Calgary- 3/19/11

     Calgary was a very interesting trip to say the least. . . Even though we had some minor set back as far as a good trip would go, we still had a lot of fun.  On the first day and at the first rail we got (the kid in the first picture) Jacob Nelson dislocated his ribs. Yes, you heard that right.. he dislocated his ribs.  I didn't think that was possible either. So to say the least Jacob was pretty bummed out after that, considering he couldn't snowboard the rest of the trip. Then we wake up the next day to some Meth addict getting busted at our super 8 motel. It was pretty awesome and there was about 4 cops there.  On the second day, we face one of the biggest rails I have ever hit before and I take a fall and my whole body goes numb (probably one of the scariest things I've experienced).  I thought I had possibly broken my neck so we figured better be safe than sorry. In the end I didn't break my neck.. thank God. After that  we celebrated that my neck wasn't broken by getting some pizza that night as well as some beer (because its legal in canada) and that was just a swell night. The next day we went to one more spot and headed home after that.  Even though we had some set backs on the trip it still was pretty successful and we all 

had a lot of fun. 

     As far as talking about the pictures go, instead of talking about each individual picture, I am going to do a general description of how I edited all of them above the pictures. And if I happened to do a lot of editing on one, then I would expand and talk about that picture more below it.  In saying that, I was really stoked that I got to use my 60d more on this trip.. the pictures have been turning out great and the options are endless compared to the rebel I had before this camera. I really am liking it. 

     For all of these pictures, I bumped the contrast about 75 percent of the way up.  I darkened a lot of the corners with the vignetting tool and on a couple of the pictures I turned the clarity up a hair.  For most of them the temperature colored turned out good how I wanted them.  I really like on the pictures I took of jacob how he is so clear and his face is lit up but the background behind him his blown out white.  I've never really taken pictures like that and I really like how they turned out. 

I got my inspiration from a well respected old time professional snowboarder and is currently photographer and successful business man in the snowboard industry. His name is Robbie Sell.

http://www.robbiesell.com/

Ravens are tight- 3/12/11

     These pictures are from when I traveled through Targhee into Jackson Hole Wyoming.  The mountain ranges are the Teton mountains and they are massive.  I think these photos turned out alright this week.  I did a little more editing than usual on the photos of the raven.  The last few posts I've done a lot of landscape photos, therefore, hopefully in the next few weeks I can have more pictures of people.  Let me know what you think of the pictures.  I will describe each one below. 

This is a pretty cool shot.  I like how that one boulder is balancing perfectly on top of the other rock in the right side of the photo. For editing, I obviously desaturated the picture, bumped the contrast, also the clarity a little, and then darkened the corners of the photo by using the vignetting tool. 

This is a picture of the Teton mountains.  They are beautiful to say the least.   These mountains are so powerful but still at the same time.  They are completely in control and they show people who is boss.  For editing on this one and the picture below,  I bumped the contrast and thats about it.  And on this one I desaturated it.  

This would be a raven in the middle of a desert.  NOT.  Ha i gotcha, actually this is on snow  but it looks like it is a desert. Pretty cool ehh. 

This picture is great.  I really really like how this one turned out.  I did a little more work on this picture than usual.  I first desaturated the photo and bumped the contrast.  That initially turned the raven completely black like the photo below.  I didn't want the photos to be that similar so I chose to make this photo more grey and put more detail into the raven.  I wanted this to turn out like a charcoaled drawing.  It seriously looks like someone took out their charcoaled pencil and etched out this raven.  Anyways, I believe this turned out pretty well and hopefully I can do more photos like this.

Same raven as the other two up above.  I turned down the exposure some to make it darker and then I desaturated it and turned up the contrast.

This picture was taken on Highway 22 the road that separates Targhee from Jackson Hole Wyoming.   I like how the picture is straight and the electrical tower is lopsided as a result of the slope.  the colors turned out pretty cool and the low clouds added a cool affect to the photo.  For editing, I turned down the vibrance tiny bit I believe, then bumped the contrast, and then darkened the corners with the vignetting tool.

This shot was over a bridge and it was taken way over exposed and everything was blown out.  Once I got it in photoshop, I  turned down the exposure a lot, bumped the contrast and then sharpened it a little. I like how the railing kind of frames the middle of the river.

I got my inspiration from Kevin Westenbarger

http://www.kevinwestenbarger.com/

The Forgotten but should not be overlooked 3/4/11

     I can't emphasize enough how awesome it is taking pictures while you are on the road.  I believe the reason why so many good pictures turn out (on the road in a photographers mind) is because the road is taking the photographer to new locations; unknown territories that sparks excitement from being in a different place.  I would go on a limb and say some of my best photos (the photos I like the most) have been shooting from a car.  I took these pictures on my way back home from Colorado and I completely spaced about them once I got home.  I forgot about them because when I got home, my new 60D Canon was awaiting me to tear into.  As a result of a new camera, I forgot about these photos.  Even though these were forgotten for some time, there is no reason why these should be overlooked and not put out there for people to see.  Please anyone who looks at my pictures.. it would be great to get some feedback so I can analyze your negative comments to possibly better my photography skills. Thanks for stopping by, see you next week. 

This picture was the first part of my trip on the to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  To say the least, it is awesome there.  There isn't to many people, it's peaceful and has quiet plains, and most it importantly, shooting up from those plains are massive mountains full of snow.  The sun was coming through the clouds shining onto the hills.  This is a nice picture but it would of been a whole lot better if the telephone wires weren't there.  Oh well though.. you win some and lose some.  For editing, I pumped the contrast and the clarity and moved the temp down a little on this. 

Ok so on this photo I tried to crop it a little more so that the fence was barely showing to make this picture look like a desert almost.  There almost looks like there are sand lines all over the place. I think this turned out pretty cool. And for editing,  I had to turn down the temp quite a bit because the sun was very bright and yellow.  After that, I bumped the contrast all the way up and then turned down the exposure a hair also. 

This is a shot out of the back of our car when the roads were really bad and it was windy out.   I like this photo cause the inside of the car kind of frames the outside and it almost provides a natural vignetting look.  The dirt across the windshield adds to the photo and almost makes the picture look like a film shot.  The wind thats blowing the snow across the road also makes the photo look more grainy than it actually is.. which I think is cool. 

This is a jack knifed semi as a result of the bad roads.  You can see very well in this picture how windy it was and all the snow that was being pushed around as a result of the wind.  It made the road look like some desert in the middle on nowhere.  I personally thought it was great, as for that truck driver. . . not so much. 

This is just a wider view of the same semi above.

Ok so on these next couple pictures I was going for the old school black and white camera look from the 1940s.   I really like how the sun blows a lot of the right side of the photo out.  And as a result of desaturating the picture,  The fence and the pole in the middle stand out really well cause they are the darkest.  They were darker because I also bumped the blacks a hair.  I wanted them to stand out the most though because I believe thats what makes this photo look great.

Same idea was behind this photo.  This one was just taken a little farther away.  Different features apart of this photo make it have a totally different style, therefore, I wanted to put it up also even though it's very similar to the picture above.  For editing in this picture and the one above,  I obviously desaturated it, bumped the contrast some, and then darkened the corners some. 

In my opinion, this picture also looks like a desert.  It looks like dunes in the middle of the desert with the sun about to go to sleep.  I really like this picture.  I had so many good pictures of the same kind of thing that I felt that I had to put them up.  Even though they are kind of all the same general picture, they are completely different in their own ways.  For editing,  I had to turn down the temp once again,  which naturally darkened the corners.  I then bumped the contrast up and that was about it.  

This photo is probably one of my favorites.  I took the shot and just the right time that the sun lit up the fence making it a silhouette.  The ground below the fence was still in the shadows a lot so it was kept completely dark, which I really like.  Since this photo was really yellow I had to also turn down the temp,  I then bumped the contrast and that was about it.

I got my inspiration from Corey Smith because I think his photos are awesome as well as his art.
http://www.coreysmithtimetravel.com/photo.html

When in Doubt Golf it Out- 2/25/11

    Golf trips are always a blast.  It gives people the opportunity to go out and have some fun, while at the same taking out all of their anger out by swinging a steel carbon-fiber rod at a tiny little ball.  When I was at the golf course with some of my friends some cool photos arose from being there early in the morning.    Therefore, I decide to snap some and see how they turned out.  Not my best but not my worse either. The first six pictures are taken around the golf course.  The last two were taken other places.  A few of my photos this week are the type of black and white photos I like to make when the picture is a little over exposed or the sun is shining straight into the lens. The two photos I am talking about are #3 photo and the last photo #8. Look below each photo for further description of how I took the picture, why I like, and what I did in editing it. Thanks for stopping by this week. Later

This is a picture of a golf hole and I really like how the water tower stretches up above the hole.  This was taken early in the morning so there was a bunch of fog around the water tower and I like how it makes the upper half of the picture kind of a foggy looking.  Editing wise, I bumped the contrast up all the way and darkened the corners some. Kept it pretty simple on the editing once again. 

I like this photo a lot cause when I first look at it my eye goes straight to the 50 yard line and once it is there,  it moves up and I follow the posts all the way to the end of the photo.  The poles act as leading lines in this photo.  The green grass shows how luscious and healthy this photo is.  For editing,  I put the contrast up a little as well as the clarity. I then cropped it quite a bit and made the photo a little warmer also. 

This is the picture that I am talking about where it is over exposed and there is some really white fog in the background so when I desaturate it it gives it a cool old school film look.  I also like how the bottom of his feet are out of focus.  His expression while holding the golf club really adds to the photo also.  In editing, I desaturated the photo and turned down the exposure a little also and thats about it. 

This is a very interesting photo.  When I first look at it, a flower image doesn't  come to my mind.  I don't really know what comes to my mind.   The word helpless comes to my mind when I see this photo. Even though there isn't much to this photo I still think it turned out cool. 

Ok so I am going to speak for this photo and the one below it since they are pretty similar.   I really like how the depth of field turned out on these photos.  All the main flowers straight in front of the camera are in focus except for maybe one or two petals.  Almost everything is in focus except for the complete background behind the flowers.. which thus put more of a focus on the flowers straight in the front.  In editing this, I warmed up the flowers a little bit, I used the vignetting tool to darken the corners to put more of a focus on the flowers, and then I turned the contrast up quite a bit, and then bumped up the clarity a hair. 

As you can already figure out from the photo, I wanted this picture to be a little more dull in its colors so I turned down the vibrance once I opened it in photoshop.  My goal in doing that was to make the color of the hose as dull as the colors of nature around it.  How that bubble of water forms around the individual grasses also adds to the photo in the sense that whenever their is a hose.. water isn't far behind.  I then cranked up contrast and a little bit of clarity to make the sharpness of the grass pop out. 

This is the photo I was talking about up above.  I often like turning photos into black and white if there is a sun glare or if a picture is over exposed.  It just gives you a foggy, dull look that you don't see very often.. and I am pretty into trying to get photos to turn out like this one.  When photos come about like this one,  all I do in editing is desaturate it because when I want a photo to turn out like this one I want to keep the editing as simple as possible.

I got my inspiration from this dude and his stuff is pretty cool. check it out

http://www.rutgerblom.com/