B&W Photo Challenge Day #24 - Old Bike

Old Bike

Wow I finally got a new picture! Since I've had to resort to using old pictures, that I had on my computer, and this was never the plan. So this picture I took outside of Wal-Mart using my Galaxy Nexus. I really wish I had a better camera and a better background to deal with but hey it is what it is, and at least it's new.

B&W Photo Challenge Day #23 - Snake Bite

Snake Bite

This photo was taken at the Cincinnati Zoo, the camouflage of this snake was pretty wild in color, but I think it's even more scary in black and white. I hope to never run into this snake, I hope I run it over with a car, because I know I wouldn't see it. And if I did see it near me,I would probably die! Not from the bite but probably from a heart attack! Shot with my Sony, gradient map, and sharpening done in Photoshop.

B&W Photo Challenge Day #22 - Coming Home From Chicago 2008

Coming Home

This is the joy of living in the Mid-West, after driving really slow for over an hour and almost crashing, from listening to Eli Manning's ESCAPE in the Superbowl. I finally got a chance to stop and clean off my window and wipers. My wife took this photo, and I think the blur is a nice touch, reminds me of a book cover. This is another photo taken with the HP PhotoSmart Mz-60 (I never planned on having so many photos from this camera, but that's just how it has worked out) 

B&W Photo Challenge Day #21 - Jerome Christian Church

Jerome Christian Church

A photo taken at my local county fair, back in 2009. shot was taken with my old camera (HP PhotoSmart Mz60.)  This is not a real church just a mock up of one that is a near by town named Jerome. Now the little town of Jerome is more famous for its haunted graveyard, than its church but hey you can't invite ghosts to the fair. This is probably the first time the town (or as I call it a village) has been talked about on the internet. As far as the the graveyard being haunted, I'm not sure but I have been there at night and it is very creepy. You should know that this town is in Indiana if you have read anything about me on this blog, so if you want to look it up and see if you can find out more information, just Google "Jerome Indiana Haunted" and you'll get the scoop. Anyways here's the pic of the little fake church.

B&W Photo Challenge Day #20 - Sue the T-Rex

Sue The T-Rex

This was shot in Chicago, back in 2009 of good old Sue the T-Rex. I converted to B&W in Photoshop, using a gradient map. I removed the date from the bottom left corner using content aware, which didn't come out that great and as you can see I didn't fix it (hey it's my challenge my blog) I got lazy didn't feel like messing with matching up lines clone stamping, etc... 

Thank God I only have ten more days (actually ten more photos because I've past the month mark, but hey you get it.)

Tumblr?

Tumblr?

Tumblr, stylized in its logo as tumblr., is a microblogging platform and social networking website founded by David Karp and owned by Yahoo! Inc. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog. Users can follow other users' blogs, as well as make their blogs private.^[4][5] Much of the website's features are accessed from the "dashboard" interface, where the option to post content and posts of followed blogs appear.

As of February 7, 2014, Tumblr hosts over 170.2 million blogs.^[2] The company's headquarters is in New York City.

I got this definition from Wikipedia  

What the hell is microblogging?

Maybe I'm out of the loop?

Maybe I'm not that cool?

So I am not on Tumblr, but I have been looking at a lot of posts on there thanks to the app Zite. Don't get me wrong I like it and think that there are a lot of cool things on there and maybe it's just the posts I've been seeing but it seems like it should not be considered a blog site. I mean it might as well be Pinterest, because all I see is a bunch of pictures that are by other people and they re-blog them from other users, really no original content, and definitely no writing. When you "like" something they call it notes which is kind of funny to me. And let me just say there are a lot of strange people on there that like a lot of strange things; don't get me wrong I like some of of it because I'm a little strange too, but we all are. I would probably join if I thought I had time, it just gets too overwhelming to try to keep up multiple Blogs and sites. I have a hard enough time keeping up with this, backing up pictures between Google drive, Sky Drive (One Drive), Pinterest, Facebook, Deviant Art, Flickr, as well as some others. That is about all I have to say about this for now, although I won't rule out that I won't join someday and if I do I'll let you know.    

Take on more? That is the question?

Maybe

Maybe not

B&W Photo Challenge Day #19 - Scurvy

Scurvy

Yes I know that this is a very strange title for a post but you'll see why when you look at the picture. This is a guy I worked with, back when I was a taxi driver, he chose this as his nickname for a motorcycle club. I won't tell you his name but his last named kind of resembled Scurvy, and I think the fact that he is missing teeth may have helped too! I'm not making fun of the guy I just think it's funny, he's actually a cool dude, and hey I think this picture is pretty neat too. As far as what I did to this picture I used a Gradient Map in Photoshop this is my new preferred method of making colored images into B&W, since I can get a more pure black and white image instead of that kind of greyish looking crap that I usually end up with. Shot this about 4 years ago, with my Sony DSC-HX-1.

B&W Photo Challenge Day #18 - Mug Shot

Mug Shot

Now I know what you're saying " what's so cool about a mug?" Well to be honest absolutely nothing, but I just thought it was a little more interesting than just a shot of a product. They say you should try to change your angles or perspective when shooting, well I wasn't going to lay on the floor or climb a ladder in the middle of Target! So I tipped the mug over and made sure I had the others lined up behind it to create some repetition and symmetry. This photo was taken with my Galaxy Nexus, and then tweaked in Snapseed.

Photo Saver Page Launch

Photo Saver

Today I launched a page on Facebook which you can find here https://www.facebook.com/PhotoSaverBiz  it is the first branch of my refocus Graphic Design business or you might call it a Jump Starter to my freelance career. I am trying to gain a bit of a fan base so if you would, please like it and share with your friends. I enjoy fixing photos and making them look good again, at the same time I'm not trying to take advantage of people either like a lot of the other businesses that provide this type of service. For example I think that it is insane to charge people $35 for one picture and that is actually a low prices considering some places charge by the hour with rates as high as $200 Hr! That's just craziness I don't really have set pricing system but it will be way cheaper than these crazy prices. Depending on the amount of work that needs to be done to each photo the prices will vary, but I will quote you a price before doing any work. 

As for my other services I provide, photo CD/ DVD's set to music, for example I made one for a funeral (which I know is not the happiest thing) but there are good things like Birthdays, Graduation, Weddings etc. VHS to DVD conversions (another costly service at other places) I know a lot of people have old movies (home or Hollywood) that are just sitting there collecting dust and at the same time rotting, well I can help you save those too! Anyways please like my page and use my service, really I'm here to help not only preserve your memories but also your bank account. ( don't get robbed by these other guys!)  

B&W Photo Challenge Day #17 - Muscle Up

Muscle Up

Although this photo is not of the highest quality, since it was taken with my old HTC EVO, I still believe it looks better in B&W. I have learned that you can save or at least not make them seen so bad or boring by converting to B&W; I knew this before my little challenge, but now it just reinforced it in my mind. So maybe the next time you look at a B&W image just think what it would look like in color and I bet at least 50% of the time the photo would not look even half as cool as it does in B&W. Well anyways hers the pic I shot at a car show about 4 years ago in my city.

Got Muscle?

 

B&W Photo Challenge Day #16- Photoshop Rescue

Photoshop Rescue

Okay so this post will be a little different than my other posts during my challenge (a little longer than 30 days, but hey I'm trying) I will first post the original photo of me and my wife, in which I ruined a good picture by closing my eyes ( have no fear Photoshop is here.) I used a different picture from the same night, although not in the same location (inside) but that didn't matter that much because I was going to convert it to B&W so not much to worry about when it comes to white balance/ skin tone etc.

So I basically ripped one of my eyes off of a photo and then just duplicated it and put into the picture I ruined! So here we go 

Original

As you  will notice in the next few pictures I also cropped them, to get rid of the annoying old people that help ruin my shot (it wasn't just me!) Just kidding I like old people (just not in my pictures, okay I'm done another joke.) On to the fixed version.

B&W Photo Challenge Day #15- Planets in Chicago

Planets in Chicago

Photo taken up in a museum in Chicago, with my old HP PhotoSmart Mz60 (8MP with 6X zoom)
but it was a decent camera for the time mainly bought because of it's zoom compared to other similar cameras.

This photo had a time stamp on in, which I removed in Photoshop, then desaturated it and did some tweaking, not the highest of quality photo, but I am hoping to break out the good stuff soon and be able to take some originals, since this picture is from May 2009. Anyways here ya go!

I actually forgot I had this camera !

My Flickr Photostream Link

Flickr

In one of my last posts I mention that I'd be posting about my Flickr account. Well today is the day, You will find out that I do not have that many photos posted  (compared to other people on the site) this is only because I am pretty new to the site. You will also notice that you will find most of the phots from this blog, however there are plenty of others that you have not seen yet (like one's in color) since I'm in the middle of my B&W challenge, I figured you may need to see a little color from me. 

Just one quick note before I post my link, I must say that Flickr is beautiful and I really enjoy the layout. This was a nice surprise for me and probably will be for others who haven't checked out Yahoo products recently ( I was one of those people) I guess Yahoo still has a little MOJO left ion the creative/ design tank. 

Here is the link to my Flickr check it out frequently since I plan on adding photos on a regular basis.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/refocusgd/ 

B&W Challenge Day # 14 - Open Doors

Open Doors

This photo I took at last years Oktoberfest here in my city. The photo was taken with my trusty Sony, and then I tuned it up using Photomatix Pro, which usually I like to use for creating HDR photos, but in this instance I used it to make this photo into a B&W image. The photo has seen a pretty good response on my Flickr account as far as page views go it is one of more more popular ones. Speaking of my Flickr account I have just recently joined so I do not have a lot of photos on there yet but I will be posting a little something on here soon about that. Anyways back to this picture...... here it is!

B&W Challenge Day #13- Two Ugly Birds

2 Ugly Birds

This was a shot I took at the Indianapolis Zoo back in 2012, shot with my Sony DSC- HX1. Originally shot in color, I converted it in Photoshop to B&W and did some tweaking.

B&W Challenge Days #10, 11 and 12 - TJ Maxx Trip

Still Waiting

Well the  weather here really hates me this year and is really effecting my abilities to complete my challenge. Like I stated in a previous post I have resorted to converting some of my old images to B&W, however these three photos I was able to take at my local TJ Maxx. All three were taken with my wife's Iphone 5s I decided to not do any editing on these just to see what some untouched Iphone pics look like, overall I'd have to say they are pretty good (damn you Apple, always good at everything!) I am an Android guy myself but hey you use what you got, and in this case the wife's phone did a pretty good job. Here's to hoping the winter ends soon (of course we are getting another 9 inches tonight!)