Alien Skin: Snap Art - A-Scow and Capitol

Believe it or not, I still get requests to "Photoshop" images for people. Anyone who know's photoshop, this could be one of a million effects, filters, and/or actions. Luckily, he had an image that I already doctor'd up as a base. I decided to try a few different effects on this image, as they all have a slightly different feel once processed. Here are some examples using the Alien Skin Snap Art plugin using Adobe Photoshop CS5:

Pencil Sketch Effect:

Posterization Effect

Color Pencil Effect:

Oil Painting Effect:

As you can see, the same image can be transformed into art with different styles very easily using digital image manipulation tools.

For additional "altered" images from this collection, click here!

Darby & Tim: Multimedia Slide Show

Took some time today to get Darby and Tim's slide show online. Enjoy!

Eric & Tracy's Destination Wedding!

I was lucky enough to be asked to help photograph the wedding of Eric Brown and Tracy Tompkins at the Mountain Home Lodge, in Leavenworth, Washington. Regan Van Huffel Botsford was the other photographer for the wedding, and you can view her fantastic work on flickr by clicking here. This was my first destination wedding where I needed to take a flight since 2009, and I've accumulated a ton of gear since then. I really tried to pack light, but ended up taking more than I needed to ensure that I captured this event for my close friend Eric properly. 3 Canon dSLR's, 2 GoPro HD Hero's, a Canon G11 with CHDK, and a Sony HDR-SR1 HD camcorder. The goal was obviously to focus on photography, but I wanted to try and expand my photojournalistic skills. The ceremony was captured from multiple cameras and locations. Here is the list of shots:

• GoPro HD Hero on a Tripod using a Lawn Sprinkler timer as a panning device: Time Lapse
• GoPro HD Hero on mini-gorrilla pod on lawn directly in front of the alter: 720p HD Video 60fps
• Canon G11 on Tripod on elevated Deck (Right) running CHDK script: Time Lapse
• Canon 7D on Tripod on lower elevated deck (left): 1080p HD Video
• Sony HDR-SR1 on elevated deck: 1080i HD Video
• Canon 50D with 70-200mm f/2.8 IS Zoom Lens: Monopod
• Canon 5D Mark II with 16-35mm f/2.8 Zoom lens: -R-Strap

The goal with all of these angles and different media types is to be able to put together a slideshow with images, videos, and time lapse sequences, with music. Here is my first attempt at coming up with a worthy presentation:

Click on the image below to view slideshow with pics, video, and timelapse!

Star Trails!

I've been waiting for a chance to try star trail photography for quite some time now. I don't get out into the wild away from the lights of the city very often to get a good glimpse of the stars. I was really hoping that when I was in Washington shooting a wedding, that I would have my chance. Luck would have it, I got clear skies on Sunday night during a new moon, sot he skies were covered with stars. I had read about different approaches, and I had 3 dSLR cameras to play with, with 2 remotes. I discovered that stacking images works the best, and using 30 second exposures and a fairly wide aperature was the key. Here are a few examples.

This one turned out okay, but most of the images were out of focus. The end result after stacking them with StarTrails, was okay, but in the future, I'm going to ensure that I'm not trying to focus automatically, and set my focus manually. I may try and redo this one, as cars pulled up into the parking lot, and added a bunch of light to the building. I think I can pull those specific exposures out and re-stack. I also think that this one is more dramatic, as the camera is pointed towards Polaris, or the north star, and everything else seems to rotate around it.

This one was on a 7D, and not as wide of a lens, but the results is much sharper. You can see how many stars were out on this night, and I pressed the trigger manually on this camera after each 30 second exposure. Although it takes hours to get these types of results, it is definitely worth the wait.