Photo shoots are generally in a studio and seldom have an interesting backdrop. Thus compositing. The following images bring the subjects into the great outdoors with additional elements. Approaching is my latest as of 12-09-2015. The engine was taken several years back at the railroad museum in Golden, CO. The tracks are from Loveland. The geese were from a fieldtrip at a wildlife area in east Fort Collins. The prairie is near the Badlands in South Dakota. The girl is […]
The Rocky Mountain Lazy J bar S Ranch is a great venue for a photo shoot. This year’s emphasis was on portraiture, and although portraiture isn’t my gig, it’s always fun with exuberant participants. For me it is all about postproduction anyway. Paige Riding (above) was one of those shots where the background was full of distracting element since the shot was taken inside their outdoor arena. It’s not that it didn’t make a good shot, but with the right […]
Occasionally I’m faced with a challenge that doesn’t rely on Photoshop. It’s good to try techniques that yield interesting exposures. In painting with light, it’s all about creating the image by selectively lighting your subject. This shot was for the traditional category in the monthly competition at the Loveland Photographic Society. In Orchids (above), I used a small LED penlight in a dark open room, and with my camera on a tripod with a 105 mm macro lens, I set […]
Herdina Park is one of those places I love to explore. It can be exhausting, and although you can see most of it in a day, it is one of those places you can revisit again and again and always find something new and exciting. I would suggest to anyone that ventures there to take a lunch and plenty of water, and if you can start at sunrise and leave after sunset. There are plenty of places to stretch out […]
Herdina Park is closer to Balanced Rock than Delicate Arch, yet due to access is seldom visited in contrast to the other attractions in the park. Yes it takes a high-clearance 4×4 to drive to the Eye of the Whale Arch, yet by parking on the Willow Springs Trail Road several miles from Balanced Rock, the hike north to Herdina Park is less than a half-mile. There is no trail, and the trek is full of obstacles due to a […]
Depending upon the time of day, or if you pass up Delicate Arch altogether, your next destination will probably be Devil’s Garden. We’ll pass up Fiery Furnace because you need a permit to go there, although you may want to stop at the overview. The stretch of road to Devil’s Garden passes fields of fins, huge jutting rocks that seem to go on forever. One of my award winning photos, “Winter Sentinels” (above) was taken in the winter, and is […]
Not far into Arches you’ll find Courthouse Towers. More often than not they are photographed as a grouping. There are really a limited number of pull offs, and that is typically where the vast majority of images are taken. To find the unusual perspective means you will have to hike. Most visitors are so afraid of stepping on the cryptobiotic soil that they avoid going anywhere. The truth is that the soil can easily be avoided by walking in washes […]
My wife and I have been visiting Moab and Arches National Park for more years than I care to mention. We’ve visited often enough that it feels like coming home every time we go there. We’ve been in Arches National Park so many times that we typically avoid the beaten path. In October of 2010 we guided a field trip with the Loveland Photographic Society, and since many of the members who attended had never been there, we revisited some […]
If you look at macro shots you’ve probably seen those amazing drops of water with spherical little images floating inside them. Optics are wonderful. Getting such images directly from your camera is a challenge. An equal challenge is catching a reflection in an eye, especially of an animal that refuses to pose. Recently I visited the Lazy J bar S Ranch, a facility that boards horses and trains both hoses and riders. It’s a fun place to visit and is […]
Mechanisms is the April monthly topic, which is not the normal sort of thing I photograph. My best selection of mechanical things are trains, since that is one of my favorite subjects after space art, landscapes and flowers. This particular set of SD 90 Mac locomotives was used to create my jacket for Harvesting Terra, but in quite a different color scheme. This blue was one of my renditions. First the locomotives: When you look at color schemes and wonder […]
Occasionally LPS (Loveland Photographic Society) has a challenge topic that inspires a little creativity. Smoke is fun, and thanks to Jim Digby, my foray into shooting smoke was relatively easy. With strobes and a black backdrop, and a few sticks of burning incense, it didn’t take long until we had well over a hundred images to choose from. That’s just the beginning. Compositing the images is what really makes it interesting. In my title image, Smoke Girl by Candlelight, several […]
If you missed part 1 and 2, please go to older posts. The image is now taking shape. The next additions are the roads or bridges leading up to the castle on the right and left. Rather than create them from scratch, I borrowed one of the walls I had just built, then stretched and flattened it to fit the space. I used a round eraser to create the scalloped effect on the under side, and the smudge tool set […]
If you missed part one, go to older post. Since this is a twilight shot and a representation of the Disney Logo, I added stars, which isn’t totally realistic, but this is art and adds a nice effect. I borrowed my star field from my space art. I will have details on how I make a star field in a future post, I promise. Next I added my horizon. Once again I went to my library, and in sunset shots […]
Occasionally the Loveland Photographic Society asks members with certain skills to put on a program. For February, the challenge was to take an image submitted by another member, and alter it with your artistic interpretation in Photoshop. You of course have no idea what image you will get. For this event I had 14 images to choose from. One was a highly detailed and beautiful daytime shot of the Disney Castle at their amusement park. As soon as I saw […]
Challenge topics help produce interesting results. If you’re serious about your craft as a photographer, competition is a good way to seek to produce images that you might never otherwise create. Sometimes these images can be some of your most interesting work. Ominous Wind was just such an image. How do you photograph wind? We all know wind itself is invisible, while the effects of wind are often quite recognizable. The elements of Ominous Wind needed more than just an […]
Sometimes sunsets are so spectacular you can’t stop staring, but when you revisit your photographs, there is something missing. This can often be remedied by compositing, but you certainly don’t want your foreground or mid-ground to steal the scene. To make a good picture, you want the elements to complement each other. Ocean sunsets are great because of the straight horizon. In the 2 images, Ocean Sunset 2, and Arago Sunset, the sky and sun are still the main focus. […]
The Loveland Photographic Society has a monthly challenge topic for competition, February’s being Extreme Depth of Field. For most participants, the challenge will be taking multiple exposures at different focal points and blending them together in some program such as helicon focus. While fun, I’m always looking into the Photoshop bag of tricks to make something more unusual. Layers allows you that option. Although some will protest saying the challenge is to use your camera, I know that the interpretation […]