...A Couple More... For Now

 Here are two more photos for now until I finish working on the others.

 This was taken behind Cordage Park in Plymouth, MA in an area designated as a safe place for the public to roam and walk around. I used Camera Raw (shot in RAW format) to add texture and contrast to this group of otherwise dull concrete blocks. I wanted to accentuate the wear and tear as well as give texture and contrast to the differences in color and depth of each block. I edited this with the intent of re-creating what it looked like in my memory.

This was an experiment in infrared photography, using a 760nm IR filter and converted it to black and white. Green vegetation always looks white and sometimes slightly fuzzy (typically due to movement because of long exposure times) and the blue sky will always have a very dark and gloomy look. This was taken after noon on a sunny day with my aperture set to f8 and shutter speed at 20 seconds with my ISO set to 200.

....And More

I didn't want to add too many photos at once so I decided to split them up into a few posts so they wouldn't be too cluttered.

This was taken at Cordage Park in Plymouth, MA behind an abandoned old building that was falling apart. It's an old gas line cutoff valve of some kind. I used the Camera Raw filter (originally shot in RAW format) and added some texture and sharpness for detail and slightly adjusted the color contrast in order to see the differences between the dead grass and the valve.

This is a light post located on Cole's Hill across from the Plimoth Rock. I adjusted the vibrance and saturation to accentuate the rustic look of this great light fixture!

Same hill as the light post, but a few yards south. I used an action file in PhotoShop to get this effect and I added just a bit of detail to accentuate the shiny metal casing.

This is an abandoned smoke stack behind Cordage Park in Plymouth, MA. All the red and white specks on the ground are the remains of a demolished building that once was there. I only slightly edited this because I actually framed it exactly how I wanted it and all I did to in in post-processing was to slightly saturate the colors and adjusted the contrast just a bit. The sky was perfect and I use a UV filter on my lens, which helps get that dark blue hue.

 ....more to come....

It's Been A While....

I haven't posted in a while due to some personal changes I have been going through lately, but here is some of my most recent work. I've been trying new things and getting new equipment to experiment with. I hope you enjoy!

This was taken in a marshy area near the Marshfield/Duxbury beaches in Massachusetts. I used 10 images, taken at different exposure levels, combined to create a genuine HDR image. Then I tweaked some of the settings to get the look and feel that I wanted, which typically for me is LOTS of TEXTURE!

This next image was taken in Plymouth with the "Plimoth Rock" behind me. I was looking up at the sky and was instantly inspired to create an inverted image, but then I changed my mind after I saw the result of my original shot. Instead, I decided to adjust the colors a bit until I got a sort of surreal looking color effect.

This photo was taken at the Plymouth waterfront and i took several photos just of the birds flying around trying to get one "just right" of one of them taking off. It was cold and windy and highly uncomfortable but I finally got a decent shot. This photo was cropped down from the original and the colors and tones edited to my liking. I also used the Camera Raw filter in PhotoShop to add some texture and sharpness.

More to come, stay tuned!

Droste Self

I found a website that allows you to make a Droste style photo using their online editing method. Everything is done and contained within the webpage it is located on which is: http://www.photospiralysis.com/WebAppGamma/RunApp.html and it works pretty well. I was happy with the result, but not happy about the method and the lack of options. I prefer that Adobe Pixel Bender would work properly and allow me to use the effects that I've downloaded through Adobe to get my desired results. Sometimes simplicity is not fit for what I'm trying to do, but nonetheless, here is my result.

Taking Out The Laundry

I decided to do some experimentation with these photos I took of myself. I intended on doing this but I wasn't sure how they were going to fit together in order to get the result I wanted. I made an attempt and this is what I got. I consider it phase 1 because there's a lot more I could do to it, but I like to do things kind of "quick and dirty" at first just to get the idea from my head onto the screen. I know if you look closely you can see exactly what I did, but as I said its a quick and dirty edit for now. So here it is:

The Path

This is another older photo I worked on today. Cropped it down, added a little HDR toning, amped the color saturation up a bit for depth, and this was the end result. I'm learning that properly cropping a photo helps A LOT in creating a very pleasing image. I always hated cropping because my thought was, "If I took the photo that way, then that's the way I wanted it.", but by cropping out some unneeded details and even some out of place objects, you end up with a completely different composition. It's kind of like taking a story and rewriting a poem from it. It's still telling the same tale, just in a different way. i was actually quite amazed at what a difference it made to crop it the way I did. Just for fun I will add the original photo under the edited one. Another thing I'd like to point out is that my edited image began as a RAW image and the image below my edit is the "JPEG" version of the original.

Icy River

This is an older photo that I decided to edit slightly to give it more life. I spiced it up a bit and made it a bit more interesting to look at. Brightened the colors and added some saturation and contrast. I'm much happier with this version of it. I also fiddled with the hue and color adjustment to make it more realistic and true to the original scene.