In a snap

Here is a few photos from experiments I have been trying in photoshop during the days with lots of snow and being inside all day. For all of them I used photoshop filters from the alienskin snap art collection.

The first one is from the summer/fall time where we went out to an orchard to pick apples. They also had a field of sunflowers and I tried photographing the sunflowers with HDR (taking 5 or so photos at different exposures to widen the dynamic range).

Here I applied a oil paint filter in photoshop (snap art landscape slightly modified).



These next ones are a couple of colorful flowers that I photographed a few years back. I loaded them up in photoshop and applied a snap art oil paint with a color boost to bring out the colors.



This one is one of the weeds from a field in the Shenandoah mountains. I know... Going to the mountains and I take a photograph of weeds... however this one I applied a snap art oil paint and centered cropped to get a nice even green background and have the colors stand out.



Finally I tried the same snap art oil paint with weeds from Denmark



I think it goes to show that even with some tools that makes the process simple it is possible to get some decent results in a "snap" so to speak.

Food photography

Just like most of the world you probably know about Martha Stewart. You know all the good cooking, home making, tv shows and so on.

It's kind of funny in a way but I guess we are quite the little Martha Stewart family. I started with adding a tv in the kitchen and what better to watch while cooking and baking than the Martha Stewart show?

So now every episode is recorded and watched. Not "just" by my dear wife Jacki (which btw have a great cooking blog) but also our daughter Emma that just don't want to miss the show for nothing. I think she is paying more attention to Martha Stewart than the Little Einsteins.

Anyway to get on with the photo story... Jacki asked if I could grab the camera and snap a few photos for her food blog.
Now how could I say anything but of course my dear? adding a "let me just grab the flash too while I am at it".

So here is the setup in our kitchen:



Now to show how we prepare the tomatoes and spread them out on a baking sheet with a little bit of olive oil on it. How about getting a close up? and uh uh let's get one where we see your hand sprinkling the tomatoes on the baking sheet ;-)



And just like the cooking shows here are the tomatoes fresh out of the oven.



Ok before you say anything... I know... you don't sit on the table but on the other hand you have to be able to see something... right?
But yeah here is prepping for making a salsa to go along with the meal. Emma being the mini Martha has to be in on everything and we can even pose with parsley (bet that's a new one) ;-)



First we sort and cut the the parsley and pile it up. Gotta cut the stems off and chop it coarse.



Add all the ingredients to a food processor and tada you got the best salsa you could ever have.



Now this is an example what happens when you add a photo crazy husband with a dedicated wife that loves to cook and a mini Martha. It kind of all comes together :-)
Ohh and be sure to check out Jacki's food blog for some great food :-) http://accidental-cook.blogspot.com/

All natural colors

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

For this photo friday I dug out a few photos that are a from the fall season. I wanted to get a few showing the colors of nature and what better season for that than fall. Well other than spring and well ... anyway I chose fall this time around :-)

I couldn't even begin to tell you about how many times I got the comment sounding something like "what are you going to do with a photo of a single tree with red leaves???" followed by something like that is crazy...

Anyway those comment sort of faded a wee bit after a similar shot ended up on the cover of outdoor photographer. Here it is:



The next one I have had on my desktop at work and somehow just started liking it more the more I look at it. I dunno why but... there's just something... for me anyway ;-)



Now I like waterfalls, water, mountains, fall colors and all that. Here I have tried combining a little bit of everything and get some punch by doing some simple color isolation. One by removing all other colors and the other simply by have the main yellow color "stick out" from the rest.



That's it for this week. Hopefully soon I will get some more from the mountains :-)

Collage of the kids

Here is the latest collage of the wee folks.

Interested in knowing how to this was created? Leave a comment and I will get around to making a tutorial on this one too ;-) If the interest is there.

Smooth new adventures

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Sooo It's kind of a long story but I will try to keep it short.
I guess my opinion on artistic subjects or artists in general always has been kind of square and black & white.

What do you picture in your mind when thinking about an artist? and what is artistic?
For me I am thinking an artist is someone that use some material to create a piece of work that most wouldn't understand. Then some will do the standard thing and put one hand in support of the head while exclaiming a hmmm as they study it.

yeah I know... But bear with me ;-)

Anywho, with that in mind and once (while browsing through an exhibit of photos) I was asked if I am an artist... First thing that comes to mind... No way.... I take photos, capture nature, moods, portraits and all that. But an artist... come on now!!!

But I guess I am changing a bit on that one. Now I guess I am an artist. Not that I am putting out my work and stuffing my nose in the sky with the "if you don't get it you #$@%#!@" attitude.
But I ventured into a new area for me yesterday (and no I am not camouflaging nudity as artistic... don't get me started on that one). Anyway, getting my project through and viewing the first test photos I got one comment.
"yeah it's kind of cool but what are you going to do with that!!!"

So yeah folks there you have it... I guess now I am an artist ;-)

But on to the subject and mini project. Just keep in mind these are the first I have ever done in this line and I found a few things to improve on. But everything has a first.



If you want to see images from someone with a little more experience and read up on the subject here is a few links:
- Reading material
- Photo collection

photosites on the web

Trying to keep up with several photo site or searching for quality photo sites that cover your interest?

I found one site that has news or latest posts from several of the top photo sites. It gives you a great overview of the postings and lets you quickly find what you are looking for. Just a little time saving trick ;-)

Check it out here: http://photography.alltop.com/

food anyone?

So as you probably seen on Jacki's cooking blog we started doing a little food photography.

It looks so easy now doesn't it...

Open a magazine and you can advertisement for food items all over the place. Well in some magazines anyway. It looks like someone just made up the food and snapped a few pictures...

hmm let me tell you. It takes a wee bit more than that. Just a tad ;-)

I found an interesting video from a food and beverage photographer (yep they are out there) and well you might just pick up a thing or two.

Have at it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=9HMAHlqm4GU&feature=related

Spring time photo contest

Write from Karen is holding a photo contest and the theme is Spring Time! If you would, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d hop on over there and vote for my photo (Voting is April 18th - April 21st).

Here from the front yard the flowers start breaking through and what says spring better than the flowers popping out of the ground :-)



Along with spring time the birds are coming back too. Nothing beats a sunny morning sitting on the deck with a cup of coffee just relaxing listening to the birds. Below is one of our spring time visitors which for a while was a very frequent visitor to this particular tree in our backyard.



That is my contribution to the spring time photo contest. If you haven't done so already be sure to visit Karen using the banner below :-)

Shenandoah in March

This post is not about photoshop actually it's not even about computers or their use. This is about getting away from the computer and getting out there for a breath of fresh air.

Notice there may be quite a few photos in this post and well remember you can get a big view of the photo by clicking on it.

Up to the weekend the weather forecast didn't sound too good. Rain starting Friday and continuing over the weekend.
But to my luck it cleared up overnight from Friday and left Saturday full of sun and not a drop of rain in sight (well until evening anyway).

Soo I fired up the truck and headed west (sounds dramatic doesn't it). Anyway I went back to the mountains and Shenandoah national park (http://www.nps.gov/shen).

Usually I head for waterfalls of one kind or the other (got 2 out of 9 so far. Dark hollow falls and White oak). This time due to the time of year and recommendation from the park ranger I was looking for something with higher elevation.

I ended up choosing Stony man mountain where I have seen people standing but never been there. So I got to the parking lot and here is the trail map with info.

It's a walk alright. May not sound like much but it's all uphill and well it's a nature trail so the rolling sidewalks and conveniences like that isn't present.

Going up the trail I was on the Appalachian trail for a bit and got to the highest point where it intersects with another trail 3837ft but that's not high enough so up we go :-)

It seemed like the higher the elevation the more animals were around. Plenty of squirrels and white tale deers which I got some photos of. I did see a falcon zooming through the trees but those ones are fast and hard to get a photo of. So squirrels and white tales it is :-)

Getting to the first stop I found that there was quite a drop off the cliff. This first stop is Little Stony Man Cliffs which has a great view and well I found that I am not all that comfortable around heights and there seemed to be a long way down.
Notice how even in this terrain there is plants growing to the edge in nothing but solid rock (well kind of seems like it).

Now sort of getting over the awe of the height from Little Stony Man Cliffs I ventured on to the next spot. Not thinking that I was only about half way there and there would be some more uphill ahead but going through the woods and it's just ooh so quite (not counting all the animal noise) it's actually pretty cool and best of all relaxing.

Fast forwarding through the woods (got some more from going downhill) I got to Stony Man mountain. Now this is at 4010ft so yeah it was uphill but all worth it. If I had thought Little Stony Man Cliffs was high getting here kind of blew me away...

These truly are the blue mountains and usually there is always a haze in the distance. But then again the distance is quite a bit further away than usually. I am not sure the photos here can give you the full feel for the distance but it feels amazing standing up there looking out.

The next couple of photos are interesting in more than one way. Since Stony Man mountain is that high you have a pretty good look down at skyline drive which in itself is pretty cool. But I didn't realize that these photos are take from the same location and pointing in the same direction as the photo on the cover of the official map until I got home.
Sure the one on the official map has green leaves and all that... but still pretty cool huh?

Here is two zoom levels of Little Stony Man Cliffs seen from Stony Man mountain. This by the way is where I stopped first time and notice there is people standing down there (the location I thought was sooo high at first).

After sitting down drinking about a full bottle of water and just taking it in for a few I started back down the trail (trying to remember where to turn and all that). Turns out I did remember the way to go and well yeah I did take the long trail to get there but that's ok. These are the ones I ran into taking the longer less traveled trail. And btw. the white tails where close to the trail and not as jumpy as they get later in the season.

And no you are right I can't really leave you hanging without the squirrel ;-)

After getting an extra snack trail gating a little by myself I started back down sky line drive and stopped at one overlook to get a view of the "flat-lands".

Even though it isn't summer and it's not too warm yet it's a perfect time to go to the mountains and just take a walk. Shenandoah national park is great since there is a great variety in the length and difficulty of the walks you can take.

Most of them however offers great rewards with regards to views and animals. Later on there will be some great plant life to observe as well. I would guess early May sometime, most likely May 10th would be the weekend to start seeing things starting to bloom or start shooting.

Hope you enjoyed the photos. I know I sure enjoyed getting them :-)