If you’re looking for a fun opportunity you should consider joining Darrell and I in Costa Rica with Rob Knight and Rick Sammon for their September 11-17 

Arenal Eco Adventure Photography Workshop.

The Leaves & Lizards Volcano Cabin Retreat will serve as our home base as we explore the flora and fauna of Costa Rica.

For more information on the workshop, and to sign up go to Rob’s DphotoA site at this location for the entire itinerary

http://dphotoa.com/arenal-eco-adventure/

We are really looking forward to this trip to explore this beautiful area of the world.  Darrell and I will be shooting HDDSLR Video, HDR, as well as stills of the Arenal Volcano which is an active volcano within view of our base camp at Leaves and Lizards. We will also explore:

1. ASIS Wildlife Rescue Center
2. Arenal National Park
3. a working Tico farm
4. La Fortuna for the Independence Day parade, and
5. a live model shoot at the geothermal hot springs at Eco Termales

I hope that you can join us for this wonderful opportunity.

Tom Reiman

I’ve got to admit that my photos were starting to look like everyone else’s.  Especially Darrell’s since we shoot together often. 

So, I decided to try something different. I wanted to ”paint” some of my photos to see if I could add a different personality to them. I wanted to differentiate them from everyone else’s images.  But, I have to admit, I haven’t painted since using my fingers back in kindergarten.  This was going to be an interesting experience.  Talk about teaching old geeks new tricks…….

The first thing that I had to do was to seek out resources for learning how to paint digitally. 

So, I found a DVD by Fay Sirkis which used Corel Painter 11.  Her process was interesting, but I had to buy the Corel software and soon found myself frustrated trying to learn a new package.  Next, I found myself in Maui for the Maui Photo Festival and Randy Jay Braun taught a 2 hour class on painting using Photoshop CS-5.  I thought that this had promise, but a 2 hour class just wasn’t enough time to absorb all the techniques.  And,  there is more than one technique that can be used to paint in Photoshop:

• Paint from scratch in PS (non-Mixer Brush) 
• Paint from scratch in PS (Mixer Brush) 
• Layer Mask paint from photographic start image in PS (Non-Mixer Brush) layer mask based. 
• “Clone” in PS (Mixer Brush and adjustment layer masks)

So I went searching, and on the Lynda training site I saw a reference to Don Derry’s painting and I watched that video.  It still did not provide enough information in the short span of a single DVD.

Then I heard about Tim Shelbourne’s School of Digital Art!  As it turned out Tim was starting a class on “Clone Painting with the CS-5  Mixer Brush”.  After exploring Tim’s website a bit I thought that this might be the thing that I needed.  Tim didn’t talk too much about his revolutionary new training methods, but once I was enrolled it soon became apparent to all of his 12 students that we were in a very special environment.

The thing that sets Tim’s school apart from ANY other internet based educational process I have ever been involved with is his methods of teaching and critique. They were mostly video based.   Not only the initial lessons, but his CRITIQUES!  Each was personalized to the individual student and their work.

The main thing that I learned during the Cloning Class was that it confirmed my belief that you could obtain a different look to your work.  Even though we all started with the same source image, everyone’s work soon took on their own personality and style.  And, after every lesson (done at your own pace) you would post your work and Tim would produce a video  and “show” you other things to consider.  Another great aspect was to see how another student painted their image and then see Tim’s review of their work.  So, each week, you would get the equivalent of 12 lessons (or more)……  Very Unique…..  Very Special….

Since that time Tim has also had a class on Purely Painting using the Photoshop CS-5 mixer brush, and a new class begins on January 1^st for Beginning Drawing.  Tim is an exceptionally talented artist, and extremely knowlegable in  Photoshop, Corel Painter, and Traditional painting and drawing methods.

If you are looking for ways to transform your work I would strongly recommend Tim Shelbourne’s Digital Art School.  You can find it here:  http://www.timshelbourne.net/

The unthinkable happened to me on Christmas morning. Someone had given us a present for my dog “Peanut”. Peanut has grown from the 12 week old puppy to his present day weigh-in of 80 lbs.  Peanut likes his treats and presents and was patiently waiting for the gift he knew was his. My wife says to get the camera, because the person who gave us the gift wanted a photo of Peanut getting into his gift.

I grabbed the camera off my desk where it had been sitting since I downloaded photos a week before. I turned the camera on and nothing happened. No nothing, nada, zilch, so I changed the battery and tried again, and nothing. Next I tried a different card and still nothing, so after a few choice unrepeatable words I grabbed the point and shoot camera to get the shot  I needed.

I didn’t try anything again until about noon, but to no avail. I jumped online and sent an email to Canon service explaing what happened and what I had tried. Now this is Christmas day & I figure that I would hear something on Monday.  I was very suprised to have a reply from Canon on Sunday morning the 26th of December.

The reply had me double check the things I had already done, and to then take a pencil eraser and clean the contacts for the battery in the camera, clean it out good and to leave the battery and card out and the camera open for 30 minutes and then try it again. Well it worked! I have never had any trouble with this camera and now I was back to normal. (If that word even applies to me!)

This incident got me to thinking, (that can be dangerous) about the importance for a back-up body or camera especially when traveling, but also to the simple things to do as a part of regular care or before going out for a job.

My sincere appreciation to Canon for the prompt response on a holiday.

I hope everyone has a great New Year! Get out and shoot and have fun doing it.

A new coffee table book was just released from Pediment Publishing that displays 200+ photographs of Central Oregon, by local photographers.  While I have 11 photos published in the book, my fellow contributor to this blog, TTTF Darrell Davis has 10 photos in addition to the “cover” shot.

Congratulations to Darrell for his winning image from the 7,800 photos submitted during the 9 month contest period.

You can purchase your copy of the book from Amazon.com by following this link: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=capture+central+oregon

Over the course of the next few weeks I will be exploring five different HDR software programs.  I will attempt to describe how the programs work in general, and show some of the results that the different programs generate. I will talk about my likes and dislikes of each, how long each take to load/process/save, and other information that I have discovered in using these programs.

First, let me say that I am not a compensated spokesperson for any of these companies.  I have a) purchased, or b)downloaded a free copy of each program and have put them through my work flow to see how they work for me.  Since everyone is different, and everyone processes files differently, please realize that these are only my test results.  I would encourage you to acquire the software that works best for your work flow.

Second, I work on PC’s and have for the past 27 years or so. My very first personal computer was an Apple II that had 16k ram and used a cassette recorder for mass storage.  But, ever since it was stolen in the early ’80s I have been using PC’s.

Third, hopefully you will find this information informative and help you determine which program that you would like to investigate.

So, For this week I would like to introduce the five programs that I have explored.  There are others out there, but I just haven’t had the time to investigate. These are in no special order:

 PROGRAM                   download         Cost          Date             Website                             

1) Photoshop CS-5        Yes                   $699          2009            www.adobe.com 

 2) Nik HDR Pro            Yes                    $160          2010            www.niksoftware.com      

3) HDR Expose              Yes                    $150          2009            www.unifiedcolor.com     

4) Photomatix 4.0         Yes                    $  99          2003            www.hdrsoft.com             

5) Oloneo                        Yes                   BETA        2009            www.oloneo.com               

I do not proclaim to be an expert on any of these programs, but I have used them all. Some I have found to be extremely easy to understand… Some I have found to be extremely difficult to achieve the results that I am looking for.  Some are incredibly fast… While others waste a lot of my time by saving the file after every movement of a slider……

I plan on reviewing each of these programs over the course of a few weeks, and providing my feedback on each.  So……

Let the journey begin.

Thank you Randy Jay Braun for setting up the "HULA on the Beach".

 Well, I’m back from the 2nd Annual Maui Photo Festival, and I have to say that it was A LOT OF FUN. For those that I met in Maui I enjoyed our time together, and I hope to continue that special time again next year.  I must say that I am glad that I spent a couple of extra days in Maui to relax after the festival. The festival was filled with classes, and I was able to attend sessions from 15 different world class presenters. There were another 10-15 there that I wasn’t able to see because of time constraints.  But, I filled every time slot that I could and attempted to attend as many of the morning shoots as possible.  Several words sum up my time at the 2nd Annual Maui Photo Festival including….  Exhausting, Eventful, Learning, Experimenting, Meeting New People, and our theme here “Having Fun”.

One of the most fun, and unusual in that you won’t find it anywhere else, is the HULA ON THE BEACH shoot that is set up by Randy Jay Braun.  This year there were 8 young ladies that are all junior and seniors in high school brought in to dance for us on the beach at sunset.  At first the light was a little harsh, but each of the dancers was assigned to one of the “pro’s” and off we went to see what images we could create.  It was a great time had by all and was capped by a Hawaiian “Warrior” at dark with his fire sticks.

Every day we, as participants, were asked to submit our best images. They were shown before the evening show, and the best were selected for various categories including: Hula, Aerial, Flora, Fauna, Food, etc.

Of course, it ALWAYS feels good when you get recognition for your work. And, I was awarded the Top Photo in the “ISLANDS Magazine Cover Photo Contest” that will showcase my image of Haleakala Crater in the December issue. 

Keep shooting, and as always HAVE FUN.

Tatoosh Sunset

Sometimes life is rough, but somebody just HAS to go to Maui for the 2nd annual photo festival.  This year looks to have a great lineup of professionals, and it looks like I will be in sessions from 6am until 10pm on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  The nice thing about this festival is that, while only in their 2nd year, they learned from last year.  The breakout sessions are going to be 2 hours long which will allow more time to really absorb the material, and a 2 hour lunch will allow for a break to shoot, write, or sleep?  Can you sleep when in paradise?  Up at 3am to head up to Haleakala for Golden Hour sunrise on the volcano. 6am shoots of canoes, cliff divers…. Doors off helicopter shoots…..  7-10pm evening “review” of everyones best shots of the day……  SLEEP!!!  I don’t need no stinkin’ sleep.

Talented Mr. Tuesday and I headed up to Mt. Rainier on Friday to see what the wildflower situation was, and came away with some interesting photos.  We are both still processing, but I played with the Singh Ray Blue-Gold polarizer filter with “mixed” results.  I’m thinking that it might be best if I convert some of those images to black and white because it made the blue sky unrealistically saturated.  And, I would hate to be accused of “oversaturating” my colors….   Oh, its too late for that, huh?

Remember how Rick Sammon (and others) always say don’t forget to look around you while you’re shooting?  The shot above was just that situation.  Mr. Tuesday and I were anxiously awaiting the sunset on Mt. Rainier when I turned around and looked at the Tatoosh range behind us.  The moon was coming up, and the sun was setting with last light on the tops of the mountains.  Don’t forget to look up, down, right, left, and behind you.  But most of all, Have Fun with your photography.

I could have had even a little more “fun” this last weekend if I would have roared like a bear when I saw a lone hiker coming down the trail.  He saw me huddled over my camera at dusk and standing in the middle of a meadow on Mt. Rainier. Earlier in the day he had seen a sign about storing your food in a “bear proof” manner, and he thought for sure that I was a bear. I’m sure glad he didn’t have a gun…….

This photo was taken at the Portland, Oaks Park photo Walk.

Tom and I shoot together alot. One challenge is since we are shooting from the same spot at times, how do we make them look different.

We do shoot with different cameras. Tom shoots with the 5dMKII and a G-11 point and shoot. Darrell shoots with a Rebel T1i and an iphone 3gs and a Canon Power Shot A95. We share the Canon lenses, but the challenge is to make them distinctly different.

This is to mean different before post processing. This is by no means a simple task. If you don’t believe me, try going out with someone and shoot the same thing and try to make them appear that they were taken at different places and times.

We are going to shoot a series this up coming weekend and share the results with you next week.

Look for the next post on this subject. Remember to get out and shoot an make sure you have fun doing it.

It appears to be a giant leap forward to me for HDR image processing.  I have only been playing with Oloneo Photoengine Beta for a day now, and have not yet figured out how to use all the capabilities of this program.  But, It looks very impressive to me at first blush.  I decided to put the program to the test.

Original HDR image of the Painted Hills

This image was a 3 shot image +2/0/-2 EV that was processed in Photomatix and saved as a TIFF. I wasn’t totally happy with the results I had created since it was a very stormy day, but the clouds were not blue.  This image was obviously “overprocessed”, but I liked the rest of the image. 

I recently read Trey Ratcliff’s HDR Book (very good) about a “final” step which created a composite in Photoshop of the HDR image, and one or two of the original photos. Then you could selectively paint back some of the over cooked areas.  I was ready to start playing with that concept when I saw the link to the Oloneo website on the “Photography Blog” website, http://bit.ly/bzNez1

THE RELEASE: Oloneo today launched the first public beta version of Oloneo PhotoEngine for Windows, an HDR imaging program and raw editor featuring a re-lighting tool, a real-time tone mapping module and a noise filter.

Me being the software junkie that I am I had to download it and play a little.  I decided to load the painted hills image into the software to see what it could do.  Since the program is still in BETA testing I won’t get too harsh, but I do hope the company spends a little more time on reworking the file input method.  It is a little clunky.  But, now for the FUN part:

Oloneo Tone Mapping

Oloneo Curves Sliders

This screen capture shows the Brightness and Saturation Curves panes that are very similar to those found in Photoshop.  The main difference is that they also include handles similar to those used in Corel Draw and can be used to extend the curves or change the shape of the curves.

Oloneo Hue & Saturation Controls

The final screen capture shows the Hue and Saturation controls that allow some very precise color control similar to NIK Viveza.  I was able to remove the blue color cast in my clouds with just a couple of simple adjustments as shown in the capture.

This review is not meant to be a complete review of the program.  The program also does some interesting “tricks” with Re-Lighting, and Denoise that I haven’t yet had time to play with.  I urge you to download the program and to play with it.

So far I have had a blast with it.