New Hampshire Photography Workshop

Four Day Photography Vacation Workshop
with Vanelli & Friends

Lincoln, New Hampshire
October 7th-10th, 2010
Early bird -$395.00 (if registered before September 17, 2010 after $495.00)

Break-out session: Portrait Lighting
11am – 2pm Saturday, October 9, 2010
$59.00 Break-Out Session (free to Vacation with Vanelli participants)

Join Vanelli and friends as they explore the fall colors of New Hampshire’s White Mountains National Forrest.

For more information, visit http://vacationwithv.com/newsevents/new-hampshire/

Cropping in Lightroom

A few weeks ago I shot at the Viera Wetlands here, near Melbourne Florida (I’ll have a post on the shoot this weekend). Thanks to a buddy of mine, Robert Wicker, he spotted a few baby Limpkins.  They were only about 5 inches tall. As I started to edit the photos, I experimented with cropping in Lightroom.

Once you select the cropping tool (keyboard shortcut R), you can experiment with cropping overlays. Select Tools>Crop Guide Overlay. You will have the choice of Grid, Thirds, Diagonal, Triangle, Golden Ratio, and Golden Spiral. Once the crop tool is selected, you can use the keyboard short cut O to cycle through the choices.

Original Image

Cropped using Golden Triangle (usually meant for photos with diagonal lines)

Cropped using Golden Spiral

You can achieve a different look by simply changing your crop. Keep in mind, when you crop an image, you are “throwing away” pixels. This will lower your image quality. It’s always best to crop in the camera, but in this case, I couldn’t get close enough to my subject and I was shooting with a 200-400 VR lens!

The Path to Fatherhood

Our lives, good or bad, have been shaped by past events. I have been blessed with loving parents, great siblings and a wonderful son. The day my parents chose to be one, they unselfishly committed to share their endless love  with their children. They sacrificed their needs and wants for ours. They taught us the value of giving without expecting anything in return.

Several years ago, my father requested I write a father’s day poem for him to share with his church. He wanted the poem to be generic enough to apply to all fathers. (Oh and he wanted it in 3 weeks) I struggled to write the poem. Every line I wrote kept coming back to my father and the lessons he taught me that shaped my life. Finally, I finished the poem that I felt all fathers have in common. Today I want to share with you the original poem I wrote for my dad. It was very easy for me to write. I just reflected on my childhood and the lessons he taught me. I hope you enjoy my childhood journey.

A Leader of  Leaders

The night was dark and the rain poured down cold, Reminiscing of the past I realized I had grown old. I let time fly by as I was too busy to observe, but you were always there for me and never too busy to give me encouraging words.

Putting another log on the fire I noticed the flames as they sparked,They reminded me of how you lead the family, the flames scattered but never grew apart.

You have a natural way that makes people see you as a leader and for that they listen, you capture their hearts with inspiration and your smile makes them glisten.

When I was just a young boy you told me make my own footsteps in the snow, I wanted to follow exactly in your steps but you sternly looked at me and said, “NO!” “Make your own footsteps in life that is why I gave you your own name. Never follow anyone’s footsteps, never be the same.”

These are words you spoke and with them you have shown me the way, I have created my own path in life and live by the philosophy you say. I thought you only made me feel that special way inside, but others have been caught by your dominating spirit and your impressionable pride.

You are a leader of leaders and your wisdom of words inspires, you are like a success magnet that motivates people to have desire.

Miracles happen every day and to see them makes me glad, but the most spectacular miracle God has ever shared was to give you to me as my Dad.

I love you Poppa!

Scott Kelby’s 3rd annual Photo Walk

Last year, over 32,000 people in over 900 locations around the globe participated. We were absolutely blown away at how many people joined together on the same day in the name of fun and photography. This year, we want each of you to invite your friends, family, and even strangers to take part and help us make it the biggest and best one yet!

Our Photo Walk will be held in the Historic Cocoa Village‎ near the marina starting at 07:00am and ending 09:00am. We traditionally meet up after the walk at a local restaurant.  If you have any suggestions for a place please let us know.

For those that want to shoot a sunrise, we are meeting at 6am. The 2nd half of the Photo Walk begins at 7am. We realize this maybe early for a few people, but we do live on a beautiful East Coast! The Historic Downtown Cocoa Village has colorful shops and winding walk ways. Plus, the time of day we are shooting lends itself to golden colors.

Sailboats anchored on the river, along with the Causeway as a backdrop, produces beautiful photographs. If you plan on coming early for the sunrise shoot, bring a tripod. A cable release would also be a good idea if you have one.

Our walk is limited to 50 participants. The best part, it’s FREE. To register for he walk at Scott Kelby’s Photo Walk -Melbourne

Formating for custom size prints

It’s always cheaper to print standard sizes; 8×10, 11×14 and 16×20, 24×36. When an image doesn’t fit one of these dimensions, the trade off is cropping or paying extra for a custom print and frame. Proper planing can fix this dilemma.

Cropping

It’s always best to fill your camera frame with as much of the image as possible. Most digital SLRs have an aspect ratio of 3:2.  Without cropping, your images can be printed 6×4, 12×8, 24×16. This aspect ratio doesn’t fit our standard sizes.If you want an 8×10 print, shoot a little wider and your crop will not delete any key elements in your photograph.

Matting and Framing

If cropping your image isn’t an option, have a custom matte made. This will make it easier to select a cheaper standard size frame. Select the size of your frame, then have the matte cut to the opening of your image.

Custom print size

Wouldn’t it be better if you could concentrate on creating your work of art and not have to worry about the output? This is where we benefit from custom printing. To keep the print affordable, develop a relationship with your printing company. Know their standard sizes and keep that in mind when you shoot. Some companies have a complete solution, meaning the mounting of the image is part of the art work. You see this in gallery canvas wraps by Artistic Photo Canvas and metal products from Metal Mural.It takes practice to format your images for these companies.Once you get the hang of it, you will be as creative in your output as you are with your photography!

Specialty Printing Companies

Metal Mural, Artistic Photo Canvas

Printing Labs Standard and Custom print sizes

Bay Photo, Mpix, EZ-Photo

Create a custom print for Metal Murals

Metal Mural reproduces high quality images on metal in a modular design, perfect for reproducing art, portraits, wedding photos and more on a durable, scratch resistant metal.The standard size panel is 12×12.

This tutorial will teach you how to create a custom size panel to reproduce artwork at any size. You will also learn how to increase the size of your image without losing image quality. The prefer software of choice for image enlargement is onOne’s Genuine Fractals. As an added bonus, we will learn about actions.

http://www.exposurepas.com/video/customprintsize/Custom Size Print.mp4

Downloads

Grid Action for Photoshop.

Installation: Download the action file. Launch Photoshop. Make sure your action panel is active: Windows->action. From the drop down menu inside the action palette select Load Action. Select grid.atn

Collaborative Black Belt Shoot

The shoot was years in the making, we just didn’t know it.

A few friends; Michelle Tricca and Renae Bruce, came to town for a collaborative lighting class. I called in a few of my students to pose as models. We spent the day tweaking the lights for a dramatic effect. I’ll post the full results and what we worked on next week.

Several years ago I met Renae in Las Vegas at a Photoshop World convention. She was lost getting to class. In the mist of the crowd, I saw her frustrated, whispering a potty mouth word. I called her on it. We laugh and I helped her get to class. She joined our group and for the rest of Photoshop World she had a blast. When I got back to Melbourne, she wanted me to call a good friend of hers that just moved to Naples Florida from Hawaii. That call introduced me to an incredible photog, Michelle

Tricca. Michelle just switched from film to digital. She was getting frustrated with the new work flow. The following Photoshop World I took her with me. Michelle and I have been friends for years now and she continues to amaze me with her photography.

A couple of years ago Renae and her family moved to sunny Orlando Florida. We realized we haven’t done a shoot together since Vegas. We called Michelle and we set up a collaborative shoot. We drew on each others strengths and had a blast. We shared each o

thers favorite photographers, Photoshop tips and what’s new in the industry.

The shoot was years in the making, we just didn’t know it. It all started with a funny meeting at Photoshop World that now produced two good friends!

Win a FREE Break out session ticket

I’ve recruited a few friends to teach break out sessions at Vacation with Vanelli & Friends workshops. The workshop is limited to 15 participants but the break out session can have as many as 50 people. Our sponsors are kind enough to give away a few Break out session tickets! Simply fill out this short form for your chance to win a ticket. Winners will be notified by email.

Break out session Contest

Vacation with Vanelli is Back!

We have arranged 3 NEW exciting Vacation with Vanelli workshops!

What the heck is this? It’s an excuse to party with Vanelli! Take all the tidbits of insanity experienced with Vanelli during Photoshop World, multiply that tenfold, and bundle it up into a non-stop adventure. Come on, be brave, you can handle it!

The concept was hatched during Photoshop World one year. After a photo excursion in the desert, a member of V’s posse (people pulled into Vanelli’s gravitational force) said, “Hey we should kidnap Vanelli and take him on our vacation!“. BANG – Vacation with Vanelli was born. And on the seventh, eighth and ninth day the LORD, while still resting, shook his head and thought “What have I’ve done?”

On a serious note (you are not going to see many of these), Vacation with Vanelli is a unique style workshop that teaches the art of digital work-flow covering the FIVE P’s: Plan, Photograph, Process, Print and Post. Vanelli and friends travel to exciting places working on projects for their books and portfolio. Vacationers get a chance to work and learn along side these amazing photographers as they refine their own skills.

Each workshop will have a break-out session on the last day that will include a special “Friend of Vanelli” sharing their expertise.

June 16-17, 2010  St. Augustine, Florida

July 28-31, 2010 St. Augustine, Florida

October 6-9, 2010 New Hampshire

Head over to www.vacationwithvanelli.com for more details. Because classes are limited to 15 participants, we recommend you reserve your spot today!

Learning from others

I’m a big fan of Larry Becker’s blog. I love his ability to observe a simple situation and then, with his unique writing style, make a lesson out of it.  Recently, he wrote a post called “Dissecting the Work of Others“. In his article, he suggests three reasons to try recreating someone’s style. It reminded me how we analyzed other competitors when we competed on the National Karate Circuit. So, for a week, I had my karate students “dissect” each other’s performance. Their goal, copy something they liked from another performer.

Using this same advice, I started to review a few of my favorite photographers. I wanted to see how they blended their photography talents with their editing skills. Notice I said editing skills? It doesn’t matter if they used Photoshop, Lightroom or another image editing software. I was looking for artist to emulate and then one found me!

I received a compliment from Trey Ratcliff on my post, “Adding Texture to an Image“. I was feeling pretty good. He mention he did a video series on textures and offered me to check it out. Being a HUGE fan of his work, of course I had to. Applying Larry’s advice, I dissect Trey’s technique. To say I’m excited is an understatement!

Trey blends several simple Photoshop tricks together to create a unique piece of art. He walks you through his entire work flow from choosing the textures to applying them in Photoshop. Some textures and techniques worked, some didn’t. He didn’t edit anything out of the video. You see exactly what he was thinking while creating his image. As an added bonus, he supplies all the textures for you!

My quick notes:

• look for textures with colors that will enhance your image.
• apply as many textures to an image as you want without over doing it.
• major use of layer mask, look for elements in the photo you want to keep and edit out the rest.
• merge the final layers, keeping the original as the top layer and use opacity to dial in the effect.
• Review Trey’s Video

SmugMug Spotlight: Resurrection Catholic Missions

About Resurrection Catholic Missions

Resurrection Catholic Missions, established in 1943, is a multi-ethnic, not for profit, which includes believers of many traditions, the physically and mentally challenged and the able-bodied, old and young, laity and clergy. We all come together to participate in and provide programs for those most in need. We provide assistance and direction for the poor, the elderly, profoundly disabled children, at risk children and their families, and school children of Montgomery and surrounding communities.

We formally began our work in 1943 as Nazareth Catholic Missions. For several years previous to 1943, Resurrectionist Fathers and Brothers worked with Father Harold Purcell, at the City of St. Jude, also located in Montgomery.

The initial focus of our work was the African-American community of north and central Montgomery. In rapid progression programs in evangelization, social service, health care and education were established. The Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth helped to staff the school and residential facility for challenged children.

In 1964, largely through the efforts of Father Walter Mikosz, C.R., the Mission broke ground for a new multi-million dollar complex of buildings a few miles from our initial site on the banks of the Alabama River.

The complex today consists of a school, church, a 24 hour residential treatment center for severly challenged children, convent, rectory, administration and service center.

How they are going to use SmugMug Pro

Fr. Fred Briers, Chief Communication Officer, is planning on using SmugMug as an online portfolio and as a fundraiser. Students and the Residents of the Children’s Center could upload their work and share it with one another, friends and family. As a fundraiser,used by the development department, our parents, family members and donors would be able to purchase the artwork and follow the activites of the Mission’s programs.

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