Price Lake Blues
Hey! What happened? This is Price Lake, a perennial favorite on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. Those clouds are sitting on the pinnacle of Grandfather Mountain. No, it’s not fall in August around here, and I’m not trying to rush it, though I do enjoy it. I also enjoy the tomatoes growing at my back door right now… BLT’s aren’t nearly so good in October with hothouse tomatoes. There really is something about veggies from your own garden tasting so much better than what even the farmer’s market has to offer… but I love fall, nonetheless.
It seems that my clients do, too! This is one of a set of various North Carolina specific images chosen by some of those clients (I also feel that this would make a particularly mean jigsaw puzzle). Most of the images are 20” x 38” (though they can go larger) panoramas designed with the Golden Rectangle in mind. The Golden Rectangle? A fascinating subject… you can read about it here: www.jimloy.com/geometry/golden.htm I went a step further in its understanding by including only what lay inside my peripheral vision. I’ve found that most people find images of this aspect ratio quite pleasing, though they often can’t figure out exactly why… it’s simply because it is the way we tend to see the world through our own eyes.
This image started out as a number of vertical images shot from a leveled tripod and camera. I just swung the camera from left to right on the tripod head’s axis, overlapping shots as I covered the area of my vision… this horizontal image took a total of seven vertical images to complete in Photoshop CS4. This final image takes up 391.4 megabytes at 300 dpi (I work only in 16-bit). Yes, that’s a big file, but the advantage is that it yields a lot of detail. More detail equals big picture. When framed properly (I have each image framed to museum-quality standards with true AR glass), they truly stand out like windows to the world rather than flat pictures… it really helps to understand how contrast affects an image. A practical way to see how this works is to drag your background image in Photoshop (Elements or CS) to the “create new layer” icon (next to the “trash” icon). With the new layer active, change the “normal” dialog to the “soft light”, “hard light”, or “vivid light” selections and change the “opacity” percentage to see how it affects the image. The proper percentage can lend a near 3-D quality to the final image, but bear in mind that the “proper” percentage may be less than 10 percent.
One last thing… I’ve had a number of people to ask me how I manage to sell my photographs. Each and every one of my contacts (and you know who you are) have a good many images that would most definitely sell… and many of you need to consider doing so. I started by producing lithographs of some of my best work to sell to the national parks through Eastern National… that’s more work than you might think, but it’s worth it. I also sell in galleries. The best move I ever made, though, was to connect with an excellent framer that highlights my work. Believe me, there is a grand lot of difference between mediocre framing and true museum-quality with attention to detail… Sherry Gray and Debra Elmore of Yesterday and Today Frame Shop in Hillsborough are all about the cutting-edge of detail. Sherry also helps me to design wall space for clients. She has an amazing ability to convince them of exactly what they need and I just produce the prints. Business brought us together, but our relationship has become more like that of good family. Through that relationship, I actually have a following of a good many folks who make a beeline straight for Sherry’s shop every time I bring a new print… I find it all to be somewhat humbling and at the same time somewhat hilarious. Give it a shot yourself and see what happens!
Here’s a link to Sherry’s site: www.yesterdayandtodayframeshop.com/ She’d be happy to answer any question concerning your own photography (that goes for me, too). Let me know if this works out for you. Mike
Price Lake Blues
Hey! What happened? This is Price Lake, a perennial favorite on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. Those clouds are sitting on the pinnacle of Grandfather Mountain. No, it’s not fall in August around here, and I’m not trying to rush it, though I do enjoy it. I also enjoy the tomatoes growing at my back door right now… BLT’s aren’t nearly so good in October with hothouse tomatoes. There really is something about veggies from your own garden tasting so much better than what even the farmer’s market has to offer… but I love fall, nonetheless.
It seems that my clients do, too! This is one of a set of various North Carolina specific images chosen by some of those clients (I also feel that this would make a particularly mean jigsaw puzzle). Most of the images are 20” x 38” (though they can go larger) panoramas designed with the Golden Rectangle in mind. The Golden Rectangle? A fascinating subject… you can read about it here: www.jimloy.com/geometry/golden.htm I went a step further in its understanding by including only what lay inside my peripheral vision. I’ve found that most people find images of this aspect ratio quite pleasing, though they often can’t figure out exactly why… it’s simply because it is the way we tend to see the world through our own eyes.
This image started out as a number of vertical images shot from a leveled tripod and camera. I just swung the camera from left to right on the tripod head’s axis, overlapping shots as I covered the area of my vision… this horizontal image took a total of seven vertical images to complete in Photoshop CS4. This final image takes up 391.4 megabytes at 300 dpi (I work only in 16-bit). Yes, that’s a big file, but the advantage is that it yields a lot of detail. More detail equals big picture. When framed properly (I have each image framed to museum-quality standards with true AR glass), they truly stand out like windows to the world rather than flat pictures… it really helps to understand how contrast affects an image. A practical way to see how this works is to drag your background image in Photoshop (Elements or CS) to the “create new layer” icon (next to the “trash” icon). With the new layer active, change the “normal” dialog to the “soft light”, “hard light”, or “vivid light” selections and change the “opacity” percentage to see how it affects the image. The proper percentage can lend a near 3-D quality to the final image, but bear in mind that the “proper” percentage may be less than 10 percent.
One last thing… I’ve had a number of people to ask me how I manage to sell my photographs. Each and every one of my contacts (and you know who you are) have a good many images that would most definitely sell… and many of you need to consider doing so. I started by producing lithographs of some of my best work to sell to the national parks through Eastern National… that’s more work than you might think, but it’s worth it. I also sell in galleries. The best move I ever made, though, was to connect with an excellent framer that highlights my work. Believe me, there is a grand lot of difference between mediocre framing and true museum-quality with attention to detail… Sherry Gray and Debra Elmore of Yesterday and Today Frame Shop in Hillsborough are all about the cutting-edge of detail. Sherry also helps me to design wall space for clients. She has an amazing ability to convince them of exactly what they need and I just produce the prints. Business brought us together, but our relationship has become more like that of good family. Through that relationship, I actually have a following of a good many folks who make a beeline straight for Sherry’s shop every time I bring a new print… I find it all to be somewhat humbling and at the same time somewhat hilarious. Give it a shot yourself and see what happens!
Here’s a link to Sherry’s site: www.yesterdayandtodayframeshop.com/ She’d be happy to answer any question concerning your own photography (that goes for me, too). Let me know if this works out for you. Mike