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photography | november 29, 2009 | things i saw

Image Title: Portrait Of Kai
Time Stamp: 12:09pm
Location: West Bolton, Vermont – My ‘Studio’
Photographer: Michael McKennedy

Portrait Of Kai (click for larger view)

Description: This image was a photo-merge of two photographs with varying degrees of exposure. Other effects were also added to give it that ‘Dave Hill’ look.

About the project: The ‘Things I Saw’ photography project began January 7, 2008. Since then I have shot, edited and posted one photograph per day – every day. As of November 01, 2009 I had taken a total of 23335 images, 665 of them made it to the Things I Saw photo gallery. Take a look at all of Things I Saw photo galleries here.

• Need #photo lighting? This is made w/ a tripod, light socket, spongcake pan, foil and tape http://twitpic.com/rh0ua #
• post a few different #photos from yesterday – http://ow.ly/GKk6 #
• Linguine? that's correct! I shot a #photograph of pasta yesterday – http://ow.ly/GpNH #
• ooops…correction -> Saturday is when we should see some snow – today is Friday – whoohoo! long weekend! #
• a little snow in West Bolton, Vermont today? I say bring it on! board is tuned, x-country skis are waxed – just waitin' on you Winter! #
• Movement is the title of today's photo – http://ow.ly/G0gE #
• out of all the songs in my library how can Last.fm play the same song 3 times in 1 hour #WhatsUpWithThat? #
• this #photo was taken yesterday when I was Almost Home – http://ow.ly/FQjB #
• Light Spider is the name of today's photo – http://ow.ly/F2jz #

photography | november 28, 2009 | things i saw

Image Title: Family At A Diner
Time Stamp: 8:41am
Location: Richmond, Vermont – The Bridge Street Diner
Photographer: Michael McKennedy

Family At A Diner (click for larger view)

Description: This morning I stepped out of my own seat at The Bridge Street Diner to capture this beautiful family as they sat coloring, waiting for their food to be delivered.

The effect used on the photograph to achieve the look you see was documented in this blog post that I put up today.

About the project: The ‘Things I Saw’ photography project began January 7, 2008. Since then I have shot, edited and posted one photograph per day – every day. As of November 01, 2009 I had taken a total of 23335 images, 665 of them made it to the Things I Saw photo gallery. Take a look at all of Things I Saw photo galleries here.

Portrait Photography – The Photographer

Today I had the pleasure of working with one of my favorite models.  We thought that it would be interesting to shoot the subject as if the subject were the photographer, hence the name – The Photographer.

The images below were shot today on a tripod in my make-shift studio (okay, so it’s really my living room) and some household light bulbs on a stick (not really on a stick but I did have two 60 watt bulbs perched precariously upon my vacuum cleaner).   These image have what I have read as being called the ‘David Hill Effect’ applied to them.  I am not comparing my work to David Hill’s or anything as I find his work amazingly inspirational.

I do not have much experience with portrait photography either.  I have plenty of self portraits and many photos of my family but I haven’t really tried to stage a shot with lighting and all that.  Anyway….that’s what you will see below.

The Photographer Image 01 (click for larger view)

The Photographer Image 02 (click for larger view)

The Photographer Image 03 (click for larger view)

The Photographer Image 04 (click for larger view)

Below are the steps I used in Photoshop to simulate the David Hill Effect.
Assuming there is an image open in Photoshop….

duplicate the layer
Filter -> Other -> High Pass -> set at 4.0
set the layer to use Vivid Light
flatten the layers

duplicate the layer
Filter -> Other -> High Pass -> set at 9.0
set the layer to use Color
set the layer opacity to 40%
flatten the layers

duplicate the layer
Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur
set at 8.0
Filter -> Noise -> Add Noise
set at 3%
Layer -> Layer Mask -> Hide All
flatten the layers

Filter -> Sharpen -> Unsharp Mask
Amount 100%, Radias 98ish, Threshold 0 (you have to play around with these settings)

The process above was not made up by me and I don’t really know if this is the ‘official process’ either but it works for me so there you go.

photography | november 27, 2009 | things i saw

Image Title: Linguine
Time Stamp: 5:40pm
Location: West Bolton, Vermont
Photographer: Michael McKennedy

Linguine (click for larger view)

Description: Pasta…specifically linguine, we cook it, we eat it, with sauce, or without. This particular linguine was a perfect thickness and when cooked al dente – oh la la, so good.

About the project: The ‘Things I Saw’ photography project began January 7, 2008. Since then I have shot, edited and posted one photograph per day – every day. As of November 01, 2009 I had taken a total of 23335 images, 665 of them made it to the Things I Saw photo gallery. Take a look at all of Things I Saw photo galleries here.

photography | november 26, 2009 | things i saw

Image Title: Movement
Time Stamp: 1:40pm
Location: West Bolton, Vermont
Photographer: Michael McKennedy

Movement (click for larger view)

Description: This one was shot in my living room against a dark wall. The shutter speed was a bit slow and luckily the subject decided to keep his face still while moving the rest of his body. The image was converted to black and white and has some other minor adjustments.

About the project: The ‘Things I Saw’ photography project began January 7, 2008. Since then I have shot, edited and posted one photograph per day – every day. As of November 01, 2009 I had taken a total of 23335 images, 665 of them made it to the Things I Saw photo gallery. Take a look at all of Things I Saw photo galleries here.