Continue reading »]]> In my spare time, I’ve been trying to teach myself some new tricks.  I’ve had Photoshop Elements for the better part of a year or more.  I’ve toyed with it, and learned how to do the basic editing of photos.  With my new camera, and some of the newer photo editing that’s going on in the world – specifically tone mapped HDR images (examples here) – I’ve been trying to pick up some of the skills to make my photos look awesome.

Today, I hung out on the couch, listened to the football games, and learned a new trick.  I figured out through several tutorials, and some trial and error, how to change the colors of parts of a photograph while leaving other parts alone.  My first attempt was of a photo taken for some of our company promotion.  In the photograph, we are wearing red jackets.  I attempted to remove the color from the photo leaving just the color in the jackets.  For my first attempt, I think I did a pretty good job. 

In fact, I think the black and white color photo looks pretty cool.  I’m going to start watching for photo opportunities where I can accent one particular color, and drop the other color in the photo.  I showed the new photo to one of my cousins, and he said it looked pretty cool.  In fact, I think it looks cool enough that it might be a fun photo to run in some of our advertising or on our website.

Continue reading »]]> I’ve always been fascinated with photography.  I can still remember my first Kodak camera.  It was a Kodak 110 Camera.  I don’t recall using the camera much.  However, I do recall being fascinated by it.  My fascination with cameras continues to this day.  However, I still don’t take many photos.  Nevertheless, I’m undertaking a commitment to myself to take more photos.

With that in mind, I recently purchased a new camera.  I picked up a Canon PowerShot SD870 IS.  I took it with me on my trip to Nevada and California.  It was responsible for my cool photos in and around Lake Tahoe.  It’s a very handy point and shoot digital camera that takes amazing photos.  Of course, it’s easy to take amazing photos when you’re taking shots of Lake Tahoe.

With the purchase of the new camera and my commitment to take more photos, I upgraded my Flickr account to a pro account.  This enables me to upload unlimited amounts of photos each month.  I’m not sure that I’ll be uploading a ton of photos each month.  However, I’d like to have the opportunity to use the camera several times a month for extended periods of photography.  I’ve made my Flickr account public, so that anyone can view my photos on Flickr.  If you’re interested, I’ve got the entire collection of Lake Tahoe photos along with several other sets of photos from over the years online now.  All told, I’ve currently got 133 photos online.  My goal is to continue to update my photos online as I take them.

Also, you may have already noticed I’ve added a random photo to my sidebar at the top.  This photo is randomly pulled each time the page is refreshed from my photos that are tagged scenic on Flickr.  I already am enjoying the random photo feature.  Note, if you click on the photo, it will take you to a larger version where you can see details about the photo and make comments.