Cabo Colors Wednesday: And The Winners Are…

Good Morning Everybody,

Today we pack the bags and head back north, albeit a long and very convoluted, taxing route home.  We leave Cabo at 5:00 p.m. to Las Angeles then a 4 hour layover, and then on the red-eye to Atlanta with a 2 hour layover and finally back to Cincy landing about 10:30 a.m. – Whew! Sounds like we’re going to need an adult beverage or two for the trip home ;~)

We’ve got a lot cookin’ today – let me tell you all about it.  I asked our friends Kent and Sarah Smith if they would mind doing another Technique Tuesday before we left and they gladly obliged.  The topic – How To Stay Ever “Current” For Your Clients – It’s More That Just Keeping Up With The Passing Fads.”  It should be a good one – I’ll keep you posted as to when it will air.

Also, I promised to announce our last two Grand Prize winners from my DWUC tour. Check out that story below.  And lastly I want to discuss creativity and the art of seeing color today.  Check out that  article below too. 

OK, gang, let’s get right to it.

And The Winners Are…

I have to tell you, when I gave Stephen and Lawrence a call yesterday to let them know they had won, they didn’t even believe it was me calling. I loved making those four Grand Prize calls to our tour winners.  But, I think they enjoyed receiving my call even more.

Lawrence “Eddie” Price hails from Pittsboro, NC. He retied from the teaching profession as a principal after 30 years.  He has been enjoying photography for a lot of years but after retiring 2 years ago turned his attention to photography full time. I love his gallery of art prints.  You can view them right here.

Stephen Gruebert hails from St. Louis, MO. Steve has been running a successful studio in the St. Louis area for a number of years.  He offers his clients a wide ranging photographic style both in the portrait and wedding areas. Check out his website right here and I bet you pick up some good ideas you can use in your shooting too.

Hey guys, a great BIG CONGRATULATIONS to both of you.  The goodies should be arriving soon.  Hey, just think of it as Christmas coming early this year!

My thanks to all the DWUC sponsors who were so generous with the over $250,000 dollars worth of door prizes and grand prizes we gave away over the course of the DWUC tour helping to make it one of the exciting seminar experiences for everyone that attended.

By the way, stay tuned for further information about my Digital WakeUp Call Tour multi-DVD set to be available after the first of the year. There was so much more information I wanted to include in the DWUC Tour presentation and now I have an opportunity to do just that. 

The DWUC DVD will include TWO FULL HOURS of additional content making a great resource for all those who attended and even more so for those who were not able to attend.   More info to follow later.

Learning To See Color

Every time we come to San Jose del Cabo to visit our friends Kent and Sarah – the visit is usually reserved for the week after Thanksgiving when the weather is perfect in that part of the world. The highlight of our trip are the photo walks we take together.

It’s a kick to come back at the end of the day and review everyone’s images.  This year was no different.  Sure, you can always grab a great sunrise or sunset which are always spectacular, but I like to take a different view of my surrounds.

My eye leads me to interpret the simple surrounds of an easy walk down Finistera Lane, the street where we stay, in bright and bold colors.  Maybe it’s the “Mexican” in me that makes that happen – OK, just kidding.  Nevertheless, the colors are always so vibrant and beautiful in the Cabo area.  Whether it colors of the building, art, blankets, clothes, or even simple souvenirs color predominates the scene.

That’s why I look for color in the simple surrounds of our walks.  Sure, Lightroom is my friend in this artistic endeavor, but still, no problem.  For me it’s all part of the creative process. Let me show you what I mean in these next three images. The subject matter in each image is utter simplicity – it is the vibrant colors themselves that truly make the shot.

In my first image below I simply photographed the top on one of the houses in the neighborhood, Granted, it was a pretty fancy house in the neighborhood as evidenced by it’s unique roof-scape.

I was intrigues by all the shapes, both rectangular and triangular. But now let’s take it a step further.  Look at the three simple colors represented here – white, blue, and a small touch of red.

The blue and white colors alone define the shape of the structure, but now notice how the small rectangular red color echoes the other shapes in the scene.  This small bit of “renegade” red in the scene really becomes the predominant color in the scene – you can’t take your eye off of it once you spot it.  It’s this color play that makes the shot for me.

Now let’s look at the next image of the red rectangles.  The object shown here is nothing more that part on an opening in a wall of a car garage??? Pretty simple, isn’t it?

Once again, what makes the shot work here? It’s the two predominate colors of red and yellow in the scene. It’s the boldness of the colors that really make the shot interesting.  OK, Lightroom had a little bit to do with the final result of this image.  But before you cry “foul”, remember that our digital tools are just as much part of our digital pallet available to us these days as the artist’s paints and brushes.

The finished result is still a striking combination of intense color presented in a simple “rule of thirds” composition. Nevertheless, it’s still the colors that make the shot come alive.

And now on to our third color-play image.  Once again, super simple subject matter – the corner of a condo against the blue sky. Once again I have the “captured “ blue color working for me.

This image is composed of only two colors with many shades of the orange/yellow color defining the shapes of the structure. Sure, we can see that it’s veranda of some kind, but to my eyes, “Who cares?”  I love the “captured “ blue in the shot – it has no way to escape it’s other primary colored surrounds.

Another aspect of the composition that makes this shot work is the placement of the strong blue color into the bottom right side of the scene or as I like to say, “…on nodal point #4 of the composition.”

Now just take a moment and review each of these images again. No beautiful sunsets, no sweeping vistas – just a simple presentation of color that catches the eye and imagination of the viewer hopefully as much as it did for the photographer taking the photographs.

So treat yourself on a walk today or this weekend and not only capture the obvious beautiful scenic's, but also look for the details, the colors, the small compositional elements and have some FUN!

Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  Everybody have a great rest of the day.  Congrats to our winners, Stephen and Eddie once again. And remember to keep your pixels colorful.  See ya’ in Cincy tomorrow.  Adios everybody,  -David