Last night I attended a talk given by John Mariana at the Roswell Photographic Society.  The topic was Fine Art with Photoshop and Adobe Raw.  To be honest, I was not all that thrilled to go.  While I thought I might pick up one or two small things, I did not expect much.  But what occurred was just the opposite;  What I walked away with, I believe may change how I look at post processing. In other words, it may be one of the larger things I have ever learned.

I know that many people say you should never fix or change something in Photoshop;  The way it comes out of the camera is the way you should present it.  To that I say boo-ha-ha; and I always have said that.  Even before digital photography took off, everyone made changes to their images.  It may not have been called post processing, but they were still changes.  It is just that these changes occurred in the darkroom rather then on a computer.

My goal in presenting an image is to see it the way I saw it when I snapped the shutter.  If I really go over the top, number 1, people can tell and number 2, I admit it. The ultimate goal is to capture the viewers imagination and build excitement.

What John spoke about last night was nothing really new.  I was familiar with each of the tools in Photoshop that he spoke about.  Some I knew were there, but I had forgotten them or just gotten into a habit of not using them. But it was the way he presented his information and at that moment, for some reason, it just resonated in me.  So what did I learn?  Two very simply things really: 1) In our culture, we read left to right. So your image should be viewed that way.  2) If the lines aren’t straight, straighten them. Nothing earth spattering.  But it is one of those small things that I think will allow me to get that much better in the images that I present.

Below are two images that I have taken this past year.  Neither are out of this world shots, but I wanted to show you my point.  The first two images are exactly the same, but with one minor difference, I switched the horizontal position from one side to the other.  Look at the top image;  That is the “final image”.  Below that is how I started out.  On the top image, my eye seems to naturally lead from the left to the right.  On the bottom shot, it felt forced.  Again a minor change, but now it just feels right;  I enjoy the flow of it more.

The 2nd series has the same change as above, but this time, I straightened up the lines.  When I took this shot, it was impossible for me to get level with the building.  But with some minor tweaks in Photoshop, it now looks just like I saw it.

I love technology.  But in reality, I love learning even more!!

I participated in a photo shoot last night with a number of other photographers south Atlanta.  With 3 stations and 3 models, we had the opportunity to be creative and work on our skill set.  But as you will see, it didn’t go as planned.  I think it must as been a full moon, as we ended up with some crazy fun stuff.

The first shot, is by far my fav; the 2nd, is a spur of the moment shot as were waiting for the model to change outfits; it went downhill from there……….

At about 10pm last night, I went out to a part of Atlanta that may not be considered to be the best part of town to try and get some skyline shots of downtown.  For the longest time, I have wanted to do this and a few weeks ago I found what I thought would be a perfect place to do it.  The spot was a constriction site located across the street from a MARTA train station.  To get into the site, I had to do some crawling around fences, up some hills and the like.  I am sure that I wasn’t supposed to be there, but this looked just too perfect to pass up.

In looking at the shots afterwards, I am pleased with how they turned out, but I may go back.  Really for two reasons: 1st, I would like to play with the duration a bit more of my shots and 2nd, I ended up only staying for about 20 minutes.  It was very dark and as I said, not the best part of town.  So the next time, I will bring someone along with me if I can. Any takers?  :-)

Some technical info for those of you that are interested:  The first shot is a glimpse of where I was situated.  I set the camera to an ISO of 100, f8 aperture and kept the shutter open for 25 seconds.  The bottom 2 shots are the same except the exposure was only for about 8 seconds.

The New Year is here and if you’ve resolved to put family first, you’ll love all the fun family sessions we’ve got planned for 2010!

Family Portrait Month is March! Make a single moment last forever with a classic family portrait just in time for reunions. Book your session by February 15th and receive 10 complimentary signature wallets images. Wallets images are a great take home gift that will be cherished long after the family reunion is over!

This seemed to be a weekend of things not working out.  First off, the ice was bad enough on Saturday afternoon that I cancelled my trip to Athens.  I was not worried about getting there; but getting back, in the dark, with far below freezing temperatures (think more ice), was another matter.  I was bummed, but it was simply not worth the risk.

Instead I spent the afternoon talking down the christmas decorations with the kids and wife.  As we were taking the decorations off the tree, I looked at the pile of bulbs and thought that it would make for a very cool image that I might be able to use next holiday season.  I quickly ran downstairs, grabbed my camera and shot a bunch of stuff with my 50mm 1.4 lens.  I wanted colors that would pop with a very shallow depth of field.  I got 50% of that.

Below is the final image; But the real picture is below that.  I laughed when I saw it on my Mac.  Oh well!!

I think my wife now thinks that I am officially crazy.  You would think that after 15 years of marriage, she would have figured that out long ago, but I digress.  I got up early yesterday and wondered around with my camera in the bitter (-5 w/ wind chill) weather.  I loved the light and what it was doing and to be honest, I wanted to take advantage of it.

When I looked over into my neighbors backyard, I saw this hay bale.  I knew 2 things when I saw it: 1) It had to be a BW shot and 2) I wanted the viewer to feel the cold.  I love the texture of it.  How you can see what it looks and feels like and, to me at least, it sure does look cold.

This afternoon I am driving over to Athens (about 2 hours away) to do an outdoor fashion shoot.  Let’s hope that the wind is not too nasty for us.  I, of course, will post the results later in the week.

So have you ever wondered what a snow day looks like in Atlanta?  Well here is a quick sneak peak at the fun you can have! Some personal pics, but still fun stuff.

Not sure how she can see from behind that hair……..And she told me that she was not cold!

This is our the street in front of our house.  Pure ice.

The kids and I spent the Christmas week in North Georgia on Lake Hartwell.  The wife has abandoned us (ok not really, but it sounds better) to go see her father in India.  So the kids were left to our own devices and ended up having a blast togther.

Below are a series of images I took during the week.  The portait work is really just some fun, personal work;  Nothing outstanding, just fun stuff.  The landscapes: I wanted to try and capture the cold that has been running through Georgia this month.

As always, let me know what you think!!

I had a hard time with the below 2.  I could not decide if I liked the color or BW version better.  I shot this with the intent of turning it into a BW.  But in looking at it, I really think I like the color better.

Our two very good friends!!

I shot this @ 2.8 with an ISO of 8,000.  I am still amazed that I can do that!

And my favorite people in the world………..

Merry Christmas everyone.  I hope that it was all that you wanted it to be.  I knew that these three little people were happy Christmas Day!

This past Saturday I helped, along with 6,000 other photographers from around the world in 22 countries, photograph people who might not ever get the chance to have a formal portrait taken.  It was one of those moments that you can feel that you have the ability not only to give back, but to see people who appreiate what you do.  The smiles that happened that day, both in front of the camera and behind it, were just amazing.

Stats for just Atlanta:
337 portraits taken; 683 individual people were photographed; 157 Atlanta-Metro volunteers participated

Here are a few links about the day, some behind the scene photos from my location and other posts.  Amazing stuff!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/12/14/photo.shoot.help.portrait/index.html?iref=allsearch

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maxshirley/galleries/72157622867020009

http://web.me.com/dvrosa/Help-Portrait/Movie.html

http://www.terzatendina.com/FTP/H-P_Timelapse.mov

And next year?  Why don’t you join us??!!