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.