Up in the air Junior Birdman!

So I am working on some airplane images for an upcoming seminar... see post two back for more details. Here are a few before and afters that I am working on... I may tweak them a bit if my OCD kicks in, but they are probably finished. Since it is Friday, I will call it take a Flying Leap Friday! :D Of course I am waiting for my flying friends to tell me the names of each of these planes... what they don't realize is that I am incapable of remembering because I am too busy remembering bad 80's music and TV shows. :D Enjoy!

I call this one Fuji... for the mountain, not the camera... even though I am pretty sure that it doesn't fit anyway...:D

Original before taken at Eglin Air force Base

Turbulence

Original image taken at airport museum just over the pass from Jackson Hole, Wyoming in Utah.

Ode to Jeremy Clarkson... Air Powerrrrrrr!

Original Eglin Air Force Base

Da plane! As seen on the blog post with that name two back. Added grunge edges.

Original from outside Birmingham, Alabama Airport.

What I like about these projects are that they force me to go dig back through my archives and give new life to old photos that I kept for that "Someday"... and today was that someday... at least for a few of them. Now if I can get to the next hundred thousand and I will be set!

Calling all kid's photographers

I am teaming up with some great folks to put on a wonderful seminar in Chattanooga... and I would love to see you there. I am going to be sharing a lot of Photoshop retouching magic and I get to share the time with some incredible kids shooters (cameras not guns, 'cause even though as parents we have thought about it...that would be wrong!) and my good buddy and deep thinker/great shooter Steve Gustafson. Steve was part of my Tiger golf shooting and also my Civil War shooting... so you know he has the patience of Job to keep putting up with me. :D

It really promises to be a wonderful time and if this may be something you would be interested in more info here... http://brookeloguephotography.com/?page_id=109
 

Da Plane!

Sorry for the blatant Fantasy Island rip off, but I figure only the cool folks will get it... :D

How is that for pandering to my audience? Here is a before and after of an image I am working on for a symposium I am speaking at in April. It is the ISAP conference... or International Society of Aviation Photographers http://aviationphoto.org/. If you are interested in planes and photography, this is a great event. Oh, by the way is it wrong that even though I know the names are in alphabetical order, I still like that I have top billing? I have issues...

This is a plane that I took a couple of years ago and thought I could jazz it up a bit. For objects like this, there is no better tool than the pen tool to make clean selections. I know that is not a favorite tool of many, but if you want to have more control, the pen tool is definitely the way to go. Enjoy!

New sky and a little Photoshoppery and viola... vintage avaiation

Original image taking by an airport

Poster for the Symposium

Ode to Alfalfa...

Some of you will get the obscure reference... most of you will not, because let's face it... you have a life and weren't dropped on your head as a child. But, to those of you who can follow my train of thought... You need counseling! :D

This image is one I did for a sermon series on Romans for someone else and it really just started with the notion that I wanted to use the shield as a key element. A lot of times my illustrations are kind of like jazz... I play one note... or make one part and that leads me to the next element. There are some sneaky little deeper meaning things going on in here but I will leave it to you to find them and wonder if I meant to do that... I probably did, especially if you think it is awesome and brilliant... if you think it is lame... that wasn't me. :D

I have two different versions of this... one without the graffiti writing, but I like being a little obtuse and yet intentional, so I like this version better. I hope you like it.

Pete

Lend me your ears

Workbook blues

Procrastination: do you ever notice that you tend to be the most creative about other endeavors when you have work to do that is stressing you out? I am working on my Photoshop World classes for Atlanta in April and all I want to do is draw and make pretty pictures. good news is that I can use some of them i my class... Here is one I am using in my Brushes class that I just finished. I haven't given it a title yet, so feel free to let me know what I should call it. Meanwhile I will be back working on my notebooks. :(

Help to rescue this unnamed image!

Time Lapse drawing

Here is a sketch that I did for our church for the beginning of the advent season. Hope you like it.  :D

Photoshop Fun Contest

So over on the NAPP site photoshopuser.com every other week I am running a contest to take whatever starting images I give the members and turn it into a composite image of their choosing. It can be anything they like except they must have the rights to any elements/images that they use. The goal is to have fun and learn more about compositing along with getting free stock images from yours truly. This last week I gave them a bunch if textures that I took from a train yard in Alabama and I decided to play along and come up with my own image. The planet on the left is made from a rivet and a porthole and the bumps on the alien arm are from another set of rivets from another train. Could you tell I was watching MIB while I did this? :D

If you are a NAPP member you can check out my video review of the contest here:
http://members.photoshopuser.com/article/photoshop-fun-contest-14-video-review/ 

NAPP site Photoshop Fun Contest 14

A little post processing before and after

So here is an example of me working an image that has potential, but the background really distracts from the moment. In the raw photo you see the lovely Civil-War era F-150s in the background. So I needed to bring in a new field and blend it in with the original. Most of the work involved tracing a mask around the hay that is being flung up in the air as those pesky rebels were being shot with a Canon oops I mean cannon. Most of the work involved creating a mask around the soldiers and the hay... this was done at 100% magnification or more to get the edges right. Once I was able to work out the masking, I used a different cornfield image along with the clone stamp, the healing brush and the spot healing brush to work the parts together. I took the finished piece into Alien Skin's Exposure 5 to give it that Tin-type look with my own special sauce recipe. Not a lot of fancy techniques, just good ole elbow grease and Alien Skin. :D

original image... gotta love the trucks!

  A little photoshop magic

Battle of Chickamauga

Or as some of my kinfolk call it... "The War of Northern Aggression!" 

I was invited by my friend Steve Gustafson, a great photographer and nice guy, to come take part in the 150th anniversary of this historic battle just shy of Chattanooga, Tennessee. So I packed up the trusty Camry and headed for the hills. 9 hours later I made it... I had forgotten what it was like to live in a land that wasn't flat! 

Just a little side note that has nothing of importance to anyone but myself. As we were approaching the site and asking if there was a place for media to park, I started to do the Three Stooges bit where they try to get into the horserace by using press knobs from the bathroom until Curly uses the pull knob and the cops start chasing them. Well, I had just explained why I kept saying "Press, Press... Pull... yuk yuk yuk!" to the guys in the car... as I often have to do since most of my jokes are only funny to me... when the police officer directing traffic stops us and says "Have you guys seen the Three Stooges bit Press, Press... Pull?" I don't know who that guy was, but he is my hero, and I had a feeling that it was going to be a good day.

When you come to an event like this, it really is sensory overload as there are just so many things to see and shoot. The clothes, the cannons and the beards! So what i try to do if i have the time is take the first bit and not shoot anything, but rather try to get my eye adjusted to all the visual stimulation so i wouldn't just be shooting at every shiny thing that I saw. There is a tendency to get into a rut of just clicking at everything, and I wanted to discipline my shooting. Less pictures...but better quality.  It also helped knowing that I was going to be there for two days, so I was able to plan to have my better shooting happen on the second day, after I got my rhythm and was able to look over the first days captures and figure out what changes i wanted to make. Most people forget that the eye and creativity are just like other muscles and tend to need time to warm up, especially if you have been sitting in an office for days or weeks. I rarely can just jump right into a shooting environment and be firing on all cylinders, so i try to plan some extra time to warm up if possible.

One of the very first people I ran into was a guy with a great face lying on the grass by one of the tents. Turns out he and two other blokes were from London and just all around great guys with such wonderful faces. But our first day there we arrived at high-noon, so I took a couple of snaps of them and thought as I left them that I would love to do a portrait session with them when the lighting was better. i should have gone back and arranged that right then, because in spite of looking for them for the rest of the time, I never saw them again. I must remember seize the moment. 

Three Blokes from London

I was with Steve and local photographer/celebrity Mike Daniel (it seemed everyone knew Mike) and we started wandering through the tents. We were able to go shoot each of the camps, and found it better shooting in the Northern Troops area since they were in the shade... just listening to the stories of how long a lot of these folks had been doing these re-enactments was incredible. Oh, and by the way... be careful who you call a Yankee! :D Some of these folks are serious!  

We were able to get some neat shots of the Confederate soldiers mustering for the upcoming battle and were in a great position to capture the main battle when we were challenged by an overly uptight General who ordered us to move. (I was really tempted to remind the guy that all of this was pretend and that he wasn't a real general, but I don't think he would have appreciated it.) And thus began a side battle I like to call "The Great Disappointment of 2013" You see, we moved to a middle ground that would be just OK for getting shots of the main battle and even had a lovely French photographer named Brice come join us. But getting good shots of the battle would be tolerated... right before the battle a soldier on horseback was dispatched to tell us we had to move once again to a position even farther away. Once we made it past the viewing bleachers we were once again asked to move down even further so as not to disturb the spectators. We were now approximately 500 yards or more from the main area of conflict. To make matters worse, most of the cannons being fired and the actual battle was taking place in the middle of the trees or behind them, so all we could see was puffs of smoke and random sounds of the conflict. Let's just say that there were a lot of disappointed photographers and news folks. Turns out that there was a film company that had paid to film the battle and that lead the organizers to give them carte blanche and give all the other folks the shaft and put them so far out that it was almost laughable. So a lot of us walked away from the first day less than pleased with the event and the folks running it. 

So it was with trepidation that we decided to try it again the second day. Rain had moved through and soaked everything, but it left wonderful clouds and perfect light for the big battle. Having been relegated to the cheap seats even though we had press passes the day before, we decided to try to be a little bolder and smarter this day. We met and joined up with the area CBS news reporter Jessica and hitched a ride with her in her news truck emblazoned with all of the ubiquitous stickers that let folks know that serious news is being filmed. Can't hurt to look important right? Well, we get set up in the prime spot to be able to capture the main action... several other photographers from other news sources were there as well. Jessica was ready to stand her ground after hearing our story from the day before... she had the freedom of press on her side and she was not going to be moved. Shortly after we got there... once again, a rider was dispatched to tell us to move from the area. Jessica told him we were not moving and he lost the battle of wills and left. Hooray for Jessica! I am not below letting a woman fight my battles for me... I am pretty sure she is tougher than me by a long shot! :D Shortly thereafter another uptight "General" showed up... I not sure if he was another one or the same one from yesterday... they start to blend together :D He said in no uncertain terms that we had to move out of the area and set up across the road... which might as well have been located in New Jersey due to how far away it was. He said that they were filming a movie and they had paid for the right to do so, therefore everyone else had to clear out of the way and there was no arguing the point. Jessica tried to sweet talk him, but money won over chivalry and we had to go. Our group of despondent folks headed back to the truck, along the way we had to pass an old cinderblock shack and I told the guys to keep walking. I jumped behind the wall and climbed in the window of the shack to hide. My crew got in the truck and left the area... and I found out later that Jessica took down a whole list of names and was going to let her station know how unhelpful the event coordinators were. (I am glad I am not on her naughty list)  My buddies Steve and Mike got some great shots of an osprey that landed in a tree near them... since that was about the only thing worth shooting from their position across the street and up the hill... about half a mile away. (Ok, it wasn't quite that far, but it felt that way and left them with little to shoot.)

Meanwhile back in the shack... 

When we last left me, I was climbing through the window of the shack and found myself face to face with three other photographers that had the same idea. Long time newspaper photographer Rick Owens and his posse were trying to be inconspicuous and quiet and not doing too great a job at either. There we were trying not to be caught in a tiny shack with broken windows and a door that would not close all the way. We figured... heck all they can do is kick us out, and once the battle starts they will be too busy to worry about us. Another thought we had was that the shack was not a period structure, so the movie folks wouldn't have it in any of their shots... and this gave us hope/comfort as we tried to justified our Civil Disobedience... (See what I did there with my word play, since we were at a Civil War re-enactment. :D)

Shack shooters

Next thing we knew, the troops started marching our way and the cannons rolled in. The cannons were literally about twenty feet beside the shack to our right and the troops came in and surrounded the shack around front and down the road to our left. This gave us some great opportunities to shoot the troops mustering as we tried to be sneaky and quiet and shoot out of the side windows of the shack in rotation since the room was a bit cramped. At one point the soldiers were two feet in front of the door which we managed to get shut and barricade with a broken piece of wood... (I wanted to yell out "You'll never take us alive!" but the other shooters talked me out of it. :D) 

I never thought about it before, but what do you do if you are a soldier in the Civil or war or Mock-Civil War and you need to go to the bathroom? Well, you look for an innocent looking shack and go around back and take care of business. Most of the soldiers spotted us and had a good laugh and told us to watch out where we pointed out cameras while they relieved themselves and I of course replied something witty about needing a bigger lens... and we all had a good chuckle. But, then my shack-mates said to be very quiet as there was someone in the next room-like enclosure on the side of the shack... doing his business and he was not just peeing. I thought they were joking, but turns out that bears may go in the woods, but soldiers go in shacks! :D

We had a wonderful time in what became known as the Shitter-Shack. It was a day filled with a mixture of danger and intrigue along with trying to not laugh out loud so as to be found out... that only comes when you find yourself in a ridiculous situation of your own making. The end result was that we were in a great place to shoot the battle and got some wonderful shots. Oh, and by the way one of the camera crews from the film company came by and asked apologetically if they had gotten in the way of any of our shots. Then they asked if we had any pictures of them in action for their facebook pages. So once again I find that it is usually the Generals in our lives that are uptight and full of their own power while the foot soldiers are the ones trying to get things done and end up being fodder for the someone else's folly.

When one of the main guys responsible for the event was asked to respond about how the photographers and news were treated, and that it may lead to negative press, he responded that he didn't care. I am tempted to list his name and others who did such a bad job communicating and organizing, but that would be motivated out of spite, and I want to be better than that. I will say that if you are planning to take part in one of these events in this area in the future to be aware and perhaps look into going somewhere else.

Bottom line, trips like this are great if you can come away with some good pictures, and I think I have a few. But, the real treasure is the friendships and stories made. Thank you Steve for the invite and opening up your home and your heart. You certainly married up... especially with that hair of yours! Mike, great to meet you and become your friend... even if you shoot Nikon. We can't all be perfect like me!  To Rick Owens and my shack-mates, it was a wonderful day with you guys in the trenches!

Broken-hearted

So i have been working on this image for a bit and it has grown to a very large file... the I forgot how big the canvas was... almost 8000px x 6000 px and I couldn't figure out why my computer was moving rather slow... then I checked the number of layers I had and the final file size is over 1.2 Gigabytes... yow. So, this is a much smaller flatter more manageable size. I like the sense of story and what is going on just out of the frame. Hope you like it.

Digital Illustration combining drawing and image composities.

HELP!

That is usually the first line of a post where someone is having Photoshop problems. Then after several rounds of asking questions of the person needing help we are able to get down to the heart of the matter. So I thought I would come up with a quick three step troubleshooting plan of action for Photoshop problems. Here it is...

If something in Photoshop is not acting right then there are only a couple of things that could be wrong…

1> There is setting somewhere that is acting as it should, but you are unaware that it is being activated.

  Answer: Check of all options involved… For instance if the move tool is not working right… make sure that nothing in the options bar up top is set to something different… then make sure that you haven't made a selection and hidden the selection… then check to see that the layer isn't lock or that the layer isn't linked to another layer that may be locked, etc… (Keep looking… if you have exhausted all options and you still can't find the problem… go to step 2) 

2> There is something acting as it shouldn't… Photoshop has gone a little crazy.

Answer: Close down and restart your computer. If the problem persists it can still mean it is either you or the machine… go to step 3)

3> You are confused… You are not sure if it is you or the computer doing something wrong.

Answer: Seek help from a reputable source. Either a credible place like the NAPP help desk, or in forums where folks have a good grasp of the program and are willing to help. To speed up the process no matter where you seek help… you will want to tell others the steps you have already taken in your opening request for help. This will speed things up because you will avoid the basic "have you tried this…" questions/answers and establish yourself as a competent individual who has done the legwork and is now looking specialized help and not just using the forums as another form of Google. This will raise your query to a level that may bring out the folks that have that extra knowledge about a certain problem. I call these folks specialists because they love a challenge and only pop in when the problem gets to a certain level of toughness.

These folks will either have that special trick that fixes the problem or they will be the ones who will say… "You need to uninstall and reinstall your program" because they have the knowledge to be able to sift out the difference between user and computer error and know what action to take. Those are the folks you want answering your questions.

So you will do yourself and your forum community a service if you put into practice the steps listed above… and you can apply to principles to other technical issues, not just Photoshop.

Hope that helps! 

The Masks we hide behind

Two drawings that I have been working on that relate to our tendency to put up masks that are supposed to protect us from the onslaught of the world, that end up trapping us and leaving us alone and desperate for rescue. 

We feel we must show the world that we are the Knight in shining armor, when the truth is we are propping up our lives with things that bind us and weigh us down.

We are wanting to be the beauty that is worthy of being fought for and rescued, but we think that our mask is the only thing holding back the ugliness of our lives.

Smile!

I had breakfast with a friend this morning and we started talking about the sermon he was going to preach this Sunday. The topic is the Prodigal son, and most of us have heard countless sermons about this story. One of my favorites is by a man named Tim Keller who says it should be renamed "Prodigal Father" because the story is really about the depth of love the father has for his son. I told my friend that I have tried on several occasions to sketch an image of what I imagine the face of the father when he sees his son coming home, and I try to use that as a reminder of how God looks on me even when I run away from Him. So I did up this sketch this morning for my friend and also for my own heart... hope you enjoy the smile of the father.

Smile of the father

Some folks were harmed in the making of this!

Photo composite for NAPP and Joe

A little while back I received an email from a NAPP member sharing his story of the heights he went to to create a composite. He had just finished reading Matt Kloskowski's book Photography Compositing Secrets and decided he wanted to create a composite  with himself hanging on the edge of a building. 

Well, one of the great things about compositing images is that you don't have to put yourself in dangerous or impossible situations, but rather you can fake it within the safety of your home or studio. Joe, threw caution to the wind and went up on a tall building and had his wife take several pictures of him hanging over the edge... including the final one I have used here... you see just after that picture was taken, Joe fell 25-30 feet and broke his legs and hip in 5 places.  

When we heard about Joe's fall... we, the Photoshop Guys... being so sensitive and caring, immediately picked up the phone and called Joe... and began to make fun of him! :D Actually, Joe was a good sport and we gave him a hard time about throwing himself into his work, but in the end we really did make sure he was doing alright.

So one of the things Joe asked was for some tips for improving the composite  he made from his picture, and we gave him some ideas about lighting and angles. Ever since that phone conversation I have been stewing on what kind of composite I could do for Joe. The angle makes is unique, and it took a bit of search and trashing several attempts to get the right background. That was the main driving force to the image... finding a stock image that looked right... and then from there I spent a lot of time going back and forth on what elements would join Joe in the image and why. One of the key points of compositing is get the right elements that look like they belong, and I went through a slew of attempts that almost worked... This image kept fighting me.  

Well, I would mess with it, then walk away... then mess with it again another day or so. Sometimes a project or image just comes together and other times it is a knock-down drag-out fight to get it to work. This one fought me... and I would say I am pleased with the image, but I am not in love with it... I will probably keep tweaking it and adjusting stuff in the future, but I have it to a point where if I don't do anything else to it, I can let it be. Some of you know what I am talking about... when an image, painting or sculpture is just not "there" yet... it keeps intruding into your brain and bothers you until you get it to a point of defeating it. I think this morning, I won... and I can now let it live out in the world.  I put on Photoshop Contests over on the NAPP site www.photoshopuser.com and I decided this would be a good image to talk about when I do a review of images at the end of the contest, so I added some elements from the contest and uploaded it to the site as a way to solidify my heart to the image being done. Sometimes you have to work around your own idiosyncrasies and use them to get things done. :D

Enjoy!

Paper Chase

London Times:

Tower Bridge at London

Cindy's House

Went to Disney World on Sunday and this was one of the shots I got while hanging out with Kevin Graham. 

Cindarella's Castle at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Orlando.

You'll shoot your eye out kid!

Image created for a tutorial on the NAPP website... started to look like Ralphie so it just needed a Red Ryder and cracked glasses. Have a great Friday! 

I triple dog dare you!

DIY multi-flash set up

Here is a cheap way to make your own multi-flash set-up that I put together from simple parts gotten at any hardware store.  

Aluminum Stock 3/4" x 4'  around $5

Aluminum Stock 1/2" x 4'  around $5

12 thumb-screws $3.00

16 washers $2.00

4 wing nuts $1.00

Will make two adapters

Total: $8.00 per adapter with extra aluminum to make a couple more

I use a Giotto Mini-ball $13 as the base swivel for the whole adapter. 

The cold shoe adapters... I had some lying around but you can get them cheap. 

All the parts you will need. Simply but some aluminum stock and cut it into sections, drill out three holes on the base and three with two bends for the umbrella adapter. Exact dimensions aren't critical... you could just eyeball it.

Double flash set up with umbrella mount... ooooohhhh look at the cool lights shining on it! :D

Here is a shot of the pieces set to be put together for a quad flash set up. Notice the high tech rubber band... fancy.

Four flash set-up. 

Umbrella inserted into the mount... and the rubberband creates the tension to hold the umbrella in.

Four flashes with no umbrella.

Four flashes with umbrella mount... swivel at base allows for rotating and aiming of the light.

So there you have it... a cheap easy way to make your own set-up. Let me know how it works for you. 

Cintiq Love

Just a little creative freeform drawing/processing using the Cintiq 22HD Touch from Wacom. Yes I am a huge fan of all things Wacom... and I am not ashamed to say that I am hoping that if I say enough nice things about them, one will magically appear at my house for me to keep for ever! :D But until then I will continue to play with the ones that we use at work.​

I compare this to Jazz in that instead of playing a single note and letting the music take me down certain melodic paths... I let a single mark start eh ball rolling and then from there let the image come from chasing the visual rabbit down whatever hole it leads. That is why I love the hands on realistic feel of the Cintiq to draw so freely, but then immediately take control and add the photoshop magic in a seamless manner, so what started as a main area of the original piece becomes smaller and less significant as the image emerges.​ The ability to express and create so directly on the screen really makes this tool a work of art in and of itself.

This piece took me almost 4 hours to play with, and I left all of the stops, starts and changes of direction in there for you to see... albeit compressed into just under 4 minutes... but I hope you will enjoy it.​

Kena Photoshoot

Last week while at the WPPI On the Road conference, RC and I took a detour to Gary, Indiana to shoot some great Urb-ex images. Kena a good friend of RC's (She is on his HDR book cover)​ and he wanted to get some shots for his new book. I jumped in and made some portraits of Kena as well, here are some of the shots I came away with. Thanks Kena!