VisionMongers

Was just watching a live interview with Zack Arias, and this was a book he recommended reading. I have not read it, but with my BigStock payment I should receive in the next couple days I plan on getting it. The interview can be found at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/danesanders-tv, I believe he should have the replay up by the time you read this. Zack talks about finding your niche, overcoming fears, and what equipment he would use if this was his first day ever shooting. Lot of great questions, and a lot of great insight from a guy I highly respect. He mentions a few blogs you should read on a daily basis (mine did not make the cut), as well as some books to read.

I am feeling better, as well as Eliana. The little one and now Angela are getting hit hard with it. So far, I think Larissa got the worst end of it, she managed to get every symptom while the rest of us just got a couple. Thanks for prayers and well-wishes.

Starting to get pumped for the Hilton Head shoot. Hope to get plenty of great shots, and model releases so I can start uploading to get back on track to 500.

One thing Zack said that kind of made me kind. He said the reason he has a studio is to separate his work from his home life. When he is at the studio, he is at work, when he is at home, he is off the clock. When I am at home, I am with the kids, so I am playing parent, so any photography comes second. But when I go off to shoot a band, or shoot the movie, I take hundreds of photos, because I am business. What I need is a spot to call my own, that I can separate my home and photography. I guess I can dream.

I am actually listening to the interview again as I write this. I am pausing to take notes. Most of you ignore my links, but I really suggest this one, especially if you have not really gotten your photography business off the ground. Might even link over on the right there... just that good.

Here's a great pic from Zack that he twittered a couple days ago.... (I hope he doesn't mind me posting)

Illness

Myself and my youngest daughter ended up with chills, slight fever and bad, bad diarrhea. My oldest daughter had a fever that went as high as 102.8. Angela had tummy troubles, but refused to acknowledge them as she was trying to take care of the rest of us.

As far as photos go, I have prepared to take some more dice photos. Had a couple ideas and I thought I would try them out. I am hoping this will help inspire me to take other photos, because I have crossed the threshold of needing an average of one photo a day to complete my goal. So now, I need to try to focus.

The Hilton Head photo shoot is not cancelled, but has been scaled back, due to lack of photographers wanting to take part. I have plenty that seemed interested, and a couple who signed up, but in the end, they backed out, so now I have 6 models and only myself to shoot them. So I will let them know what the deal is, and let them know that I will still shoot them if they like. I will probably do it one on one and vary the locations.

Got a payout from Dreamstime last night. Which is awesome, because that will help pay for this adventure. I am two sales from a payout on Shutterstock, and if I don't get them by the end of tomorrow, then I have to wait a month to get it, and I need the money for the trip. iStock is off the chain this month. I'll have to go back and check, but I believe this is one of the best months I have ever had with them.

Like the new layout? I am hoping that eventually I can put one of my own photos back there.

So anyway, check out my SmugMug pics. Watch Castle. They just got picked up for a full third season. Awesome news. If you haven't watched it yet, get season 1 and enjoy. 

Bad Memory

This sucks, because the other day I found a really cool link, and like an idiot, I did not bookmark it, and now for the life of me I cannot remember it when I am ready to share. Hopefully it will come to me by the end of this posting.

One of the biggest successes that came out of New Recipe Tuesday was Angela's Awesome Enchiladas. She made them again today, and they are still AWESOME!!! As I sit here, I am contemplating warming up the leftovers and eating them now instead of saving them for work tomorrow.

My NCAA bracket was one of the worst I have ever played. But, oddly enough, I can still end up in second place if Duke wins their next game, and loses the finals.

Listening to Sparatica as I write this, or type this I guess. They are currently in the studio laying out their debut album. Kinda excited. Maybe I'll have some of the photos I took appear as an album cover. And if their tour hits Hawaii, I get to tag along as official photographer. Of course I'll probably have to pay my own way, but I'd do it.

Ok, did some more Exit 101 pics last night. It's the Hitchhiker meets the Pizza Guy scene and also the Main Cast meets the Hitchhiker scene. Here is a sample pic:

My memory is still blotchy, but I think it had something to do with a photo I was working on the other day. Speaking of, I have been using the pen tool, after years of ignoring it, I have decided to give it a try, and I am pretty happy with the results. Little time consuming with the finer details, like hair, but worth it.

Here is a comp of a Spartica pic. Was just playing around with a photo and came up with a decent look for the lead vocalist, so I decided to make a "poster" pic of each member of the band. Here is my favorite:

Learned the "glowing orb" trick with a Tyron Coachman photo I did a couple months ago. Added streaks of green lightning. The rest is pretty basic, cloud filter over black, text with gradient. A gradient overlay layer over the entire photo, but just under the guy. Another member I did in a corny way of looking like he is fading into being from lava. The female I will go back and add music notes to the background. The other guy I could not for the life of me think of a concept, so just started playing around and ended up with the flying ninja-like star.

Ok, this is going to bug me all night. I will try to think of it and post it tomorrow (most likely Tuesday, to give you warning, Fred). Here is a post to a photoshop magazine subscription. Isn't ridiculous how expensive these things are? Ok, well, good night.

One Light Workshop

OneLight Workshop Dvd Set! Camera Just thought I would promote Zack Arias a little bit here. He is a speaker down at Photoshop World in Orlando. If I had known that I might have attempted to go down there, but alas, I am broke and can't do that. Maybe he'll stop at exit 101 Cordele, Ga on his way back through and I'll treat him and his family to lunch.

I will also take a moment to promote Sparatica. They have one song recorded so far, they hit the mic next month for the vocals to finish off their first album. I am hoping I can get a few pics of them when they go on tour.

And I will promote the movie Exit 101. I will be shooting some more pics tomorrow night, so keep checking back for new stuff.

And the last of my promotional links here will be for Redeeming Love which is currently being made into a movie. I have been watching the process, and they are just about to start casting. I think Hugh Jackman and Keira Knightley should star, but that's just my opinion. Angela agrees with me. Possibly Rachel McAdams though. But anyway, read the book. I really liked it. I read it a couple times and even highlighted my favorite parts.















Ok, I am going out to the car now to get my photo equipment so I can shoot a couple pictures. So until tomorrow or so, read a book.

CS5!! I WANT IT I WANT IT I WANT IT

Ok, for those of you who are too busy photographing and working to sit around and read the 'net like I do, there is a new item coming out called CS5. It's a good motivator to save my money.

With the "success" of my Sparatica pics, I now have 3 more bands to shoot when I hit Hilton Head on the 10th. So I will shoot models in the morning, head off to another location, and shoot band after band. I have a feeling I'll need more memory. And speaking of Sparatica, here is their MySpace page. Love their first song, Burning Walls. Here is a couple more pics I did, not special, but decent.

I now have the link for Amazon Associates, so now when I recommend a book like Photoshop Restoration and Retouching by Katrin Eismann, you can link straight to it. Cool, eh? This is one of my favorite books, by the way.  Now if I were to recommend a movie... say "Slumdog Millionaire", that'll pop up , too. Don't ya just love it? Another way for me to annoy you. Well, time to go to bed, gotta be back at work tomorrow.

Sparatica

The other day I had the opportunity to shoot a band, not just any band, but a great group called Sparatica, who traveled down from South Carolina to get their picture taken. Ok, they were traveling to meet a friend, but I was begged to do a session with them while they were here. They had one concept in mind, and they wanted to be shot on green screen so they could be placed on the moon. I am not a big fan of green screen photography, but I did it anyway. I created a scene using it, but someone else was going to use the photos for the moonshot, so that was alright with me. Some things I did know about shooting on green screen, the screen needed to be brightly lit, and it needed to be flat with no wrinkles. I got as close as possible with both. I used spotlights to light the screen, and I used flash bulbs to light the band.

The hardest part for me is to pose people, or rather direct them into a pose. I let them know that up front, and let them do their own thing, and I got some pretty decent photos as a result. I then put up a black background and did some low key shots, which I am more comfortable with. When we wrapped up, they had gone outside and I went out to show them a couple of the good shots, and noticed how great the sun was outside, so we went to a neighboring field and got some shots.

Here are some of the final results:

The first is one of the outdoor shots (obviously). I used my favorite filter, Melancholytron from Flaming Pear. The second I filtered with VirtualPhotographer. The third is a comp of five photos. The first is a planet landscape I created a couple months ago. It was curved so I flattened the ground. I then pulled each member off the green screen and placed them in the scene. I added a shadow, and then darkened their right sides to make it fit a little more into the scene.

Sparatica photos on SmugMug.
Sparatica MySpace page.

Lazy Blogger

First I was a lazy photographer, now I'm a lazy blogger, too. Actually, I have been somewhat busy and incredibly tired, and I have just not had the energy to sit back and create my masterpiece of the day.

First, I am now read in 34 countries and 5 continents.

Second, y'all are probably tired of me promoting Exit 101 the movie, but since I am the official behind the scenes photographer, every second I get to promote the film I will. So go to SmugMug and see some of the photos. After all, the bigger the movie gets, the better payoff it has for me in the end. I'm not talking monetary, but in terms of contacts and experience.

This is one of the "rednecks", Buddy, who, as you can see here, does not fare well against his foe. I leveled and curved, and then adjusted brightness down a tad while increasing contrast. I created a second version that you see here that I applied a HDR action to.

Speaking of Exit 101 and popularity, since I have a Exit 101 page on my website, I can see the visitor info (city, country) and there are a LOT of people searching for the movie and finding my website. Not just here in the USA, but England, Australia, Asia. The word of mouth on this movie is starting to gain some international support. It may never reach the levels of Paranormal Activity or Blair Witch, but just to know that people out there are excited and anticipating the movie I am helping to create makes me feel good.

In a March Madness bracket pool. Currently in 4th out of the 12 people playing. Georgetown's loss really hurt me, but as long as Syracuse can make it to the finals I am ok.

The photo shoot on Hilton Head Island is starting to finally come together. I have 3 of the 5 photogs lined up, with 1 pending. 3 of the 8 models are confirmed with 3 pending. Go here for more details.

New Recipe Tuesday has dropped by the wayside. I hoped it inspired some of you to try new stuff and cook outside your comfort zone on occasion. A couple of the recipes I learned I am still using. I will be attempting homemade pierogies tomorrow. Pretty simple, 16oz sour cream, mix with 3 cups flour and roll out. Cut out 3 inch circles, fill with mashed potatoes and other stuff such as cheese, bacon, chives, onions, or whatever you like. Fold over into moon shape and pinch edges together. Boil 4 minutes, then pan fry to brown.

I am suddenly getting a lot of requests for photo sessions. I have a headshot session, a band, and a mother and daughter session. Here is a headshot I took of myself. I like it, but because I was self-photographing, the focus is just off slightly. Couldn't seem to get it spot-on.

Ain't I a handsome bugger? Calm down ladies... I'm taken.

Well, I will try to do better with my blogging. I feel better about doing it since I started writing todays blog. Until next time, it's time for so long.