Create a tiny little world - or Tilt-Shift!

For this round of "Get Pushed," I was paired with the photographically talented Stacie - who probably was here at some point. Her challenge to me was to "create a tiny little world" in photoshop - so basically a tilt-shift image.

Well, this was the challenging part...I didn't really have much of an opportunity to find a place with the right vantage point to create a tilt-shift image. This shot was done off a bridge in Peoria and I'm not 100% satisfied with it. I know that I've done better TS images in the past, but as far as subjects go, this was all I had to work with.

You're probably wondering why this is 17.2 - well as we were discussing our challenge, we determined that we live in relative proximity to each other. I was going to be passing nearby where she lives this past weekend, so I thought we could try to shoot the same subject in our own style. To see that image, click here!

Thanks for a fun challenge Stacie - I hope we virtually cross paths again!

In Round 17 of Get Pushed I have been paired with the wonderful JTsMama.

In her challenge to me she said:

" I would like to see you either re-create or re-do one of your shots to look for one more way to spice it up or change it if you felt something you might have done a little differently. ............ I like that you went back to places (or perhaps captured them in different ways at one time.) and did something a little different. If you so choose you might also just re-edit a shot you feel quite satisfied with to get a new look."

JTsMama gave me suggestions from my stream to work on, both from location shots and of still lifes, including some shots I had taken of glasses.

So I chose to try and improve some refraction shots I attempted last year. See below for the original shot.

For this challenge I chose a thinner glass, which better showed the refraction, used a coloured background to 'spice it up' a bit, filled the glass with water to extend the refraction, and, I think, did a better job of placing the lights for less glare.

Thanks for the challenge.

I will keep practicing this.

ODT: 3/19/2012: Do over again.

In Round 17 of Get Pushed I have been paired with the wonderful JTsMama.

In her challenge to me she said:

" I would like to see you either re-create or re-do one of your shots to look for one more way to spice it up or change it if you felt something you might have done a little differently. ............ I like that you went back to places (or perhaps captured them in different ways at one time.) and did something a little different. If you so choose you might also just re-edit a shot you feel quite satisfied with to get a new look."

JTsMama gave me suggestions from my stream to work on, both from location shots and of still lifes, including some shots I had taken of glasses.

So I chose to try and improve some refraction shots I attempted last year. See below for the original shot.

For this challenge I used the same decanter but filled it with water to extend the refraction, and, I think, did a better job of placing the lights for less glare.

Thanks for the challenge.

I will keep practicing this.

2012 YIP: 30/366

For "Get Pushed" round 17, I was paired with the young and so very talented Rachel, aka "Girl in Sneakers". Check out her response to my push...it's amazing! She challenged me to create an image which tells a story. She gave me examples of themes such as: vision; fate; destiny; love; sadness; hope; and redemption, to go by. Also, the challenge required using a road as a backdrop, and to incorporate 3 of these 6 items she listed: a clock; feet (bare or with shoes); 3 books; eyeglasses; or a person (not looking at the camera); a photo of someone you love (in a frame). What an interesting and fantastic challenge!

So I pondered the possibilities for a while and admittedly was stumped. Eventually I decided to just move forward without so much of a plan, to go out on a photoshoot, 'wing it' and see what I came up with. The shot of me running is where I started, and then I built the image from there, out of several other images I snapped. My concept is about time, and how there never seems to be enough of it. Therefore, I'm always trying to catch up. The crooked clock is for my warped sense of time; the turtles for the speed I seem to be at; my dog Moxie who is always watching and waiting for me to play with her or take her for a walk; the castle is about high hopes and dreams; the moon coming up shows the day is nearly over but also to always reach for it; and last but not least, the sunflower and the butterfly to remind me that no matter what, its all going to be okay and to just simply go along & be happy! :)

I don't use Photoshop very much, as Lightroom is my software of choice, so the collage techniques used here were a learn 'by the seat of your pants' type of thing. It's getting more familiar each time I use the program but I know there's so much yet to figure out. For a more realistic appearance, I tried creating more shadow effects but going as dark as I really needed to -made the shadows look too black and fake. Most of the hard shadows on the road are part of the original shot. After taking it through Photoshop, I played around with it in Nik Software's Color Efex Pro, applying a few different filters. Then back to Photoshop to subtly apply 3 different Kim Klassen texture layers. Fun!

Thanks for the push, Rachel! :)

My co-workers graciously volunteered to be models for the "Get Pushed!" challenge posed by Flickr member -eLo- 365. Check out Elodie's stream at www.flickr.com/photos/elo_dite_elo/, she's very versatile and actually completed a 365 Project!

Her challenge to me:

"I looked through your stream and really enjoyed all the lovely shots of your horse, dog and cats! Seems like you are very talented at capturing their mood, and my challenge to you will be to extend this to humans :) So your challenge will be to photograph a portrait that reflects a specific mood or sentiment from your subject. It can bet set-up or candid, my only contraint will be for it to be fairly close (head and shoulder sort of crop)."

I was concerned that my portraits would look posed and unnatural, so used a trick I saw on SarahStar7's stream - using a frame as a prop to help people relax for the photos. We had a lot of fun!

Many thanks to Sheila and the rest of the team for helping me with my challenge. More photos of this fun birthday celebration will follow when I have the time to process them. Portraits are hard work!

And of course, many thanks to Elodie for pushing me in a new direction!

Taken for round 17 of the Get Pushed group, this time I was paired with Tom (tjmorrison2) who has a wonderful stream, I so love his animal shots. Anyway his challenge to me was

"I would like to push you to do a shot with a sense of motion. Something with motion blur so the viewer can feel/sense the motion in the scene."

I struggled a little with this as I found it difficult to come up with an idea of how to get a slow enough shutter speed for the effect I was after (with the shots I envisaged), I think I need to revisit the ideas I had for this once I get an ND filter!

I hope this though has met the push Tom, not as good as I would have liked, as I was not able to use a tripod here, but I do like the effect.

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Hurry UP Change!

My co-workers graciously volunteered to be models for the "Get Pushed!" challenge posed by Flickr member -eLo- 365. Check out Elodie's stream at www.flickr.com/photos/elo_dite_elo/, she's very versatile and actually completed a 365 Project!

Her challenge to me:

"I looked through your stream and really enjoyed all the lovely shots of your horse, dog and cats! Seems like you are very talented at capturing their mood, and my challenge to you will be to extend this to humans :) So your challenge will be to photograph a portrait that reflects a specific mood or sentiment from your subject. It can bet set-up or candid, my only contraint will be for it to be fairly close (head and shoulder sort of crop)."

I was concerned that my portraits would look posed and unnatural, so used a trick I saw from SarahStar7's stream - using a frame as a prop to help people relax for the photos. We had a lot of fun!

Many thanks to Isaac and the rest of the team for helping me with my challenge. More photos of this fun birthday celebration will follow when I have the time to process them. Portraits are hard work!

And of course, many thanks to Elodie for pushing me in a new direction!

In Round 17 of Get Pushed I have been paired with the wonderful JTsMama.

In her challenge to me she said:

" I would like to see you either re-create or re-do one of your shots to look for one more way to spice it up or change it if you felt something you might have done a little differently. ............ I like that you went back to places (or perhaps captured them in different ways at one time.) and did something a little different. If you so choose you might also just re-edit a shot you feel quite satisfied with to get a new look."

JTsMama gave me suggestions from my stream to work on, both from location shots and of still lifes, including some shots I had taken of glasses.

So I chose to try and improve some refraction shots I attempted last year. See below for my re dos.

But while I was at it I took a new shot, while playing around with a chess board as the back ground .

Thanks for the challenge.

I will keep practicing this.

ODT: 5/14/2012: Distorted

2012 Photo Challenge: 30/366

West Adelaide's Zac O'Brien #2 (Midfield) during todays SANFL match between West Adelaide v Sturt at Peter Motley Oval, Unley, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia on July23, 2016. Photo: Phillip Steele - Sportzfotoz

Black Coffee In Bed

Get Pushed Challenge - Round 17

Challenger: *emeraldgirl*

"The stain on my notebook, remain all that's left of the memory of late nights and coffee in bed"

Black Coffee In Bed - Squeeze

www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9QZhLSKEps

This is my second round (third challenge image) for the group "Get Pushed!!!", a fun group where you are paired with another participant and they challenge you with a theme, style or subject that may be out of your comfort zone, or simply just fun!

This round I was paired with the talented and fun *emeraldgirl* whose photostream is a menagerie of fun images. You should definitely check it out!

Her challenge for me was this:

"What is the one thing you can't live without? Photograph that one thing and show why it means so much to you. It could be a person, an object, an emotion, a piece of camera equipment or even food. Capture what makes you smile in the morning or what you think of before sleep. And now for the twist - you are to be in the photo, too.

Extra points if you pair the image with a favorite song."

I knew almost immediately what I was going to do, and which song I wanted to pair it with. This image actually contains THREE things I can't live without: My morning coffee, my darling and loving wife, and MUSIC! Although, music really isn't IN the image, the title of the image is the title of the song connected to the image. While the song is actually about love lost, it's still a favorite song, and I just love the lines about the coffee cup stain being all that remains of her, but he's moving on. Fortunately for me, my love is still here and in full bloom (as it has been for 11 years now!)

Many thanks to my loving wife for participating this morning! :)

Coffee Grounds

Camera: Nikon D90

Lens: Nikkor AF-D 50mm f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

Aperture: f/1.4

ISO: ISO200

Flash: SB-900 2' behind camera, 7' high difused, TTL -1 EV, reflected off ceiling

Flash triggered with PocketWizard TT1/TT5

Camera triggered (under covers) with Pixel RF Remote

Processed in LR3 and CS5

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© 2011-2012 Mark Hopkins Photography - All Rights Reserved.

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West Adelaide's Zac O'Brien #2 (Midfield)and West Adelaide's Hugh Haysman #14 tackle Sturt's Jack Penfold #28 during todays SANFL match between West Adelaide v Sturt at Peter Motley Oval, Unley, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia on July23, 2016. Photo: Phillip Steele - Sportzfotoz

My co-workers graciously volunteered to be models for the "Get Pushed!" challenge posed by Flickr member -eLo- 365. Check out Elodie's stream at www.flickr.com/photos/elo_dite_elo/, she's very versatile and actually completed a 365 Project!

Her challenge to me:

"I looked through your stream and really enjoyed all the lovely shots of your horse, dog and cats! Seems like you are very talented at capturing their mood, and my challenge to you will be to extend this to humans :) So your challenge will be to photograph a portrait that reflects a specific mood or sentiment from your subject. It can bet set-up or candid, my only contraint will be for it to be fairly close (head and shoulder sort of crop)."

I was concerned that my portraits would look posed and unnatural, so used a trick I saw on SarahStar7's stream - using a frame as a prop to help people relax for the photos. We had a lot of fun!

Special thanks go to Elaine for making my birthday cupcakes and to the entire team for helping me with my challenge. More photos of this fun birthday celebration will follow when I have the time to process them. Portraits are hard work!

Cornell du Preez tackles Francois Hougaard.

West Adelaide's Daniel Webb #26 attempts to mark during todays SANFL match between West Adelaide v Sturt at Peter Motley Oval, Unley, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia on July23, 2016. Photo: Phillip Steele - Sportzfotoz

In round 17 of the Get Pushed Group, I got linked to Grif Grif who has a similar attitude to photography: "Experimenting all the time and hopefully getting better at it???". And I guess that is exactly what Andy wanted me to do in this push:

"for your challenge i would like you to get a shot of some typical Amsterdam buildings (perhaps one of the many squares to be found in Amsterdam?). That part should be easy for you but i would like you to produce a HDR image."

Andy has an extensive stream and definitely has more control over the different sliders for HDR, so I decided to post another version in the comments. I still am not sure which one I like better, but that is my general issue with HDR. Do I like it or not....?

PS: the square is one near my home, so no famous canal house shot. I might still do that. This time my time was limited and a quick attempt on the go at shooting down town with my Powershot G12 (compact) did not result in usable shots without a tripod.

PPS: HEMA stands for Hollandse Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij Amsterdam or Dutch Unit Price Company Amsterdam (so there is a Dutch and Amsterdam theme in there, even though our traditional green phone booths are now labelled in English)

Camera Canon EOS 7D

Exposure 5, 1, 25sec

Aperture f/13.0

Lens Sigma 30 mm1.4

ISO Speed 400

Exposure Bias 0, +/- 7/3 EV

Mai Shiranui(kof) in DEAD OR ALIVE 5 Last Round17

West Adelaide's Daniel Caire #13 at the end of todays SANFL match between West Adelaide v Sturt at Peter Motley Oval, Unley, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia on July23, 2016. Photo: Phillip Steele - Sportzfotoz

All rights reserved 2008 - Copyright Derrick den Hollander/Photoworx.com.au - Geelong defeated Hawthorn during AFL Round 17 July 25, 2008 at the MCG, Melbourne, Australia. Photo by Derrick den Hollander / Photoworx

West Adelaide's Logan Hill #15 during todays SANFL match between West Adelaide v Sturt at Peter Motley Oval, Unley, Adelaide, South Australia,Australia on July23, 2016. Photo: Phillip Steele - Sportzfotoz

29 Jan 2012, 29/366

This was taken for get pushed round 17. My partner was NotsoCool. Ed suggested that I didn'r have too many action shots. He challenged me to produce an action shot with selective colour. I took this one this morning at a kiddies play park. The grown up was showing his daughter how to balance.