Abstract #2

Last March I wrote a post about creating abstract backgrounds using long exposures. Well, the other day as we were on our way back from shooting an interview for one of our projects, I had the chance to stop and take some shots - particularly in search for a shot for tomorrow's Geographic Composition.

As we were driving along through the country roads in Genoa, NY we pulled off so I could get a couple of shots in a cornfield - another one will be posted probably next week. The above shot is a composite of six 1sec. exposures with some light adjustments in Lightroom and put together in Photoshop by simply changing the blend modes of each layer (some to Multiply, some to Screen, some to Soft Light).

It's a great little technique for coming up with something interesting and different. I really like how this one turned out.

UPDATE: I just posted a variation of this in my NAPP Portfolio where I added a couple of Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layers with angled linear gradients in the masks to add the blue and red hue shifts.

P&P Blogger Profile: Andy Biggs

Andy Biggs of The Global Photographer

I am a full time nature photographer, and I lead photographic safaris throughout Africa. Some years I lead 4 or 5 safaris, and others 6 or 7. I also lead workshops in the American West, as well as other locations around the globe.

Why do you blog?
I blog as a way of effectively communicating with my past, current and future workshop participants. I feel like I need a way of communicating in more personal nature, where I can write just about anything down. I strive to post content as often as I can, but sometimes it is a challenge.

If you only had time to read three blogs a day, which ones would they be?
Luminous Landscape
Engadget
The Online Photographer

How long have you been using Photoshop/been a photographer?
I started using Photoshop with version 6, and that is about the same time that I took up photography as a true passion. Before that I was just a casual shooter that picked up a camera only for vacations and family get togethers.

What type of camera(s) do you shoot with?
I primarily shoot with a Canon 1DsMkII, but I also shoot with a 1DMkIII and an infrared converted Canon Rebel XTi. I am currently thinking of adding a 6x17 camera to the mix for animal-scapes.

Mac or PC?
Mac when I can get away with it. Mac at home, Mac on the road. However, unless Apple comes out with a lightweight laptop solution, I might move back to the PC just to save some weight on long safaris. Hey, a few pounds here and a few there really do add up.

What is your favorite piece of photo or computer equipment (other than your camera)?
Right now it is my camera backpack that I am bringing to market in a few months. I have been working on this product for over two years, and I am so excited to start selling it soon.

What piece of equipment would you most like to get but don’t have?
Medium format digital. I love landscapes with oodles of detail, and the latest round of medium format digital backs would look great in my bag.

What advice do you have for a novice creative professional/photographer?
Photography isn’t about having the latest gear. Even though we will have new product innovations in the future, don’t get hung up on having the latest and greatest gear. I look back 5 years when I had a pair of Canon D30 3mp cameras, and I still think the images I captured were every bit as strong as some of the images I am shooting today. Photographs that stir the soul come from within and between your ears, and not with what is sitting on top of your tripod.

What inspires you to create?
I have a growing library of coffee table books, and I often refer to them for inspiration. So I have to say work from other photographers.

What would be your most important piece of advice about life?
Whatever you choose to do, be the best at it that you can be. Give it 110%.

Where would you most like to live (other than where you live now)?
I would love to live in the Colorado Rockies, or perhaps back in northern California again. California is where I developed my passion for the outdoors.

What do you like to do in your spare time?
As many people might know, I am very social person. So I love to spend time with family and friends. I thrive off of the energy of others.

What talent would you most like to have?
I would love to be more creative. Creativity is something that is difficult to obtain. Once you think you have it, poof! Gone. Sometimes I like to think that I am a creative person, but other times I realize that I am more innovative than creative.

From Inside the Actors Studio:
What is your favorite word? Yes
What is your least favorite word? No
What turns you on? Working with a new electronic gadget
What turns you off? Gadgets that don’t work.
What sound or noise do you love? The sounds of the African bush
What sound or noise do you hate? Traffic noise.
What is your favorite curse word? Doh! Not really a curse word, but anything Homer Simpson says has to be funny.
What occupation other than your own would you like to attempt? I would love to direct films.
What occupation would you not want to participate in? Anything involving blood. I would be passed out on the floor all of the time!
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? I listened to all of your prayers, Andy. Did you really want that 5.0 liter Mustang GT back in 1986?

*Note: If you there is someone you would like to see as a part of the P&P Blogger Profile series, please email Jason with their blog's URL. Also, be sure to check out the P&P Weekly every Monday for news about this site and a roundup of what other Photoshop & Photography Blogroll members are posting.

Reflections From the Road

My apologies, once again, for my absence these past couple of weeks. It has been a whirlwind of activity taking us all over the Northeast in two directions at once each weekend.

We started off with one team here in Liverpool, NY with my brother and another crew down in King of Prussia, PA working with a conference based in New Jersey. Last weekend, my dad and a team were in Buffalo while my brother and I, as I mentioned on Monday, were down in Princess Anne, MD.

All 4 events went fairly well. No catastrophic failures, no serious glitches. And getting asked back for next year and/or renewing our multi-year contracts are definitely a good sign that we're doing something right.

In preparing for these events, we knew there were a number of things we had to do to upgrade our systems so that we could do multiple events at the same time as well as to improve on the issues we encountered in the past. We're always trying to get a little better each time.

This year, we bought new video switchers, new projectors and mounts, racked up as much as we could to minimize setup time, and mounted a robotic pan-tilt head on the truss we flew overhead in order to get better shots of the laying on of hands during the service of ordination (these have been religious conferences). This aptly nicknamed "God Camera" allowed us to get unobstructed views of the speakers at the podium, choirs performing on the stage, cutaways to some of the beautiful banners and backdrops they created, and even some shots of the crowd and an OTS (over-the-shoulder) of the organist.

Now, I'm a cameraman and my brother is a sound guy. I can direct and switch and Chris can run a camera, but neither is what we feel the most comfortable with, which added to the pressure of this event. However, since it was our 4th year in a row, we had everything pretty much under control. Next year, though, we hope to send Chris to do sound at the other conference while my dad would go to Maryland with me to switch so I can run camera. That way, we're all doing what we do best.

Up to this year rigging the truss and getting all of the images aligned was a bit of a trick and we had Chris along because he'd had some experience with rigging in college. Now, with the advancements we've made and having worked with him on it these past four years I am comfortable with everything we need to do, which will free him up to do the other.

All in all these were a couple of taxing but successful weeks. We had less stress than in previous years despite the added complications of doing more than one at a time. And equally if not more importantly, our clients were satisfied with our work, even blown away at times.

I'm Back, Sort Of...

After another long weekend and almost 9 hours in a Ryder truck (minus about an hour for dinner at Dogfish Head in Rehoboth Beach, DE - really good 4-cheese pizza, by the way) I finally pulled into home around 2:30 this morning after unloading all of our gear.

The events went well. We're all pretty whipped and happy for a day off or two to rest our weary bones. I'm in no state of mind to write anything intelligent or thoughtful right now, but I'll be back to blogging regularly in the next day or two.

Until then...

Vertical Panoramas

Traditionally when you think of a panoramic photo the first thing that comes to mind is some scenic landscape that is spread out left to right revealing the expansive nature of a mountain range or canyon or seaside vista.

But don't let yourself get stuck in the mode of thinking that horizontal is the only way to go when it comes to panos.

Take, for example, this shot that I took while wandering through Redwood National Park last spring (18mm, Auto, 1/60s at f/3.5, ISO 720, Nikon D50). This is a fake pano in that I applied a crop to give the look of a panoramic shot rather than stitching multiple photos together. I did the majority of the processing in Lightroom with a little bit of lens correction in CS2.

Tall subjects like these redwoods or a skyscraper can really benefit from a vertical pano crop. Taking this approach can add additional emphasis on the height, helping to better illustrate the dramatic nature of the scene. But you aren't limited to just tall subjects. Even a scenic shot with either a lot of water in the fore or middleground or with a lot of sky can benefit from a vertical pano crop.

*While I haven't tried it myself, I would imagine that trying to compose a vertical pano from stitching together a series of overlapping shots taken while using a tripod might not give you the same effect as applying a crop.

On The Road Again...

I'm out of town today shooting interviews and gathering footage for another installment of a series of videos for one of our clients. Depending on how we work things, it's looking like I'll be in the car for at least 9 hours for about 2 hours of work for a 3min video.

We're starting in Lake Placid - about 4 hours from home - and then driving to Cornwall, ON - roughly 2 hours from there - and then either back home (a little over 3 hours) or, if we carpool, back to Lake Placid before heading home - which would make it an even 12 hours if we did that. Whatever the duration, the 6am departure isn't fun.

Because we have a schedule to keep, I doubt I'll have a chance to get any shots in Lake Placid this time around. But I'll be back with tomorrow's Friday Tips!

I Can't Decide

I am going through some photos from last year as I read Scott Kelby's Lightroom book so I can follow along and also look at old shots with fresh eyes. One of the features in LR that I really like is the ability to have virtual copies. They don't require extra space and they allow you to look at multiple versions of an image side-by-side.

The above shot was taken on the road along a beach just south of Orick, CA in April of last year during a trip out to gather footage for a video we were doing that used the redwoods as a metaphor for working together in order to grow.** I came across this beach, parked the car, wandered out into the street and snapped a few shots before making my way north into Redwood NP.

I'm not sure which version I like better. I like the color shot because it reminds me of what it was like when I was there - with some added warmth, obviously - but I've also been in a split-toned B&W mood and really like how that one turned out.

Which one do you like better?

-----
*Other than placing the shots in my gallery frame in Photoshop, both of these images were processed entirely in Lightroom.
**Basically, the redwoods are able to be so strong and get to be so tall because they share a root structure and help to hold each other up and share nutrients. Even though the roots are shallow, they are intertwined to provide support. We used it as a metaphor for churches working together to fund projects and programs that they couldn't do alone.

P&P Workflow: #8

by Jason D. Moore

Before:
Taken one year ago tomorrow in Redwood National Park, CA 4/26/2006, 2:46PM (PST). Taken with available light, no flash.

• Nikon D50
  Auto Exposure Mode
  18.0-50.00 f/3.5-5.6 lens
  1/25 at f/3.5
  ISO 800
  Focal Length 18mm
  RAW

In Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 (Develop Module):

• Basic:
  White Balance:
  -Temp: 4750
  -Tint: -8
  -Exposure: -0.52
  -Recovery: 100
  -Fill Light: 0
  -Blacks: 34
• Tone Curve:
  -Highlights: 0
  -Lights: +30
  -Darks: -18
  -Shadows: 0
• Saturation:
  -Red: +100
  -Orange: +75
  -Yellow: +4
  -Green: -41
  -Aqua: -13
  -Blue, Purple, Magenta: -100
• Detail:
  -Sharpening: 25
  -Color Noise Reduction: 25
• Lens Vignetting:
  -Amount: -60
  Midpoint: 42

After:

*If you would like to contribute to the P&P Workflow, please email Jason.

Remembering the Journey

I went through some of my shots from last May's Alaska vacation and came across this forgotten shot. Right when I got back we entered one of our busier seasons at work and a number of my photos from the trip were neglected and went untouched. So I thought it was time.

This shot was taken just south of Anchorage on my way down to Seward during my first full day in AK. Cropped into a "fake" pano and processed entirely in Photoshop Lightroom.

On the Road

Today I am on the road to Boston for Photoshop World. A friend of mine from Semester at Sea lives north of the city and is letting me sleep on her couch and I'll be commuting in each morning. Someone I've known for a number of years and used to live around here is now working in Boston and has made his parking space available for me (Thanks, Bob!). So I am all set and ready to go!

Because it will be a full schedule these next few days I will not be posting during the rest of the week. On Monday I will post the next P&P Weekly and throughout next week I will feature shots and thoughts from my Photoshop World experience. As a teaser, I have been in contact with Scott Kelby and Ben Willmore and will be meeting up with them at some point during the conference to say hello and get a couple of shots together. If you're going to be in Boston for Photoshop World, definitely track me down. Here is a preliminary schedule of which sessions I'm planning on attending (subject to change).

Safe Travels and Happy Trails!

Unrelated Post Script - Just a reminder if any of you know of any tips for travel in London and/or Paris and know of any "must see/do/eat here" suggestions for our trip, leave a comment here or email me with ideas!

Russell Brown, Photoshop History, and Fun

Lately I've been eating up as many tutorials as I can about Photoshop CS3 and once again found myself over in the Tips & Techniques section of The Russell Brown Show watching a number of videos by Adobe's Senior Creative Director. While watching and listening to him work you just can't not be excited about Photoshop. It's just not possible.

Also, over at PhotoshopNews.com, Jeff Schewe offers an interesting visual history of Photoshop splash screens from pre-v1.0 thru CS2.

And finally, on a more personal note, after a number of changes in scheduling, destination, and overall logistics, Kim and I are beginning to plan a vacation to London and Paris for late summer. Late last fall I was thinking about a solo trip to Switzerland, then my best friend from college and I were discussing Greece but now she can't go - and the prices went way up - so Kim and I decided that Paris would be perfect. She hasn't done a whole lot of traveling, none abroad, and with her love of art and working toward her masters in Art Ed. Paris just seemed like the natural destination. We're also going to spend a day or two wandering around London and maybe catch a show.

Other than the obvious spots to see, does anyone have any suggestions for our trip? Little cafes with great food? Lesser-known places to visit? We'd love to hear them!

Editor's Choice #5

On our way back from Fallingwater the other day, Kim and I stopped off at this old covered bridge just south of Ithaca to take a few shots. I had passed by signs for this bridge a few times and had always wanted to stop but never had the chance. So I was excited to see what I could get.

It had been a little rainy and dreary all morning and with the snow beginning to melt it was really brown and dirty everywhere you looked. There wasn't a great angle to shoot from and, to be honest, I wasn't too happy with any of my shots.

Last night, though, I worked on this one a bit to see if I could salvage a "3-star shot" and posted it in my NAPP Portfolio along with the other shots from our trip. I went to check out the member portfolio section today and they selected this shot as one of their "Editor's Choice" images for this week.

Thanks again to everyone over at NAPP for their affirmation of my work!

Fallingwater

“The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” – Frank Lloyd Wright

Siem Reap

On a different note, I just finished reading this article from CNN.com on the rise of tourism in Siem Reap, Cambodia. During my trip around the world when I studied abroad with Semester at Sea, I took a side trip during our time in Vietnam to visit the temples of Angkor Wat.

Aside from the shear beauty of the place and the utter amazement I felt visiting such a truly foreign and ancient icon of a once-great empire, it was one of the hardest experiences of my life.

We landed at the Siem Reap airport to go through customs and had to pass through armed guards - something I certainly wasn't used to - before heading to our fancy hotel (honestly, I've stayed in worse hotels here in the US). The difficult part came from the knowledge I had of the country and its history, not from any sort of culture shock.

Part of our program on SAS was a class called CORE, which everyone took, that focused on the many different aspects of the next country on our itinerary. We studied geography, politics, economics, religion, history, culture and current events. So I was somewhat aware of what had happened under the rule of the Khmer Rouge, adding a certain weight to the excursion.

The ports leading up to this point were fairly modern (Kobe, Japan; Shanghai, PRC; Hong Kong; Saigon, Vietnam). Where Saigon was a somewhat dirty, run-down, and chaotic city than our previous stops, it was still fairly modern. But Siem Reap proved itself to be rural and more typical of SE Asian towns.

While the temples were even more amazing than I had imagined (I first learned about them in an old issue of National Geographic) I wasn't prepared for the poverty that I faced. There were people with missing limbs because of the stray landmines left over from the war, children trying with great effort to sell trinkets and postcards and books - knowing that they couldn't go home if they didn't make even $10 dollars that day - and, even more heartbreaking, the 7-8 year olds carrying infant brothers and sisters in their arms, trying to negotiate with you (even through the windows of the bus) to take the little ones with you knowing that you could provide a better life than they would find there.

I had seen the homeless and people begging for money before when I lived in Boston or traveled to NYC with school trips but I wasn't ready for that. I'm ashamed of it but I got to the point where I just had to turn away and do my best to ignore what was going on around me. Even now, 4 years later it's hard to put into words. The best way I can put it is to say that it was one of the hardest experiences I've ever had, but it was an experience I needed to have in order to have a fuller picture of the reality of the world.

Back to the article...

While tourism to the temples of Angkor should prove to be a huge benefit to the Cambodian economy, there is the fear that too much traffic will cause more pollution, over-crowding, and even weaken or destroy the temples themselves. At the same time, the people who are bearing the brunt of the boom are also gaining employment.

I must admit that I was one of those that climbed the temple steps for a couple of good pictures, including this one at sunset as described towards the end of the article.

To be honest, I'm not sure where I was headed with this. I guess I just struggle with the balance of the benefits of tourism for a country like Cambodia and its side-effects. Maybe this is just a stage on the road to Cambodia's overall development. Maybe this is a commercialization of a culture that will produce more poverty, inequality, and pollution than the perceived good. I really don't know. I just thought I'd throw it out there as something to think about.

Vacation 2007?

Every year around Thanksgiving I make my decision about the following year's vacation destination. After Semester at Sea and graduating from college I promised myself that I would take at least a week each year to travel to a place I've never been, as my finances allow. I've been successful the past two years with a trip to London and Northern Ireland in 2005 and a trip across Alaska this past May.

This time around I had a lot of very different ideas in mind from Antarctica to Tibet to Australia and New Zealand to touring the castles of southern Germany. While I haven't made any definite plans yet - I usually book my tickets early in the new year - I'm looking at spending 4 days traveling across Switzerland set in between a couple of days in Paris (though I haven't settled on Paris for those days) during the first week of July.

I'm always open to suggestions and ideas particularly from those who have traveled there. I'm also open to other destinations instead of Paris for a couple of days at the front and end of the Switzerland portion of the trip. (My email address is at the top of my sidebar.)

5Takes

Regular readers and those who know me know that travel is a very important part of my life and that I feel the experiences gained and self-knowledge learned while traveling is unlike anything else.

Earlier this year I came across a show on the Travel Channel called 5Takes. In it, 5 young adults (TJs or "travel journalists") come together to explore new places all on a budget of $50/person/day. They each have an interest area that they will be focusing on at different points along the way - be it food or night life or culture or religion, etc. When I first saw the show the group was traveling all over the Pacific Rim and actually visited a few places I have been to, like the Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island outside of Hong Kong. It was exciting to see again a place that now seems so far away. After all, it's been over 4 years now since I was there.

It's an interactive show in that they tape, edit, and air each episode all within about a week and a half so you can go to their website to post comments, tips, ideas, and vote on where to go for their final destination.

This time around, the 5 TJs are all from Pacific Rim countries (Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, The Philippians, and Australia) and they are touring around the USA. Their first stop along the way was to spend 5 days in Las Vegas - an interesting first look at the US - and they are off to Alaska for next week's show.

Having traveled a lot myself, I always find it interesting to see how Americans are perceived by the everyday people in other countries. Their view is so filtered by television and other stereotypes that many are only tangentially aware of what the reality is. And the same is true for the general opinions most Americans hold for people of other countries around the world, even moreso in fact.

In my travels with work these past few weeks, my dad and I were listening to the audiobook of Nicholas Sparks' memoir Three Weeks with My Brother. In the book Nicholas and his brother Micah recall their lives growing up while they travel around the world over the course of three weeks in late January and early February 2003. There is a scene from their trip where they are talking with a guide about traveling to the US. The guide had been to major cities and felt that Las Vegas was the epitome of what America is: the lights, the energy, the money, extravagance, the food. For me, and I would presume for most Americans, Vegas is certainly not definitive "America."

But that's what I like about this show, it gives us a number of different perspectives on what the world has to offer. And, this season anyway, we are given a glimpse of how we are viewed by those from other countries. Definitely worth a watch. Here, it's on Saturday nights at 10pm (EST) on the Travel Channel. Take a look!

Out Shooting

On our way back from a meeting in Ocean, NJ yesterday, my dad and I stopped off at Liberty State Park to take some shots (video and stills) of the NYC skyline. It was a great day for it and the light, though not perfect, was really nice. Here's one of my favorite shots of the day.