Just a few shots along the way…
I will be teaching 6 hours of hands-on training in Adobe Photoshop CS5 at the Antioch Recreation Department. You’ll start with a basic introduction of the interface to feeling comfortable with many of the tools. You’ll fix photos and create your own artwork from scratch.
I am lucky to have a great little poodle who will gladly do anything I ask him to do as long as he can have jerky treat at the end. For this photo I draped an old cape from a Halloween costume I once wore. I picked up a little crown from the .99 cent store. I frizzed up his hair a little so it would hold it and set up a couple strobes. I shot with the light box to the right and a reflected umbrella to the left a little higher. The shot wasn’t perfect and needed a little help so I did a little photoshop as you will see the original below:
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I used “content aware” to take out the edge of the black curtain in the background.
I used the patch tool to fix his hair.
I added sparkle to his crown using the star brush tool with white as the foreground color
I used the clone rubber stamp tool and sampled light hair with opacity of 50% and set the blend mode to lighten to clean the eye stain under his eyes
Lastly I used the glamor glow from Nik Efex to give a softness and I masked his face so that it didn’t apply to his eyes and nose.
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About 5 years ago I got a chance to visit Glass Beach and try my hand at hunting for different colored glass.
Glass Beach is one of the most unique beaches in the world, not because nature created it that way, but because time and the pounding surf have corrected one of man’s mistakes.
Beginning in 1949, the area around Glass Beach became a public dump. It is hard to believe these days, but back then people dumped all kinds of refuse straight into the ocean, including old cars, and their household garbage, which of course included lots of glass. Finally in 1967, the North Coast Water Quality Board realized what a mistake it was and plans were begun for a new dump away from the ocean.
Now, over 30 years later, Mother Nature has reclaimed this beach. Years of pounding wave action have deposited tons of polished glass onto the beach. Every day people come to hunt what old bits of treasure wash to shore. You’ll still see the occasional reminder of it earlier life, such as a rusted spark plug, but for the most part what you’ll see is millions of pieces of glass sparkling in the sun.
I came home with several bags full but after gathering all these bags of different colored glass the question remained as what do I do with this pretty but unusable stuff???
So in storage for 5 years it sat until I had an idea for a use today. My little old lady cactus was getting a bunch of weeds around her. I was going to put some boring old bark around her when I remembered the white colored glass I had collected from Glass beach. The old lady cactus has such a soft blueish white appearance to her that I thought the colored glass would look so nice around her base. To add a little interest I added some blue glass pebbles from my fish tank.
Currently this cactus is not in bloom but it has reddish pink flowers that grow in a crown long the top. I think the blue will set this off nicely.
I almost put some of my clear glass pebble but soon realized it magnifies the suns rays and could burn the plant. The glass from glass beach is tumbled though so it’s almost opaque with a natural etching from the tumbling process on the beach.
So there is my gardening tip. You don’t have to stick to just what the garden store sells. Recycle even if it’s many many years later!!
Below are three pictures of the cactus outside in my garden and then a couple more where I brought the cactus into my studio and played with the side lighting a little…
This is a young Western King bird that I found one day on the ground in the evening hours. I thought it just couldn’t figure out how to fly yet and had fallen out of the nest. The nest was atop a high tree so there was no way to put it back. Our cats and peacocks were ready to eat it right there so I took it in for the night hoping to release it in the morning where I knew it’s parents were. Unfortunately it was then I I found out upon closer inspection that he was missing all of one wing and would never ever have a chance of getting off the ground. I didn’t appear to be a fresh wound since it was otherwise healthy. It was then I found out I had a little king in my life!
Little King now had a king sized mansion with all perches and branches at various angles so he can hop from branch to branch. Here he is sitting on his perch in my studio. Some are shot against a white background with just window lighting and a reflector and others are shot with a shoot through umbrella and an SB600 opposite the window. The images with trees in the background were seen through a side window.
We’re all dressed now where is the BBQ!??
Ok anyone who knows me knows I like sunflowers. It’s hard to capture what’s magical about them. Maybe it’s just this giant glowing face staring back at me that is almost the same size as my head. The glowing color seems to fill my eyes with sunshine yet it doesn’t hurt to look at. Anyway, whatever it is I love this time of year when my sunflowers open and I get to watch the pollen circle it’s way around the center in concentric rings.
This photo is actually two shots. I lit if from behind and then I lit it from the front to highlight the center and then combined the two. The purpose was to try and capture that glowing nature that always attracts me to sunflowers.
UPDATE: Well as with all good things they come to an end and so did my sunflower. He had a long life standing on the kitchen sink but eventually he drooped his head and went to sleep. He then gave me his petals and it made a nice healthy topping on my roasted chicken with home grown dill and boiled swiss chard 🙂
Sunflower petals have a slight nutty flavor so it’s perfect sprinkled over salads or chicken. When tossed in with salads the color ads quite a flare. In addition they are a great antioxidant and have anti-inflammatory properties.
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