Sullivan's Island

I started my day in the sand.  The warmth on the morning sun was magnificent as it climbed into the sky.  The breeze and salty air was the perfect medicine.

Where's the Beef

I was asked about this photo again.  It was taken in Caldeira on the island of Terceira in the archipelago Azores off the coast of Portugal.  The road I was on was about three feet below the pasture with a basalt lava rock retaining wall. I walked right up to it and the cow peered right at me.  The others could not be bothered. I positioned low and under making special consideration for the suns position.  I knew I would get white out and sunspot conditions...  it was desired.  Mmmoooooooooooooo

WhoSkew

Charleston, South Carolina, USA.

In historic downtown Charleston there are houses that are current residences still.  These establishments are some are 250-300 years old.  Many are maintained and refurbished in like original condition.  But some face structural challenges as result of ground stability and weathering.  This is one of my favorite doors near Battery Park.  It has been maintained in a shifting and natural state.  It look clean and sound... but it is crooked.  The door is hung level but the porch and frame have shifted considerably over two centuries.  What a feat to see first hand.

Scene By Night

I was pulled up to a curb one night with my headlights casting a small distance through a field.  Some twenty years from me was an old fence at the grass line.  I had my camera and my trusty lil travel tripod and jumped into action.  There was a fine contrast I could see in this.  I shot these in B&W and focused in on the woodgrain.  The long exposure captured great detail in the fence post and allowed for some arbitrary movement in the tall grass.

Linked Impact

There is something fascinating about rusted metal.  I'm not sure what it is... but I fall victim fairly often.  The "as is" coloring and visuals on the first photo is untouched.  The second is "warmed" a bit bringing reds, oranges and life into the composition.  How about a little B&W conversion with a little flagrant manipulation on the contrast slide?  This makes it pop is areas that were less appealing before.  Detail in this finds new accents but it does lose the iron life of the others.  Which is more appealing to you?

Snapshots are Slapshots

You have done it.  Stood over a birthday cake to take a photo of it for posterity.  Snapshots like that are like amateur documentaries.  Where is the art in it?  You wanna be a photographer?  Then constantly remember what I've said about this: "Take the photograph that nobody else sees."  Get low and close.  Do something different.  Now for the record- I took one of those lame shots of this cake too ;)  Sometimes you just gotta do it for the other people involved.  Get YOUR photos too though.

Flightless Dragon - camera color adjust

Ever wonder what all the settings do on your camera?  Ever wonder how they work and what they actually change?  PLAY WITH IT!  Haven't I said that before?  You must learn the range of capabilities your own camera has.  Your creativity will grow ten fold when you learn to manipulate your tool (the camera).  Here is a poor unfortunate dragonfly that didn't choose a clear path one evening last week.  I was driving in light rain in the low country of South Carolina.  He got the smackdown from my Jeep grill.  At any rate...  I snapped off these photos in late afternoon lighting.  The first has the camera set to "auto" in the color mode field.  The second photo is taken with the "cool" choice and the third on... you guessed it- "warm."  As you can see- it alters natural coloring of the subject and manipulates the ambient lighting.  This can change mood in many cases. PS- don't forget to change your camera settings back to default to you start off correctly the next time.

Apologies...

I was busy this week preparing for several weeks away from home.  This weekend I have been ill and just haven't felt up to speed.  Thanks for the well wishes. I'll bounce back and post again soon.  Hang tight.

JAS.

Here is a sample image comparison. The first image was taken in "sepia" mode using the conversion algorithms inherent to the Panasonic Lumic DMC-FC18. The second image was taken in full color and converted using the Google Picasa tool. There have been no adjustments to clarity, contrast or coloring. This goes to show what I have been saying. You must know your tools and how to use them. Some aplications and variations work in some cases. Other tools work better for different effects. When you are procesing images in your head, the camera or at your workstation... make sure you know whether a screwdriver or a hammer is the right one to use.

Sepia Shrooms

I was out hiking this past weekend and found myself 5900 ft. up in a cloud bank hovering over Grandfather Mountain, NC, USA.  This would put an interesting spin of my photo excursion.  I had already decided I would make settings on my camera to capture images in sepia tone. I know I know... software can make that conversion back at home.  But I wanted to do two things. First, work my eye on contrast and form and exclude color from the mix.  Secondly, make some comparisons between my cameras setting for sepia and the software package I use for processing.  I'll post the comparison in a few days after I work it over for review.  In the meantime- take a gander at the smurf houses I found.  I am always amazed a the underside of mushrooms... the delicate nature of them is fabulous in structure and design.  It can change your perspective on it all.

White House Postcard

I took the same lame photograph of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. that 683 people take everyday.  What a common "snapshot" this is.  I wanted to change it some, "modernize" it if you will with fancy auto adjusters, color enhancers, white balancers and paint brushes to create my own masterpiece.  I'm still poking around software features of the digital darkroom and realize photographs may not always end up as printed photographs.  They may be paintings in the end.

JP-7

Sometimes a work morphs and grows over time.  This is a collection of photographs I pieced together for album artwork for Joel Port's release "Captain Kirk and the Beauty Queen."  Literally thousands of images were reviewed and selected for the "photogrids" used on the album pages.  This is a variant portion of one of the panels.  Manipulation the presentation changes the reception.  Different moods, different goals, different times.

Station 22.5

Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, United States

Artistic license is so available these days in digital darkrooms.  Manipulating images to achieve a desired outcome has always been apart of photography.  Although previous it was executed with chemicals baths, enlargers and treated papers.  Now we have the freedom to play with our work right on our desktops.

Live @ Rams Head

www.joelportrock.com
"Captian Kirk and his Beauty Queen"

Two Inch Unbrella