As part of the PPA Charities Photo-Education-A-Thon held yesterday I put together a periscope on how I use PPA Imaging Competition to enhance my business marketing as well as improving my photography skills. I believe that participating in Imaging Competition has helped shape and form my skills and the photographer I’ve become… Here’s the video. BTW it was for PPA Charities which is a big supporter of Operation Smile and other charities photographers are interested in. So if you have gotten an idea or two you can use how about clicking on the link and making a small donation?
Learn how I use Imaging Competition to help promote my business.
Here are some links to show how I’ve shared some of my competition results and my feelings in more depth via the blog…
It’s the Sunday Photo/Art Quote with a bit of a twist… In support of PPA Charities I turn this space over to Giving Tuesday. But I can’t do that without a chat about a quote so let combine the two!
As photographers we have the unique opportunity to use our photo skills to help out the community. Giving back is a chance, as Winnie says, to help ‘make a life’ rather than just a living. Being able to combine our photography and service to the community is a win-win. And you know how much I like win-win scenarios!
“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” Winston Churchill
All the details are below. I’ll be doing my Periscope at 11AM Eastern time. Hope to see you there!
On Tuesday, December 1st, log in to Periscope, Twitter’s live broadcast partner, to join Professional Photographers of America Charities in the first ever #GivingTuesday fundraiser. From 8:00am until midnight, eastern time, we will be broadcasting every half hour. Join in as each of our guests does a five minute presentation on a variety of subjects. Everything from photography to marketing, or even some human interest or general information will be shared. Find us at @PPACharities
Scheduled to appear are (in order): Bert Behnke, Gary Hughes, Mary Fisk-Taylor, Melanie Anderson, Jamie Hayes, Trish Gilmore, Susan Michal, Kay Eskridge, Trish Logan, Bob Coates (hey that’s me!) Jeff & Lori Poole, Carl Caylor, Lori Nordstrom, Trey Homan, Beth Marshall, Bry Cox, Roch Eshleman, Beth Forester, Don Dickson, Tina Timmons, Elizabeth Homan, Michael Timmons, Travis Gugelman, Deanna Duncan, Al Behnke, Cindy Behnke, Cris Duncan and more.
At the end of each segment, feel free to hit the Donate Now button on www.ppacharities.com Home Page if you feel inspired. Then change your profile pic on Facebook or Twitter to one of our icons and challenge others to participate in #GivingTuesday for PPA Charities. If you miss the Periscope broadcast, go to our Facebook Facebook/PPACharities and see the recorded versions.
Find us at @PPACharities
Please donate what you can and mention why you are donating if it is to honor one of the presenters or to help PPA Charities meet our end of year goals. Then remember to ask your friends and tag them when asking on Facebook or Twitter. For every dollar you pledge we have matching grants, two for $2500 and one for $1000! So that is $3-$4 earned for every dollar you donate. Thank you Mike Hanline of WHCC and Roch Eshleman of Romaguera Photography for your matching funds, and also to our Anonymous friend!
Let’s have some fun and help PPA Charities support our charitable partners like Operation Smile, Dando Amor, the PPA Affiliate Schools and others in need.
Join in on Periscope for live feeds and Facebook and Twitter for updates on Tuesday, December 1st, #GivingTuesday, #PPAGives. Find at @PPACharities
Let’s go into a little more detail on the creation of the photo art for the Sound Bites Grill ‘Wall of Fame’ with guitarist Ottmar Liebert as the subject.
The process is one I’ve dubbed Photo-Synthesis taking multiple images and using Blend Modes, Layers, Masks, Fx, Adjustment Layers and more to create the final piece. First here is the final piece as it now hangs at Sound Bites…
Finished ‘Wall of Fame’ image featuring Ottmar Liebert
Raw materials for the final photo art.
Here’s the Layers Palette with Layer Modes and Opacity Levels indicated. I recommend reading from the bottom to the top to get a better feel of my process.
I usually start with the base Layer and add a texture I feel will blend well. Then I experiment with different Blend Modes and Opacities to get the effect for which I am looking. On the MAC if the Move Tool is highlighted then holding the Shift key and hitting the + & – keys you can scroll through the various Blend Modes seeing their effects in real time.
This should give you an idea how I work with Adobe Photoshop in creating photo art projects.
Have any questions?? Let me know.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – Textures are available everywhere. Even from fellow photographers. I have a large library of different kinds of texture but for some reason I found myself attracted to two textures from one of the people who inspire me, Thom Rouse. That’s a link to some amazingly fantastic images. Thanks Thom!! BTW if you ever get the oppourtunity to see Thom speak don’t miss it. It’s a fabulous walk through the art world
Been a little bit since I’ve photographed a new artist for the ‘Wall of Fame’ at sound Bites Grill in Sedona, Arizona.
Had the great pleasure of capturing fabulous guitarist Ottmar Liebert who sold out the house and ended up performing again tonight (Monday) because he was such a popular artist.
Here’s the art piece I assembled using my Photo-Synthesis technique using Adobe Photoshop and multiple images blended together.
Performing live at Sound Bites Ottmar Wall of Fame Photo Art image
Initial image was captured with the Lumix GH4 and the 42.5mm f1.2 Nocticron lens. 1/60 sec 3200 ISO I love the density range that the GH4 can hold even under the LED stage lights. Three additional images were pulled from my files and using Blend Modes, Layers, Fx and Adjustment Layers came up with the final art.
Dusty western streets lined with aged buildings hinting very strongly at a bygone time.
Characters in period dress move through the streets as if they’ve returned home from the present day. That was the Arizona PPA Fall Fest this year organized by AZPPA and headed up by board member Bruce Roscoe of Alayna Photography. Bruce created a calendar with this great bunch of actors and arranged to share their talents during this event. There were five instructors, ten actors and thirty-five photographers in action, learning, sharing and generally having a good time.
I gotta tell you if you live in Arizona, are a photographer and not a member of Arizona PPA you are missing out on education, networking and building lifelong friendships with those of a like mind.
But, I digress just a bit. Here’s an image created after the sun sank (sunk?) below the horizon of the ‘haunted church’ done at the end of the street.
This was ‘Filo’ one of the actors posing during a light painting exercise held at the end of the day. Lumix GH4 with a 12-35mm f2.8 lens was mounted on a tripod and a series of bracketed exposures was made of the church scene followed by Filo being lit in various positions. Images were then striped together to have our actor studying up on his ethereal image inside.
If you are not in Arizona there is probably a Professional Photographers of America Affiliated group not too far away from you. You can check the list. I travel around the country and have spoken to many of these groups and I can tel you that the education acquired from being a member and participating as a volunteer can help you grow your photography business.
Lots of photographers suggest that they can get all the photo education they need from the web and online tutorials. I beg to differ there’s no beating live in person education and if you are not already a member of one of these organizations I encourage you to at least visit for one or two meetings. You be glad you did!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – The event was help at Canyon Creek Ranch and should you find yourself in central Arizona it’s a place you might want to check out!
I went down to authorville today to find a quote for this Sunday. John Steinbeck. You may have heard of him. He wrote over twenty-five books. Some of them pretty well known! He also penned this quote and I think it speaks volumes to something we photographers need to spend time thinking upon.
“In art the subject upon which you concentrate is unimportant; it is only the quality of your concentration that counts.” John Steinbeck
Spend some time with this thought.
OK. Welcome back and here are some ideas from me.
We photographers take a shit-pot (please excuse my french) of images and find ourselves disappointed that we don’t have a really strong body of work. I feel it has to do with the ease of being able to make a picture these days and the ease of being able to share them, And, the lack of time and energy we spend on creating any single image. I see many photos posted receiving comments like ‘Fantastic!’ ‘Beautiful!’ And one of my favorites, ‘Amazing!!’
When in reality the image is nothing more than an OK snapshot.
I feel the best images I have been able to create are the ones that have involved planning, thinking, and yes, some serious concentration. I hadn’t realized it quite so clearly before. Thanks Mr Steinbeck for bringing a little clarity to my thinking and my art!
For infrared conversion of my cameras I use LifePixel. Infrared allows you to put an older camera to use and opens up a new time time of day for productive image creation.
Learn Photoshop in a fun environment. Aaron Nace applies the right amount of fun with easy to understand and follow tutorials. Actions and brushes are included with lessons!
Best embroidery ever. Give Queensboro a try, get a $20 instant credit to get started by clicking on the logo! They specialize in great quality custom logo apparel and promotional products with the best customer service.
Platypod has become a great resource for being creative in getting your camera gear easily into unusual places. As an Platypod Pro I get to work/play with the gear even before it comes out. Head over to Platypod, subscribe to the newsletter and you will get special discounts reserved only for subscribers.
