Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Blair Nicole Photography | Allure CD & Reception Book

Woo Hoo! More assorted eye candy from Blair of Blair Nicole Photography! First up is a few samples of an "Allure CD Label" in which Blair customized the colors to fit her logo, don't you love it?! Then we have a Reception Book with some super fun photo's of a gorgeous couple. (I am loving the bride-to-be's purple jacket...and boots – okay, I just want that outfit!) :) Blair said,
Here are a few disks I've printed for clients. I have them printed through mpixpro and LOVE them! :) Next is one of the guest books I have made using the template from you guys...it is so fun and gives guest books so much personality. Its the one thing I get so excited to show clients at our meetings. And just recently I have changed all of our packages to include these guest books.


Connected, Disconnected and Suffering


What is more of an odd feeling, being connected or disconnected?

Tuesday morning I am drinking coffee and sharing a piece of toast with my daughter. The news headline is that President Obama will being holding his address to the nation tonight and the topic will be on the end of the war in Iraq.

Accept for news headlines I have been disconnected from this war. Sure, I have shared my opinions during conversation (my opinion is war sucks, George Bush was wrong and Saddam Hussein was evil, good riddance). But I was never connected to the war. I have not met one soldier who served. I have not met one family affected by the loss of a loved one. I have not met one community suffering from the loss of the young men and women who have left home to serve. (God bless you, all of you for your services)

The last decade in America was war. How could I have not been affected at all? How could I feel no pain or see no suffering? How could I not even have been a spectator?

I am sorry for my actions. For my disconnect. I am sorry for the prayers that I have not offered up.

Later in the day I walked to the bank and then to the post office and then to the drug store. I buy shampoo. I stand in the cashier's line waiting to pay behind an old man buying his daily newspaper. His mobile phone rings…”yes, they are shipping home the body today from Afghanistan.” He pays for his paper I pay for my shampoo.

When I walk out of the drug store I see the man leaning against his car crying, trying to recompose himself.

I feel connected.

Monica Emrick | Fresh -n- Clean

I am loving this "fresh -n- clean" business card sample sent in from Monica Emrick!! Monica used super fun fonts & bold modern colors to create an awesome card. Monica said,
I absolutely LOVE the products from The Album Cafe! I downloaded this free template just to make sure I could work the layers and I LOVE how it turned out!

Look Mom it's Me

Coolest tripod ever!!!!! If you want to see the photo that I took click (HERE)

Monday, August 30, 2010

Walk About...I-Drive

I used to go on walk abouts all the time. My favorite place was International drive. Its a long strip filled with hotels and shops for tourists but its a nice place to walk as well. Last year I would go there just about everyday as I relaly loved walking. But after getting a full time job my walking days have come to be very few. I had been wanting to get back there and since I bought some new shoes today I-Drive would be a great place to break them in.
I saw this and thought it would be an awesome ad. A Harley store with a Harley in the front.

Besides hotels and touristy shops there are also some amusement and attractions on the strip.  This is Wonder Works a place that is a mixture of Ripleys, Video Games, and Science.  

This is a new hotel they just built.  The smaller one is behind this but this it's he biggest hotel on the strip and its pretty breath taking.

Next to the hotel there is a large Market place that has about hundred restaurants and shops and even a large movie theater.  This is the new section they have built.  Its probably the most color and original in the whole place.

So colorful and such a great mural.

More restaurants and shops.

Another day with the Pentax ist D and the FA 28-80 lens.  I've gotten my work flow down and what used to take me a few weeks it only takes a day to do with the editing and stuff. 
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Native American heritage, revisited


This is a second, and final, post of images from Saturday's shoot at the Native American Heritage Days observance at Garfield Park, Indianapolis.

All but one of these images are from the various dances in the dance circle at the observance. The image at the very bottom came after an all-female dance number, when LeRoy Malaterre of Lebanon, Ind., who served as emcee for the various routines, asked each of the women to come to the microphone and introduce themselves. This woman was the first to be introduced. She said she lives in Indiana, but is from Oklahoma, which will always be home.










Published: Whirl Wedding Guide

The Whirl Wedding Guide hits the stands on Thursday this week, they decided to pick up a few of our photos from our weddings! We even got 2 full pages. To see all the photos you click over to Elizabeth's blog (HERE)


Sunday, August 29, 2010

Lake Eola Sundays

I had not been out to Lake Eola in a few months since I've been so busy with other fun stuff on my free Sundays. But I got back there after running some erands...since I was near by. Not much has changed but there seems to be less people.
I saw this vacant building and fired the camera quick as I was at a red light. My Pentax istD is seems to have been reborn since I have started using Eneloop Batteries.

It was a cloudy day and when I saw this shot I thought of skywatch Fridays...I'm sure this will fit right in with their other pictures.

The Tea Party has moved into the the neighborhood and they carry around the first American flag.  I guess it fits right in with their ideals of a revolution.  But it seems they are going a bit backwards than forwards.  What is it that makes us cling to the past.  Are we really so afraid of the future.  I guess in these times we are all scared.

This is a memorial statue for Vets.

There was a long field of flowers and I caught this lonely butterfly busy at work.   It was a cloudy all day and I was using a low ISO so the shutter was slow.  This is the first time I've ever caught actual wing flutter which is nice...and different.

One of the reason I enjoy going to the Farmer's Market at Lake Eola is to listen to Joseph Martins play.  He has such a deep folk-y American voice...a mix of Johnny Cash and perhaps Niel Young.  He sings some old classics and some of his originals.  He used to be the singer for the Hindu Cowboys.   

There isn't much to do in Orlando, out side of the tourist stuff.  It's not like New York or Los Angeles.  Here is everyone's favoite past time.  You can drink at home or go out to one of the hundreds of bar/pubs they have around town.  

Here is another place located on the Lake. Its a nice place to eat but do they even serve food here.

On my way home I caught this graffiti on the side of a little Spanish Grocery.  These little stores have popped up all over town serving cooked food and they are usually plenty busy.

Ahhhhh....American Metal.  There aren't too many things built of steel anymore these days but Harley's are what America used to be all about.  Quality, workmanship, and pride.  

I caught this shot going back to my car.  its just one of those shots where you're like hmmm what do i see here. There area around Lake Eola has really been elevated in the last few years.  The area is called Thornton Park and its a but upscale and there many nice cars to photograph.

On the road I saw this old classic.  More American metal.  This is just like the Harley Before.  Many people have restored cars around here and they cruise them on Sundays.  There is also a place called Old Town than has classic car shows every Friday.  But this little gem is a dream

That's it for this Sunday.
All these shots were shot with a Pentax ist D and a FA 28-80 lens.  My old little camera is no match for the hot rod cameras that are out these days but much like the Harley and the old classic car above it is made of solid steel and though I never expect any trouble in my photography adventures, I'm sure if I ever ran into trouble, my camera could surely be used as a weapon for its feels like a metal brick.  The camera has recently come back to life after installing new Eneloop Batteries.  The camera actually function and feels brand new. 
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Saturday, August 28, 2010

Appreciating Native American heritage

These are images from activities and crafts found Saturday at the second annual Native American Heritage Days observance at Garfield Park in Indianapolis. The photographs depict several shots from the dance and circle drum activity just outside the Art Center at the park.

The woman with the uplifted head (two photos below) stood out to me this day; she seemed very devoted to the heritage and wore an elegant, proud expression throughout the day. Her eyes were closed in meditative fashion quite often, so this wasn't an "oops, he caught her blinking" mistake.

In the third photo below, a woman assists a child who's confused (as was I) about the dollar bills someone or some people were tossing her way (you can see one of the greenbacks near the woman's right foot; the girl is looking right at it). I think they meant it as a gesture of gratitude, but I couldn't help but scratch my head wondering how that ever entered the Native American tradition.

The observance runs one more day -- Sunday, Aug. 29 -- from noon to 5 p.m.















Give a dull landscape a vibrant photographic effect

This tutorial will show you how to transform a dull photo of a waterscape into a vibrant image with a photographic effect. This easy technique can be used to enhance your personal travel pictures or your photographer’s portfolio.

1. Start off by downloading this image and opening it in Photoshop.



2. Then, duplicate the layer and set the resulting layer to grayscale. Then, with a medium soft brush, mask out everything but the sky (it doesn’t have to be perfect), as shown below:



3. Next, we’re going to add some better clouds to replace this rather dull sky. Download this image and position it as shown below over the image and mask away everything but the sky. Set the layer’s blending mode to Darken.



4. Then, we’re going to create a vivid photographic effect that will bring out the best in this image, by adding several adjustment layers as follows:

Add a new Hue/Saturation… adjustment layer with the settings below:



Add a new Channel Mixer adjustment layer with the following settings:



Add a new Curves… adjustment layer and modify the RGB curves as shown:




Add a new Selective Color… adjustment layer with the settings below:



Finally, add another Hue/Saturation… adjustment layer:



At this point, the image should look something like this:



5. To add a dark vignette effect, create a new layer and paint on its edges with a very large, round and soft brush, to get something similar to this:



6. Flatten the image and add a dark gray border (exact color: #212121) by going to Image -> Canvas Size… and using these settings:



7. Go to Filter -> Sharpen -> Smart Sharpen… and use the following settings:



The final result: