family and friend as they arrived.
So tonight after color correcting the images and preparing a cd for the family I decided to play with one of the flower images that I had taken and was including with the cd. The only problem was that I couldn't stop myself after getting started. Below you will see what I mean, or most likely have already seen what I mean.

This is the original image.

I then duplicated the layer, added a layer in between, filled it with black, then added a mask to the top layer and masked out all but the rose. I also had to use the band-aid tool and remove a few of the pine needles that were in front of the rose petals.

After flattening the layers and saving the second version I went back into the history pallet and got all of the layers back so I could make a few more changes. This is actually the process I would follow after saving each version, that way the original mask that I had made for the second image was used in each of the following versions. Quite a time saver (when you remember to do it.) I then duplicated the bottom layer again, removed the black layer and did a radial blur on the new duplicate layer.

For this version I simply did a black to white gradient on the new layer. Left the poor rose just floating above it.

I decided to change to a color gradient and got this effect.

I then went to yet another gradient style and came up with this one and after several tries was able to locate it at the base of the rose. Gradients has not been in my used and totally learned section of my toolbox so that was part of the reason for playing with it here.

I duplicated the last gradient layer and did a radical radiant blur to it.

That was followed by adding a circular marquee with a refined edge effect, (not very well done, but I was just playing anyway) and filled it with a white layer.

Finally I figured I had played enough and added a black border with my logo and called it quits. It was a fun evening though and I learned how to use the gradient tool a little better. 

First Winter Storm

For those of you who regularly follow this blog I am sorry that I have been absent the last several days. Time passes so quickly and becomes so short that every now and again I just can't get it all done as I had hoped.

I stepped outside of work the other day and saw an interesting site before my eyes. Snow covered tumbling weeds caught by the picnic tables on the company lawn next to a tree that had not lost it's leaves. You might try to make a dumb joke and say that they were caught in the act of tumbling and stopped dead in their tracks by the picnic table police before the tree could leaf. OK so yes it was dumb but sometimes my mind just does that to me to keep me thinking somewhat straight.

Anyway I thought that it was really quite pretty in it's own right so I took a few photos and then at the end finished off the session with one of my favorite subjects "The American Flag".

Multiples in TPTTP Set #4

The final challenge. I haven't even mastered this one as you can tell since there is only one picture. Flip the hair, smile and have it look like you could be upside down since the hair is straight up. Yep I still have a long way to go. She did a pretty good job with the smile though so it is clearly her fault that this one turned out.

Multiples in TPTTP Set #3

Now that you have practiced your timing with one or two then it is time to try it with small groups. The challenge really isn't so much with you now as it is with the participants and do they jump on three or after three of before three or do they do it fast or s l o w. It really becomes fun now.

"TPTTP of photography-Set 2

Now once you have the timing down with one person it's time to move on to using two people. The challenge here is to now pick which person you are going to watch and time yourself with as they both jump. The real tricky part is to get both of them to jump at the same time. Even to have them with their hands in position and their faces showing the proper realism can be quite tricky.

These two were probably one of my best catches yet. Both in about the top of their jump and both at the same time. Not an easy thing to do.

In this one the trick was the fact that both of them were literally turning around during the action but I luckily caught it at the right time.



Have fun practicing these types of action shots. (Again with only one chance to do it right each time they jump, no multiple shooting in 3 seconds because your flash units have to recharge.) Of course the real answer is to get faster cycling flash units but I am not on that kind of a budget.

"The Perfect Timing Takes Practice" ( "TPTTP of photography.

OK I used to think that TPTTP of photography would be easy and it is if you can set your camera on multiple exposure but if you are using a studio flash system that requires 5 to 6 seconds to refresh you get only one shot at a time or one shot per jump. I think after 3 years of lots of practice I am finally getting my timing down a little bit. So my challenge to you is to start to practice taking jumping pictures on just one person. Tomorrow I'll show some with two people.It does take practice because yo only have a split second to get the shot when they are in the air. I find myself having to push the shutter a half a pulse before I want to and then I get the shot pretty good.

Lay down on the floor and shoot up for the illusion that the person is really jumping high.

Yes this one was actually two of us timing it perfectly. I can't jump, cross my legs and pull that kind of a pose in a split second in the air so that I won't break a lot of my body parts on the way down but he sure did it well.


These are a lot of fun but it hasn't been easy to get the right timing. It does take practice.