Summer Time Flowering Plants

Summer Time Flowering Plants

Well this may seem like a kind of funny title, however it is the name of the class I started taking today. Even though this class is about plants, it also involves photography and the drawing of flowers I observe in the wild. the professor also told us that we will have a chance to screen print one of our flowers, which I plan to take full advantage of, since I've wanted to learn more about screen printing for a while now. So I do not have any pictures or drawings yet but I plan to post them as I go along. This could be fun or it could be a painI guess I'll just have to wait and see.

No Bueno

No Bueno

Well I put out some flyers, around town haven't received one nibble yet. I am going to design a new one and try again, but time is running out on my idea of freelancing instead of getting a part time job. School starts on May 19th so after that it will be too difficult to keep up my efforts. I paid for an on Facebook for my side company Photo Saver (check it out and like my page please) which got me a lot of paid views but not one single person contacted me about it. I think that in the case of that page I need to educate people a little more on the services I provide. So I will continue to try, because I will never give up, however there is some good news, the weather here is finally starting to improve, which has given my motivation a boost.

B&W Photo Challenge Day #30 - Finally I Need a Drink

I Need A Drink

So this is it #30 in the 30 day black and white photo challenge, it only took me about 2 months to complete ( thank you Mother Nature!) I took this photo with my cellphone, and I thought this would be a good ending photo for this little experiment. I have learned somethings, mainly that I am not a dog and I need some color in my life! I do love love B&W photos but I know that I would go crazy if it was the only pictures I could take (good thing it's 2014) I struggled to complete this task and I didn't get to use all the cameras I planned on using, although I did post pictures that were taken by some of my old cameras, so I guess it evened its self out in the end. Anyways I don't know what I'm going to next but I do know that it will be something in color! 

B&W Photo Challenge Day #29 - Outside the Palace

Outside the Palace

This a shot of one of the statues outside of Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. I took this photo with my cellphone. Vegas is an awesome place not because of the reasons most people give, but for the fantasy it makes you feel like you're in. 

 

B&W Photo Challenge Day #28 - 2 Bones

2 Bones

These two dolls were at my friends wedding, and I thought they were pretty cool so I took a pic of them. While searching for a pic to use for this challenge I thought " Bones are white, and the groom has on a black suit, that should work!" 

B&W Photo Challenge Day #27 - Hot Wheels

Hot Wheels

This photo was taken at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway a few years ago using My Sony DSC-HX1.

There is not a whole lot that I can say about this picture except that life sized Hot Wheels are pretty awesome! 

B&W Photo Challenge Day #26 - Tornado Damage 2 The Rebirth of Coney Island

The Rebirth of Coney Island

This is the 2nd picture from the tornado damage that hit my city back in November 2013. This is really great to see, because this my friends is one of the greatest places to eat in the entire country. The business Louie's Coney Island has been in my city for decades, and they are famous for their BAKES, look it up to see what I'm talking about, or just click this link here. And  here is another and while I was looking for these links, I saw that the business has been here since 1937. I love it and can't wait until it is open again here is a pic of the reconstruction, taken with my Nikon D5100. By the way I took this while at the red light.

B&W Photo Challenge Day#25 - Tornado Damage 1

Tornado Damage

Back on November 17, 2013 an F2 tornado ripped through my city here is a picture of one of the buildings that got damaged. I'll post a link here for a little more info on the damage if you're interested.

Pretty crazy stuff, but one of the most amazing things is that nobody died, so that is always a good thing. I shot this photo a few days ago with my D5100. My next photo will be of another business that was damaged and now they are rebuilding.

 

 

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 #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.)

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.

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 #8 559's

559's

Another exciting shot of  something in a store(sarcasm is my specialty) Once again this photo was taken with my cellphone, then heavily filtered using 2 Google Apps. Not a lot more to say about this one, other than my annoyance level is continuing to grow. SPRING CAN NOT GET HERE SOON ENOUGH!!!

B&W Photo Challenge Day #7 King James

Okay I know it's been a few days,and mainly thanks to this weather I have not been able to take pictures of anything not of anything that cool so I have to do what I have to do and that is take pictures of random things in stores or around my house. I think I said that was what I was going to do anyways, since I can see the future, not really but anyways this photo was taken with my trust cellphone the Galaxy Nexus. Matter of fact the next few posts are with that camera as well because I'm not going to expose any good camera to this hell (-25 windchill factor) I think not!! 
So this photo I took inside of Sam's club while..... guess what??? waiting for my wife Oh the theme continues! As you can see I heavily tweaked this bad boy in some Google Apps, then just cropped it some in Photoshop.

B&W Photo Challenge Day #5 Iphone 5s

Doctor Sleep

Today's picture was taken with my wife's Iphone 5s, which has a 8 Megapixel camera. I switched the shooting mode to Noir to take this picture of Stephen King's Doctor Sleep book while in Target ( and yes my wife was shopping again, seems like I theme) I didn't make any adjustments to the photo at all and I'd have to say that it came out pretty well. For those of you who don't know Doctor Sleep is the sequel to The Shining, and not that they need a plug (paper or author) here is a more thorough review of the book by the New York Times  I myself haven't had a chance to read this book yet (because lets be honest, who has time to read novels?) but it sounds really good, I just hope I get to read it before they make it into a movie. Tomorrow who knows what the day will bring.