Model Mayhem

365 Days

I recently joined a group on flickr that challenges you to take a self portrait every day for a year. Me being the narcissistic ego maniac that I am I decided to take the challenge. Taking a picture of yourself is not always easy and let's face it I'm no supermodel so coming up with something interesting every day is even harder than it sounds. But this is also a great opportunity to test my photography skills every day, and see how far I can take this. I plan to push it to the limit and get as creative as possible. I still have a lot to learn and I will explore every possibility and by the end you can bet that I will have learned some lessons along the way. The real goal here is to constantly improve so please check out some of my progress from time to time and let me know how I'm doing. My 365 set can be found here. Thanks for looking.

Alex

HDR Mania

I've been playing around with HDR a lot lately, and I'm kinda getting hooked on the bold colors and extreme detail. HDR is basically several photos put together in Photoshop or other software (I'm currently using Photomatix) to bring out bright colors and shadow detail that are sometimes impossible to get with a single exposure. Once you get the hang of it, these photos can be real fun to work on. Here are some tips to get the most out of your HDR images.
1. Shoot in raw only, jpegs will break down badly with these kind of adjustments.
2. Don't over do the color and desaturate the images slightly for great prints.
3. Sometimes three photos work best, but might need five at others.
4. After making your HDR image save it and make adjustments in Photoshop (I like to make a duplicate layer to work on before using the shadow/highlight adjustment and then dialing down the opacity of the adjustment layer).
I hope these tips help, and if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.

Alex

Pain in the ass

Well, I just got back from the hospital and I thought I would share some of my suffering. A couple years ago I was diagnosed with diverticulitis, a condition that affects the colon which can cause severe digestive problems. Sometimes this can be controlled by diet but unfortunately not in my case. So, this past Friday I checked in to Banner Estrella Hospital to have corrective surgery.

Let me just tell you that a lot of unpleasant things happen in hospitals, and although the doctors and nurses were very nice I couldn't wait to get out of there. The needles don't bother me (I have lots of tattoos), but the pain and inactivity really wore thin. The worst part was the catheter and I will probably have nightmares for the rest of my life about that little experience. Oh well, here's to a speedy recovery and (from now on) a healthy happy colon.

Glamis Easter 2008

Glamis, that big pile of sand located in southern California is full of giant dunes that seem to go on forever. Rising from the desert in graceful curves and ripples, the sand is both inviting and menacing at the same time. The riding area is so big it takes several trips to just see the major points of interest (Oldsmobile Hill, Competition, China Wall, and many others). The small dunes around the edges are regular and predictable, fun riding the whole family can enjoy. The enormous central dunes are also very regular with smooth transitions and eye popping scenery. Normally known for wild times, this Easter was a little more subdued with a lot of families enjoying the holiday weekend.

 

The coolest event of the weekend was the Tres Regatta, a gathering of mini three wheeler enthusiasts. There was an mx race, drag race, and lots of other events for those in attendance. The mx races were fun to watch, and it looked like the competitors were enjoying the action also. From bone stock Honda seventies to radical customs, the enthusiasm of this group is infectious. This is a must attend event for next year, very unique family fun.

Better Pictures

Most people these days have a digital camera for taking shots of family, friends and special occasions. Digital point and shoot cameras like this one can be much easier to use than traditional 35mm film. The ability to see our shot, make an adjustment and take another (better) shot is one of the things that make digital so popular these days. With a little effort these simple, inexpensive cameras can produce stunning results. For most photographers this will be enough to capture the images they are looking for. The photo above was taken with a 5 mega-pixel similar to this one. Just by reading the manual you can easily improve the photos you get with even the simplest digital snapper.

Now let's be honest here. If you want to take better pictures than you're getting with your digital point and shoot it's not going to be as simple or cheap. A professional camera body, several high quality lenses, some lighting equipment (and accessories), along with a computer and editing software are some of the items you will need. Not to mention learning how to use all of these gadgets. At least there are some great resources out there like this blog by Scott Kelby or David Hobby's blog Strobist. There is also a lot of great information in books like The Photoshop CS3 Book For Digital Photographers, Light: Science and Magic, and many more. By combining quality equipment with a dedication to learning, you can start to get the pictures you've been envisioning. Changing your camera from a copy machine to a memory maker can be very fun and rewarding. Hopefully these tips can help, but if you have any questions please leave them in the comments.

New Beginning

I guess I've been thinking a lot lately of going back in to the business world. I just miss the thrill of possibility and all the people I've dealt with in the past. Profits can be hard to come by as a vendor, but I think that my new techniques along with some other innovative ideas just might be the thing to get me started. 

Back in 2004 I started taking pictures at the Gordons Well sand dunes in southern California, and selling prints to friends and people I met in the dunes. By the Fall of 2005 I started setting up a booth in the vendor area and selling pictures on holiday weekends to the drag racers and dune enthusiasts. The pictures were also posted on Sandpix.com in galleries that were easy to navigate, and customers could order prints. There was some success, but by the spring of 2007 it was obvious that some changes would have to be made before continuing. 

With the ever changing technology of digital photography more people are taking their own pictures and sharing those images with friends and family more easily than ever before. Attaching pictures to e-mails or posting to sites like flickr, photobucket, myspace and others has become commonplace. Having the option of purchasing prints or downloading an image for personal use might be exactly what some customers want and Sandpix is ready to take on that challenge. Look for more stories, photos and video to be posted here on a regular basis, with a new level of interaction. Click on the photo at the bottom of this post to see small size versions that you can e-mail to friends and post on the web or larger sizes suitable for downloading and printing. Sharing memories has never been more fun or simple. Please leave a comment or question here or on one of the pictures in my flickr photo stream and let me know what you think. More to come shortly...