Before and After

I did some major post processing on these images just to see what kind of looks I could get with a combination of HD and Orton landscape treatment. Just to give you an idea of how different the images are from their originals I have included the plain Jane originals with the final product. No offenses to any Janes' out there. Love you all. Tell me what you think and Thanks for Watching.

Orton Landscape Effect

So I got these great steps from Richard Hockett of Sun Ridge Photo on how to do a painterly effect on landscape images called the Orton Effect. This effect was developed by a photographer named Micheal Orton who used it with film. I love that this method that was developed with film has translated so well for digital process. Now I want to also try it out on film. I just need to build that dark room. But I still want to have my bathroom, but that is a whole other issue. Enjoy and Thanks for watching.

Santa Barbara Orchid Show

Flowers are amazing things. That they come is such a large variety and color by themselves is wonderful. That within one species such as the orchid there can be hundreds of variations is even more amazing. I went to the orchid show with a group of people from http://www.meetup.com/Santa-Barbara-International-Photography-Group/. This is a local group of photography enthusiasts with various skill levels. It was fun to get together with other people that just like to shoot photographs. But then to do it at an orchid show was even better. I really recommend you check out the next time there is an orchid show in town or where ever you are. Thanks for watching.

Support Your Local Farmer

I remember when I was a kid there was a promotional poster showing all kinds of different careers and how they contributed to society. For Example, The teacher would teach and educate people when they needed it. The fireman would protect our homes when we needed it. The police would protect us when we needed it. And in the middle of this poster was a picture of a hard working farmer with the caption, The farmers feeds all of us. It may be hard to think about if you did not have an education but you could live with food or if you lost your home to fire but you could live with food, or if you were in danger but you could live as long as you had food. Think about it a little and then go hug a farmer because he is the one that helps put food in front of you. Support your local farmer. Thanks for watching.

Turkey Vulture

Up close, a Turkey Vulture looks like a skin condition gone bad on top of a pile of dirty feathers, in flight they are majestic gliders that knew about the power of wind long before man. Most birds spend a lot of energy flapping about to get from one place to another or to seek food or mates. The Vulture has figured the easy way to find food is to just hang out on the air currents and look for something slow, very slow. Now trying to get a sharp picture of one of these birds might seem easy but try guessing which direction they will turn and have your camera focused on that spot at the same time you are panning with them and you will see how hard it is. Thanks for watching.

HDR cattle pen

I was driving home from doing an afternoon shoot at the local CSA where I had trouble working with the wind and the light to get some good shots, (images coming soon), when I saw these old overgrown cattle chutes that were only going to be in sunlight for another 30 minutes. I had just finished talking with Richard Hockett of SunRidge Photo, http://www.sunridgephoto.com/, about a future HDR workshop and I thought this would be a good subject to shoot for HDR processing. The wind was still blowing the weeds around but I tried to shoot fast and minimize the winds affects. The images worked well for HDR and were fun to shoot. Tell me what you think. Thanks for watching and share with your friends.

Darlene

Darlene and I spent the day shopping on her birthday and we bought a fun new board game. Not exactly monopoly. It has quite a few more pieces and was designed by a math professor. Anyway the playing pieces are a thick cardboard that came in the grid you see before Darlene's face. We were sitting in Starbucks checking out the new game and she held the grid up in front of her face and I loved the framing it created and took a few shots. The light was great coming in through the window and created the right amount of drama. I decided to de-saturate the first image as like most photographers that can't get the color to work out correctly just remove it.



This image the color cooperated with me so no de-saturation. I love the look she is giving me to. Kind of serious and kind of playful. She just may sucker punch you or tickle you. Either way she keeps me guessing and helps keep life fun and interesting.

Blue Berry?

Ok, so I couldn't resist a little visual pun. Love the way it turned out though.

Farm fresh

I am going to be doing some shooting for my local farm stand and thought I would share some of my first images. The strawberry's just looked amazing especially after the rains. All of the plants had these wonderful water drops on them that just reflected some amazing light. The Jasmine blossoms were especially great to capture with all of the little water drops hanging off of them. I had to wear my mud boots to get out to the field as it was very wet and dirty just like a good farm should be. Enjoy and Thanks for watching.