Merry Christmas!

"Christmas reminds us we are not alone. We are not unrelated atoms, bouncing and ricocheting amid aliens, but are a part of something, which holds and sustains us. As we struggle with shopping lists and invitations, compounded by December's bad weather, it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation, and people to whom we are worth the same. Christmas shows us the ties that bind us together, threads of love and caring, woven in the simplest and strongest way within the family."

Donald E. Westlake

Merry Christmas to everyone.

Poohstock 2011, The Day After

Wow, I am having an insane time of keeping this blog up (among other things).  I think there is an interal conflict going on between what I want to show and what I am showing.  But you’re not Dr. Phil so let me finish up this 2011 Poohstock trip.  Because I can’t help myself, table shots of the morning after.  Enjoy.

Poohstock 2011, My Cousin’s Yard, Part 3

This is just a continuation from part 1 and 2 so I’ll spare you the chatter again.  I “chatted” a lot in part 1.  These shots are vehicles again but shot with my SLR.  Enjoy.

Poohstock 2011, My Cousin’s Yard, Part 2

This is just a continuation from part 1 so I’ll spare you the chatter.  If you’re interested in the chatter, check out part 1.  Oh, these are some of the flowers I found in my cousins yard.  Enjoy.

Poohstock 2011, My Cousin’s Yard, Part 1

Poohstock.  I had to miss it this year and will have to miss it next year only because I will be in Hawaii.  But these photos are cool from last year.  This group was shot with my Powershot.  This was taken in my cousin Shawn’s yard.  He’s a contractor.  This was before anything got started save for setting up.  I was just roaming and taking pictures.  What I did with the post production was play around with shadows and highlights then put a cross processed effect layer over that.  It was done in Photoshop.

Oregon, wow – what a place.  There were so many trees I just knew a pack of werewolves and were-bears were going to jump out of the vegetation and have us for dinner.  Again, this was the summer of 2011 in Grants Pass, Oregon.  It was a lot of fun.  Enjoy.

Rainbow

I was working on Poohstock last time but did this shot with my cell phone – A Blackberry Torch.  Why do I plug the corporations?  Who knows because they definitely do pay me.  Anyway, we were riding from Lancaster back to Victorville when I spotted this rainbow southbound on 90^th East.  No, I was not texting and driving – I was drive-by shooting!  A technique I developed in Iraq in 2003/04.  No, not with my M16 – with my camera.  Just the same, cool rainbow.

Poohstock 2011, The Ride There

Last summer my brothers and I took a ride from southern California to southern Oregon.  We were going to our cousin’s event – Poohstock.  It was a lot of fun.  These are just some shot from my point and shoot of the trip up.  I did some Photoshop work on them a bit too.  Enjoy.

Flowers and a Sunrise

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve been here.  The end of the school year coupled with various vacation and visits – crazy busy.  I should really think about doing this by phone.  Anyway, I’m still behind – even more so now.  You know I never stop photographing stuff.  I better streamline my processing though.  So, here’s a couple of shots from June last year.  Some flowers and a sunrise.

Apple Valley Plaza Site Survey, Part 3

Wow, being sick really sucks.  And you fall behind on so many things like these blogs.  Ok, I’m back from the dead so let me continue where I left off.

For these last four photos, I threw in a black and white layer in between my crossed processed layers and some Gaussian blur (refer to part 1 and 2 for details).  I also used the shadow/highlight effect.  The only thing I didn’t do was throw in some HDR.  Of course, this was all done in Photoshop.  I really like how these came out – abstraction and all.  Have a look.

Oh, there is no black and white layer on this particular image.  Still looks cool though.

Apple Valley Plaza Site Survey, Part 2

After doing a shadow/highlights adjusted layer, I applied a ‘cross processed’ layer to all five of these photos because I love that look/effect.  I did this just last week with Photoshop though I took these photos last summer.  And the last three shots I again went for the abstracted appearance.  Have a look.

Apple Valley Plaza Site Survey, Part 1

Moving on to June 18, 2011, I was out and about again doing site surveys (no, I don’t have a regular ‘9 to 5’ job) and exploring my new habitat.  Again, I was motoring eastbound down Bear Valley Road.  I passed through Apple Valley heading to the outskirts of that town and stopped when I got to Central.  On my left was a big strip mall that never quite became what it was supposed to be – the Apple Valley Plaza.  Ultra Star Cinema was completed and operational but the rest of the site was never completed.  It looks as though on the day someone said there was no more money to complete the work, everyone just walked away.  I can only assume that happened after the market crash of 2008.  The Victor Valley seems to have suffered more severely than other parts of California but it seems to have gone somewhat unnoticed, unless you live here.  This is another location that I’ll return to and shoot again.  This time, I shot this with my PowerShot S5 IS.  The Photoshop work done was minimal but I did that just a few days ago.  Have a look.

In this shot, I’m trying to abstract my subject with this from the bottom up angle.  I’ll do a lot more of this here.

Burnt out in Apple Valley

On June 17, 2011, I was back at this burnt out place for another look.  I wanted to do a model shoot here.  A wanted a kind of contrast with beautiful (the model) and ugly.  But this place held more than that.  It represented yet again lost dreams and hopes of a family or of a person.  And it was also a testament to the people who inhabit the Victor Valley – people who maintain a ‘no matter what, we’re going to keep on moving forward’ attitude.  Well, that’s at least how I felt seeing this place.  I took some liberties with Photoshop on some of these too.  I just wanted to render a different feel.  I shot it all with my Canon PowerShot S5 IS.  For a “point and shoot”, that’s an awesome camera.  So, have a look.