Photo ABCs

A is for Abandoned Americana

Anyone, as I am, who is interested in Route 66 and scenes of old America found along our highways, should head to a new exhibit, Abandoned Americana. This exhibit will be showing in Spanish Village Studio #21, in San Diego's Balboa Park, until August 6, 2007.

Abandoned Americana is the work of Paul Sewell and Scott Hatlestad. It is a unique exhibit in that Paul and Scott traveled to the same locations, and took photographs of the same subjects, sometimes with similar results, but often with very different results.

I was particular taken with Paul's photographs of an abandoned hospital.

Their work can be viewed at Abandoned Americana, where you can also purchase their book.

Highly recommended!

L is for Leipheimer!

Congratulations Levi Leipheimer!

Despite the turmoil and strangeness of this year's Tour, we were treated to the most exciting final time trial in recent memory, with three riders finishing within 31 seconds of each other in the final standings. Levi rode to stage victory with a phenomenal ride, and will finish third overall in the Tour, with teammate Alberto Contador in yellow, holding off Cadel Evans by only 23 seconds in the overall standings.

Here is Levi on his way to victory in the 2007 Tour of California, surrounded by his Discovery Channel Teammates.

S is for Slide Show!

A nice way to share your photos is with a slide show. Digital photography has made creation of slide shows easier than ever. I remember not long ago, if I wanted to change the order of slides in a slide show, it could take 20 minutes of rearranging slides in the carousel (if I managed not to spill them!). Setting the show to music could take hours! Today, the entire process takes only minutes, thanks to software programs such as Apple's iPhoto.

Remember the key to a good slide show is good editing! Show your best work, and people will immediately think you are a better photographer!

Yesterday I had the nice experience showing my slide show The ABCs of Dynamic Photography to the La Mesa Lions Club, followed by a three minute show of photos of Tecate and Ensenada.

I have numerous slide shows available for your photo club or service organization. They range from photos of Route 66, professional tennis, flowers, birds, Mexico, and photo instruction. Feel free to contact me!

W is for Wimbledon!

It is one of my dreams to photograph Wimbledon. Until then, I will be content to watch it on television. This photograph was taken earlier this year at Indian Wells, California, at the Pacific Life Open.

Congratulations, Roger!

To license this photo, please visit here.

P is for Photoshop!

Many photographers grew up shooting film and processing with the wet darkroom. Many still do, and get great results. That's great!

For me, and many others, the digital darkroom has enabled me to gain complete control over my images from start to finish.

Facility with Photoshop helps to express what lies within a photograph. As Ansel Adams said, a photograph is like a symphony; the negative is like the score, the print is like the performance.

Most of my photography uses bold color. When I reviewed the photographs I took of these domino players, I realized that black and white processing with a sepia tone would give a more old fashioned and timeless feel.

The new version of Photoshop, CS3, has a wonderful new black and white layer mode, which makes black and white conversion much easier. A little vignetting helped this photo as well.

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F is for Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth!