“The object of a question is to obtain information that matters to us, and no one else.”
- Sean Connery as William Forrester in "Finding Forrester"

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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Coming Soon!

The new laptop is being built.

Since I do some work from home and we also use the same computer onsite for event work, the company just purchased a new laptop that will also be for my personal use.

It is a Dell Vostro 1500:

  • Intel Core 2 Duo T7100, 1.8GHz, 800Mhz FSB, 2M L2 Cache
  • 15.4 inch Wide Screen SXGA+ display with TrueLife LCD
  • 2GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 DIMM
  • 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
  • 120G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

It will be running Windows Vista Business and Office 2007 as well as PS and GoLive CS2 and LR 1.1 once we load it all up when it arrives. (CS3 isn't quite in the budget yet.)

Monday, July 30, 2007

P&P Weekly: #41







Here’s what’s been happening this week in The Photoshop & Photography Blogroll:

Update your blogs often! I will only include links to posts added since the last P&P Weekly.

As always, if you have any suggestions or notice a discrepancy, please email me.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Geographic Composition #1: Beginnings

Welcome to the new weekly photo project Geographic Composition! Each week five of my fellow photobloggers and I will submit an image based on a common theme from our scattered locations around the world. Even though the theme is the same, our own vision and view of the world when coupled with the geographic and cultural environment in which we live will shape the images we create and offer a varied interpretation on the topic of the week.

For week one, our theme is "beginnings." For one it is an image of a new member of the family, for another, a sunset. For one it is moving in to a new home, and to another it is a story of a man who tills the field hoping for rain in order to feed his family.

Please take a moment to view the participants blogs and also, if you have any suggestions for future themes, please leave a comment below.

Thanks, and Enjoy!

Jenny Arnez - Rancho Cardova, CA
"Moving In"
Jason D. Moore - North Syracuse, NY
Jon Erikson - San Miguel de Allenda, Mexico
"Sunrise In Glacier"
Erik Persson
- Seattle, WA
"Nellie"
Amy Archer - Sweden Andrew Smith - Hanover, PA

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Hardware Difficulties

Sorry everyone. The laptop I use at home decided to start the decline towards death last night right when I was going to start preparing a post for today. So I was a little preoccupied trying to figure things out - we're actually going to end up getting a new one - and didn't have time to come up with anything interesting for today.

However, be that as it may, tomorrow is the premier post of a new weekly photo project! So please come back tomorrow to see what my partners and I have come up with!

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

P&P Blogger Profile: Chris Orwig

Chris Orwig of Chris Orwig Photography (Blog)

I’m a teacher, author, surfer, husband, dad, lover-of-life. (Click here for a video introduction.)

Why do you blog?

“Photography is about savoring life at 1/100th of a second.” Marc Riboud. It gives me a way to savor daily life.

How long have you been using Photoshop/been a photographer?
Quite a while, yet for me it’s more a question of creativity and I was brought up in a creative home and trace who I am and how I see to the early days.

What type of camera(s) do you shoot with?
All kinds… Whatever is on my shoulder.

Mac or PC?
Either

What is your favorite piece of photo or computer equipment (other than your camera)?
The camera manual.

What piece of equipment would you most like to get but don’t have?
Equipment is cool but I’d rather be like Picasso… “If they took away my paints I’d use pastels. If they took away my pastels I’d use crayons. If they took away my crayons I’d use pencils. If they stripped me naked and threw me in prison I’d spit on my finger and paint on the walls.”

What advice do you have for a novice creative professional/photographer?
Jay Maisel was once asked, “What do I need to do to create better photographs.” He replied, “Become a more interesting person.” And I concur.

What inspires you to create?
As a kid my mom told me, “there’s no such thing as bad art.” She lied, but that is a truth that I hold onto. It inspires me. It gives me freedom. It reminds me that it is about creativity and process.

What would be your most important piece of advice about life?
Listen.

Where would you most like to live (other than where you live now)?
Anywhere with my three girls (wife and 2 daughters).

What do you like to do in your spare time?
Read. Bike. Surf. Hike. Camp, Play. Swim. Guitar.

What talent would you most like to have?
Authenticity.

From Inside the Actors Studio:
What is your favorite word? Sojourn
What turns you on? Life.
What sound or noise do you love? My daughters' laughter
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? Well done.

*Note: If you there is someone you would like to see as a part of the P&P Blogger Profile series, please email Jason with their blog's URL. Also, be sure to check out the P&P Weekly every Monday for news about this site and a roundup of what other Photoshop & Photography Blogroll members are posting.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Chris Orwig

On the search for inspiration, I came across the website and blog of West Coast photographer Chris Orwig by way of fellow blogger Jenny Arnez of Photo Two-Twenty in her list of photographers who motivate her. Take a look!

Monday, July 23, 2007

P&P Weekly: #40







Sorry for the lapse last week. I'm finally into the new place. We just have to pick up a couple of things and turn in the keys for the old place.

Be on the look out this Friday for the first installment of our new photo project! We're always open to suggestions for topics/themes so please leave your comments.

Now that I'm back, here’s what’s been happening this week in The Photoshop & Photography Blogroll:

Update your blogs often! I will only include links to posts added since the last P&P Weekly.

As always, if you have any suggestions or notice a discrepancy, please email me.

Friday, July 20, 2007

I'm Well Connected

Sorry for the delay in posting today. At work we're at the front end of duplicating nearly 4,000 CDs and DVDs for various projects this month, which kept me more than occupied during the first half of the day. I left around lunchtime to come home and wait for the rep from the cable company (sometime between 12 and 5!) to stop by to hook up my cable and high-speed. So now, I'm all set!

Thursday, July 19, 2007

P&P Workflow: #10


Over the next couple of weeks we will be working with a local community theater's production of The Wizard of Oz. In the course of the show, there is a scene where the Wicked Witch of the West writes the words "Surrender Dorothy" across the sky. Being in a theater, they are unable to recreate that for obvious logistical reasons. However, through the magic of video projection, we created an animation to simulate the skywriting - albeit a simple soft-edged wipe across each line.

This may be a pretty basic tutorial, and one that I don't use too often, but I thought it might be helpful.

Step One: Create a new document of your desired size. (Here I used the standard NTSC DV size (720x540 with square pixels) because we are projecting it.) and type in your text. (I used Arial Narrow.)

Step Two: Next, right-click (Mac: Ctrl+Click) on your text layer and select "Create Work Path." Hide your text layer and create a blank layer above it. Your resulting view should look like this:
Step Three: Next, set your brush to a cloud shape (if you are going for this similar effect) and make sure your settings in the Brushes panel are appropriate to your desired effect.

Step Four: In the Paths panel, with the blank layer still selected and the work path highlighted, click on the button at the bottom called "Stroke Path With Brush"
And here is your final image (I added a Curves adjustment to ad more contrast):
*If you would like to contribute to the P&P Workflow, please email Jason.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The FSTOP

"The FSTOP is an online magazine featuring the work of top advertising, editorial, and fine art photographers. Published six times a year, each issue explores the work of four professionals. Articles combine an in-depth interview with a comprehensive behind-the-scenes deconstruction of the process of creating one powerful image from the photographer’s recent portfolio."

(Via Strobist)

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

WTD Turns One!

What the Duck, friend-of-the-blog, is celebrating it's first anniversary today!

Congratulations Aaron on all of your success! I don't know how you come up with such witty strips every day. Thanks for sharing with all of us! Bravo, my friend!

Scrim Jim in Action

As promised, here is a shot of our new Westcott Scrim Jim setup. In this configuration we are using the heavier diffuser to flag off stray light as it filters through the leaves in the tree. Even though we were shooting in the shade - which often provides a softer, more even lighting scheme anyway - the Scrim Jim helped to eliminate any moving spots of light that would appear on the subjects during the shoot and distract the viewer.


We used a similar setup throughout the day and were extremely pleased with the results. We did notice, however, that it would be beneficial to have a second frame and stands so that we could setup one of the other surfaces behind the subject to stop down the background in the bright sunlight in addition to the one overhead.

Monday, July 16, 2007

P&P Weekly: Break

Kim and I are in the process of moving into our first apartment together as we approach our wedding in October. So, as you can imagine, I've been busy carrying heavy things all weekend and didn't have the time or energy to write up the P&P Weekly for this week. Also, since my cable and internet won't be activated until this Friday, I couldn't even go online to see what everyone else was writing about in order to put it together, let alone post it.

With that said, I'll be writing from work this week so please bear with me as I make this transition.

In the meantime, please review the list of sites in the sidebar and see what my fellow bloggers have been posting!

Also, I've had a great response from a number of photographers interested in taking part in the upcoming photo project. We're up to 6 from various parts of the US and abroad. I don't want to exclude anyone and I want some representation from other countries so if you're interested, there's still time to participate. Also, if you have any themes or topics that you would like to see us cover, please leave a comment here.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Geographic Composition

In response to my post from yesterday fellow blogger Jon Erikson, of San Miguel Photo of the Day, emailed me with a great suggestion for a collaborative photo project. He suggested that we develop a list of topics and each week the photographers involved would submit a new photo based on their interpretation of the topic for me to post here (I'm thinking on Fridays).

The part that I like is having photographers from all over offering a perspective from different cultures. Certainly me, being from the Northeast US, will have a different take than Jon in Mexico, which would be different still from someone from the Midwest or West Coast of the US, and even more so from someone in Europe, Asia, Australia, etc. The juxtaposition of the multiple views of the selected topic could be really interesting.

Right now, we have me and Jon and I would like to invite members of the blogroll and regular visitors to consider taking part. Without going overboard with the number of people, I'd like to get a broad spectrum of photographers involved from as many regions as possible (both US and, especially, non-US). Email me if you are willing to join us and post a comment here with ideas for topics you'd like to see and possible names for the project.

Thanks again, Jon, for the suggestion! And I look forward to getting things off the ground!

Thursday, July 12, 2007

100 Self Portraits in 100 Days

While looking at my site stats yesterday I came across a post from Blazing Monkey, one of the blogs that links to me, about 15 year old Icelandic photographer, Thorsteinn Cameron (Captain Cameron). Late last year he set himself to the task of creating 100 self portraits in 100 days.

It's a great series of shots from simple to wacky to surreal and back again, each shot showing a different side of the photographer (sometimes literally) and often utilizes varying photographic and post-production techniques. He tried to stretch his scope of vision and creative abilities with each outing and finally found his own personal style in the midst of this process.

It's a fascinating endeavor. I've always wanted to try something like this but have never had the time or discipline to keep it up. Every 6 months or so it seems I drag up this idea to do some ongoing photo project. I've posted twice before (here & here) about different concepts and an invitation to partner in a project like this - without any luck.

So, in another attempt to get something going, if you have any ideas and/or would like to work with me on something like this, please email me and we'll see what we can come up with.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

IDP: Vincent Versace

Scott Shepard over at Inside Digital Photo has a great interview with photographer, author, and trainer Vincent Versace about the differences between a photographer and an image maker and reasons for breaking the photo rules for the sake of the image.

Hear Vincent’s insights and philosophies about the techniques he uses to capture the moment and angle of the image rather than just a record of an object...

the difference between a picture and capturing the moment lies in the eye of the photographer. Using the right equipment for the assignment, being prepared for anything, and having the confidence in your vision are all concepts that impact your ability to take outstanding images...

Vincent is in process of writing an in-depth new book that hopes to teach photographers and enthusiasts to train their eye and mind to become a better photographer. An image maker can capture a shot, and utilize a range of available digital editing and image modification applications to enhance their story and vision. His philosophy begins behind the lens and feels that too many photographers today end up relying on the adage “I’ll fix it in PhotoShop” rather than strive to take better composed images at point of capture.

One of my pet peves that Vincent seems to share is when people will do something in Photoshop simply because they can and they think that it will show that they "Photoshopped" it. They use the tools and filters because they are there, not necessarily because an image will benefit from their use.

The mark of an artist, of any kind, is making the complex seem effortless. You see the results of the time and skill without seeing the effort. It's a lot like watching pairs figure skating or ballet. You see the grace of the dancer/skater lifting his partner in the air for a particular move but you don't actually see the strength that it takes (you don't see him straining). It's the lightness and smoothness that makes the difference; it's the skill and training that goes into it.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

P&P Blogger Profile: Tom Moore


I will try and give you the quick and dirty version here, but if you want the feature length version check this out.

First and foremost I am grateful father of a incredibly smart and beautiful daughter and the lucky husband of a beautiful and loving wife. While I am originally from Cleveland, Ohio we live and work in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Photography has always been a passion of mine but initially I never intended for it to be more than that. I went to school for Marine Policy and have an awesome job working for NOAA on restoring wetlands and coral reefs ever since. While I have always loved the art of photography, I never considered it more than that up until a few years ago when people started insisting they pay me for my art. So slowly over the last couple of years I have begun to grow a small photography business as my “fun job”. I use the quotes around fun because I guess everything is pretty relative as my NOAA job is pretty fun in and of itself, you won’t catch me complaining about being paid to dive on coral reefs. So here I am a few years later I still love my day job and my “fun job” is booming so much that I am starting to have to turn clients away (Having time with my family is still my first priority).

Why do you blog?
I started as casual reader of a few photography blogs (mainly David Hobby’s Strobist and Scott Kelby’s Photoshop Insider) from there I keep finding links to other blogs and other photographers. I found myself not only learning a lot from other photographers via their blogs but also gaining quite a bit of inspiration. More than once when I would create a cool new photo or come upon something new or interesting I found myself wanting to share it with the rest of the community, I found myself wanting to blog.

If you only had time to read three blogs a day, which ones would they be?
David Hobby’s Strobist
Scott Kelby’s Photoshop Insider
John Nacks’s John Nack on Adobe

How long have you been using Photoshop/been a photographer?
Photographer since age 7 (gotta love the old 110’s) and a Photoshop user since the early 1990’s on an old school Mac Classic.

What type of camera(s) do you shoot with?
I just got the brand new Canon 1D Mark III and it is sweet…

Mac or PC?
PC but I long to get back to the Mac

What is your favorite piece of photo or computer equipment (other than your camera)?
My off camera flash/lighting equipment (thanks to Strobist)

What piece of equipment would you most like to get but don’t have?
A set of four Pocket Wizard Multi Max’s.

What advice do you have for a novice creative professional/photographer?
Take lots of pictures, be creative, push yourself but remember success in today’s market requires both talent and business savvy.

What inspires you to create?
Other photographers and my daughter Olivia

What would be your most important piece of advice about life?
Always work in a career you find personally and professionally fulfilling. Also never under estimate the amazing impact that children and true love can have on your life, I am blessed to have both.

Where would you most like to live (other than where you live now)?
San Diego, Hawaii or the South Pacific

What do you like to do in your spare time?
Run my photography business of course… actually I love to sail

What talent would you most like to have?
Teleportation

From Inside the Actors Studio:
What is your favorite word? Solution
What is your least favorite word? Problem
What turns you on? People who go above and beyond to make things work…
What turns you off? People who don’t even try…
What sound or noise do you love? Sailing at night (Ocean, Wind, Waves)
What sound or noise do you hate? Glass Breaking
What is your favorite curse word? F$%k
What occupation other than your own would you like to attempt? Politician
What occupation would you not want to participate in? Anything not fulfilling
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? Thanks for your hard work, do you mind going back?

*Note: If you there is someone you would like to see as a part of the P&P Blogger Profile series, please email Jason with their blog's URL. Also, be sure to check out the P&P Weekly every Monday for news about this site and a roundup of what other Photoshop & Photography Blogroll members are posting.

Monday, July 09, 2007

P&P Weekly: #39






I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Friends-of-the-Blog Scott Kelby - for his kind words on his blog - and Dave Cross - for his mention of my blog on NAPP TV last week. You guys are great!

Just a quick note about the P&P Weekly for those of you for whom this may be your first look at it, I write up a weekly roundup of what the members of my blogroll have been posting. They quite often have so many great posts each week but I will choose the ones I personally find the most interesting to include. But I encourage you to visit their sites to take a look at what else they have to share.

In the meantime, here’s what’s been happening this week in The Photoshop & Photography Blogroll:

Update your blogs often! I will only include links to posts added since the last P&P Weekly.

As always, if you have any suggestions or notice a discrepancy, please email me.

Friday, July 06, 2007

Westcott Scrim Jim


Yesterday we received a delivery from B&H of our new Westcott Scrim Jim kit. The medium kit comes with a 42"x72" frame, silver, white, and diffusion surfaces. We occasionally shoot some interviews outside and the surfaces would work great for reflecting the sun to light the shadow side of a face, diffusing sunlight altogether, or setting up behind the subject to stop down the background to allow for a more even lighting scheme.

Late next week we have a shoot scheduled where we will be putting the rig to work and I will try to snap a few of our setup with some before and after shots.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

P&P Blogger Profile: Jeff Revell

Jeff Revell of Jeff's Photo Gallery

I am a photographer for Uncle Sam. Actually, I’m not even really a photographer anymore; I’m a Supervisory Photographer, which means I just tell other photographers what to take pictures of.

Why do you blog?
I started taking pictures again for myself about three years ago and was inspired to start blogging after my buddy Scott Kelby first put up his Photoshop Insider blog. I just thought it was a great way of sharing what I was up to and where I had been shooting.

If you only had time to read three blogs a day, which ones would they be?
Obviously Photoshop Insider is my main staple. www.scottkelby.com
Terry White’s Tech Blog always has great stuff. http://terrywhite.com/techblog/
Finally I guess it would be PhotographyBLOG. http://www.photographyblog.com/

How long have you been using Photoshop/been a photographer?
I have been shooting since I was in high school. That puts it at about 25 years now. Having been a Windows user from the beginning of my computing days, I didn’t jump on board with Photoshop until version 2.5. At the time I was wrestling between that and Aldus Photostyler. After Adobe purchased Photostyler, it was all Photoshop from there on out.

What type of camera(s) do you shoot with?
There are several that I like. I am a Nikon guy so I would have to say that I love the D80 but still have a warm fuzzy place for my D100. The D200 is also a very sweet rig.

Mac or PC?
I have been a PC guy for more years than I can count but I have recently started using Mac. I love both platforms and they each have their plusses and minuses. In fact I had to send my Powerbook back to Apple just two days after buying it because the motherboard fried. There is no such thing as a bulletproof system.

What is your favorite piece of photo or computer equipment (other than your camera)?
I would have to say it’s my Tamrac Adventure 9 photo backpack. I was always leaving my SLR behind on business trips because I couldn’t fit it in my computer backpack. Now I have the best of both worlds, It is a great system that let’s me take my laptop, a digital SLR, three to four lenses, and a bunch of accessories with me on the plane. The best part though is that it is slim enough that I can slide it under the seat in front of me so I can access the computer during flights.

What piece of equipment would you most like to get but don’t have?
I would love, love, love to have an Epson 3800 printer.

What advice do you have for a novice creative professional/photographer?
Shoot for yourself, not for others. It is great when other people like what you have done but the bottom line is, if you don’t like it, why do it at all. Also, try to find yourself a good mentor who can offer advice when you need it.

What inspires you to create?
I started shooting in high school and fell in love with the black and white process. To stand in the darkroom and watch the image I shot appear on the paper as it soaked in the developer was almost magical (and I still love the smell of fixer). I just really enjoy looking for items to shoot in creative ways. If you look at my car shots, you’ll never see one of the whole car. Anyone can take a picture of the entire car but that’s all it is. To me, the parts are more interesting than the whole.

What would be your most important piece of advice about life?
Don’t sweat the small stuff. Do what you can do, in the time you have to do it. There’s only 24 hours in the day, no matter how hard you try to squeeze in a little more. Also, don’t be a hermit. It’s a big world out there and everyone should try to see as much of it as they can in their lifetime. You can learn a lot about yourself by exploring other cultures.

Where would you most like to live (other than where you live now)?
I could definitely live in Hawaii for a couple of years. Maybe not for the rest of my life but certainly until I had photographed every waterfall.

What do you like to do in your spare time?
What spare time? I love doing things with my kids, traveling overseas, fishing with my friends, spending time with my wife, all the things there’s never enough time to do enough of.

What talent would you most like to have?
I always thought it would be really cool to play an instrument. I was so jealous the first time I heard Scott Kelby play the keyboards. What a talented guy.

From Inside the Actors Studio:
What is your favorite word? Antidisestablishmentarianism (just because)
What is your least favorite word? No
What turns you on? Planning a photo excursion. My trip to Cambodia last year was unbelievable.
What turns you off? People that whine
What sound or noise do you love? The sound of my children laughing
What sound or noise do you hate? My alarm clock in the morning (unless it’s waking me to go fish or shoot a sunrise)
What is your favorite curse word? Is my Mom going to read this? I do have a tendency to curse at work a lot but s**t would probably top the list.
What occupation other than your own would you like to attempt? I always thought that being a photojournalist would be the coolest job in the world, especially for National Geographic. Joe McNally comes to mind.
What occupation would you not want to participate in? Have you ever seen the show “Dirty Jobs”? Just about anything that Mike Rowe has done on there would be on the list.
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? “You’ve done good boy, we’ll just overlook that other stuff. Now go see your dogs, they’ve been waiting for you.”

*Note: If you there is someone you would like to see as a part of the P&P Blogger Profile series, please email Jason with their blog's URL. Also, be sure to check out the P&P Weekly every Monday for news about this site and a roundup of what other Photoshop & Photography Blogroll members are posting.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Happy 4th of July!

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Look Mom, I'm On NAPP TV!

I was at a meeting out of the office for most of the afternoon and missed the posting of the latest episode of NAPP TV by a little while. So, when I returned I saw that iTunes had updated my podcast list with this week's show and low and behold there's Dave Cross - friend of the blog - giving me a mention! Thanks guys for helping spread the word and for being such great supporters of Soup Questions!

If anyone is interested in reading some of the profiles that Dave spoke about on the show (including all 3 of the Photoshop Guys), click here for a complete list. And I'm always looking for new subjects, so please, let me know of someone you'd like to see profiled!

Lightning


Ever since I was a kid I've loved thunderstorms. My parents would always laugh whenever there was any thunder or lightning so my brother and I wouldn't be scared of it. Now, I love to just sit at watch a storm move in and see how the lightning lights up the clouds.

Check out this site of lightning photos. Post links in the comments if you know of or find any other cool lightning shots.

Monday, July 02, 2007

P&P Weekly: #38






Here’s what’s been happening this week in The Photoshop & Photography Blogroll:

Update your blogs often! I will only include links to posts added since the last P&P Weekly.

As always, if you have any suggestions or notice a discrepancy, please email me.