Fireworks!

This year was my first year getting to photograph fireworks. I read a few articles from Caryn Esplin and POP Photo on how to adjust camera settings to get the best shots. In the end it's really trial and error to get the best images possible. I wanted to get there early enough to set up to find the best angles and fiddle with my camera settings. Unfortunately I got off work a bit late and barely managed to race home, grab my camera and run down the street before they started exploding in the sky. Seeing how large firework displays are a rarity, roughly two times a year, I really had to learn quick and stay on my toes the entire show. I ended up needing to straighten most of the photos because of the low angle that I was at. A few photos are straight out the camera as I had shot them. I only made minor edits to some of them to adjust for exposure values and blacks because the firework show was in the middle of downtown San Antonio where there was excess lighting around the area. I took around 175 pictures and these were the ones that turned out the best. Enjoy... And a happy late Fourth of July to you all...

Go ahead and click on them for a larger format.

f/8 --ISO100 -- 6 sec.

f/4.5 -- ISO100 -- 3 sec.

f/8 -- ISO200 -- 2 sec.

f/8 -- ISO200 -- 3 sec.

f/5.6 -- ISO100 -- 4 sec.

f/4.0 -- ISO100 -- 3 sec.

f/5.6 -- ISO100 -- 3 sec.

f/4 -- ISO200 -- 3 sec.

f/8 -- ISO200 -- 2 sec.

f/8 -- ISO200 -- 6 sec.

f/8 -- ISO200 -- 4 sec.

f/8 -- ISO200 -- 4 sec. 

Feel free to comment or send me a link to your Fourth of July pictures. Thanks for reading/looking!

Ready, Set, Action!

Photoshop can be immensely intimidating even when trying to teach yourself at a slow methodical pace. While browsing through my Pinterest feed the other day, I happened upon a fantastic set of tips and tricks known as actions (found from pioneerwoman.com) that allows you to set a basic layer or cover over your photo to give it an immediate upgraded touch. Click Here to download the set of actions I will be showing you and click Here to learn how to install them into your Photoshop. It's a great way to automatically alter your photo to see how it would look and feel in a couple of clicks instead of adjusting piece by piece. Of course Photoshop has a few default actions, but it's almost like using some of the default fonts in Word for graphic design and they aren't very useful.

Here is an image that is taken straight out of my camera... No post-processing is done, no correction to exposure, white balance, sharpening etc.

Make sure you click on the image to see it full-size.

f/5.6 -- ISO100 -- 1/1000

Then by simply applying an 'action' in Photoshop you have something new!

Fresh and Colorful

 Boost and Quick Edge Burn

Bring on the eyes. A basic layer mask that allows you to select what parts of the photo to highlight.

Colorized

Cooler

Ethereal

Heartland

Old West

Vintage

Warmer

Overall I think actions can be quite useful when needing to apply a similar style to a large group of photos. It's quite fun to see all the possibilities that one image can eventually become. Do you have any experience with using actions in your photos? Please share in the comments what you've learned or like about using actions in your work.

What is art?

     This post is about a conversation I had with a man a few weeks ago in downtown San Antonio, Texas.  Since May when I jumped onto the photography train I have been talking with everyone I see that has a camera, asking them what model they have, why they like it and what attracts them to photography. It's a great way to network and pick up some fun tips along the way. One day I came across a man who is currently enrolled in a master's program for photography in San Antonio. He had a Canon 5D MkII and a wicked awesome lens that far exceeds my current understanding of picture taking ability. See it here Canon TS-E 24mm Tilt-Shift. After the usual banter of why he prefers Canon over Nikon and what he was doing in town, our conversation took an unusual turn into art and its meaning. I rarely get philosophical in my own life, let alone with a man I just met in the front of my store. The statement that I remember most from our conversation was his idea that 'art is pain'. We explored what he meant by that a little more and he gave an example of a few artists (the names of which I have since forgotten) that dealt greatly with the influence of pain, hurt and sorrow in life. One of them had taken a picture of her sister each day when she was diagnosed with a disease. I also remember him saying something to the effect of, "each day is a tragedy that leads us closer to death." He later went on to explain color patterns and their meanings and we eventually ended up at discussing the importance of the histogram when shooting. I never will figure out how we went from pain and death to the histogram in a matter of 15 minutes. Normally I would think he was a little off his rocker but I could at least tell he was an intelligent person with a deep philosophical mindset. For all I know he could have been testing out his graduate thesis to see how it would be received by a t-shirt salesmen. I literally meet with hundreds of people a day working in a tourist mecca right next to the Alamo and get to briefly know many of them, so it's fairly significant that I specifically remember this conversation with this man about his idea that art is pain.

     Before this conversation I had never really contemplated the meaning of art with much intensity or  depth. I had taken a few art classes while in school and have personally been to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California and the Louve in Paris, France. I have seen beautiful pieces of art spanning multiple centuries in person and most recently been exposed to wonderful photographers capturing stunning images from across the globe and to even connect with them through the Internet. My previous interactions with high art and photography have been from a historical angle and the ability to capture a moment in time. I am a fairly simple minded person and can respect and understand great things in the world. Although, I had never equated strong emotion or deep messages to photography or historical pieces of art. This recent conversation I had with this man has begun to change my previous thinking process and challenge the way I view the world around me. By no means have I come to terms with the idea that 'art is pain'. This encounter has allowed me to begin my journey to better define what I think art is. I waited to write about my story with this man because I have been trying to figure out how I felt and if I could come to a reasonable conclusion or better define it for myself. My initial attempts have been centered around beauty, wonder and creation. After a few weeks I have slowly come out of my own think tank and come to the realization that, "What is art?" is one of the most amazing questions of our humanity that may never have a single worded answer. If I have learned anything about art and photography in recent weeks it's that art is evolutionary and will continue to expand and change the way we view the world around us.

A few photos from the weekend...

So I have been going through a book by Scott Kelby on learning CS5 for Digital Photographers which can be found here, Photoshop by Scott Kelby. (I don't get paid for you clicking on any links that I post, so don't worry you're not funding my morning bowl of Cheerios.) There has been so much to learn on working from Camera Raw, I have been spending a significant amount of time learning how to adjust for exposure, white balance, and contrast.

The following eleven photos deal mostly with adjusting for those things, along with my continuing fascination with HDR. Click here for trial versions of Photomatix! All of these images are handheld without a tripod. So if a more experienced eye happens upon these images and they see something out of focus in an HDR image, then the absence of a tripod may be on the list of reasons. Please feel free to leave any comments in the comments section below!

All images shot with a Canon 60D with a kit lens EF-S18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Click on the images to see them in a larger format.

unedited image taken straight from camera

Statue of the Defenders and Emily Morgan Hotel: San Antonio, TX

f/22 -- 1/90 -- ISO 200 -- 31mm

I tried to cool down the temperature to get the sky a deeper blue. I also tried enhancing the exposure and brightness just to get the building to pop a little more.

HDR image of three bracketed images. Exposure: -2, 0, +2. Currently I use Photomatix Essentials for my merging. There are five main sliders to adjust the image: strength, color saturation, luminosity, detail contrast, and lighting adjustments. I am teaching myself, so right now I basically adjust the sliders until I get something that I like. Thankfully each of the sliders has a definition to understand what it is doing to the image. HDR is its own kind of art form that takes special skill to master. I do really like what I came up with from what I shot though.

unedited taken straight from camera

Statue of the Defenders: San Antonio, TX

f/22 -- 1/30 -- ISO 100 -- 18mm

Adjustments made were the white balance, brightness, contrast and clarity.

HDR Image. Exposure: -2, 0, +2

Merging my three images gave it a really cool feel as it were burning. Color saturation, luminosity and lighting adjustments were the key factors in achieving this result.

 

unedited taken straight from camera

The Alamo: San Antonio, TX

f/5.6 -- 1/750 -- ISO 100 -- 18mm -- Exposure -2, 0, +2

HDR Image

This was a lot of experimentation. I was trying out Photomatix Pro and for my current skill level it has a lot going on. I liked the color the building turned out but I felt it was a little over saturated and burnt.

 I also couldn't figure out how to keep the richness of the building while bringing back the green of the trees.

HDR: same bracketed exposures from the image above but edited differently. I went back to Photomatix Essentials for this image. I was able to keep the trees feeling much more alive. In terms of control using different programs, right now I feel that less might be more. 

unedited taken straight from camera

f/5.6 -- 1/45 -- ISO 100 -- 87mm 

I'm not sure which image I like more. The unedited version above came out pretty nice. I changed the white balance to daylight and upped the contrast and clarity to try and bring out the fur on his body, which also made the grass and tree he was around seem darker.

f/3.5 -- 1/250 -- ISO 100 -- 18mm

I used a creative filter on my camera to get the blurred top and bottom effect. Other than that it is untouched. I liked how the larger aperture placed emphasis on the letters closest to the lens and slowly blurred out the running lines. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

If you've made it this far, thank you very much for taking the time to browse through my post today. I plan to have another post in the next day or two, so keep checking back for new updates!

See Something New Everyday...

Hello fellow friends, bloggers and photography entrepreneurs!

I've learned quite a bit about photography over the past two months from all sorts of places and I wanted to share with you some amazing places to learn new things. Of course I will be sharing my own photos and knowledge with you over time but it's always nice to have a huge pool of information to draw from because everyone learns in their own unique way. If you're anything like me you spend hours and hours in front of the computer looking for better ways to improve what you are currently doing and finding a style that you connect with. Below I've listed some amazing artist's web sites, some of which are geared toward learning and others which have amazing photos that we can all appreciate. Enjoy!

www.ImprovePhotography.com

I found Improve Photography when I was questioning Google about photography. I have to admit this one of my favorites. This site has fantastic online beginner photography lessons for a completely reasonable price. There are wonderfully written articles with all sorts of tips and tricks about your camera, better ways to shoot and fair reviews on goodies for your gear bag.

www.DigitalPhotographySchool.com

The name pretty much speaks for itself. This place has everything from photo tips, gear reviews and post production. One of my favorite things about this site is the forum section and all the helpful and educated comments on so many of the posts. If you have a question, this is one of the best places to have it answered.

www.1X.com

If you want to dream of taking amazing beautiful pictures, this is place to do it. 1X has a wide range of photos with just about every category you could think of. If you feel your images are 1X material, you can join their site for free and post your photos there. They have a great community of artists that will critique your work and give valuable feedback. I love the idea of having people from all over the world give each other advice on how we can improve as photographers. 

www.CarynEsplin.com

Caryn is a visual media professor at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho. She showcases some of her students work on her blog and is also a wonderful photographer and designer herself. If you are interested in HDR or light painting then is a great place for you to explore. She also frequently posts contests you can enter as well as tips and tutorials. 

Shikhei Goh

If you are even remotely interested in macro photography... Stop everything you are doing, including reading this blog and see the images that Shikhei has captured. He has absolutely jaw-dropping images with beautiful color and interesting subjects. I am amazed at his ability to capture some of the worlds smallest creatures.

www.RichardBernabe.com

Nature, wildlife and travel photography is the name of his game. I just found Richard this week through Twitter. Yes, through Twitter! I was quite surprised to say the least. I have a serious affinity for landscape and wildlife photography and Richard has definitely captured my attention.

Jim Harmer

I just had to put up a link for Jim Harmer. This is the creator of Improve Photography. I just really like Jim's story, his style of photography and what he stands for in the photography world. And to me he stands for the idea that anything is possible if you love it enough. Thanks Jim!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hope you have seen something you liked or found a new place to reference for your own work. If anyone has any other places they look to for inspiration or places to learn from, please post them in the comments section below. 

Click, Click... HDR

If you are reading this, you may very well be familiar with HDR photography. If you're not familiar with it, the basic definition is: combing multiple images of different exposures to create a more dramatic visual image. It's a very interesting form of photography that I have yet to pass judgement on. After seeing and hearing so much about HDR I finally decided to roll the dice to see what I could come up with in my apartment. Here is one image of the three I combined to make my final image...

f 3.5 -- ISO 200 -- 1/8

I turned on my camera, set it to Aperture Priority, dialed in my exposure brackets, set my elbows on the table in front of me as a makeshift tripod and click, click, click. I then compiled my images with Photomatix and this is what I came up with... (Photomatix is a photo editing software geared for HDR photography. I have heard great things about it and read great reviews so I downloaded a trial version to test it out for myself)

Now... I am not sure what your reaction to this is, but I was and am quite astonishingly blown away. I can understand why some photographers detest HDR photography because it doesn't take much to turn an ordinary photo into something quite fantastic. However, the rules of photography still apply in terms of your subject, rule of thirds, proper framing, composition, lighting and even proper exposure are still needed to create something special. Keep in mind, the above image is only a quick throw together of an HDR image. There are definitely some incredibly talented individuals out there doing amazing work. I am excited to learn more and develop my understanding of HDR. Check out Caryn Esplin's blog to see the potential of where this form of art can take you, http://www.carynesplin.com/hdr/

What are your thoughts on HDR photography?

Everyone has a lucky day...

Everyone has a lucky day once in a while with photography. Here are, in my opinion, three lucky moments that I got with my old Casio EX-Z700. These were all taken on auto mode and nothing has been done to them in Photoshop or any other editing software. Obviously they aren't the most stunning photographs known to man. These are simply a few photos that I have taken that spiked my interest in photography in the past. Click on the pictures for a larger image.

This was taken on a moving train from Poznan to Warsaw in Poland. You can see someone's hand sticking out of a window on the right hand side. The building amazingly stayed in focus and the colors turned out quite nice. 

This is the end of a day of snowboarding at Grand Targhee in Wyoming. I don't know why or how the sky does the things it does, but it can quite stunning.

This is looking down Ulica Dluga in Gdansk, Poland. I wish I knew what I was doing when I took this photo, it had so much potential in terms of sharpness.

--------------------------------------

That will most likely be all the pictures I post from earlier days. Everything I post from here on out will be from my Canon 60D and be filled with all sorts of fun stuff I am learning on a daily basis. Thanks for taking the time to read/look.

Choosing a camera takes work...

In April I had decided to teach myself the ins and outs of digital photography. There was one problem though, I didn't have a DSLR. I had an old Casio point and shoot that had served its purpose over the years. But I knew if I really wanted to learn about photography and make any type of significant improvements I needed a DSLR. DSLR's allow for a much more personal and adjustable approach to photography, letting the user take more control over the image. Deciding to jump into the DSLR market was just the tip of the iceberg.


I then started to read enormous amounts of information about cameras, which brand to go with, what was a good beginner camera. I was a constant repeat visitor to Best Buy for two weeks straight, handling different camera models, asking all the questions I could think of, and staying up many late nights deciphering all the information I could get my eyes on. There are some very talented and knowledgeable individuals about cameras out there, between the people at Best Buy and the multiple reviews from sites like,  Snap Sort, Camera Labs, Digital Photography School, and a great article from Improve Photography on the battle of Canon and Nikon. I also requested the help of many friends on Facebook to talk with me about what they use and like.


In the end after much internal deliberation and testing, I chose the Canon EOS 60D. I wanted something a step above the true beginner line that I could grow into but also knew I shouldn't mess around with the price point or the features of a pro model camera. The 60D fit both of those and also felt like magic in my hands. I think when someone is deciding over a DSLR purchase, no matter how much you read and decode reviews on the internet, the thing that matters most is what feels best in your own hands. Many more posts to come as I learn about my beautiful 60D and the magic that is photography.