Photography of Suspended Rain

It was Sunday, August 26, 2012 and it was a bit of a rainy day. I stayed home and thought about what I could photograph. Initially I wanted to photograph something in HDR. I stepped outside and looked around. The heavy rain had stopped leaving sparse raindrops falling. Then I caught it out of the corner of my eye and it grabbed my attention. It was the drops of rain suspended in a spider web. I decided that this was to be the subject for my shoot.

The deck was wet so I decided I was not going to use I was not going to use a tripod. For this shoot I was going to hold the camera as low as possible, point at the spider web, let the camera do its autofocus and snap the picture. Without looking through the viewfinder and without using the live view of the camera I was shooting blind. I knew I would be using post processing to generate the image I wanted.

In total I took sixteen photos and did some quick edits. Here are some of the images taken edited but not cropped.

To me these are ok images and a bit unique. There was one image that stood out more than the others and here it is ...

I like this image for several reason. I like the green in the background that was captured from the wet grass. I like the effect of the wet deck boards. I like how it all comes together showing the detail in the spider web and the suspended rain in the web. It was an interesting effect.

In the last image I used Smart Photo Editor to get the detail and colors to pop quickly and easily. Smart Photo Editor is one of my favorite go to photo editing programs.

So what could be learned from this photo shoot. One, in certain instances you can rely on the capabilities of a DSLR to capture what can create an interesting image. Two, move the camera around the subject to capture various background effects. Three, you can shoot blind with practice.

I have another photo of  of a spider web on my Facebook Page, here is a direct link to that image
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=396079003780242&l=3635327f04


Enjoy Life, Take Pictures!


BTW ... On Twitter I am @TMSphotos ... I am always willing to connect with photographers.

You are also welcome to follow my Blog here. I try to share knowledge, information and experience of my photography.

"LIKE" my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/TMSphotographyChicago

Cousins on the Beach - Photographic Edits

Photo edit for today Friday 8/10/2012

This is the original image for today’s edit. I like what is going on in this image from the colors, to the subjects and to the sunset.

For this image I did a regular edit in Smart Photo Editor. I cropped it a bit and modified the colors. It gave the boys a bit of a silhouette effect and I was looking for that. It also darkened the clouds and water while increasing the effect of the sunset.

I modified the previous image a bit more and added an oil paint effect. Playing a bit more with editing I added a bit of realism to the oil paint effect and got this result. There is something about this edit that I really like.

For this next image I did a straight b&w conversion. I like the shades of gray and the results of the conversion.

Larger images are on my Facebook Page for better viewing.

Photo editing can have dramatic effects on images. It is always good to take great photos and camera effects can be pretty stunning also. Personally I like capturing images and editing them. It’s a bit more time consuming but I have almost endless editing options.

Take some time with your photography, get to know your photo effect options. Take time and learn what you can do with both camera and software photo effects. Before you know it, you may create something you truly enjoy sharing.

Enjoy Life, Take Pictures!


BTW ... On Twitter I am @TMSphotos ... I am always willing to connect with photographers.

You are also welcome to follow my Blog here. I try to share knowledge, information and experience of my photography.

"LIKE" my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/TMSphotographyChicago

Craft Fair Photography

Last weekend we went to the Wisconsin Dells for some rest, relaxation and fun. Little did we know that the Taste of the Wisconsin Dells was taking place during our trip but it was. I had my iPad with me so I went online to get a schedule of events. On Saturday and Sunday they had a craft fair going on too. First thing I thought of was to bring my camera.

As usual I took plenty of the typical family and tourist photos as we walked through town, but I was really looking forward to the craft fair on Saturday. When we got to the park there were tents set up all over, we did our typical stroll through and from time to time something would catch my eye.

When I saw this I thought of a slogan to go with it ...

Anytime is a good time for fishin'!

As we walked on I saw this ...

Now let me take a moment to explain something. I know that the people that create these crafts intend to sell their goods at a craft fair and do this with the intention of making some money with their talents. Before I just go taking pictures of items in their tents I politely ask them if I can take a picture.

When I took the image above I was asked why I want to take a picture. I told the kind lady that we have a number of wine corks in a collection at home and I would like to make something similar with my photography and she said I could take the photo.

Sometimes there are things that are just a little funny that strike my eye like the images below.

Continuing along there was a tent with these very well crafted butterflies. Again I asked if I could take a picture and the gentleman said yes you can. Next he thanked me for asking. I told him he was quite welcome, it's better to be kind and ask than to be rude and assuming.

Then there was the Nutman. People couldn't help but walk by and ask "How much are your nuts?"

 Then I saw some more pictures to take that were slogan worthy.

Duck Duck Goose!

What are you lookin' at?

Really!!! You gotta take of picture of me doing THIS! 

Come on now! GET OFF MY BACK WILL YA?

This was a good weekend for me when it comes to photography and ideas. So when you travel carry your camera. Now there were some shots that I took using an iPhone. Just doing a bit of knowledge research. Anyhow, it pays to be kind! Don't forget that. If someone says "No" respect that, be kind and move on.

From this venture I thought of a couple of crafts I might be interested in doing myself, not to sell but for my own enjoyment.


Enjoy Life, Take Pictures!


BTW ... On Twitter I am @TMSphotos ... I am always willing to connect with photographers. You are also welcome to follow my Blog here. I try to share knowledge, information and experience of my photography.

"LIKE" my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/TMSphotographyChicago

Isle of Capri, Italy - Photograph to Art - Digital Editing

Last month on my Facebook page I posted a photo, but before I display that image I want to take a moment to talk about digital editing. Technology these days is always changing, I don't need to tell many of you that what we buy today can be old technology in a week and sometimes less.

Many of us have watched digital photography just explode by leaps and bounds from cameras to software. Besides photography I really enjoy editing photos. I try find new software that is useful to me to make my images different.

Let's take a look at a photo I took many years ago while on the Isle of Capri in Italy.

This image was not taken with a high end camera. It was one of those compact digital cameras. While walking in this area of shops I saw this and thought to take a photo of it. I like the photo as is but I decided to play around with this image to see what I could create. So let's take a look at an edit I made of this image.

Compared to the original, this edit brought out a lot more in the image. I thought to myself that it looked pretty good and I posted this to my Facebook page.

Recently I found a different software that makes photographs artsy. My Grandfather was a magnificent artist. I did not catch that skill in the passing of the genes. What I did get was his ability to photograph and his skills in architecture and engineering drafting.

I have always wanted to learn to take an image like this and create a painting. Well, I simply don't have the time. Nor do I have the talent or patients to create my own art. Thanks to technology though I was able to take the image above and create the following artistic versions.

These images gave me an idea of what an artist could do with my photo. The great thing is that I don't need to be an artist to create these.

The next thing I did was played with the contrast and black levels of the image to create the next image.

Then I brought this image into the software I am testing. The next few images are what I was able to create.

I like how simple editing can change the whole effect of the artistic rendering. To me, this adds to the my ability to enjoy my photography in a whole new light. Who knows, someone might be interested in purchasing this stuff down the road.

I encourage you to take time to experiment with various photo editing software from time to time. You may stumble upon something you will really enjoy.


Enjoy Life, Take Pictures!


BTW ... On Twitter I am @TMSphotos ... I am always willing to connect with photographers. You are also welcome to follow my Blog here. I try to share knowledge, information and experience of my photography.

"LIKE" my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/TMSphotographyChicago

See my work for sale at http://tms-photos.artistwebsites.com/

Bird In The Rain Photo - Self Critique

According to my notes, I took this photo of a bird in the rain in August of 2008. The original photo, in my opinion, was not that good of a photo. For some reason, at the time that I took the photo, I must have found something interesting about it. Let's take a look at the original image.

My first thought at looking at this is that it lacks detail, color and vibrance. Again that is my opinion. Others that have seen the image did not provide any real positive comments, and that's alright with me.

After taking some time to think about this photo a bit more I think it could have looked a lot better if the image captured the total reflection of the bird in the water puddle it was standing in. Also, I noticed that I cut off a portion of the birds tail.

One more thing to keep in mind is that this image was not taken with a DSLR, it was taken with a compact digital camera that was not of a high quality.

What I did with this image made it better. Using a photo editing software called Smart Photo Editor, I applied four different filters to create this ...

I really like the colors and effect that I was able to create so quickly and easily. It is in this image that I really could see how the image could have been so much better if I had captured the birds reflection and the complete tail.

The point I want to make is to really think about what you are looking at when you compose a picture. Photo editing can only do so much but the final image is the result of what the photographer sees and captures. More importantly, it is what the photographer thinks about capturing and takes that picture.

All was not lost though, I used this image with the Instagram application and here is the results of that ...

All things considered I like the results of this image.

On another note, take time to consider what images you delete. I have made it a point to keep all of my photos and backing them up on multiple external drives. You never know, you may be able to make them better than you think.


The programs and links used for this article were ...
Smart Photo Editor http://www.smartphotoeditor.com/
Instagram http://instagr.am/
PhotoScape (for batch resizing) http://www.photoscape.org


Enjoy Life, Take Pictures!


BTW ... On Twitter I am @TMSphotos ... I am always willing to connect with photographers. You are also welcome to follow my Blog here. I try to share knowledge, information and experience of my photography.

"LIKE" my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/TMSphotographyChicago

See my work for sale at http://tms-photos.artistwebsites.com/

Photo Editing with Smart Photo Editor and More

I've been having too much fun lately. I have this photo editing software called Smart Photo Editor (link provided at the end of this article) and it is by far the easiest and quickest way to edit your digital images.

I have written articles about this before and I have several images on my Facebook page that have gone through Smart Photo Editor processing. Today I want to take an image and run it through some quick edits. I'll get started right away with an image I took in 2011, let's take a look at it ...

Here is what I like about the image. It is an image of a blooming flower and it has rain drops on it. Other than that, the color isn't that great and the background of the image isn't that good either. So I would like to improve the image and potentially crop it.

So the first thing I did was to open the image in Smart Photo Editor and did some manual adjustments using the Brightness Contrast etc. features. Here is the outcome ...

I like the results already. The edits are typical of what you might find with Photoshop or other photo editing software.

Now Smart Photo Editor has a lot of filters and effects, many of them I use over and over again and are stored in the "Favorite Effects" list. Today I decided to take a look at other filters that I have not used as frequently. I came across the "Hue saturation and contrast filter" and here is the outcome of using that filter ...

Now the filters have sliders in them that allow you to tweak the filter to your liking but I liked the results of the default filter and saved the image as is.

So then I wondered what the image would look like if I applied a couple of my favorite filters. So let's take a look ...

Again, I am really pleased with the results. In this image I used the default settings of the "Hue saturation and contrast filter" and the "Hyper-real filter" and I think I like it.

Now when it comes to editing images there is a lot of personal preference. In other words, what I may really like others may say that's too much, or that's not enough, or you should do this. I am all well and good with that. But the beauty of art to the eye is in the eye of the beholder. On the other hand, if I was working with a client I would want to know what pleases them and work to satisfy their needs.

Now so far I have shown you some really simple things to do with Smart Photo Editor, but you may be wondering how long did it take to do all this. Well first let me say that I take time during my editing to take notes of the edits I do to images so I have reference for the future. The edits themselves are quick. I spent 25 minutes this morning selecting the filters for editing the image and taking notes on the edits made to the image. Without note taking and filter selection time the editing was done in moments.

Than I decided to use it on Instagram (from my iPad) and here are the results of that ...

Next I used my Poladroid application to make a Polaroid version of the image and here is the result ...

I like the "Poladroid" application because it provides that old fashioned polaroid effect and I can use photoshop to add text in the white space on the bottom like we used to do back in the day with a pen.

So from one simple image that was not all that good in the beginning I was able to make some pretty good images that I can enjoy for a long time.

The programs and links used for this article were ...
Smart Photo Editor http://www.smartphotoeditor.com/
Instagram http://instagr.am/
Poladroid http://www.poladroid.net/
PhotoScape (for batch resizing) http://www.photoscape.org


Enjoy Life, Take Pictures!


BTW ... On Twitter I am @TMSphotos ... I am always willing to connect with photographers. You are also welcome to follow my Blog here. I try to share knowledge, information and experience of my photography.

"LIKE" my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/TMSphotographyChicago

See my work for sale at http://tms-photos.artistwebsites.com/

Project Wide Open Where Old Tech meets New Tech

This project was inspired by Jared Polin of FroKnowsPhoto.com who recently had a project called "Wide Open." The purpose was for photographers to take pictures of their subjects with the f/stop wide open. So thanks to Jared Polin for the inspiration and thanks to Cantigny Parks and gardens for hosting a tour of their greenhouse.

In this, my project, I added a twist of old technology meets new technology. In other words, I used my old manual 50mm lens from my Pentax K1000 on my Pentax K7 DSLR body. My 50mm lens has a close focus at 17.7 in and at wide open the f/stop is set at f/2.

While on the tour at the greenhouse I physically  moved the camera until the subject was in focus in order to take the pictures below ...

Now the image above is cropped and I liked the outcome. The image could have been a bit more in focus if I closed down a stop or two on the lens, but that was not the purpose of this project.

This image (above) was not cropped and is not a spectacular photo but it is an example of the specific focus capabilities of a wide open lens at close focus.

I like what is going on in the in the image above in regards to all of the background colors. Again, due to the limitations of this specific project, the fern tips are not all in focus. This could have been corrected by closing down on the f/stop but it is worth noting that the background effects would change also.

In the image above there is a lot of color and background color melding going on. This is my favorite image from this project.

Spring is in the air even though it is only March here in the Chicagoland area. Take some time to get out and capture the beauty that is around and share it with your family and friends. Also take some time to explore your aperture. With all of the flower beauty and plant life you may capture a spectacular image.

For all of us in the U.S. the clocks spring ahead this weekend. Not sure that I am ready for that but I guess I'll have to deal with it.


Enjoy Life, Take Pictures!


BTW ... On Twitter I am @TMSphotos ... I am always willing to connect with photographers. You are also welcome to follow my Blog here. I try to share knowledge, information and experience of my photography.

"LIKE" my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/TMSphotographyChicago

See my work for sale at http://tms-photos.artistwebsites.com/