photoshop artistic actions webinar

photoshop watercolor action from gavin phillips
Here’s a watercolor action. I find they are a great starting place for working on the next level of your images.

Webinar with Gavin Phillips

I’ll be teaming up with UK photographer Gavin Phillips to share a Photoshop webinar on artistic Photoshop plug-ins that he has designed for creating watercolors and paintings from your photographs. When you sign up for the webinar you’ll get two backgrounds as a bonus. If you can’t make the live event you’ll be able to view the recorded version. Learn more and sign up here. photoeffects.bz/webinar.html

oil paint photoshop action
Oil paint Photoshop action designed by Gavin Phillips.

April 5th 2023

Even if you can’t make the live event you get a link to watch the webinar at your leisure. Hope you can join us on April 5th at 11AM pacific and 2PM eastern time. If you have any questions give me a shout or drop me an IM.

Yours in Creative Photography, Bob

recent magazine and online articles by me

It’s interesting the turn my career has taken over the years. Commercial photographer, wedding photographer, portrait photographer, educator and writer. I’ve worked through many genres of photography and now concentrate on creating art, commercial imaging and education/writing.

Current writing ASP and The Photographer Magazines

Article in the Fall Issue of ASP Magazine

Here is are a couple magazine articles I’ve penned and had published recently. One is for American Society of Photographers (ASP). It was a follow-up to my photographing the Milky way article. This was on processing to take the images to the next level. Look for the Summer issue for planning and shooting. Fall issue was on post-production of Milky Way images. The camera, lens and long exposure collect way more information than your eye can see. Post processing reveals all the color and grandeur of the Milky Way.

Article in the latest issue of The Photographer Magazine

The other magazine article that just dropped was for ‘The Photographer’ magazine. It shares ideas on capturing water droplets in and artistic and colorful fashion. The Art of Photographing Water Droplets can be accessed and read here.

Photofocus online

Photofocus is an online magazine for which I write at least three articles a month, often more, for the last three years. This is in addition to writing for Successful-Photographer. Here are a couple links to the last articles I posted.

If you are looking to sell your work online here is a possible solution for you. Getting your art found on Fine Art America.

This is an article on post-processing images with beauty retouching for hotel properties. Developing high-end hotel property photography.

Photography career

Weirdly enough all of my photography career has been some combination of photography, education including hands on and presentation to photography groups and writing about it. If you need a speaker, writer, photographer or Lens Based Artist, let me know!

Yours in Creative Photography,      Bob

 

asp images of distinction competition

American Society of Photographers (ASP) has announced their second annual image competition. Images of Distinction (IOD) was wildly successful in it’s inaugural year. Using the same criteria for judging, and Professional Photographers of America jurors the event is a great way to get feedback on your photographic imagery. Check out the rules at PrintCompetition.com  And get start getting your images ready.

ASP Images of Distinction February 25-26, 2022

What’s different?

IOD uses scores on the first day of judging. The following day there is image commentary for all makers who wish to receive feedback on their work. This is an invaluable part of the learning process to get your images ready for Professional Photographers of America’s (PPA) International Photographic Competition (IPC). Kristy Steeves shares her thoughts on how the process helped her achieve Diamond status in the Artist category and Platinum in the Open categories at PPA’s IPC.

I interview Kristy about last years ASP – IOD success and why you’ll benefit from entering.
https://youtu.be/-02oPm0LV6Y
Yours in Creative Photography,        Bob

international photographic competition results

international photographic competition results

Professional Photographers of America (PPA) hold the International Photographic Competition (IPC) each year. My results.

The Jury

A panel of 36 eminent jurors from across the United States selected the top photographs from over 5,000 total submitted entries at PPA headquarters in Atlanta. Judged against a standard of excellence, 1,706 images were selected for the General Collection and 865 (roughly 17 percent) were selected for the esteemed Loan Collection—the best of the best. The Loan Collection images will all be published in the much-anticipated “Loan Collection” book by Marathon Press.

“I’m thankful that these challenges exist through PPA. Having your work reviewed and judged by top industry professionals helps keep my image making from becoming static. I get feedback on new techniques which is priceless in keeping me growing my image creation skills.”

‘Another World’ was captured at the Toadstools in Southern Utah.

‘Great Blue’ was captured in Page Springs, AZ at the Bubbling Ponds.

Loan Collection

Three of my images were accepted into the Loan Collection.

‘Orange Outburst’ is a water droplet photo.

 

Another water droplet capture in the PPA Loan Collection.

Two were made of experimental photography involving falling water droplets. Orange Outburst and Twice Nice show the result of specialty lighting of three water drops crashing at intervals which are done by very specific timing of the drops, plus a bit of endurance. Many images need to be captured to find some that create these patterns. The other Loan image was from a composite image titled ‘Blessing Place. Bob worked with images of animals photographed at the Phoenix Zoo some northern Arizona landscape features and and clouds photographed from above. 

In addition two more photographs were named to the General Collection. I rendered a watercolor of a great blue heron in flight over the Bubbling Ponds in Page Springs. ‘Another World’ was a night sky photograph of the Milky Way made while in Southern Utah of the Toadstools. It has a very prehistoric feel.

‘Blessing Place’ is a bit of a departure from my normal work.

Images will be in the International Photographic Exhibition alongside other top photographic works from the competition and traveling and special invitational displays. These images constitute one of the world’s largest annual exhibits of professional photography gathered simultaneously in one place.

About PPA

Founded in 1868, Professional Photographers of America (PPA) is the largest and longest-standing nonprofit photography trade association. It currently helps 30,000 professionals elevate their craft and grow their business with resources, protection, and education, all under PPA’s core guiding principle of bridging the gap between photographers and consumers. See more of my artwork at coatesart.net or at the Gallery of Modern Masters in Hillside, Sedona, AZ.

Coming soon

Above you can see the images that were favored by the judges. Soon I’ll share those that did not make it into the General Collection.

Yours in Creative Photography,        Bob

car camping aka boodocking – my build

car camping aka boodocking – my build

With all that is going on with Covid–19 this year I knew I wasn’t going to be able to travel in my usual way. That led to outfitting my Toyota RAV 4 for boon docking, AKA car camping. My photographer friend Jose Robertson who came through in his vehicle when traveling 2 years ago inspired me.

The start

About a month ago Jose came through on another trip I had the opportunity to test my set up under his watchful eye. During his travels we camped at Lake Powell, Arizona for a couple nights. He taught me a lot and showed me I needed a few more modifications.

I’ll be doing a more in-depth article for the online magazine Photofocus.com. For now you can get an idea of how I fitted out the car.

A peek into the build

A look in the back. Cot with sleeping pad. Removable shelf. Bins for organization.

Not wanting to add a lot of weight or to remove seats I added a five-inch cot to sleep flat.

A shelf that is installed with no attachments to the car is a huge help. This went through a few design iterations. Especially since the cot was billed as being three inches tall. The shelf was redesigned with the five-inch actual cot height! The bins help organize. Bottom bin is the kitchen with stove, gas, cooking tools and utensils. Top bin holds my personal such as clothes and toiletries.

Assembled

Testing the setup. I assembled the ‘camp set up’ in my driveway before hitting the road. testing is good… Trust me on that!

Here’s an image from Watson Lake in Prescott, AZ with the vehicle in use. I’ll share more soon I’m heading out on a new lone adventure on Monday!

Yours in Creative Photography,      Bob

PS – my photographer friends will recognize that part of the support for the shade are two background stands I repurposed.