Is Beauty Relative?

Is sun rise so beautiful because you have to get up so early to see it?
Is your wife more beautiful after you have been away?
Don't get me wrong sun sets are nice (and I always find my wife beautiful) but I have always had a special affinity for sun rises. May be it is the peaceful quietness that usually goes along with them but they have always been special.

Dragan Effect

I saw a gritty portrait online the other day and one of the comments was "very nice Dragan Effect" so of course I googled it. Andrzej Dragan (is a Flash site, sorry if your on your mobile) is a photographer known for his gritty unforgiving portraits. Besides finding out who he was I also found a tutorial. Although I had done similar effects on some photos in the past  I usually didn't use it on people because it isn't always s the most flattering. I thought it would be a good effect for these photos I took of Doug Wilder back in 2007.
The tutorial I found was on Wegraphics.com. Instead of using the dodge an burn tool I like to fill a layer with 50% gray and then paint with black or white at a very low opacity to build up the effect. It is easier to fix or undo mistakes.

 Here is the same image in Black and White.

Crazy weather were having, isn't it?

Yesterday it felt like spring and today when i come inside I have melted snowflakes on my glasses.

Upon Further Review

I found myself looking back over old photos today while I had a minute or two to myself. Some were forgotten photos or ones that didn't live up to what I saw in my head when I took the picture. I am always learning new techniques in Photoshop so sometimes it is good just to reprocess a photo to see if you can make it better.

This shot was one of the first frames I took one day while driving down a back road. This swampy area caught my attention and I wanted to see what I could do with it. At the time I wanted a wider landscape so I didn't do much with this shot but today I liked the swirls of pollen or pond scum whatever the case maybe and the reflection in between. Once I applied the Black and White filter and a levels adjustment layer I liked the look of very black water. I seem to be in a contrasty kind of mood tonight.

I had high hopes for this when I came across it but then when I got home and looked at it on my computer I didn't like what I saw. Now I think I am warming back up to the image.

This final image I really went for the contrast. In doing so it reminded me of an photo exhibit of an old professor of mine. Most of his photos were of landscapes and he had cut out all the sky so it was paper white. Literally the white of the paper he printed on. Most landscapes try to get a dramatic sky, big clouds but he went the other way.

Late For Class

Train a Comin'

While out riding my bike I was stopped by this train so I took the opportunity to snap off a few pics before it was gone.
In the top photo I didn't get my shutter speed slow enough to blur the train so I copied the train to its own layer and then put a motion blur on it and changed it's blend mode to lighten. I also did some level and curves adjustments and messed with some blending modes.

We Finally Made It There

We finally made it out to the VMFA to see the Chihuly exhibit. We really wanted to take our son, he's 4 months old, to see it. It seemed perfect for a baby colors and lights. It did nit disappoint. Laura and I were on a trip to Florida before we got married and had seen a poster for a Chihuly exhibit at a museum in St. Pete's. We decided not to go and continued on with our day. Looking back I am glad we didn't go then. I think it was much more enjoyable to experience it for the first time along with my son. Chihuly at the VMFA only rubs until February 10 so if you haven't made it you better hurry.

 I also got to take my son out for a walk and enjoy the day before the sun went down.
It was a good day.

Rough Purple