Losing A Lens For THIS??

It was a snowy night in Chicago, so I headed out with my gear to capture some city shots.  The most interesting photo I got was the corner of this parking garage (click image to enlarge) - and actually not too interesting to me anymore as I'm already tired of looking at it.  Or maybe it could be the fact that my stopping to photograph this shot caused me to drop my camera.

Yes, gravity got a hold of it, and onto the nice hard cement it went.  Granted, it could have happened anywhere.  But I'm blaming this parking garage! 

But I was lucky!  How was I lucky?  Well for one, I had on my most inexpensive lens (Sigma 12-24mm) - albeit still pretty expensive.  For two, its cracking in half upon impact with the earth served as a cushion for my 1DS Mark 3, which seems to have taken no damage whatsoever.

I was quite calm throughout the whole process of picking up the pieces, however I did get bummed out a couple hours later.  But it's all insured, which means it's all good!

Happy New Year's Eve! 

Broken-Winged Hawk Makes Front Page

Upon photographing a broken-winged hawk on the Eastern Shore in Stevensville, MD during a trip home, I contacted the local papers and my photos ended up on the cover of The Evening Capital Newspaper. Story by Pamela Wood, Staff Writer, The Capital / hometownannapolis.com

An injured red-tailed hawk has a second chance at life thanks to some quick-thinking witnesses, a skilled bird handler and a bird-rescue organization.

The bird, with a mangled left wing, was spotted on the side of Route 8 near Batts Neck Road in Stevensville on Wednesday afternoon.

Kent Island resident Stephen Reverand, who is a licensed falconer, got a call from his friend, Chris Bird, about the injured hawk.

"They had seen the hawk on the side of Route 8 and they knew I handle hawks. … People know people on Kent Island. They knew I am licensed to handle hawks," said Reverand, who said he works by day as a filmmaker for the National Geographic Channel.

Rest of article at http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/top/2009/12/29-38/Good-Samaritans-help-injured-red-tailed-hawk.html 

More info about Stephen Reverand on National Geographic website: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngt/whoswho.html


 

Magical Fog

A foggy night in Annapolis, Maryland.  This location was at Jonas Green Park, just below the Naval Academy Bridge.  I kicked myself for not getting there sooner, however I had not planned on arriving.  I wanted to shoot something of interest other than a bridge fading away into the background, so I used my mom's car.  Still, there needs to be something in this shot to give it a bit more interest.  I'm open to suggestions!

I had a very small flash unit, my Canon 1DS M3 on a tripod, and my running shoes on.  I set the timer to 10 sec, and ran around the car lighting it up with small bursts of light, here and there, until the shutter closed.  I did this for approximately 30 exposures, some even for the inside of the car. Still, there's something missing, and I'll figure it out and get it Photoshopped in there!

click to view larger

www.adamdaniels.com 

 

Holiday Image

A quick hello from Mr. Snowman.  Happy Holidays everyone!

More images

Mclovin

Inside of an abandoned barn in Iceland. HDR.

Dec 10, 2009 Photo of the Day

Click to enlarge


chicagodogportraits.com (site is ugly, but live)

How to weigh your dog

1.  Weigh yourself.

2.  Pick up your dog.

3.  Do math.

Note: No dogs were harmed physically in the filming of this scene.  Mentally, well that's a different story (see pumpkin outfit).

Dec 8, 2009 Image of the Day

Iceland Stream

 

click to enlarge

adamdaniels.com

Dec 7, 2009 Image of the Day

click to enlarge

The Cold Months

Exactly one year ago, I moved to Chicago to escape the heat and humidity of Tampa.  Yes, some call me crazy for leaving the tropical climate, but I see cold weather as a challenge: a challenge to stand up to mother nature's blustery blizzards and below-zero temperatures.  This year I'll be ready with numerous layers of clothing, from my ears to my toes.  One pair of gloves/socks/pants will not be enough to combat the wintry weather with all the miles I walk each week through the windy city.  I couldn't be more happy with the choice I made to move up north. 

Chicago's first significant snow begins in a few hours, and I'm eager to wake up to a transformed world.  I'll be strapping up my waterproof boots, and heading out with camera in hand to capture the beauty. 

Painting with Light

One small flashlight, one tripod, one camera, one orange, one copy of Photoshop to blend a few 30-sec exposures.  Try it!
  

click to view larger

adamdaniels.com, Chicago Photographer

Nov 30, 2009 Image of the Day 3

Click to view bigger

Nov 30, 2009 Image of the Day 2

Nov 30, 2009 Image of the Day

Nov 23, 2009 Image(s) of the Day

Nov 22, 2009 Image of the Day

Wet Leaves

Nov 21, 2009 Image of the Day

After photographing an event this morning, I was compelled to trek through about 100 feet of semi-soft mud in my dress shoes to capture the sunlight on some corn stalks.

Nov 19, 2009 Image of the Day (2)

Nov 19, 2009 Image of the Day

Click me to view bigger. 

Photoshop Workflow for "Firedog"

In this brief explanation, I'll show you an abridged retouching process as it relates to my piece, "Firedog". 

First, I began with a photo of the city that I had taken months prior.  I knew I would use it eventually for something, but wasn't sure what.  I used Photoshop's Camera RAW to warm the image up, then fine-tuned the color with adjustment layers.   

Next, I took a photo of my roommate's dog with gelled lights (to give her an yellow-orange cast on the sides of her face).  She looked a bit too innocent, so I disfigured her face slightly in Photoshop's Liquify filter to make her look devilish. 

After adjusting contrast with adjustment layers, I decided that there wasn't enough contrast in her face.  So a technique I like to use is this: I paint on a gray layer set to "overlay" with either a black or white brush, darkening and lightening areas on her face.  Next I clipped the dog out of the black background on which she was photographed, and brought her into the city document window.

Where I got the idea to set the city on fire I have no idea.  In any case, I had to find flames.  I have a library of photos I use for compositing purposes, so I searched and opened those files, and began placing them throughout the city.  This layer of fire to the right was set to "Screen" so that only the lighter colors showed once placed above the city photo.

Voila!  The finished piece.  

Adam Daniels is an award-winning photographer and retouching artist.  Stay tuned to this blog for more brief, and sometimes in-depth tutorials!

HDR with Photomatix, Photoshop

Okay, so HDR has been around for a while now. But I must say, after finally downloading Photomatix and messing around with it, I'm finding that some old, boring photos that I took back in the day look amazing in HDR/pseudo-HDR! This grassy cliff taken in Iceland was a pseudo-HDR, meaning I did not take multiple exposures, but only one. Much like Camera RAW, where one can take the Recovery and Fill Light sliders all the way to the right to get some funky effects, Photomatix does much the same thing but with much more control. After processing it there, I move over to Photoshop to add finishing touches.

A before-&-after image.  It's still not in a final stage, but you can see what I started with here.  Just a single exposure.  Digital processing began in Photomatix, then did a photo-illustration in Photoshop. 

I love adjustment layers.  They take up minimal space in a Photoshop document, and are non-destructive.  When I hit 25-30 layers, or when my computer begins whining for more memory, I'll start merging layers that I'm not working on anymore and save my document to a different file name.  I'll still have all the layers if I need to go back and edit, but will free up some RAM by merging most of them down.  Make sure you save to a different file name the second you merge layers, or you'll be sorry!  A second & third hard drive, one kept off site, are no-brainers as well.