Round the Fountain Art Fair – Lafayette, Indiana

Last weekend I displayed my work at Round the Fountain Art Fair and today I received an email from a committee member that jconline.com had included an image of me stretching a canvas photograph for a client in an online article about the fair.

Round the Fountain Art Fair – Lafayette, Indiana

Round the Fountain online article

I have been participating in the Round the Fountain Art Fair for over 15 years and have always appreciated the hard work the committee has puts into creating a great art fair for the artists and the community. Thanks for all the hard work!!

Aerial view of my booth on right by the steps.

Holy City – Charleston, South Carolina

I processed this image using Topaz Simplify. The Simplify program can turn your image into an oil painting or give it a cartoon effect which if fun and creative. With this image I used the an oil painting and drawing combination at the programs minimal settings to enhance the image and bring out more detail in this nighttime exposure.

Charleston Church Processed using Topaz Simplify

When the tall ships approached Charleston after a long voyage the first thing the sailors saw were the wonderful Church Steeples and coined it the Holy City. The Battery Park section of Charleston has changed little over the last two hundred years and when you are in Charleston harbor viewing the old city it is easy to imaging sailing ships approaching Colonial Charleston and looking forward to shore leave.

Charleston Church before using Topaz Simplify

Venice Carnival image processed with Topaz Labs Adjust 5

This has been an exciting week for me. I have become an affiliate for Topaz Labs who produces elegant Photoshop Plug-ins. I was able to get the effect I wanted on this image from Carnival in Venice using the Adjust 5 software which is the workhorse for Topaz Labs Photoshop Bundle.

Venice Carnival image processed with Topaz Labs Adjust 5

To make my week even more exciting I received confirmation from photo clients in Texas for a private work that I will teach before the two scheduled classes I will be teaching in Italy in October.

Selective coloring black and whites with Lightroom 4.4

The brush tool in Lightroom 4.4 can be used to create a wonderful selective black and white images. When working with this image I ask myself what would make this image more interesting, what could give it more character! With this image I decided that if I created a black and white and then painting the colorful tablecloths back into the image would make this image stand out.

Venice café – Lightroom 4.4

I first took used the brush tool in Lightroom 4.4 to desaturate this image and then using the same brush tool I selectively colored the tablecloths. After I painted the tablecloths back into the image I took the image into Tonal Contrast in Nik software to bring out the details in this selectively colored black and white. To finish the image I used the vignette tool in Lightroom.

 

Village Cats of Chianti – Tuscan Photo Workshop 2013

Chianti is dotted with wonderful old villages and Castello’s that I am able to visit while teaching location workshops every October. I pulled this image to work on after hearing from a client that he and his wife are going to be joining me for the Tuscan workshop that finishes up in Rome. The village cats were taking shelter from the rain in this little passage way adding to the character of this image. When I am teaching I am always looking for interesting compositions for the class and subjects that have character and stand out. Often the rain ads that little extra character to an already interesting image.

Village Cats of Chianti – Tuscan Photo Workshop

 

After a few adjustments in Photoshop CS6 I used Nik software Color Efex Pro to give this image a little punch.

Village Cats of Chianti – Tuscan Photo Workshop

After processing this image as a color image I used Silver Efex Pro 2 to make a wonderful black and white image.

 

 

 

 

A simple desert road sign

From time to time everyone needs a little desert.

When you out hiking in the desert everything is a little simpler a little slower. Often there are no real paths but if you take bring a good map and take your time enjoying your surroundings you will see the wonderful road signs left by other hikers. Some of the road signs were left by recent hikers and are less than a hundred years old while other signs were left by cultures long past.

A Simple Desert Road Sign

Southwest Slot Canyon Workshop     Nov. 8 -14 2013

$1295  Limited to 9 Students

The Southwest’s slot canyons with their sculptured sandstone walls shaped by water and wind over thousands of years provide photographers with the Southwest’s most sought after photographic images. In the fall when the sun is lower in the sky the muted red and purple tones are breathtaking. We will start this workshop in the Valley of Fire just an hour from Las Vegas which has wonderful slot canyons, one of which has wonderful pink walls and another canyon has some of the best examples of native American petroglyphs in the southwest. We will be staying in Overton for the first two nights before heading to Utah for an overnight stay at Zion National Park before heading to Page Arizona for two days of shooting in wonderful sandstone canyons that feel as spiritual as any of Europe’s wonderful old cathedrals. They will take your breath away.

In the Fall slender shafts of light penetrate the narrow canyons and bounce soft light off the rock walls casting wonderful muted colors against the  sandstone walls. In this workshop you will learn how to capture these images and improve your compositional and technical skills.

My friend and fellow photographer Craig Osterloh will be working with me on this a photographic adventure.

What’s included in my tuition:

Tuition includes fieldwork, guiding, software training and critiques of your digital files during our classroom sessions, transportation during the workshop, Navajo guides  and entrance fees onto the Navajo reservation and park entrance fees.

What’s not included in my tuition:

Airfare, lodging and meals are not included.

Pastel Sunset – Cinque Terre, Italy

I was looking through my images of Cinque Terre and wanted to share this wonderful sunset I took during one of the workshops that I teach every October. I take the groups on a wonderful hiking trail to this vantage point above Vernazza for sunset. I love this soft pastel light when the sky is painted with purples and reds  as the day turns into night. After a day of shooting and hiking in the Cinque Terre I have am always ready for a wonderful meal in one of the small restaurants. This area with the moisture from the Mediterranean is famous for its Pesto which is my favorite but you may prefer the seafood pasta prepared with fresh fish that the locals bring in daily.

Pastel Sunset – Cinque Terre, Italy

To process this image I used Photoshop Elements 11 and the Nik software plug-ins  Vivesa and Color Efex Pro 4.

Dinner in Vernazza

Everyone is ready for a great meal in Vernazza after a fun day of capturing images.

Sweet light – Vernazza Italy

Often when I am on location capturing images and as soon as the sun sets I find myself alone enjoying the fading light and by using  long exposures I find that I am often capturing the most stunning images of the day after most other photographers who were out shooting have called it a day. This is the Sweet Light and does not  always happen it does happen often. So when I am out shooting after everyone has gone I often think, Don’t stop until the magic happens.

Sweet Light – Vernazza, Italy

This image is captured shortly after sunset and the blend of the deep blue light in the sky that often happen after sunset and the lights illuminating the piazza makes this one my favorite images of Vernazza in the Cinque Terre where I will be teaching again in October.