Safe Kids - FedEx Part II

When we arrived at the second school (Barrett Elementary in Homestead, PA) for the Safe Kids walk we were greeted with a light 'drizzle' that turned into a strong downpour. The first two images are from the second school and the third is from the first school. This young girl was so enthusiastic in helping us get cars to slow down, I could not pass up posting a shout out to her for her help! Cars would slow down immediately when they saw her standing by the rail waving to them.

Every time I participate in a Safe Kids day, it reminds me of the importance of watching for kids where ever we drive. Regardless if we are driving in a 'school zone', shopping mall's parking lot, or in a residential neighborhood, we must be alert for kids and their safety.

Safe Kids - FedEx Johnston Elementary School

"Safe Kids USA and FedEx Team Up to Focus on Children's Views of Road Safety around the World"

I had the privilege to participate in this event at two different Pittsburgh, PA schools. The first school on our stop was Johnston Elementary School in Wilkensburg, PA.

I took the first image across the street from the main entrance to the school. Unfortunately, there are no speed bumps to slow cars down in front of the school. Although the posted speed limit is 15 MPH, most cars 'flew' past the school with kids in full view at very fast speeds.

At one point one of the volunteers yelled out for a fast moving vehicle to slow down and he stopped and started yelling at her. [Good Grief, who do some people think they are when they go above the law or when they act without any regards to others.]

What I found amazing is that so many vehicles passed through this area but many had no regard for the safety of the kids.

The second image I took in a play area near the school. The colors and lines caught my attention and I had to capture its beauty.


The final image is a shout out to all the workers who participated in Safe Kids day around the world!

When you see a kid [anywhere] please slow down!

[I plan to have a few of the pictures from the second school posted later in the week.]

Victory Family Church Everything performed

The 20 something group from Victory Family Church in Cranberry 'performed' the "Everything"Drama and as always, I cried like a baby. If you never saw the video, please check it out on GodTube.com. It is an amazing demonstration of the spiritual battle we all face on a day to day basis. The drama and truth is so powerful and when I watch it through the lens of a camera, it is even more intense. I cried almost the entire time. Below is the original video from GodTube.com.






These were shot with the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 @ 1600 ISO 1/8 - 1/10th of a second. Hence, the motion blur and the intent to create drama in the image.

The 'skit' portrays the intense spiritual battle we face daily. The drama begins with our amazing walk of fellowship with the Lord and how Satan throws the cares of the world between us and God. However, though we decide to walk away from God, He is always there for us and if you look close you will see in the second image the spiritual wickedness behind the Lord who is protecting us.

The 'skit' takes the viewer through to the victory and daily walk and fellowship with God.

The images below were taken on Sunday with a 50mm lens, f/1.8 and various shutter speeds. For more images from the event, watch this page over the next few days.

Photographers rights - orphan works act & more

Even if you are not serious about pursuing photography as a career or for additional income, I suggest you listen to a great podcast [round table] by professional photographers who provide both the pros and cons of the orphan works act.

A second item I suggest you do is print off and read a copy of "The Photographer's Right" available from

The excerpt is from his book "Legal Handbook for Photographers" (Amherst Media, 2006) which could prove to be a valuable resource.

Have fun and enjoy the beauty of life!

I took this picture in November 07, while on a business trip to Florida [Someone had to make the trip to southern Florida in November when it was cold in the north. :-) ]. The settings are 50 mm f/16 1/500 second, ISO 400. This was taken on a Nikon D50. I used a table top tripod I carry with me when I travel. It is small and will fit in most bags. It works well for low beach shots because I can put it into the sand without worrying about ruining a tripod that has expandable legs.

A few folks asked about the framing I use in some of my photos. This one is a frame I automated in Photoshop via an action.

My workflow:

1. Lightroom [right click on image > edit in Photoshop
   
2. Photoshop opens the image as a TIFF file
3. In the layers pallet, double click on the image and rename it
4. Create a new layer below your image layer
5. Edit the Canvas size: Image>canvas size
6. While in the canvas size dialogue box select ensure relative is selected and modify the canvas size by 10% for both width and height. Below the relative check box their is a small diagram which indicates where your image will remain. For this step ensure the image is in the middle.
   
7. Step 6 will increase your canvas size by 10% all around the image.
8. Fill the layer you made in step 4 with white [or whatever color you like]
9. Create a second layer below the layer you made in step 4
10. Edit the canvas size again: Image>canvas size
11. This step is a little different than step 6. Only modify the height [15%] and ensure you click on the anchor point in the middle of the top row. This step increases the bottom part of the matting around your image but does nothing to the width or the top portion.
    
12. Select the image layer and modify the layer style [lower left hand side of the layer pallet is a small f] Click on it and add a drop shadow and a bevel to the image. In this image the bevel was 10 pixels. Play with this until you find a look you like.
13. Add the text below the image. I use Papyrus font.
14. Once you get a look you like, create an action. It will cut this step down to seconds.

Get out and enjoy the beauty of life!

Dreamy photo via Lightroom 2.1

I took this image in Columbus, OH. It is a different view of my previous post of the Santa Maria replica. It was late at night and I wanted to create a very dreamy effect. I put my flash on the ground out of the scene to the right. The flash was set to full power and zoomed to aprox 100mm. Camera settings [f/2.8 1/40 sec. ISO 500].

I converted the image to B&W utilizing the same method as the previous post with one exception. The clarity was set to -50 rather than +100. When the clarity is adjusted to a negative number it brings in a very soft dreamy effect. Try it!

The second image was modified using the same techniques. IMHO, it creates a very dreamy effect. :-)



Get out there and capture the beauty of life!

Lightroom Black and white conversion

The first image is an image I shot last month when shooting the team photos for the Silver Ring Thing tour team. The day was beautiful with very nice clouds and good light. However, this image was shot in the late afternoon which rarely provides the dramatic light needed for an interesting photo.

However with all the different lines and shades, it looked like a great photo to convert to black and white. The second image is a quick conversion using the grayscale button in Lightroom [LR].


The second image is your basic grayscale image. It has no 'pop' or wow factor to it and is basically a very 'flat' image.

The third image is a Black and White conversion utilizing the many powerful tools in LR 2.1. A few of the tips I will outline are not available in LR 1.4 [clarity tool].

[All the instructions are based on the assumption of shooting in RAW.]

1. Click on the develop module
2. Click on Grayscale in the HSL/Color/Grayscale section below the basic section in the develop module.
   
3. Under the 'basic' set of tools adjust the black slider to the right until you darken the image to a manner that is pleasing to you. [Do not worry if it is too dark, we will address it later.]
4. In this photo I adjusted the black to +18.
5. If the black causes parts of your image to be too dark, adjust your exposure to bring out the images that are too dark. In this example I adjusted the exposure to +.95.
6. I adjusted the recovery slider to +18 to bring out the impact of the clouds. [Play with the recovery slider to enhance the appearance of your sky.]
7. My next task was to bring out the midtones and the tool I used was the clarity tool. [It is not available in LR 1.4]. I adjusted it to +100. [Play with this tool and see the impact to using a negative clarity value.] It creates a dreamy effect around -50 to -100. Go ahead and play, you can always move it back to the original position.
8. Move down to the tone curve section and adjust your point curve to strong contrast. Notice the change in the image.
9. In this image I 'cropped' the image slightly to eliminate the vignetting in the upper corners from shooting very wide. [Hit the R key and it will take you to the crop mode, then adjust accordingly.]
10. Adjust the sharpening slightly
11. Export to PS to add the border and text

If you do not have lightroom, go to adobe's site and download a free trial version. Remember, if you are a student, check out the many sites that offer LR and many other great software tools for a great discount.

I hope this tutorial helps! Go out and capture the beauty of life!

Columbus, Ohio - Playing in Lightroom

I took this image a few weeks ago while walking in downtown Columbus, Ohio. It was later in the evening and I had some time to enjoy the city. [I was in Columbus on a business trip.] The lines and shapes of the building caught my attention. However, regardless of how I took the picture, I could not capture it in the manner I saw it in my mind.

However, after some 'playing' in Lightroom 2.1 I was able to create the second image that matched the drama I saw in my mind. I envisioned a building from the turn of the century with late night meetings and discussions concerning the future of the area.

The first image is directly out of the camera and the second image is after some 'artistic' liberality was used. :-)