I find when I’m on holidays and taking those precious holiday snaps, my habits can be divided quite simply: 1) This looks kind of interesting but I’m in a bit of a hurry so I’ll grab a quick snap and pray and 2) Oh my God I’ll be able to sell this as a limited edition print so let me shoot 5 or 10 or 20 different compositions and/or exposures to get this one right. When I get home or back to the hotel and download all of my photos I can usually see what I was trying to accomplish but it never is accomplished.

Enter Photoshop.

For the most part I find a can make something of just about every shot I’ve taken. I kid you not. Sadly I’ve yet to sell any limited edition prints but that’s another thing. This particular shot could easily have been a pass or a throw-away. For you it probably is. But I was there and it’s my holiday and I want to capture the mood and the memory. So yes, I spent a couple of hours on this silly little holiday snap. And I like it. Click the image below to go to a wide (1200 px) combined image of before, after and zoomed results of my efforts.

In a nutshell what I’ve done is used a lens blur filter to draw the eye down the alley to focus on the painting resting on an easel at the end and make you say, “oooooo, I wonder what’s down there”. Next, I grabbed the burn tool and darkened the midtones of the subject (the painting) and a few other areas that looked washed out. Finally I applied an unsharp mask to sharpen the details. The result for me is a throw-away I just may keep.

…Americans don’t know the Constitution!

I’ve just finished the second and longest part of my involvement in “Constitution Challenge,” a PBS program that aims to teach 10th graders about the US Constitution. It’s in a game show format: to introduce a new question, the host throws it to a “man on the street” - that’d be me - who poses questions to random passing strangers. We shot in four cities, in a total of seven locations. Here’s a rundown of where we shot and what it was like… Continue Reading »

We’re doing great for time. We decided to leave Friday night after work rather than Saturday morning as originally planned. The idea was to get over the border and clear Seattle. We managed to make it as far as Kelso, about 30 minutes outside of Portland, OR. I’d say we cleared Seattle. We took a chance and called Jerry and Lise at 11:40PM. Turned out Jerry was in North Carolina at the races so we arranged to meet up with Lise for breakfast the next morning. We left Portland around 10:30AM. We had originally planned to spend Saturday and Sunday travelling, arriving in Napa either late Sunday or even Monday morning. Well, we made it Saturday night. We’re staying in a Marriott in Richmond, CA, about 20 minutes outside of San Francisco.

The plan is to spend the day and perhaps tomorrow morning in San Francisco. Monday through Wednesday and maybe Thursday morning in Napa Valley. After that it’s up in the air but Monterey Bay and Carmel is the goal.

I forgot to bring my card reader so I’ll have to grab one from the Circuit City across the road. I’ll get some pictures up shortly thereafter. I’m anxious to see how some of the photos turned out using my new circular polarizing filter.

Joe says…
Eating
Drinking
Sleeping

How dat be?

Dave says…
Dig it
Love it
Looks awesome

How many nights are we staying in Victoria?