2018 Prom

Last Saturday was Prom night at the local high school. Our middle granddaughter, the tall one in the middle wearing the black gown, is a senior this year and will be graduating in a few weeks. One of the popular places for the kids to meet for photos is at Crystal Bridges Museum of Modern American Art. It was a good thing, since the skies turned overcast and it started raining later in the afternoon. The two young ladies in the middle are the girls associate youth leader at church and the wife of the Youth minister. These girls are members of the church student ministry and many have been together since preschool.

Here our granddaughter is sharing a few moments with fellow seniors. They will be going to different colleges next year so time together will be limited after these next couple of weeks.

Then there are the proud parents. Just a note, Emily is wearing heels for the photos so she is taller than her 5′-10″ mom and still a little shorter than her 6′-3″ dad.  Note: the heels came off at prom in favor of sandal. No point in punishing your feet all night long.

And she is the tallest of her siblings even without the heels. The grandson is missing in action here, but she is taller than him as well. He decided a trip with friends to Kansas City was better than hanging out at a prom photo shoot with his sisters.

But she is eyeball to eyeball with her Papa and taller than her Nana. One thing about being tall and slender.

I think it makes for a very elegant prom photo, don’t  you? Well let’s go back indoors for a few final close-ups before the limo whisks them away.

As you can see, Crystal Bridges makes for some very nice, subtle background images. This is one of my favorites.

Well that’s it for this year. Next year the youngest granddaughter will be a junior and we will be doing this all over again. See you then.

Above is just a little something that Lucy and I put together.

It was an awesome week. If you remember the photo below from a recent post…I submitted it to the website, Pixoto. People view photos in head to head competition and vote on their favorite. This image won best photo of the day and best photo of the week in the sports/fitness category. If it should happen to win best of the month, then I will probably enter it in a couple of local fair competitions later this year.

You may also recall this image of our youngest grand daughter competing in high jump. Well, last Thursday she finished first in a meet, set a personal record of 5′-3″ and qualified for the state championships. I am pretty sure that qualifying for state has earned her an athletic letter in track as a sophomore. Next week she will be competing in the conference championship meet and getting ready for the state event. Have an Awe….some Monday!

More Fun With Filters

Last week I posted a few photo edits of this soon to be demolished structure. The previous image was taken from a little different angle. You can scroll down a couple of posts to find the post if you’re curious. I did a few different edits with this image, so here we go.

Using PhotoShop Elements 15, I used a mosaic tile filter then a rippled blur to get this effect. It has a bit of a landscape painting quality to it.

I got a little abstract here. There is a distortion feature available which allows you to get very creative with the image. Here, I distorted the entry and most of the siding. I left the roof line and background pretty much intact. Next I added a watercolor filter and while this does have a watercolor painting feel to it, the colors are still a little too strong to be believable.  Okay, now for a couple of Black & White edits.

I added a tile filter here, then added a pen and ink filter to convert the tones to fine lines. Overall, this reminds me of looking through a vintage screen door.

By removing the tile filter and selecting a very pale gray and and very dark gray as my two colors I used the pen and ink filter to created kind of an aged rendering. This is also the header photo for this post.

Leaving the PhotoShop filters behind I went to an On1 filter called tattered paper gray for this final edit. I really like how this one give a sense of age to the building. I don’t think you can get this with a color image. Well that’s all for this week. See you next Friday with something new and different. Have a blessed week-end.

Fun With Filters

Whenever the weather prevents me from getting out and shooting new images or when my schedule doesn’t allow me to capture some new material, I will often just pull out some old images and give them a new look through the magic of PhotoShop Elements and a few add-on filters from Nik or On1.

As an architect in my former life, I am fascinated by the ornate brickwork done from the turn of the 20th century and continuing into the mid 1940’s. Everything from modest homes to impressive commercial high-rise buildings were draped in beautiful masonry. It seems that a mason was not only a trade, but a craft populated by artisans.

This building is found in the small community of Okmulgee, in Northeast Oklahoma. It’s about thirty-five miles south of Tulsa and about ten miles north of my birthplace in Henryetta.  I like the combination of cast stone and brick. While color images give one a true image of the structure…

There is nothing quite like black & white to bring out the soul and character of the design. Here I used a combination of two filters from On1, which is a free add-on package to PhotoShop Elements. This detail is centered over the main entrance. Meanwhile…

over on the corner of the building is this handsome minaret. Like automobiles, most new buildings are truly more energy efficient, better constructed structurally, offer better lighting, and are safer that those of bygone days, but they simply don’t have the soul that details like this give to the design.

And black & white only adds depth to that soul. Have a blessed week.

Last week I was back at the track for another local high school meet. Every venue is different and the opportunity for photos varies with the event. After checking out a few of the event locations, I decided to try to capture a couple if images of the hurdles. I like events with props. The hurdles really add to the interest of the photos in my humble opinion. My legs are too short to make it over those obstacles with any speed or grace, but these guys make it look easy.

From a strictly photographic viewpoint, the pole vault is my new favorite sport. There is speed, strength, coordination and an obstacle to overcome. It is a great event to photograph, regardless of where your viewing the competition.

For me there are three photos to capture the excitement of the event. The first photo captures the bend in the pole as the athlete begins to launch skyward and the bar is in sight. The second image is at the peak of the vault and one hopes that the competitor doesn’t touch the bar on the way over.

This is the peak of the jump when viewed from the runway side of the vault. The last image is not available and that is the release of the pole and knowing that the vault has been successful.

The most interesting place to photograph a running event is at the corners. If it is the 4×100 or 4×200 relay race, the excitement is greater because that is where the batons are passed and the opportunity for success or failure hangs in the balance.

No track meet I photograph would be complete without an image of the youngest grand daughter competing in the high jump. Again, speed, strength, skill, and overcoming an obstacle are all a part of the competition. Have a blessed day.

Fun With Filters

I was out and about the other day when I spotted a building that I have driven past hundreds of times in the past thirty years. At one time it was an antique store. Now, the property next door has been sold and the land cleared, so it’s only a matter of time before this structure falls to progress as well. Don’t get me wrong, this building is beyond repair.  I pulled my truck onto the site, grabbed my camera and captured a few images.

If you look closely at this original image you can see a bird lighting on the peak of the room. It is a Turkey Vulture, which I suppose is only an appropriate sign of things to come. Once I got home and downloaded my images, I decided to have a little fun with filters.

First I took the color image into PhotoShop Elements, added a little polarizing, then added a “crumpled paper” filter that gives it a bit of a worn look.

Next I went back to the original image and created a bit of a water color effect. You can adjust how abstract or detailed the image gets filtered. For a color image, I think this one enhances the character of the forlorn structure.

Next I converted the image to black & white, then added a little texture to it for a little drama. I really think old buildings are much more charming when presented in black & white.

I used a “smooth landscape” filter for this edit, then put a unique frame around it.

This edit has a vivid urban filter applied then a white vignette added to all four corners. It gives the image a whole different character than some of the darker filters.

Finally, the filter that creates the spots is called cool concrete. I don’t know why either. The edges are a filter called tattered paper. I like how this one really gives a barn find look to the image. I could do this for hours. Stay tuned, for more fun with filters next week.

Up & Over

Fun With Filters Featuring Lucy

Lucy and I were on the patio the other day and I decided to snap a photo. This is the original image that I took with my cell phone. It has a selective focus feature that helps blur the background. You have to be pretty quick on the trigger to get Lucy being this still. At 15 months, she is still a pup and while she will lay quietly in my lap for an extended period of time, being outside is a different story.

This is the original image that has basically been converted to B&W then the contrast was increased a little.

Now I’ve added a Nik filter preset with a soft dark vignette at all of the corners.

And now, for the big finish. I went back to the original B&W conversion then added an On1 subtle copper color filter. Next I added a soft white vignette to all four corners before placing the vintage frame around the whole composition.  Honestly, I really like the final image.

Okay, so the sky isn’t the main subject in this image, it does provide a nice background for the spider that was on the driver’s side window of my truck seven years ago. Since the window was a little dirty and I was using a relatively low resolution point and shoot camera, the image quality is not the greatest.  I created the header for this post using the free Nik filter plug-in for PhotoShop Elements.

Pure & Simple