The Beauty of Staircases!

I've always been drawn to photograph staircases. I love the design of them. Here are a few from hotels in Europe that I came across today while doing some image organizing. 

Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Year!  Can’t believe how quickly time has been flying by! November and December, always a busy time of the year for me, went by in a flash! Today I shall share some images from Miami’s wonderful Art Basel, probably my favorite Miami event of the year.  From December 1st to the 4th Miami hosted it’s 10th Art Basel Miami Beach, with all it’s many satellite art fairs and parties throughout the city.  It is definitely sensory overload for art lovers! 

art miami
Located Midtown Miami - 3101 NE 1st Avenue 

Known as Miami's premiere anchor fair, art miami showcases the best in modern and contemporary art from more than 100 international art galleries and prominent art institutions.

 

Laurence Gartel Cymatics Multimedia Exhibition

Bang & Olufsen, 1691 Michigan Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida

Exhibition continues through March 3, 2012 - Closing Party March 2

Laurence Gartel, a friend and inspiration, is considered to be the "FATHER" of the Digital Art movement.  Always pushing the boundaries of artistic expression this exhibit showcases his new original works of art inspired by the creative interaction  of sight and sound!

Laurence Gartel

Wynwood Art District
One of the biggest street art districts in in the world.
Located between I-95 and Biscayne Boulevard, from 20 to 36th street.

Street Photography

Street photography is definitely outside of my comfort zone!  I always feel there is a fine line between documenting “the human condition” and exploitation.  Being a private person I would not want to be photographed without my permission, especially if the occasion caught me in a moment of despair.  However, on the other hand “A picture is worth a thousand words” and can be pivotal in conveying a societal message.  The first time I had the urge to photograph the so-called “human condition” I was working in a psychiatric hospital outside London, England. I was deeply impacted by the many expressionless faces of the permanent residents in that institution which was, at that time in the 70’s, often referred to as an asylum. It was a place of locked doors and lost souls. The vacant look in so many eyes haunted me so much that I wanted to capture those blank stares with my camera. I didn’t, I was a student nurse and feared that it would be considered exploitation.  However, some years later Lord Snowdon published a photographic book on the mentally ill and yes …he did a good job of capturing those haunting images.

About a week ago, a British friend of mine e-mailed me a wonderful article about street photography. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-15087749 After reading this article I have been inspired to go out to a public venue, at least once a month, to hone my skills in documentary photography!  However, I will also keep in mind the following quote.

“I just think it's important to be direct and honest with people about why you're photographing them and what you're doing.  After all, you are taking some of their soul.”  By Mary Ellen Mark, award winning documentary photographer.

     Here are some of my previous attempts at street photography from a recent trip to New York.

A GREAT RESOURCE: "Creative Live" for FREE on-line LIVE workshops!

I'm so glad I discovered this educational resource! Over the last couple of months I have truly enjoyed tuning into Creative Live and viewing their free on-line LIVE  “Worldwide Creative Classroom” events.  This weekend they have been hosting a 3-Day workshop by photographer David Nightingale on “Dramatic Post-Production” in Photoshop.   I have watched both Day 1 and 2 and found both sessions to be extremely informative!  Today is Day 3 and I’m really looking forward to this session, as it will be focusing on processing HDR images! These classes are recorded and then also available for purchase at very reasonable rates. For more information and to read about their upcoming free workshops check out their web site.

http://www.creativelive.com 

Below are a few of my New York City HDR images. 

 

Photographing children and team sports!

I have managed to capture some wonderful images of children while they are actively involved in playing team sports!  Here are some of my baseball images.  I primarily photograph the plays in the field ...but I think some of my best images are taken in the dugout!

SAFE at 1st base!

OUT at 2nd base!

OUT at 1st ...but what a great effort to get there!

A great team effort to stop the ball!!!!

Here I experimented with some motion panning to portray speed.

Waiting to bat!

Keeping hydrated!

Anyone for tic-tac-toe?

Shooting with Slow Shutter Speeds

One can get some interesting images when using a slow shutter speed. Below are two images I made of myself.  I put my camera on a tripod and used my camera’s self timer feature.  I set my camera to shutter priority mode and experimented with different exposures. Some of my exposures were several seconds long! 

In this image I set my camera up inside a house on a tripod looking out through a window. I then set the self timer for 10 seconds ...ran outside ...waited for the self timer to activate ...and then ran!

This was not created in Photoshop! I achieved this ghosted appearance by moving around rapidly and then staying in the above position for a slightly longer time.

Photographing Reflections

I find reflections fascinating! Once you start looking you will see them everywhere!  Reflections can provide a mirror image or something quite abstract.  It all depends on the condition of the surface you are photographing.    

Below are a few interesting examples

Here is a unusual portrait of a man staring into a pool of water. His hands are clasped together, just beneath the surface of the water, as if he is praying.

This is an image I made of a reflection, that grabbed my attention, on a New York City store window.  I saw this as a good representation of the city as it portrays the high fashion, the cultural entertainment (If you look closely you will see sheet music from the store window overlaying the reflection of the building across the street) and of course, the "hustle and bustle " of the city with it's never ending traffic!

An abstract image of the Empire State Building

Images From Above!

Unfortunately, I am one of those "white knuckle" flyers!  I know it's silly and that the drive to the airport is more dangerous than my time in the airplane ...but as soon as that door closes on the aircraft I get very anxious. The only thing that really helps me (besides drugs and alcohol!) is focusing on the view out of the window and photographing it!  I like to focus on the beauty off the clouds and the patterns in the landscape.  I find I can get lost in that beauty and almost forget that I'm viewing those images from 30,000 feet up in the sky! Below are a few images I made on a flight over the Midwest of America!

Landing in Miami!

Portrait Retouching to the Extreme!

When clients ask me to photograph them I always offer them the choice of a natural or a retouched portrait. I believe that the fact that fashion magazines portray woman with flawless skin and not a wrinkle in sight has encouraged people to ask for similar retouching treatments for their own portraits.  So, I generally show proofs of both versions and find the re-touched images are by far the most popular.  And to be honest, if that makes them happy, it makes me happy too!  Why should models be the only ones to look like models!  They don’t look like that in real life either!  I like to use OnOne software plug-ins to supplement Photoshop re-touching techniques.  As "OnOne" states “Photographers use onOne plug-ins to speed up their photo editing workflow and give their photos the professional look with just a few clicks.”  I use PhotoTools 2.6 Professional Edition for portrait retouching. It gives you "over 300 professional-grade photographic effects, all wrapped up in an easy-to-use Photoshop plug-in.”

Below is an extreme re-touch! I used this as an example to demonstrate that even a five year old can be re-touched if you're looking for a special effect!!!

Here is a portrait with poor lighting

After extreme retouching!

Below is a link to OnOne Software

http://www.ononesoftware.com

Having Fun with Pop Art in Photoshop

A lot of people have asked me "How do you create Pop Art Images in Photoshop?"  There are several different methods that I use to achieve this effect.  Ideally, it is best to first make a selection of your desired subject matter and then place that selection on it’s own layer, thereby removing any distracting background. Then create a white background layer beneath that subject selection and merge those two layers. Next, convert the image to Black & White and increase the contrast.  Then my preferred method is to  use the posterize adjustment layer and play with the sliders until I achieve the look I desire.  Finally, I use one of several methods to colorize the image. 

Below are some examples.

original image

final image

 original image obtained from the internet

final image

original image

posterized image with some additional adjustments made in Photoshop

colorized images