Wisteria fun on my iPad tonight. #photography #phoster
Here is the more contemporary version of the silhouettes. Tucked nicely back in a shadowbox frame to give an added sense of dimension.
(Dominic on the left and Dino on the right)
First Prints From Hipstamatic
I got my first prints from Hipstamatic today. After shooting with the app for over a year and loving the look of the photos it gives, I decided it was time to try their printing service
Let’s just say that I will definitely be using their print service again. The packaging is great and the prints are beautiful. The photos are printed on Fujifilm Crystal Archive paper that really brings out the beauty of the images created by the Hipstamatic app. The paper is a lighter weight (thinner) than traditional prints from a lab, but in my opinion, it doesn’t effect the visual quality of the image. I have tried many other ways to print the photos taken with the app and this is definitely the best way I have tried and it is also very convenient.
And the art project is a wrap! It was a lot of fun and proved to be a great challenge and learning experience for me. In the end, I made 10 instead of 9 because my friend, the Operation Blessing Guatemala National Director, is in town and happened to see some of the pieces I had finished. I had just chosen this photo of a school boy I had met in Guatemala as my last piece for the set and told him I wanted to make one for Jim to take back to office with him.
I set up two canvases and worked on two of this photo side by side. A funny side note is that I wrote a personal note to him on the back of one of the canvases so that I wouldn’t feel bad choosing which one to give him when they were finished. It wouldn’t have really mattered, because I think they both turned out equally great. I finally have figured out a workflow and technique that I like and am pretty consistent with it now.
Once I financially recover from the costs (which really aren’t too bad, but we are on a budget that didn’t plan on these extra expenses) of this project, I am thinking about doing one of each of my boys.
It has been an exhilarating by exhausting week and I need to get some rest. I am looking forward to crawling into bed after I finish cleaning up an pray that Dominic will be able to sleep through the night. Ciao.
8 of the 9 art pieces are complete. I’m really happy with 6 of them and am ok with the other two. They could be someone else’s favorite, because we all have our own style that we prefer.
This has been a really exciting project that has brought me out of a creative mold to try new things. It is a new way to look at the photos I take and a hands on way to manipulate an image without Photoshop. Because this is all an experiment, I feel like there is not a right or wrong outcome - they are just new techniques to use or avoid on following works. And really, it is the imperfections that help convey the stories of each of these children I photographed around the world. Their lives are rough around the edges and they have been through so much in their short lives.
I look forward to unveiling them if/when I find a local gallery, coffee house, airport that will accept the exhibit for a short period of time. After that I will work on getting the display online as well.
Feeling #creative, so I stopped in at Jerry’s Artarama. I ended up with these handmade watercolor papers that have great texture to them. I plan to tear them down to about 8.5” x 11” and see if I can run them through my printer. I’m not sure what my final plan is, but I have a canvas and some Mod Podge as an option. I may also try moistening the print and applying brush strokes if necessary to create a different effect. All of the plans are really dependent on my printer liking the paper, and I really hope it does.
If it doesn’t, another possible use would be to cut & lift a few of my Polaroids to adhere to the paper. So many choices. In the end, any artistic venture will be worth the time and small investment of money.
“Using ‘Tacky’ Photo Effects Effectively”
I am the first to admit that I like editing/enhancing a lot of my photos. The goal is usually to create a mood or bring a little more life to the mood that already exists. In general, I would not use the x-ray tool like I did above. On the other hand, I don’t like to limit myself by saying I would never use an effect…though this effect is almost in that category. The trick is to know when something works creatively to make the image better. I liked the original image that I had to work with and was really just working to achieve the proper color for the sky to contrast the trees. In the end, I decided I wanted to make something even more interesting out of the image and make it something that jumped off the screen - I wanted white trees. Luckily there wasn’t a lot of color in this image so the X-ray effect was able to quickly give me the white trees I wanted and inverted the cloud and sky color. The only problem was that it made the moon turn black, which was too much for me. I cloned it out and used Juxtaposer (all editing is being done on an iPad) to add the original moon back to the photo in the original color.
Tip: Never completely rule out an effect that you think is useless or distasteful, because you never know when it may actually work for you. I’ll probably skip over this effect for a long time before I ever use it again, but I am glad I gave it a shot for this image.
PS: Click on the photo to get a larger version to download. It looks great as an iPad lock screen or wallpaper on a widescreen computer display.
Not The Brightest Light In The Sky
There are days that i go out looking for something to photograph and come back without having seen much of interest - some of the time it is that I don’t feel inspired, other times it has to do with what I feel like other’s would want to see, and then there are the times when I’ve just been looking the wrong direction. Today was one of those days where my focus was in the wrong direction, but as I headed back into the office I finally looked up. As I looked at the sky and saw the clouds jumping off the bright blue, I first thought I should shoot it as a background plate for other images and proceeded to take a few shots. Then i wanted something different and shot it out of focus and then I grabbed the Tilt Shift lens and came up with this image. The sun was beaming brightly off camera just to the left of frame. A quick edit on my iPad and voila.
It really is an effort to keep giving creativity a chance to shine. Do not be discouraged - it is there, but many times it has to be nurtured.
Quickly tested the 45 mm tilt shift lens over lunch. Already loving it and can’t wait to get creative with it. Had no idea how it worked when I stepped outside. Figured out the basic functions, but plan to read up on it so that I understand how and why it works.
A new way to enjoy two of my favorite pastimes together.
Great birthday present from my mom.
Currently working on: prepping prints for a sale this weekend…that I can’t be at. My wife is going to work the crowd for me. She rocks.
I had a really fun day out shooting photos with Alicia White. Her friend Ashley Echard modeled for us so that we could try out different lenses and lighting techniques. The conditions were beautiful and the sun was setting on a colorful autumn afternoon. We arrived with no real plan or setup, but quickly were inspired by the two locations we chose. Ashley was very patient with us as we talked about techniques, our gear and other technical mumbo jumbo. These are some of the fun shots and moments we had. I’m certain that Alicia has some better ones from the day.
I was taking pictures of Dominic when Dino popped in wanting me to play. I turned the flash & camera on him and snagged this dramatic shot. I love my two boys.
Photography, Videos & Ramblings of Tony Cece.
