Last week my buddy Moose pointed out that it would be possible to drop a slideshow into a blog using Adobe Flash. What a great idea! I decided to test it out using images from my “nature” portfolio. This is my early proof of concept. Over time I will add more transitions and effects. If you want to learn more about programming in Adobe Flash, be sure to check out the training by Rafael “RC” Concepcion. I took his online course and he gave me a solid understanding of the basics of Flash.

Thanks Moose & RC!

Many photographers pan mirror lenses, I’ve always been attracted to them. Here I played around with my 500mm f8. I’m glad I own this lens. I dream of playing with a 1000mm f11 some day.

Not all of my progress these past few months have been directly related to shooting.

Creating this blog and working on the various forms of presentation have provided me with a toolbox of techniques I can call upon in the future.

I now have some PS actions which will help me put together little mini-stories or photo essays with a common theme. This is an area I want to focus on in the future.

During my quiet time I will do a review of all the baseball images I’ve produced over the last five seasons. I’ll keep an eye out for what I am missing and areas I can improve on.

I think the secret ingredient is momentum. As long as I keeping moving forward, progress is inevitable.

As photographers, we work in a world of only the dimensions of width and height. Our graphic, two dimensional canvas constrains us in the third dimension of depth.

Fortunately, by emulating some of the techniques used by painters we can regain the illusion of depth.

The perspective created by converging lines into a vanishing point is a proven method used for thousands of years. But, what if there are no lines to converge as in a zero-point perspective?

In order to convey depth in the absence of a vanishing point we can rely on the overlapping of image elements. Elements which cover or obscure other elements are perceived as being closer than the elements they conceal.

One of my goals for the baseball season was to work on using layers in my images to enhance the feeling of depth. The baseball diamond is conveniently laid out in such a way that stacking the players is very simply done.

But, sometimes the overlapping can result in strange merges between elements. I’ll have to keep a close eye on that.

Now that I have spent some time applying the technique, I can’t live without it.

we lose texture and drama, but we make up for things with color. Can we get the texture back?

Sure, just add some grunge!

the light is hard and we’ve got to watch those shadows. There are still good pictures to be made, we just have to work a bit harder to find them.

Personally, I prefer to shoot on overcast days. The soft overcast light may not be the most dramatic, but it does let colors behave as colors. I’ll show an example tomorrow.

I was playing around with a Photoshop grunge effect just for kicks. The before image is on top and the after effect is on the bottom. While I am not much of a fan of the changes to the facial areas and background, I do like the added texture to the clothing. Is this a quick and dirty form of dodging and burning to add texture? It is for me!