Spring has Sprung

We are finally getting some real Spring color around here. I'm not sure what kind of tree this is but the flowers sure were pretty.

Website Mockup

Our last project for Graphic Design II is to make a website mockup in photoshop. Although there is a lot more to do, here is the front page of mine, in its beginning stages.

More Fun with Color Bleed

Decided to take one of my tulip photos and turn it into black and white so that I could practice color bleed in photoshop. I wanted to bring back just one of the flowers back to color so that it would pop. As always, your comments are welcome.

Do the Dew

Our latest photo assignment was to take a color picture and turn it into a black and white and then bring back only a portion of the color. I had just finished drinking a Mountain Dew and decided that the can would be my photographic subject. So by using a mask, I was able to bring back just the color of the words on the can. Here it is.

A Little Bit of Spring

I've been posting assignments from my graphic design class and photo class but not any just go out and take a picture for the fun of it pictures. I went to check my mail and noticed the light shining through my neighbor's tulips. She has given me permission to take pictures of her flowers whenever I want to, so I had to grab my camera and take the picture of those tulips.

Truck Billboard Assignment

Our last assignment was to get a photo from the web and make a billboard that would go on a truck's side. This was to advertise the pretend business called Oasis Day Spa. Here is mine. It had to be 7 words or less and be easy to read quickly.

Visit North Carolina

One of our previous assignments

was to create an ad to feature an area in

North Carolina. I used a picture that I had taken of Pilot

Mountain to feature for the Piedmont Triad. Here it is.

Black & White Portrait

One of our recent assignments was to do a portrait and then turn it into a black & white photo. Here is one that I did of my son, Joshua.

Break the Chain

Our latest assignment for Graphic Design was to create newspaper ad PSA to remind people not to chain their dog. We were specifically told to create it in a manner that mimics the movie posters by designer Saul Bass. Here is my design.

The Left or the Right

No, this isn't a post about politics, it is about the best method to convert a color photo into black and white. The picture on the left was converted using the Hue and Saturation tool and the picture on the right was converted using the channel mixer tool. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment on the bottom of this post. I think I like the results from the right but so far the comparison that I placed on my facebook page have been mixed.

Spring Break Fun

Today is the first day of spring break. I'm not going anywhere, so I thought I would work on some Photoshop Tutorials. This one was creating a filmstrip picture using Photoshop CS5. I decided to put in three pictures and fill all of the frames rather than just putting in one picture like the tutorial did. It was fun and the results are pretty good! Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Crystal and Beads

Our latest assignment was to shoot pictures of a glass object. Glass is really hard to light. After a lot of work and several attempts, this is one of my favorites.  I had a crystal wine glass next to a crystal candle holder that was lying on its side. Tumbling out of the candle holder were glass and cats eye beads that I use to make jewelry.

Person with product

Our assignment this week is to photograph a product with a person. It doesn't have to be the whole person. I decided to take a shot of a silver Sharpie metallic marker. Here is the one I like the best.

Pretty Neighbor

We have an out of class assignment in addition to our studio work. For the studio, I am going to take a picture of my partner doodling with a sharpie pen. We have to take a picture of a person with a product but it doesn't have to be the whole person. That picture will be posted later.  So, back to the out of class assignment, we have to do an outdoor portrait. I took a picture of my neighbor, who was working on moving. She looks pretty whether she is dressed up or just hanging out. Here is one of the pictures.

Elmer's Glue and Scissors

Since the pictures that we took for assignment 2, small product shot, had to have a label on them, my idea of shooting jewelry just wasn't going to work. I happened to have a bottle of Elmer's glue sitting on my desk as a left over from a craft project. I thought to myself, that bottle has a label and what is more fun than a pair of scissors and a bottle of Elmer's glue (along with some construction paper). So, that is what I shot in the studio last night. Elmer's glue and scissors.  I still want to try my hand at some jewelry in the future but here is a peek at last night's session.

Small Product Photos

So, our next project is going to be small product ads. Until I found out that the item we need to shoot has to have a label, I was going to try my hand a jewelry. I have this huge gaudy fake topaz ring. I decided to set it on a crystal candle holder just to see what I could get. This is using no lights, other than the overhead house light. I think it could be nice if it was lit up to bring out the sparkle. As it turns out, my project shot will be a bottle of Elmer's glue with some construction paper and scissors.

Brian Part 1 and 2

I'm in photo 2 at GTCC and our first assignment was to make portraits using fairly even light and using dramatic light. These are two of the photos of my classmate Brian. The first one used the main light on the right with a muted fill light on the left. The dramatic lighting used only a main light coming from the right. We also used a black velvet frocked background so that there would be no reflection of the light off of the background.

Win a trip to the Galapagos!

I just thought I would provide a link for Muench Workshop's Galapagos Trip give away. When you click on the link, I get an extra entry and you get to have an entry. Good luck! http://bit.ly/UL5UC3

Breathtaking Sunset.

Well I finally was able to post using Firefox. Internet Explorer wouldn't allow me to add pictures to my blog, which defeats the purpose of having a photo blog.

This beautiful sunset happened last week and it was just breathtaking, so I thought I would share it with you.

Here is another picture from Christmas Day. It's a lovely picture of my daughter.

Christmas 2012

Took some fun photos of my family on Christmas Day.

Shadows and Highlights

I took a picture of Mimosa seed pods for the last assignment in my photo 1 class. I like how there is a narrow band of focus and the shadow of the pod above dances on the pod below.

Christmas Ornament Tutorial

I ike to go to IceFlowStudios.com and try out his tutorials. Today it was the Christmas Ornament tutorial.

Dreamy Lights

So it is Christmas time and I put up a tree. Generic tree pictures are boring so I decided to purposely take a picture that was completely out of focus. This resulted in an interesting abstract with all the pretty lights looking like glowing orbs.

The Cat's Meow

I adopted a cat recently and now that he is settled I have to get photos. Now if only I could get him to like the dog!

Haley Black & White Version

 I thought I would try a black and white version of the picture of Haley. Here is how it turned out.

Beautiful Haley

I had the pleasure of photographing my niece, Haley, while home for Thanksgiving. We had a lot of fun and the autumn landscape made a great background. Here are two of my favorites.

Long Lost Leaves

It took a couple of days of wind and rain and most of the fall leaves have fallen off of the trees. The colors are so blah when it is thickly overcast. Here is a picture of some brilliant orange leaves that glowed in the bright sunlight before they fell off. I wish we could have some sunny wind free days.

A Sliver of the Moon

The moon was a tiny crescent last night and the

temperature was comfortable so I went outside to try to

get some moon shots. Here is what I took.

A Rose as Beautiful

There were a couple of roses that I thought were beautiful the other day. Here is another.

I think they forgot it was autumn.

I was at one of the GTCC campuses taking pictures of the Fall leaves when I noticed some rose bushes in full bloom. I think someone forgot to tell the roses that it was Autumn. So as the trees become bare having shed their leaves, the blooms go forth.

Old Glory

I was out taking pictures for an assignment and thought the flags looked nice as they flapped in the stiff breeze. After taking the picture, I had to remove 3 power lines that cut right across the picture. I think that it turned out pretty good.

More Fall Color

Although the composition on this picture isn't perfect, I love how the veins of the leaf show up because of the sunlit backlight. Enjoy!

Graffiti Wall

I've been playing around with some photoshop tutorials and today was making graffiti on a brick wall. Here is my try at it.

The Light on the Leaves

I love how the light plays on leaves making them glow and making the veins stand out. Although Spring is my favorite photography season, Autumn comes in a close second. It looks like the weather is going to ruin photography for the next several days, so this might be the last picture until the weather clears.

More fall color.

I really like looking at the leaves changing. Here is another picture . I love to see the reflection in the lake.  This one is at City Lake Park in High Point.

Fall is in the Air

Went back to the park early in the morning before the wind started up. It made the reflections beautiful, especially since the fall leaves are changing. Here is one of those reflections.

Pretty Rainbow

As I was driving home from Greensboro, I had the good fortune to see a bright rainbow that stayed pretty for a good portion of the drive home. I found a side street to pull over and get a couple of shots. I haven't seen a rainbow in a while and it made the drive a lot nicer.

A Day at Hanging Rock Part 2

I'm still working on my latest photography assignment and decided to work on taking pictures of the Lower Cascades waterfall at Hanging Rock State Park. Here is another one of my assignment pictures.

A Day at Hanging Rock

I went to Hanging Rock State Park today and photographed the Lower Cascades. Didn't make it up to the actual hanging rock but it was a beautiful day for hiking. I took a few pictures that I liked. The lower cascades has the main waterfall and then a smaller fall off to the right. I think I like this picture the best.

Reflections

I'm still working on the latest project. The great thing about it is getting to shoot whatever I like. I went to the park this afternoon and the water was unexpectedly still. It made for some nice reflections. There is a boat house that looked nice with the sun on one side highlighting it. It reflected nicely into the lake.

It's a flying dinosaur

I managed to capture a picture of a great blue heron just after it took off in flight. It is funny because it looks like a pterodactyl. And to think that they went extinct. Oh yes, as an aside that has nothing to do with the picture, today is 10/11/12.

Chill in the Air

There has definitely been a chill in the air for the last couple of days. Makes me think of camping and using a campfire to keep warm. I thought I would revisit the picture of a mesmerizing campfire.

Focal Point

This week our assignment is focal point. Basically we can shoot whatever we want as long as the focal point (the subject we are focusing on) is easily discerned. I went to the park and took pictures of wildlife and insects and a couple fisherman. One fisherman was pretty lucky and caught several small bass while I was there. I think I will include a picture of him today.

Depth of Field

This is the latest assignment and it is called Depth of Field. Basically it is the area around the focal point that has acceptable focus.  We had to take pictures of the foreground in focus, the middleground in focus, the background in focus, and everything in focus. It teaches us how we can change where we focus by changing which part of the object we are pointing at. It also shows us how aperture can make depth of field more shallow or more deep. This picture is part of a sculpture that is located on campus. I thought it had interesting shape and texture. This is an example of the foreground being in focus.