Monday, November 29

Melancholy

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Autumn sometimes gets me down. Rita and I were homebound this weekend. Missed a nice evening at friends' home. It is true, Autumn is a time when one starts to miss things, huh?

Of course this is a rework of an image I did some Autumns back at East Dennis on Cape Cod.

The first freeze came this morning and killed the flowers. Some seemed startled in their crystal casings especially the youngest blooms which had only begun to blossom. They were caught in that clear syrup of glassy death which only after minutes of sun caused them to wrinkle, brown, and droop from their leafy homes. I'm guessing they felt pretty safe last night... but somewhere in their sleep... Their season ended.

And they are among the things that Fall causes you to miss, huh?

Sunday, November 21

SIZZZZZLE!

<- Borrowed my friend Chris's Bugatti last Sunday and took it to Musser Park nearby to my home here in Lancaster. Wanted to pop this beast out of the rich lighting. I'm not a MotorHead. But the art of design makes me twitch. And the Veyron ... well now this is one manly beast! And probably a chick magnet, huh?


GEEK STUFF Here's Chris's Bugatti Veyron shot with my Canon 70D through the Canon EFS 17-85mm (f4-5.6) in macro mode. Post processing happened with CS/PS4 • Topaz • AlienSkin Bokeh, AlienSkin SnapArt/Water Color • Custom Brushes • Custom Textures all upon a background captured one night in Intercourse, PA.

Saturday, November 20

Playin' W/Texture

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Nothing profound, deep, or even thoughtful powered this thing. Nope. Probably pretty shallow actually. My last post was an effort to pull mood from an idea through the use of textures. And the response has been amazing. Thanks to everyone who sent me email both ere and from the other forums where it's appeared. The reaction actually made me want to investigate texture technique farther. So.... I turned to my most accommodating model... Me! See, I wanted to see how textures could work in portraiture. But as you can see the results need not be flattering. And since almost everyone else who's trusted me to take their portrait was not interested in a purposely unattractive result... well that, you see, explains why I've again asked me to be the subject.

Moreover, I wanted to see how I could use both texture and AlienSkin's SnapArt together to create a dramatic result which would pop from the monitor. At a 4th of July picnic I loaned my camera and long zoom lens to a young friend who'd never used that kind of equipment before. Nice thing about a 70-300mm lens on camera w/ a crop frame sensor... the photographer can take candids virtually unknown to the subjects. Okay.... but then what?

Here's what happens when I recrop, diddle with the dynamic range, use Alien Skin's Bokeh to create a shallow depth of field... then carefully mask in a texture over key parts of the image.... and finally apply various parts of masked layers which were differently filtered through SnapArt's Oil option.

Of course I used PS4 to further enhance the dynamic range to deepen the drama of shadows while cranking up the highlights.

Lots of stuff. Now... seriously... Critiques anyone?

Thursday, November 4

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Chill breeze puffs
The day before a
First frost
Crackles summer
Away with
The boat for
Winter.

GEEK STUFF: Chesapeake Bay, MD. • Canon 20D: Canon EF-S 10-22mm (f3.5-4.5), PS/CS4, Topaz, AlienSkin/SnapArt/Watercolor, Custom strokes, textures, brushes, filters.