Archive for February, 2010
your moment of doggie zen
February 24, 2010
One Flash Portrait Lighting in the Capitol
February 21, 2010
ISO 500, 28mm, F/6.3, 1/200 sec
When my friend Melanie asked me to take some professional portraits of her, I jumped at the chance to go walking around the Capitol with my camera, a ridiculously-photogenic subject, and with the freedom to bring a light stand with me (if you’ve ever gotten confronted by the national park service while photographing at the monuments, you know what I mean). We were even lucky enough to have Mike, her boyfriend, come along to do the actual light stand lugging (thanks Mike!).
All of the photos were taken using just one flash, attached with a TTL cord. Somehow my remotes started having problems right before we were supposed to meet up for the shoot, thank goodness I had the TTL cord around as a back up plan. The flash was mounted on a stand and an umbrella. It was definitely a little more difficult using the TTL cord (akin to stretching the phone cord as much as I possibly could when I was in high school so I could get out of parental earshot), but Mike was nice enough to hold the umbrella every which way, even when it probably seemed a little ridiculous (“left please, oh wait, not that much left, maybe to the right, ok, maybe if you could stretch a foot taller and then left?”)
Anyways, all in all, it was totally fun– thanks Mel and Mike!
ISO 400, 85mm, f/8.0, 1/200 sec
ISO 400, 85mm, f/7.1, 1/200 sec
ISO 800, 38mm, f/7.1, 1/100 sec
Braving the not so new frontier
February 5, 2010
So, I did it. I didn’t think I would ever do it, but as the snow piles high outside and the metro accessible bars are just a tad too far away, there’s nothing good on tv and on top of that I picked some really crappy netflix movies (although if asked, I’ll swear that my husband picked them), I gave in. I am officially on twitter. Much to my dismay, squarerootofred has already been taken, so I’m squarerootored….like the Irish version, square root o’ red. Not a clue how someone else out there in the world came up with the very much made up square root of red, but heck, I should probably follow his twitter feed since it’s possible we have some sort of brain share thing going on.
Oh and if you’re wondering where I got the adorable but slightly cracked out looking twitter bird from above, it and other fantastic freebies are available at Smashing Magazine, one of my favorite design/photography resources. The generous designer is Mirjami Mennenin.
If you’re an east-coaster getting buried in the snow, hope you’re enjoying it! Follow my new twitter feed by clicking on the bird above. Slàinte!
Meet Honey the Dog!
February 4, 2010
Here are some pics of the newest member of the family, Honey the Dog. She is a six year old pit bull, and totally amazing. She’s kind of a big deal =) Honey was at the D.C. Humane Society on Georgia Avenue for three months after her owner moved to DC from California and gave her up when the apartment building they moved to wouldn’t let him/her have dogs. In those three months, she has done all sorts of stuff…she has her AKC Good Citizen Certification, and she was in the Wounded Warriors program where injured solders learn skills, like dog training. More info about Honey’s amazingness is here.
So far life with dog has been interesting and totally unexpected. The biggest fear was that she wouldn’t get along with cats, but Honey doesn’t seem to care about the cats at all, they just sort of hang out. She can sit, stay, sit pretty, lay down, and give hugs, but for some strange reason she won’t chase a ball. At all. Or a bone. Or anything I throw unless it’s a treat. When I throw a ball, the cats go running after it. And the cats keep trying to go after the dog’s food, which is hilarious since the dog is five times the size of each cat.
Sup. What you lookin' at?
Man and dog in coat.
Using Totally Rad Photoshop Actions
February 1, 2010
Milk & Cookies: 90% Increase Contrast by 10
Unlike many things (um, Jersey Shore), the hype surrounding the Totally Rad Photoshop Actions are completely justified. They do amazing things in photoshop, and really all it takes is pushing the play button for your computer to go off and running. All you have to do at the end of running an action is decide whether you like it and also decide whether you want it as is, or whether you want to tone down the effect by decreasing the percentage opacity of the effect in the layers pane. It’s too much fun, and you can definitely go a bit overboard, like the leopard looking striped cat version below, but if you use a light hand and remember that less is more, the actions definitely add to your images while saving a ton of time.
Here are some versions of the same photograph (any excuse to post a Kashi the cat picture!) with the Actions Recipe below it. Even more recipes are located on the Totally Rad Actions located here. If you’ve never used actions before, they have a great, easy to understand tutorial on how to use and install the actions located here.
Here is the original:
Here are the photos with some actions applied, the recipe is below the photo:
60% bullet tooth. 40% fade winter
bullet tooth: 60%. Pool Party: 60%. Can of whoopass 8 (over the cat): 80%. Red channel fix: 50%
POS Lens: 100%. Dirty and Used Up Texture: 100%. Get Faded: 40%.
The last photo has texture applied, which is an interesting effect. It’s definitely not right for every photo, but textures seem to add an interesting artsy effect. In doing some textures research, I found a site by ShadowHouse Creations which provides really great textures…for free!