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/

Montana trip- 2/18/11

      This week, I have a wide variety of just random photos.  None of them really relate to each other at all.  Since the first three photos have to do about driving, gas, and roads, ill tell you a little story about me and why it's important to fill up your car when there is a possibility you could run out of gas.  It was about 8:30 P.M. and we were going through Sandpoint, heading up to the mountain.  My friend Sam suggested I should probably get gas before going up; (since it seemed low on fuel) I assured him that we would be able to make.  In the end I was right but barely made it. About two miles from the top we started puttering and as soon as we got to the parking lot up there it died and we had to push it into its parking space.  Therefore, the moral of the story  is to always play it safe, rather than being sorry, and top off your gas tank if your in doubt.  The description of each photo will be below each photo.

I shot this picture at a little faster shutter speed so that not as much light would come into the camera.  I wanted this photo to turn out a little darker.  I wanted the trees to pretty much be black except the outline tips of the tree.  For editing I bumped up the contrast, turned the exposure down a hair, I obviously desaturated it, and used the vignetting tool to darken the corners of the photo. 

This picture is pretty simple to say the least.  There really isn't much to it.   I bumped the contrast on it as well as the clarity a little bit.  I desaturated it and darkened the corners of the photo with the vignetting tool. 

I really like this shot a lot and how the focus was on the shoes rather than the nozzle for gas.    I like the different colors throughout the picture.  The blue part of the nozzle adds to this photo as well as the blue horizontal line across the picture.  So does the white shoes laces and all the colors apart of the gas pump.  I did a little clone stamping in this picture after I used the vignetting tool to darken the corners.  I used this tool because I wanted the corners to look darker but I wanted to look darker like it was naturally darker.  I think I did a descent job in making that happen. So I used the vignetting tool to darken the  corners but then I took the cones stamp tool to make the color lighter in the bottom right corner. I did that so that the vignetting looked like it was natural. 

MERICA! Yes, this is a picture of a flag and a clock.  America is often a country that is controlled by time. Time tells you when to sleep, eat, exercise, rather than doing those things when your body tells you you should.  I like this photo because it shoes the relationship between time and America.  Editing wise, I bumped the contrast, desaturated the photo,  turned the exposure up a little, and then darkened the corners. 

This picture represents dependence to me.  The birds that are use to feeding out of this feeder would struggle to feed themselves as well as their family if that feeder wasn't there so they have become dependent on it.  When shooting this, I wanted to shoot this at an angle where it would frame the bird feeder in between the bigger branches of the tree.  For editing,  I desaturated the photo, bumped the contrast up as well as the clarity a little, and then darkened the corners. 

This is my friend Jake Nelson. I like how the light through the window comes through and lights up part of his face.  His expression is priceless in this photo. Since there was some bright light coming through  the window, I wanted to darken the areas around it so I darkened all the corners so that most of the focus went on jacob's face.  I did a little more editing on this photo than normal.   I bumped the contrast and a little clarity.  I then worked on his face quite a bit.   I used the clone stamp to fix the wrinkles under his eye, then the bandage tool to fix little blemishes, and then I took the paint brush tool and just overall brightened his face up a little.

This one guys work doesn't relate a ton to this post of mine, but I do think he has a cool idea.  Every day he posts one picture. And he has been doing it for 6 years. Thats a pretty cool idea. check his stuff out.

http://www.willyurman.com/pixelpost/

Faces, blurred windshields, and country side- 2/11/11

      Today, I will actually try and produce a somewhat productive blog and actually explain where my photography is going and what I want to do with it.  I am pretty satisfied where I am at with my photography.  I know pretty much all the basics and I am able to produce a photo that I think is cool and I like.  As far as editing in detail with portraits goes I don't know as much about.  I think in the future I would like to learn more about that side of photography but as of right now I am happy with the photos I am able to produce.  I get satisfaction in taking pictures where people are unsure what is going on and it takes them a little while to figure out what is going on.  I also like taking photos that have an older film like look.  Hopefully in the next couple weeks I can develope my film in the darkroom and discover a different side of photography.  I can't wait to do that.. just haven't found the time to get it done yet. Anyways, thats about all I have to say for this week. Have a great week ladies and gents!

When I look at this photo, my eye goes straight to the yellow.  I would say the main focus of this photo is probably nothing.  To tell you the truth this photo is very unknowing and it's hard to tell what is going on.  I really don't have a problem with that though, I think it's except-able to have some photos that people don't understand.  I think those photos that people don't understand are often times more artsy (in my opinion).  I got this shot from a car shooting straight out of the front windshield... it was raining and the yellow blur came from the reflection of the car lights off of a yellow sign.  

This shot was taken at night from a car and I left the shutter open for about 3.0 seconds.  The sensor gathered most of the light from the moon behind the clouds.  The moon was the main reason for lighting up the clouds in the sky. In editing I bumped the contrast a little and thats about it.  

I really like this photo a lot.  Let me first explain how I got this photo and then why I like it.  This shot was also taken at night.  I held the camera out the side window and took a shot of the mountains with the moon shining onto them.  I left the shutter open for about 2.0 second. Right as I pushed the button to take the shot we passed a stopped semi with its emergency flashing lights on.  And the rest was history.  The reason I like this shot a lot is because it looks like a painting.  The detail in the mountains and the fog that covers it makes the picture pretty vague thus resembling more of a water painting.   

I like how this turned out except for me shaking the camera and making the moon turn out abnormal.   I do like the clouds around it and everything though. 

Ok, so when I first got this shot on the computer,  I was going to crop it, but once I looked at it more I realized it looked better not being cropped.  I see lines in this picture.  I feel like it is broken up into five sections. Two sections to the right of the wood telephone pole.  Two to the left of the wood telephone poles and then the last section that includes the hills of the mountains.   In editing,  I i bumped the contrast a little as well as the clarity and that's about it. 

I got my inspiration from this one website and it gave pointers on how to improve landscape shots.  Even though, not all of my shots on this blog were landscape this was some really helpful advice and the pictures were really cool. Check it out!

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/11-surefire-tips-for-improving-your-landscape-photography

Different- 2/4/11

     This week I tried to shoot pictures in a little different way.  I wanted them to turn out a little more peculiar.  I think I did a descent job in getting different shots.  All of these shots are related to the kid in the first picture.  One day, (after pulling another late night party situation based out of Sam's house) I was sitting there on Sam's couch trying to peal my eyeballs out of my foggy, delusional, distracted brain and right as I got them clear enough to see, there it was.. a perfect picture opportunity.  I ran outside and, as usual, missed my opportunity.  Since I had already drug my lifeless zombie like body off of the couch, I figured I wouldn't waste my time outside Sam's house, and started taking pictures. They turned out pretty cool.

The reason I like this photo is because of Sam's expression and actions.  I feel like this photo is saying a lot.  His expression almost portrays an awkward, creepy situation.  I think his expression draws you into the picture.  On the editing side of the picture I bumped the contrast almost all the way up.  I turned the clarity up a hair also. I also believe I turned down the exposure a little bit.  I then used the vignetting tool to darken the edges of the pictures to put more of a focus on Sam's face.  I then touched up Sam's face, starting with the bandage touch up tool on any little blemishes on his face.  After that, I took the paint brush tool and turned down the opacity to about 20 and sampled a brighter portion of his face and simply just brightened his whole face up a little bit. 

  

The two bird pictures are very similar, just a little different.  These two pictures took me awhile to get a good  shot.  It was a little more difficult because the cage bars entrapping the bird had to be just in the right spot for it to turn out.  If one of the cross bars of the cage were in front of the birds face then you could kind of tell it was there. I managed to get it lined up where you can barely tell.  For editing, I desaturated it all the way, bumped  the contrast up some and then turned the clarity almost all the way up to try and get as much detail in the birds feathers as I could. 

I like this shot a lot.  It's actually a reflection of a sliding glass door.  The reflection consists of a barn, trees, and an old broken down car. I like how there is more of a darker picture, yet there is lighter spots of the grass and the barn. For editing, I turned the contrast all the way up and then I bumped the vibrance up some. I turned the vibrance up some cause I wanted the color of the grass to pop out a little more through the dark trees.  

This is the same location as the picture above except  in this one I just the picture wider.  I kept this picture a little lighter and more dull colors. In this photo I turned the vibrance down to get a more subtle look to the picture. I like how this picture almost looks like a picture from a film camera.  The lighter white bar/line adds to the film look of this photo.     I also left the black bar at the top of the photo in the photo so people understand it is a reflection of something.  My goal  with this photo is not to hide the fact that it is a reflection but to make it clear that it is one. The black bar at the top almost makes it look like the photo is glued to some black canvas board and you could peal the photo off that canvas board. 

This photo is cool.  You can tell this photo is a reflection by the white blurry line streaks down the middles and to the right.  This photo looked better desaturated simply because when it was normal colored the white line streaks stood out to much overwhelming the picture.  For editing, I believe I bumped the clarity a little just to have the swinging chair pop out a little more. 

Ok so for this photo, I shot it with a faster shutter speed to not let as much light into the camera, because I wanted this photo to turn out darker.  Once on the computer,  I desaturated it, I bumped the contrast all the way up to get everything darker even more,  and I also turned down the exposure some.  I then darkened the corners as much as I could with the vignetting tool.  The goal with this photo was to make it as dark as I could and have a little light come through the top of the picture through the cut wood. 

I put the focus on that middle big bark piece.  I also wanted this photo to turn out very dark so I shot it with a quick shutter speed. I really like how the big branch runs across the lower part of the picture.  That branch and the vertical branch almost frames the big center bark piece.  When I look at this picture, I see circles everywhere from  overlaying branches. 

I attempted to shoot the moon, and it didn't turn out very well.  I figured I would put it up anyways and be critical about it.  I don't really like how there is no definition in the moon.  I wish the moon would have more definition and the objects around the moon be more of just a silhouette rather then be totally lit up by the moon.  I just wasn't very well knowledgeable about shooting moons.  Any advice for future shootings of moons would be greatly appreciated.

I got my inspiration from Essex Prescott:

http://s6photoblog.blogspot.com/