crunchy's PhotoBlog

Turning Day Into Night

2008-06-13T00:04:10Z

Trying out a photoshop technique from my new book: The Digital Photographer's Guide To Photoshop Elements 4, by Barry Beckman. I use Photoshop 6, but find this guide very helpful even with my older edition. Good Night!

Wide Angle Tells The Story

2008-04-24T08:49:38Z

I've just purchased a Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens! It's been wonderful to work with! I've had this creative need to get more of the world into my photos, yet have my subject featured prominently at the same time. So now my dilemma is solved- I can keep my subject featured prominently, while not needing to back up to get more of the bigger picture. There seems to be cautionary statements among photographers about investing in a wide angle lens- that they are a novelty, and the effect can be overdone, or the enthusiasm for the effect wears off quickly. I hope that won't be the case with me- as I've craved for this perspective in my photography for a long, long time! Here's a few photos I've taken with this lens over the past several weeks. I've had such a blast!

Enveloped in red

2007-11-11T20:19:05Z

My family took a little hike in a nearby canyon yesterday. The leaves are just starting to change, so we have some yellows, some oranges, and in this particular canyon, lots of reds!!! I couldn't stop swooning over the red!!!! I don't often use my 50mm prime lens, but my focus of this hike was to get myself to see within it's parameters. I tend to prefer to take wider angle shots, or macro shots, (or macro wide angle shots!) Since my prime lens is more middle-of the-road in terms of focal distance and the angle what it sees (it isn't a wide angle by any means) I tend not to pull it out often. Where it excels though, is picture quality (being a prime lens, there isn't as much glass to reflect through as a zoom lens, and the images are really sharp and clear) and that it allows lots of light to come through- (pretty "fast"- f 1.6) giving great exposures even in lower light. (and since I prefer to shoot in natural light, this is a big plus!) The last three photos are the same as some above, but with a dry brush filter added in photoshop.

Bicycle Race

2007-08-01T22:52:55Z

A collage of the kids having fun riding bikes in the puddles, collaged, then photoshopped with a fresco filter.

abstract assignment....

2007-06-16T23:43:41Z

More abstract photos to complete my photography class....

Welling Up

2007-06-02T23:16:46Z

A composite abstract of a watercolor salt painting and blooms from my Empress Tree..put together in photoshop.

"40"

2007-06-01T14:11:40Z

A lesson in light.....

2007-05-27T18:16:18Z

I'm taking a creative photography course, and his week's lesson is playing with light. Many of these are long exposure shots, with either the camera moving against a stationary scene, or a moving scene with a stationary camera. Some are neither. All are fun!

Down By The River

2007-04-04T07:17:18Z

Son, mid-hurl, down by the river near Fairbank- the in-restoration town we visited this weekend.

A Ghostly Glow.....

2007-04-01T17:56:12Z

t was a dark and stormy night....bitter cold, not a soul around. The wind howled with discontent. There was a glow in the distance......and a group of abandoned buildings beyond an encasement of chain link fence. Something pulled me to the fence, and told me to put the camera up to my eye. I placed the lens in an open part of the fence, and focused carefully on the faint, ghostly glow that flickered eerily through the paneless window ..... My finger depressed the shutter button....and, in that same split second, there was a tremendous flash- the eerie glow from within the abandoned old building suddenly leapt out of the window, and engulfed the whole structure!!! The sky turned orange... there was a lightning bolt, and the whole sky lit up...casting the bonelike shadows of the nearby trees on the ground!!!!! The thunder rumbled through my body, and again as it echoed back from the river nearby. Then, all was quiet. A dog barked in the distance, and from the river, an evil laugh penetrated the air.... And I got the shot. April Fool!!!!!!!!! We visited a nearby ghost town yesterday, during a ribbon cutting ceremony for a newly-renovated schoolhouse there. It was a calm and sunny day, not a dark and stormy night. The weather was warm, and the breeze gently ruffled the new leaves of the cottonwood trees by the river. There was sounds of happy laughter everywhere, and of music, and smells of good barbecue. I took this photo of the about-to-be renovated group of buildings behind the chain link fence, but in bright sunlight, which casted that great shadow of the tree on the ground. And then, in photoshop, I inverted (made a negative image) of this photo, and got the eerie result above. So then I just inverted the entire real story to match the photo, and thus, a little April Fool's Day tribute was born. (-: