These are a couple pictures I took not too long ago during our ice storm. It was beautiful outside, and we didn't loose power both good things.

 

In the first picture I dropped the saturation changing the image to a black and white, although I increased the temperature because I wanted the image to look warm and comfortable.
I wanted the second image to be jarring like an alarm clock is so I replaced the background with a flat black. I lowered the saturation to bring the image closer to black and white, but with some color as if your eyes are adjusting to the first light of the day.
I used the faded photo affect Colorful Center to mute the surroundings of this shot, because in the morning whats more important... the counter or coffee?
So there is this outlet in my bathroom that I haven't rewired or even covered yet, and thanks to the power of photoshop it has been taken care of. I also cropped an open doorway into our livingroom which took the focus off of brushing teeth, and hey brushing teeth is important.
In the fith image the combination of the cords the down and the sherling boots reminded me of the 70's. I leaned into the reds for hues and lightened the shadows dramatically. I think it gives this shot the same look as family photos I have from years gone by.
The image of Lindsey going into the car was not altered a whole bunch. I just sampled the color of the dashboard and painted over my not so beautiful Rutland Transfer station sticker.
On the 7th image of the car pulling into the rink I added the superfan Appled vinyl The 8th photo was taken at dusk, but my story leads one to believe that it occurs during the day, so I lightened the shot used a bit more color stauration, and used the skin tone feature to give Linds a tan, cause Lindsey likes tans.
I took this over Lindseys Shoulder, than I cropped it to make the stands apear fuller. I then faded the color out of the right of the shot so that the game is the obvious focus.
We have some excitement, anticipation, and intensity here. I changed to black and white, cropped out most of the details of the picture, and gave it a slight red tint. It captures the pleasurable anxiety that is watching sports.

 
Here is a shot taken at a hockey game in town. I really wanted to post a picture using the technique from the reading of panning with the subject so the background is blurred, but it turns out I'm going to need a whole lot more practice. Still I like the excitement of this picture. The opposing team just scored the tying shot, and everyone seems to be moving somewhere. That is except the goalie who is sitting in the net. I may not master the panning shot before the class is over, but at somepoint there will be a post.

 
So I was sitting in a restaurant with my wife while we were taking a bit of a break from my final project pictures, and this portrait just happened. I liked the lines of the blinds behind her, and there was a soft warm light just to the right of her wich added a bit to the shot. She looks awake (which is decieving), natural and beautiful. The shot captures who she is and it wasn't even planned.

The reason I decided to give the title The Best Restaurant in the world to my photo is because I have founbd no proof at all that there is in fact a better place to eat. I had the most simple and deliscous dinner imaginable there. TRuffle oil, olive oil, wild mushrooms, and truffles tossed in a fresh pasta. There was some wine in play, and one o, the most amazing salads I have ever had. We stumbled across this eatery entirely by luck. The dining room was surounded by frescos painted to honor the family that had the building built how ever many forevers before. It was simply magical. So from Florence to Fenway, I played with shadows and contrast, and then painted the Green Monster, well, green.

So here I go, squeezing in another one just in the nick of time. I was going through some shots that I took on my honeymoon. I'm not sure what I was looking at in the original shot? There was a gentleman wearing a tank top leaning on a railing with a loud no swimming sign reflecting right into the lens to the left, too many power boats, and then there was the arm... It must have been attached to someone, and the fisherman may have added a bit to the shot. Well thanks to the magic of Photoshop, I cropped the guy, railing, and sign out of the picture, I removed a boat or two, and the floating arm is no more. It almost looks like this is what I had tried to capture in the first place.

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So I did these last night real late like, and had in my mind everything filter that I used on them. The picture of my wife and I when I was still liven' large and a bit tipsy has a graphic pen filter, and then a waterpaper filter. That brings us to the lanetern. I used the flaurecent chalk filter and then the rubber stamp filter. I cropped it, cut it and stretched it over the solid colored background. Last night made me feel a bit warholesque. Tons of fun! I can't wait to play some more.

Ok so here is my dodge and burn photo. This is an amazing tool, and I am not doing it any sort of justice. I wish more and more that I purchased CS#, but elements is doing well enough. Anyways the edge is a bit ruff so I will work on this. I reduced the shadows in the shot,and took away a bit of the grass on the sand. I'm going to keep working on this to clean it and make it more realistic, but here it is as my first post.

Here is my second attempt. Not only did I play with color, but some other features jumped out at me. In these pictures I started by erasing the tree. I know many of you have used Photoshop before, but I am new at this. The fact that I can quickly remove a tree from the photo just blows me away. Then I colored The leaves through the whole in the wall. I need to get better at this for the green doesn't look overly natural to me. I then added a red tint to the image darkened it and replaced the color on the wall with a deeper brick color. This week was a ton of fun. I am also excited about the photo mosaic, but still have to download the program.

So Sadly I did not go to Florence this last week, I did however work so much that I had to go back to shots I took in Florence instead of getting to shoot new ones. Not nearly as much fun for me, but what can you do. I have Photoshop Element so I didn't have all of the controls that the reading explained, but I found all sorts of interesting things to do with my shots. I took out the color from this shot and played with the warmth of the colors. I love how this shot looks ancient. The yellow tones looks like an old black and white shot to me. I lov ethese colors, and miss them in modern black and white. It is almost too crisp. Anyways here is my first go.

So this is my parent's home where I spent most of my childhood. It is idealistic. It sits back off the dirt road that few people drive down. Its nestled in rolling hills, and never once has it been attacked by storm troopers. That is until I finally nearly figured out merging with photoshop. This is not not the best job, but you should see my first few tries. I found this painful, stressful, and in the long run alot of fun.

 
I love this photo that I took from Depot Park in Burlington. At this point it was very overcast, and it I loved the monochramatic color scheme. The lighthouse looks tiny and alone. The hills across the lake look cold and grey, and the clouds are dusty greys and whites. This picture makes it look like I took this picture much earlier than I did, and I think it just looks cold and isolated. This is my favorite shot for the landscapes.

 

This photo was taken at the waterfront in Burlington. These are the docks in front of the Echo Center. The sky was breaking allowing the sun to shine on the hills of New York. I like the angles of the docks how it fills the entire shot at the bottom of the frame and leads you down the right side of the picture. I also enjoyed the dark break in the provided by the rocks.

 
So I was lucky enough to have two beautiful days in a row off. The day I took my landscape shots was overcast and warm. I was driving and walking around Lake Champlain. This Picture is taken from the side of RT 7 near Shelburne. I noticed the lake poking through the fields and Hills. I put the homestead right of center to pull the viewers eyes over the whole shot, and was pleased to see the sapling left of center in my viewfinder. I love how the mountains way in the back fade into obscurity. I was pretty happy with this shot.

This has nothing to do with anything but this is crazy huh? One of two buildings of this ex factory right in the middle of the woods. Just wanted to show you.

Here is the object centered. I still find it pretty. I mean its a covered bridge, right. How could I go wrong? The road, however, doesn't offer the same curve. The bridge still sits amongst trees, but it looks more utilitarian to me. the guard rails and sign pop out at me, and my eyes don't move over the whole shot. I find I hardly even notice the right side of this shot.

So here is a shot that I took using the 3rd lines. My subject is right of center. This allows the road to curve into the bridge. I feel this gives the eye a little more to follow as well as add some foliage to the left. I like this composition much more.

So the composition technique that I found was Object Isolation. There are different ways to do this, but the way that I read about and used was to choose a small depth of field. This made the main subject stand out in front, and everything in the foreground and background fade into obscurity. I have had many pictures come out like this, however it was by luck, not design. I think it ads a little something to what could have been a pretty dull shot.

Just a quick post. Here is the photo of books that I took for the complimentary. It wasn't my favorite, but I think its neat that so many of us had this idea.

I just like this photo so I am adding it into the mix. This was taken on the same porch as the clay stove. It was taken at night with a long exposure. I did not use a flash, but the motion light above the deck illuminated the foliage. I love the contrast of the unnaturally bright plants against the dark trees and pinkish orange sky, and in case you didn't know it even tells you what we are shooting. These my friends are HERBS.

Here we go one last time. This was taken at dusk. It was just dark enough for the spotlight to come back on. I like the shadow that it creates. I like this shot because the soft light shows detail even in the shadows. It has a good bit of personality, and the fern stands out well shining in the spotlight.

Here it is again This time in the daylight. The hurricane was somewhere out in the Atlantic bringing Boston some rain, so the sky is overcast. This picture doesn't catch my interest the way the night shot did, but you can pick up more detail. The clay looks older, maybe dirtier to me. I think that he fern looks a little less impressive in this shot as well.

So talk about waiting until he last minute, but here they are. I'm back in Vt and have brought these pictures with me. My friends live in a community called Jamaica Plain in Boston and have a bit of deck garden. There was all sorts of fun things to shoot, and thank god, because it was pretty much pouring the whole time we were down there. This is a clay fireplace that my friend built. There was some ferns as well. I didn't try to use any light source, however there was a motion spot light above there deck which obviously was illuminating one side of the pot. I like that details in the clay that came out well. The shot was taken at night. I used a long exposure to capture all of the light that I could. I was kind of surprised at how light this photo ended up.

So I had all sorts of ideas for this assignment, but none of them were panning out. I spent the day hanging around train tracks and factories. I was sure that there was going to be some crazy example of the complimentary color schemes. I thought maybe two rail cars side by side, or some object jutting out of a grassy patch of ground, but it wasn't happening. So I headed back to the car. To my surprise this shot was right there in the parking lot. The red and green leaves curling through the fence compliment each other. The opposite colors glare off one another, however like the reading says, it just looks right.