Photowalk in NYC

We had a great day of eating and shooting in New York this past Sat. We walked along the recently opened "HighLine". It's worth a look if your going to be in the City. The HighLine is a park constructed on the old elevated rail structure. Above are 2 quick images and I'll try to have a few more in the next couple of days.

Photowalk in NYC

Tomorrow I'm going into New York City with my good friend and photo buddy Steve Dreyer. He's a good shooter and a really good guy. We missed this years Photowalk with the NAPP group for different reasons so we're doing it on our own. I'll share some stuff next week. Have a great week-end

HDR tutorial in the works

I've starting working on my first tutorial to post on this blog. I enjoy shooting and processing HDR pictures and thought I would share some of the information I've learned. It may take a while to put together but in the end I hope it will be informative.

Early in the morning

Very early some mornings it pays to stop by the lake in town. The US Rowing Team and the Princeton University Rowing Team use the lake to train. When the light is right and I get a picture like this, it makes my day.

Using textures with photoshop

In the past week I've been experimenting with textures in my work flow. I must say that it's lots of fun and certainly adds to the creative process. I found this wonderful site on-line that has thousands of high quality textures available for down load. Many of which are free and then for a relatively small yearly fee you have access to their entire library. They also have tutorials that are very interesting. Here's the link. I think you should try it. If you do, I know you'll enjoy it.

Photoshop "Keyboard shortcuts"

There are more keyboard shortcuts than anyone can remember, at least than I can. But there are some that really save a lot of time and are simple to use. Not only that but they make me feel like I really have learned something and have moved from beginner to another level. Try some of these and see for yourself. I use a PC so Mac users will have to search them out. If you go on-line you'll find them all.

Ctrl + J - Duplicates a layer. I use this on every photograph
Ctrl + Z - Undo/Redo the last action
Ctrl + Alt + Z - Step back (history)
B - Brush tool
[ - Decrease brush size
] - Increase brush size
Ctrl + 0 - Fit to screen
Ctrl + Space bar - Click and drag to zoom in
Space bar - Hold down and drag to move around the image

This one I learned from a Vincent Versace video. He calls it "the move". It comes in handy when you don't want to flatten your image. It gives you a merged version of all the layers below. Activate the top layer and do the following.

Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E - Stamp visible

We were on Cape Cod for a few days staying at a friends place right near the water. As we drove down the long driveway I saw some activity at the top of this nesting poll. I was able to get my 70mm-200mm lens on the camera in time to catch this shot. I processed it two ways. In the top image I added some texture. I think it really works well. Click on the images to make them larger. Hope you like them.

I love listening to Vincent Versace

Tonight I was catching up on the blogs and websites I follow. I don't stop by Vincent Versace' site aften but when I do I'm always moved by something. Tonight it was a discussion between Derrick Story of O"Reilly' digitalmedia and Vincent at Photoshop World Orlando. They discuss some of the larger philosophical questions about the art of photography. Vincent is always animated and interesting. I'm sure you'll get something out of it. Let me know if you do. Look at the video here