Happy New Year Everybody!

Happy New Year Everybody!

My wish to each and everyone one of you reading this post today is that, regardless of how your 2012 unfolded, I wish you the absolute best for 2013! 

As Dylan Says: The Times, They Are a-Changin’

2012 was a year of transition for LaDawn and I and 2013 promises to offer more of the same.  We are “adjusting” things at the studio to eventually slow things down a bit.  I want to spend less time working on the day-to-day studio activities and redirect my focus more to writing, teaching, traveling, and shooting with emphasis on landscape, fine art, and abstract images. 

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not getting out of the wedding/portrait business.  But we have decided to shoot for only my VIP clients – that is clients we have worked with in the past. I still love the wedding day “chase”.  I continue to relish capturing images that tell the entire story of the day. I still get “goose bumps" composing my dramatically exciting images for my brides. And I still love creating images that my clients will cherish forever.

Time To Visit Some Old friends

But it’s time to move on with so many other things I still want to do photographically with my life.  Have you ever told yourself that you need to visit that old friend that moved away so many years ago but you never get around to it and then hear that they have passed away?  That’s exactly how I’ve been feeling these last few years. I was fortunate to visit  “old friends”, that is projects I’ve been putting off for too long because life, business, work, something always got in the way.

This past year we traveled almost 5 months of the year and 3 months of that travel was for pleasure. My goal is to see the world and we saw a lot of it traveling over 25,000 miles last year!  I’m happy to say that we’ve already scheduled 3 months of travel (so far) for 2013.  God and the pixels willing, we’ll expand on that time too ;~)

New Energy For DigitalProTalk

Does that mean that I’m giving up on my beloved DPT blog?  Not really, but I will be making changes to my posting schedule.  As you’ve probably noticed, it seems I’ve come out of hibernation to get today’s blog up and online ;~)  Remember those old friends I was talking about earlier – I’ve been spending a little more time with them instead of hitting the keyboard for two or more hours everyday.  Personally, the break has been centering, re-energizing, and much needed.

My thanks for so many of my DPT readers that go out of their way to say “Thank You” for all the time, effort and information shared here at DPT. Your words and thoughts are very much appreciated – I really mean that. My plan is to continue posting to DPT, but not on a daily basis.

There is so much great content on-line these days, much more than was available 5 years ago when I started DPT.  It’s really impossible for us to keep up with all of it.  If I can give our DPT readers “solid gold nuggets” of information on a semi-regular basis two things happen. It gives you a reason to stop back and it gives me an opportunity to explore so many other exciting life possibilities which, of course, I will share with my DPT readers.

Resolve To Be A Moment Catcher

So, let me end with how I began – Happy New Year Everyone!  May all of us accept the changes, challenges, and blessings this new year will surely offer each and everyone of us.  May we be strong when we need to be and bend with the wind when necessary. 

May we not miss even one of the special moments 2013 is sure to present to us. Missing those moments - soft breezes, beautiful sunsets, butterfly kisses, warm hugs, loving glances, a special embrace from a loved one are simple too valuable to let pass by.  Treasure each one and promise yourself to be the best “moment catcher” you possible can be for 2013. With those thoughts in mind, 2013 could be the best year ever for all of us.

Happy New Year Everybody!  -David

An Amateur Camera For Pro Use??? Never, Well Maybe

Good Afternoon Everybody,

I have to admit, that while we're in Cabo San Lucas Mexico, I'm having a great time with my new, early Christmas present, a Canon PowerShot SX50 HS Digital Camera.

The cool thing about this special, little camera is the fact that it will zoom from 24 mm all the way out to 1200 mm – 35mm equivalent – without changing lenses! If you let that zoom range sink in, just for a second, you understand why it is such a fun camera to use. While in Cabo, I've been photographing everything from sunrises to sunsets, landscapes, cactus flowers and plants, macros of baby sea turtles, goggley eyed crabs, wildlife photos, and even taking close-up photographs of the moon.

It's the unbelievable zoom range of this camera that makes it so much fun to use. It produces a 12 mega-pixel RAW file which I can import into the latest Lightroom 4's beta release. Lightroom gives me plenty of control in enhancing the camera's images. The 12 mega-pixel file size is the same as my size as my beloved Canon 40D camera of just a few years ago. So I suspect I'll be able to print an acceptable 24x36 inch print from these files just as I routinely produced and delivered from my 40D.

The camera is also responsive enough for me to capture most of the photographs that I want to take. The time it takes to write the file to the card is a little slower than I would like, meaning that I rarely do any burst shooting and that can be a real hindrance for any wedding photographer.  Don' t  get me wrong, I'm not suggesting you trade in your Canon 5D Mark III of Nikon D800.

This camera is small, convenient, light weight and what I REALLY love about this camera is the zoom range.  It is that fantastic zoom range that offers not just an amateur photographer some added shooting versatility but the professional photographers as well. I know some of you reading this must think I'm "nuts" about now, but hang in there with me.  I ran a few tests about a week ago just to see what kind of real image quality I could produce out of the camera.  I was really surprised with my first tests!

I have several sample images that I quickly printed 11x14 prior to us leaving for Cabo. I plan to share with you these images in a follow-up post this week. So, be sure to tune in, I think you'll be surprised with the results I was able to obtain!

Hey, for $450 US dollars, this camera is one sweet little gem that I am thoroughly enjoying using while on vacation. Galileo would have loved it ;~)

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Hey gang, that's it for me today. Everybody have a great rest of the day in whatever part of the world you're in and I'll plan to see you again later this week.

Adios, David

Travel Wrap-Up; It Was An Amazing Journey!!!

Good Afternoon Everybody,

After two months traveling over twelve thousand miles, and 18,282 photographs later we finally made it back home.  We finally arrived back in the USA last Thursday late afternoon. This past weekend was a whirlwind with unpacking and also attending some family functions that were on our calendar before we left. This week it's “noses back to the grindstone” and back to work.

Wrapping Our Trip Today and Tomorrow

What a great two months we had on the road traveling to all parts throughout Italy, Spain and the Mediterranean.  Conducting an exciting and I believe an informative week-long class with my friend and good buddy Clay Blackmore in Tuscany and meeting so many new photographers was certainly one of the highlights of the trip.  Another of the highlights, for me, had to be traveling for 12 days on our Mediterranean cruise. 

Then it was on to Spain for my two days of programs for the photographers of Spain – where we also made some new friends and wonderful acquaintances.  My special thanks to Rudy (left) and Marcus (right) that made our visit to Spain such a special treat.These last two months were probably the most exciting time in our lives and we enjoyed every single minute of every single day of it!

But today’s post is to bring full circle our travels and experiences in that last week of our trip.  Today I want to share with you a few more images and a few more stories of some of the places we visited in Spain. Then in a day or two I want to share with you the images we captured during my Spanish workshop in Madrid. We had a great class and a beautiful model allowing me and the workshop attendees to again capture  some terrific images.  Look for that the post to hit either tomorrow or Thursday.

Spain Travels Wrap Up

As I've mentioned a few times before at DigitalProTalk, trying to keep the blog going through eight weeks of intensive travel has been quite the challenge. The early-morning risings and the long days left very little time to really spend on the blog. And, I need to tell you, if the choice was between the travels and the blog and I chose the blog - LaDawn would probably have tossed me overboard otherwise ;~)

Anyway, were back in town for a couple of weeks so I’ll try to get things back to the regular schedule. Now, there is one hitch to the regular schedule. We've got Thanksgiving next week and we leave for Cabo, Mexico for three weeks that following Saturday. But, as followers of DigitalProTalk know, that even while in Mexico – a trip we make every year – I’ll continue to keep the blog running.

These last eight weeks provided “tons” of blogging material that I want to share with you. Topics will include photography, lighting, composition, color, speed-lighting technique – you name it, I’m going to cover it in the following weeks.

Let's get right onto our travel wrap up. During our eight weeks on-the-road we pre-arranged several tours. One of those tours was in Madrid, Spain where we spent half the day checking out the city. Now you may be thinking I'm about to throw up a beautiful photograph of Madrid right about now but, that's not the case. One of the most interesting things I noticed while traveling in Madrid was on a stop to the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Madrid.

We climbed off the tour bus for a short break and as I was perusing the rock 'n roll memorabilia on the Hard Rock Cafe's wall I was taken by one promotional banner in particular. Check it out - it's announcing a concert with Little Richard playing with none other than the Beatles from way back in 1962. What I thought was particularly interesting and telling was the fact that little Richard had top billing over the Beatles.  Anyway, back to the sites of Madrid.

Madrid is a first class world city – on par with NYC.  It’s busy, noisy, and full of energy.  And yes, with all the new construction going on, parts of the city are pretty much steel and glass.  It’s kind of a cool contrast when compared with the medieval, historic parts of the city.  It’s certainly an architectural combination we don’t see here in the states.

I have to say, that I learned one thing about European travel – probably travel for any part of the world – but particularly here in Europe. You can read any travel guide you want but, the common denominator is it's always about the fabulous museums, unbelievable cathedrals, and the food. We enjoyed plenty of it all!

I have to tell you that I was most impressed with our visit to the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain.

Here was simply an un-believable collection of classical artwork that needed at least two days to walk through, digest and enjoy. We only had allotted four hours but took advantage of every single moment. Most impressive to me were the a 90 Peter Paul Rubens paintings on display at the Prado. What's interesting is the fact that the last Rubens painting was auctioned for $75 million. You can do the quick math - the value of the Rubens paintings in the Prado must be worth upwards of $7 billion! And, you could walk right up to them and enjoy them – close and personal.

One of the most amazing facts for me in learning about Peter Paul Rubens was the fact that he painted over 1500 paintings in his nearly 40 year painting career. When you do the math that means that he painted nearly 40 paintings a year. These paintings, many of which are 5’ x 7' and larger, were painted at a rate that averaged nearly four per month or one per week!  What is mind blowing about that fact is to look upon those images and figure out how he did it. Sure Rubens was one of the finest painters of the time and had some great students which also helped with his amazing output of work. He sometimes just painted the hands and the faces and let the students carry on with the rest of the painting. But still four paintings a month for 35 years or so – WOW!  

Oh, and also let’s not forget, he was a well-known diplomat of the times traveling throughout Europe as well . What an amazing individual.

On To Toledo – Not  Toledo, Ohio

One of the highlights was our side trip to Toledo, Spain about an hour south of Madrid. The ride on the bullet train was super relaxing too and you got a chance to enjoy the beautiful country side along the way.

Why don’t we do this is the US as well? A great and inexpensive way to travel! 

Toledo is full of history and beauty and is an absolute joy to visit and we had a picture perfect day for our trip.  Toledo was also home to Miguel de Cervantes who wrote the world's best-selling 16th century novel Don Quixote, which is considered to be one of the most important and influential books in the history of publications.

As with all the medieval cities we visited on our travels we were equally impressed with the city of Toledo.

Not only did it showcase the fabulous Toledo Cathedral dating from 1226 a.d (above), the oldest synagogue building still standing (below) in Europe (14th century), and amazing museums all of which I was able to photograph in, made for a spectacular visit on Tuesday afternoon.

Another one of our highlights of our travels to Toledo was, once again, all the art that was available for viewing throughout the city. Some of the museums were even FREE to visit.  Most prominent was the works by El Greco one of the most famous Spanish Renaissance painters.

Now an interesting fact about El Greco is that's not really his name. It's really Doménikos Theotokópoulos but as you can see signing with his real name would take up half the canvass so he chose to sign his name to most of his paintings as El Greco which means The Greek.

I happen to be a big fan of his work and it was quite the treat to see so many of his famous paintings first hand.  Here was the surprise:  The viewing conditions were quite dim and you really couldn’t enjoy the full richness of El Greco’s color palette under the museum lighting.

Heck, the paintings are 500 years old – the museum wants them around as long as possible so they keep the lights dim;~)  The image above gives you an idea what the art looked like under the museum lighting conditions.

But, after fiddling with the exposure with my Canon 5D Mark III I got an amazingly different result – a result that let me really appreciate the full range of color, contrasts, and tones used by the artist. Just look at the same image below. 

With the properly exposed (illuminated) image that you see above, it’s a spectacular difference and gives one a brand new and very enthusiastic response to the art work.  I photographed several images in the museum just so I could better appreciate them once we returned home.

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  I hope you appreciated the posts these last several weeks. It’s not only been fun for me to share with you some of our visual adventures but I also hope I brought a photographer’s eye to all the locales we visited these last two months.

I’ve still got one more post to get up from our travels – my workshop in Madrid.  I promise – it will be much more photo and lighting centric so please stay tuned.

See everybody soon and Buenos Días for now, 

David

At Many Levels, The Most Amazing Experience Ever!

Good Morning Everybody,

This is going to be a short post today but I hope you find it one of the most amazing series of images ever!  Barcelona, while famous for many things, is most famous for it's architecture.  And, a lot of that fame is the result of the many buildings throughout the city by the very famous early 20th century architect and figurehead of Catalan Modernism, Antoni Gaudí.

The most amazing building of all - yes, in all of Barcelona, has to be the Basilica of the Sagrada Família.  This cathedral, still under construction, is simply the most beautiful sanctuary I have ever visited.  And that's saying a lot especially since we were in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome just days before!

From the floor to the high vaulted ceiling, you are blown away by this unbelievable visual experience!  Construction on the Basilica began in 1882 and passed it's halfway point in 2010 when Pope Benedict himself came to Barcelona to consecrate the cathedral. Antoni Gaudí spent the last 25 years of his life working on the project. Construction is expected to be complete on the centennial anniversary of Gaudí’s birth.

The design considerations, artistic interpretations, architectural splendor of this edifice is nothing short of an awe inspiring experience!!!  I hope you enjoy the short series of images I've posted today. What you may feel while viewing these images can only illicit the smallest fraction of the emotional awe we felt as we walked through this wondrous paradise of space.

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Hey gang, if you ever make it to Barcelona, you MUST make the trip to the Basilica of the Sagrada Família.  It will be one of your greatest life experiences, I promise!!!

David

Technique Tuesday: New Cool Stylized Image Enhancement Techniques With Lightroom 4

Good Afternoon Everybody,

Soooo, does anyone what to be my assistant on a wedding this weekend?  All my regular assistants are busy with other commitments – that never happens but it sure did this weekend – YIKES!!!  If your interested in helping out, shoot me an email at david@ziser.com and I can fill you in on the details.  I photographed the bride’s Bat Mitzvah year’s ago so it will be a great experience to visit with the family and so many of their friends many of which are also my past clients.  So, if any of our wedding experienced DPT readers are interested, drop me a line.

Time for this week’s brand new Technique Tuesday – here we go…

New Cool Stylized Image Enhancement Techniques With Lightroom 4

Welcome to another Technique Tuesday.  I think I’ve got a good one for you today.  In today’s tutorial I’ll walk you through a few new retouching/enhancement tricks I learned in Lightroom 4.

I've been saying for months now that we photographers have two tremendous resources at our disposal when it comes to creating great images.  First off, we have the best digital cameras ever that let us capture the image like never before.

But more than that, we have the best software available too.  Today's iterations of Photoshop CS6 and Lightroom 4 are the best ever and are necessary upgrades to make.  Today it's not just about the hardware we use on the job, it's the software too that helps us finish that job the best we are able.  The combination of both gives us an unbelievable amount of versatility in creating our finished images.

Even though I got a great image in the camera, as you'll see in this tutorial, the brand new Lightroom 4 allowed me to push the image to an even more wonderfully stylized result that the hardware could not so easily do by itself.  But more that that, Lightroom 4 saves me a few more steps over to Photoshop in getting my result and makes my post-production duties even that much easier and quicker.

Why not hit the PLAY button to see what I'm talking about.  Enjoy! –David

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  It’s back to the book before I call it a day today.  Have a great rest of the day and evening and I’ll see you soon.

Adios,  -David

"Old Christine"

"Old Christine"
© David A. Ziser

Here is an image I took at a photo-walk a few years ago. It was one of my favorites. This kind of subject matter is so great to photograph. There are so many ways to explore the colors and composition. The old, rusty look of this old Plymouth made me think about the Steven King movie, "Christine" - hence the title.

There are just wonderful contrasts in this image - the complementary colors of blues and reds, the rough rusty paint against the smooth chrome, the smooth curved fender lines complimenting and framing the straight lines of the grill work. All these elements lead to a final dynamic composition. There were just so many ways to shoot "Old Christine", I wish I'd had more time. Heck, maybe another visit sometime soon.

Camera specs; Canon 40D fitted with 70-300mm DO IS lens at 135mm, F 11 @ 1/800 second, ISO 400. Enjoy! -David

"City Lights"

"City Lights"
©David A. Ziser

I made this image during my Spring Master Class back in April and posted the original right here. I did the original by using the built in HDR feature built into the new Canon 5D mark III and really liked the result.

OK, so how did I get to this image.  I have to admit, I was cruising the APP store on my iPad over the weekend and discovered this new app - FX Photo Studio.  Hey, it was only $2 bucks and had nearly 400 5-star reviews.  I have to admit, I’m not a big App fan when it comes to apps that tend to waste my time – I don’t even own Instagram.  But what the heck, it was a nice day and I was in a time wasting mood ;~)

After loading up the image, I ran it through several variations suggested by FX Photo Studio.  This one was my favorite. I tweaked it ever so slightly in Photoshop to get the poster look in today’s image.  I think it’s kind of fun.  I wish FX Photo Studio gave you the option of saving out the image as a high res photo so I could create a full res poster.  That would make it much more useful.  Anyway, like I said, kind of fun.

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark III, fitted with Tamron 28-300 VC lens at 42mm, F5.6 @ 1/80 second, ISO 6400.  Enjoy!  -David

“Summer Silhouettes"

"Summer Silhouettes"
©David A. Ziser

This is an image I made a few weeks ago at a wedding.  This wedding is also featured in today’s Technique Tuesday.  We had just arrived at the wedding/reception venue – Drees Pavilion – and we were the only ones there.  A few of the wedding party were gathering all the items from the limos and placing them into the bride’s room.  My assistants were busy gathering all our gear for the start of our shoot at Drees.

I stepped back and liked what I saw – the bride and a few bridesmaids looking out the large bank of windows onto the Ohio River valley showing the river and full cityscape of Cincinnati, Ohio.  There was no way I could quickly capture the full dynamic range of the scene so I settled for the girls’ silhouettes in front of the windows.  I do like that you barely see mom and dad sharing the moment too as they exchange smiles with each other.

Later in the evening I quickly put together an iPad slideshow for the wedding party and the guests to enjoy.  Several of the bridesmaids came over to tell me this was one of their favorite images – hence, its selection for today’s post.  I think the image has a nice “quiet moment” feel about it and like it a lot.

Camera specs:  Canon 5D Mark III fitted with Tamron 28-300mm IS lens at 28mm, F5.6 @ 1/800 second, ISO 2500.  Enjoy!  -David

p.s.  The high ISO setting is probably a left over setting from the available light images I made earlier at the hotel.  It’s a non-issue because of the low noise characteristics of the camera so I wasn’t worried a bit about noise.  -DAZ

Technique Tuesday: The Only Wide Angle Lens You’ll Ever Need!

Good Afternoon Everybody,

Just to bring you up to date, let me tell you what’s happening around here - it’s all good stuff.  Yesterday, I typed the first 2,200 words of my new book, “Make Your Lighting Exciting”.  I just started typing and the words started flowing – a very good thing for an author ;~) 

Anyway, the book in now on the “front burner” an I’m giving it TOP PRIORITY over everything else here at the studio, including daily posts to DPT.  If I’m going to finish this thing by the end of August, that’s how its’ going to have to be the next few months.  The first words I type each day will be for my book – no exceptions! 

Don’t worry, I’m not giving up on the blog for that time period but look for the blog posts to come later in the day.  I figure 2,000 words a day and I can have the book hammered out in no time.  Total words for my Captured By The Light book last year totaled about 65,000 words so you can see I’m on a “tear’ this time around.  Hey, they always say to write your second book first because you know what you’re doing ;~)

That’s the quick update from me today.  How about we get on with a super-cool Technique today.

The Only Wide Angle Lens You’ll Ever Need!

OK, not really but with what I’ve got to show you today you’ll be surprised to see what I pull off with my new Canon 8-15mm Fisheye lens.  The cool thing is that it has little to do with Fisheye photography.  Today it’s all about super- duper extreme wide angle lens photography.  How wide – how about 150 degrees rectilinearly corrected wide angle wonderfulness!  That makes the new Canon lens the new wide angle winner in that department.

OK, so you’re asking, “How in the world can I use a fisheye lens as a regular wide angle lens?”  It’s easy folks, Lightroom 4 and it’s built in lens correction feature. That’s the point of this week’s lesson. Today’s post answer’s the question of what the REAL “Field of View” is for a rectilinearly corrected fisheye image.  OK, I’ll let the “cat out of the box early here. 

Using the Canon 8-15mm fisheye on my Canon 5D Mark III full frame body, I will show you can achieve a true rectilinearly corrected image with a “Field of View” that ranges from 150 degrees down to a still super-wide 133 degrees depending on the zoom setting of the lens.  The studio image below is shot with the Canon fisheye at 14mm corrected in Lightroom showing a 140 degrees “Field of View”! Nothing else comes close to this wide angle feat!

Hopefully I’ve got your attention with this intro.  I’ve spent a lot of today developing and organizing the data and the images for this post.  Why not hit the PLAY button below and enjoy one of my favorite Technique Tuesdays ever.  OK, on slight word of caution – I did get little carried away on today’s tutorial and it does run a little long – about 34 minutes long.  But it’s still worth every minute of you time.  I think (and hope) you get a kick out of the video today.  Enjoy!!

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  I’ve still got to get my 2,000 words under my belt for today – yes, I gave DPT first billing today because I got so wrapped up into putting things together this morning so now I’ve got to get moving.  I’ll plan to see everybody here again real soon.

Adios for now,  David

"Rorschach Bouquet"

"Rorschach Bouquet"
©David A. Ziser

I created this image a few years ago at my studio. Yes, the operative word is created this image. No camera, lenses, or flash was used in creating this image. In Monday's post I mentioned a visit to the Easton Art Fair a few weeks ago.

I commented on Earl English's wonderful images he had on display in his booth. Many of Earl's images were created with a simple digital scanner. I loved the effect it gave to the resulting image. Because of the extremely shallow "depth of light", the light fell off so quickly and gave this images a completely different kind of look than what I had seen before.

I decided to give it a try for myself on Monday. I simply grabbed one of the artificial flowers that we have on display at the studio, laid it on the copier, and "exposed" my image. I then brought the image into Photoshop, cleaned it up slightly, and enhanced it a bit with the "Levels" control till I had a tonalities exactly where I wanted them.

Although I was excited with my image at this point I wanted the final composition to fill a larger space. I have a handy little Photoshop action that, at the press of a button, will give me a mirror image of the original. That is what we have here. I love the final result. To me, it is reminiscent of the old ink blot tests, or more specifically, the Rorschach tests.

Click on the image for larger view and then spend a few minutes just viewing it. I find I quite enjoy the experience. Time to play some more with this technique - thanks Earl.

"Camera specs; Flowers copied with a Xerox C2424 Workcenter and saved in JPEG mode. Image was opened in Photoshop, converted to black and white, and adjusted with the "Levels" control. Image was then flipped and rejoined with first image to create the final result.

Enjoy! -- David

Quick Hit Monday: Uhhh… How About Inspiration Monday

Good Afternoon Everybody,

I have to tell you, LaDawn and I had a nice weekend off before all heck breaks loose from this point forward for the rest of the summer. The weather held for most of the weekend and we were able to do what most people do when they have a weekend off – take a hike at our local Nature Center and visit one of the big art fairs happening in town this weekend.

One of the highlights for the weekend for me was visiting Summerfair Cincinnati, the oldest and one of the largest art and crafts fair held in the country. We decided to head over Sunday afternoon and check out this year's exhibitors. The highlight of Summerfair Cincinnati for me is walking up and down all the Isles of exhibitors seeking out all the photographers.  I just seeing great photography up close and personal. 

This year, there seemed to be more photographers exhibiting then I ever remember seeing  before – Hey, good for me, right?  This fact probably goes to show the explosive interest in photography these days. In any event, what I want to share with you today are the works, the websites, and my comments on some of the beautiful and outstanding imagery that I saw at this year’s Summerfair. 

A Quick Note:

Although the work featured is primarily landscape photography, there were a couple of photographers who added their special niche to the exhibits.  I think you'll find these images a wonderful exercise in creativity and inspiration.  And, no one can ever complain about the fact that occasionally we sometimes need a good kick in the side of the head to get our creative juices flowing more easily once again.

And that's another reason why I enjoy these kinds of exhibitions. It gets me looking, thinking, enjoying, and being inspired by photography other than what I’m normally use to.  I hope my experience does the same for you too.  Be sure to make it to the last set of images and prepare to be amazed!!!

Monday Morning Inspiration – Here We Go!

Jason Parvalonis: Warm Desert Wind Photography: [link]

Jason, I thought, had some of the most exciting landscape photography at the exhibition. He was showing large-scale canvasses that were truly impressive to behold. Looking at these 5 foot wonders took your breath away!  He also has some beautiful galleries on his website so be sure to check them out.

 

Randal  Shedd Photography: [link]

I would have to say that Randal had one of the most creative collections of imagery at this year’s show. In his previous life Randall was a well published landscape photographer in the Midwest.  In 2006 he felt he had to change things around a bit for himself creatively.

He developed a brand-new way to photograph still lights which results in an image that seems the capture the translucency of the flowers he photographs without losing any of their detail or texture.  Each image almost looks like a watercolor painting but always, upon close inspection, if was a photograph.  Looking at his work you were blown away by the simplicity, color, composition and presentation of the finished result -truly amazing!

 

J. Miles Wolf Photographer: [link]

J. Miles Wolf has been Cincinnati favored photographer for many, many years. Not only is he an accomplished, award-winning architectural photographer but he has been shooting Cincinnati scenes and skylines for well over 25 years. J. Miles has several books published and his work is on display throughout the city. I've always admired his photography since I first saw it so many years ago.

Yesterday I had the opportunity introduce myself and have a nice conversation with J. Miles.   It was good to finally meet the person behind the photography that I've admired for so long.  I even asked J. Miles if you would be interested in doing a webcast for us here DigitalProTalk. He said he would be happy to entertain that prospect so, who knows, we just may be honored with a webcast from one of Cincinnati's finest right here at DPT in the near future.

 

R.C. Fulwiler: Photography of wit, humor, and coincidence [link]

R.C. Fulwiler's booth was one that you could spend several hours enjoying the “browse” through all of his very wonderful (and funny)  images. Each new image brought a new giggle to my face. As R.C. says on his website, he has a way of capturing of coincidences of life. And, as you can see from this small sampling of images, he really has a knack for doing just that.  I hope you'll visit his website, browse his gallery, and enjoy a few Monday giggles for yourself.

 

Mary Nemeth: Image Quest Photography [link] 

What I liked about Mary's work was the utter simplicity of her compositions.  As you can see from the small sampling each image captures a moment from nature that stands very well on its own.  I particularly like the Monet feel in the first image below.  Check out Mary's website to see more of her beautiful work.

 

Patrick Hyland: Patrick Highland Photography [link]

Patrick Hyland was another photographer showing some wonderful landscapes. I particularly liked his black-and-white images but his wide-angle landscapes were quite impressive as well. You can see more Patrick's wonderful images at his website above.

 

Tom Lazar, Moments In Time [link]

Lazar was another one of my favorite landscape photographers featured at this year's Summerfair. One of the special treats when viewing a photographer's work up close and personal is the fact that it's a much deeper connect with the image itself when you see it in person as opposed to online. Nevertheless visit Tom's website and see some more of his outstanding landscape photography.

 

Almost Photography – The Most Amazing Exhibitor At Summerfair!

Ping Guo, Superview Silk Embroidery Arts: [link]

I have to tell you, visiting the Superview Silk Embroidery booth at this year’s show was a “blow out” experience for me. As I approached the booth from a distance and looked  I thought I was looking at another photography booth.  The fact that the booth’s name said “embroidery” made me walk right by. Still, as I walked by I did a “double-take” and turned my head back to see if it really wasn't a photographic exhibit.  after a few steps I stopped, turned and went back to the booth and to my amazement witnessed some of the most amazing displays of art I've ever seen!

Each one of these creations were all hand sewn embroidery at an almost a microscopic level.   Looking closely at the samples they had on display forced you to believe that what you are seeing was truly some of the most beautiful embroidery ever seen in your life.

I had a wonderful conversation with Ping Guo who enthusiastically described the beautiful works in his booth and even showed me the loom upon which many of these embroidery works of art were created .

Each one of these “objects d’art” is hand-woven, every stitch put in its exact location by hand over many days to create the final result.  It was only upon close inspection that you grained a true appreciation of the phenomenal artwork which all of us in the booth viewed in amazement.  Yes, I left the booth, ran down the aisle and coasted  to comeback and see what had me so excited.  She loved them as well. We ended up picking up a few souvenir pieces to display in our home.  As I said – one of the best experiences of summer fair 2012!  Look at the images below and keep in mind that each image is sewn almost microscopically by hand capturing the fine details of these beautiful, complex scenes – just unbelievable!

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  Hope you enjoy the post today – lots of good stuff there.  Look for me sometime tomorrow for another episode of Technique Tuesday. 

Have a great rest of the day and I’ll see you soon.

-David