sowle sister

This photo was taken last Saturday at the Jamail Skate Park, when they opened it up to young girls. It was amazing to me how fearless these girls were on skateboards. There were lots of knee pads and helmets, even a cast or two, but these young ladies were all out there doing what they love. And I guess the same could be said for the group of 10-15 Bay Area Photo Club members who were there also - each one doing what they love trying to get that one unique shot ... although I don't think any of us were in helmets. A masked Lucis Art layer was applied to the image above to bring up the contrast on the concrete, a texture was added to warm up and bring in even more grittiness, and the corners were vignetted.

black and white

Above is another photo from the Digital Days photo shoot last weekend with Shelley Boozer. I did some fairly heavy eye retouching on this photo after watching a great tutorial on facial retouching on kelbytraining.com with David Cuerdon. I guess my only wish was that her left eye wasn't in such deep shadows and that both eyes were equally prominent. I retouched only her right eye, so I think it makes the contrast between the two even more apparent. I'd be interested to hear opinions - does the dramatic lighting make up for the unequal weight the eyes seem to have?

Astros fan

After shooting the sunrise, our photo club members went over the the Jamail Skate Park, where they were having an all-girls skating competition and exhibition. The little guy above in the Astros cap was one of the spectators. The aged photo effect was achieved with a golden texture in overlay blending mode, then another layer of a greyscale emulsion in color burn blending mode, which was masked and applied only to the edge.

our fair city

On the Bay Area Photo Club field trip Saturday to the Joe Jamail Skate Park, we got there a little early (quite a bit early, actually) and shot the sunrise behind the downtown Houston Skyline from the Sabine Street bridge. These are two takes on the scene - the top uses a plug-in called Lucis Art and adds more midtone contrast, and the bottom is more of a panoramic blend of a couple of different exposures. I'd like to get opinions on which one you like better. The Lucis Art style (top) always seems to generate opinions - you either love it or hate it. Anyway, please comment - photographers and non-photographers.

looking out on the horizon

Over the last couple of days, the Galveston Historical Foundation has been conducting sea trials and day sails for the tall ship Elissa. After getting battered by Hurricane Ike six months ago, the restored 1877 square rigger is looking great and appears to be back to its pre-Ike elegance. The dock where Elissa is moored is pretty beaten up, but that hasn't seemed to deter the volunteer crew and foundation members who are great stewards of this historic vessel. The photo above was taken of a crew member on Monday afternoon's sail.

digital days

This weekend, I had the good fortune of attending Popular Photography's Digital Days Workshop and Seminar in Houston. Besides driving home some basics that never hurts to hear again and again, they had a long session on Adobe Lightroom and photo shoot Sunday with live models and light set-ups. Shelley (above) was ever so patient while provided some great poses for aspiring portrait photographers. Processing involved mixing a sepia layer from Nik Silver Efex with reduced opacity and using OnOne Photo Tools Angel Glow filter from Kevin Kubota.

Graceland

No, not the Graceland in Memphis -- Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, where I visited last spring. As you can see, still experimenting with textures. Including a monochrome version below.