Friday, March 26, 2010
Makapu Light House
For those of you who don't know, this is the light house from the Movie
"50 First Dates". I did a few things to enhance it, the biggest
difference was made when I sharpened it, it made the water look way
better. I also brightened from the horizon down and enhanced the colors
from the horizon up. I also emphasized the light house by making the red
redder and the white whiter.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Kona '07
I just found this one and I thought it was interesting how it showed a
lot of the composition principles that I've been learning about even
though I took it way back before I knew anything about photography. I'm
thinking I have a natural eye for this type of stuff... or maybe not. It
looks like I should have included more sky so that the horizon is on the
bottom thirds line. oh well.
Under the same Moon
and a few nights ago I was walking back from watching a movie and saw
the moon sneaking around so I decided to take a few pictures. These are
some that I thought looked good.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Oh how time flies
I think I was 20 when I took this picture. Some guy came up to me when I
was working as a security guard and asked me if I was Roman because I
had Roman facial features. He said he had a friend that was looking for
models and thought I would be good but that I needed to show him some
pictures of me shirtless. I think he just wanted to see me topless or
something because nothing developed from it. Oh well.. at least I made
someones day, as awkward as it was. (silver lining)
EL Burro
I saw this little guy when I was driving back from the ranges. He was so
small and looked so sad I thought black and white would be appropriate.
I cropped it so that I can place him walking into the center and used
blur to shorten the depth of field. It's not a great picture but I like
it.
Friday, March 19, 2010
By Special Request
I guess he thought my last one was funny so this guy requested one with
him. He specifically asked for one that addressed sexual harassment...
ok.
Warrior
I've been seeing a lot of people create these type of wallpaper so I
figured I'd give it a shot. I started with a picture of my soldiers that
I took as he was about to slam the hell out of a volleyball but it
didn't cover enough of the screen so added his portrait (which I also
took). It came out looking kinda old, not as modern as I thought it was
going to look but all well, I learned some things for the next one.
Kuwait's Mr. Ed
This is the first clear shot I got of a camel the entire time I've been
here. The only other time they got close to us I couldn't stop because
our mission didn't give us that chance. Even this time, as soon as I got
out of the truck it started to walk away... I don't know why, he's the
one that's 8 feet tall.
First Drums
Download now or listen on posterous
I already put pictures and videos on here so I'm going to close the
cycle with some sound. I made this beat using Ardour... keep in mind
that I'm not a musician just a nerd that likes computers.
For My Baby
I know it's corny but these are the kind of things I do when I miss her.
Plus it was her birthday and I was on the other side of the world...
literally.
Stewie's Swagger
I was dying laughing when I made this... it came out different than what
I thought it was going to look. Enjoy!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
My Future Ride
I made this using Blender 3D and I thought it came out pretty good for a
beginner. I want to be able to get better at 3D graphics but it's very
time consuming so I won't be able to produce as many things as I want
unless I want my wife to leave me - which I don't! in case you're
reading this :D.
The Castle
case you don't recognized it, it's the castle in Tokyo Disneyland. I
like both of these shots because of the colors and of course the beauty
of the castle (even if it is fake). On both of these I made sure I added
foreground objects to add a frame. I didn't do much to these other than
erasing the date stamps which I though were a good idea at first (but
not anymore) and on the one with the pot I erased a flare given by the
lamp directly next to it. I like how they both came out.
Stand Alone
This is by far my favorite picture from my trip into Kuwait City. I love
the way this building gives the appearance that it is shooting out of
the ground in a spiral motion. This was as close as I could get with the
lens being that it was so far away. I had trouble with the white balance
and the stains on the glass that I shot it trough but at the end I
thought it came out pretty good with an old feel to it. I really love
this picture but I wish I could have gotten it a little clearer.
From above
I took this from the inside of the Kuwaiti Towers during a trip to
Kuwait City. I took it with the 70-300mm lens that a coworker let me
borrow. I shot it facing straight down towards the base of the tower.
The only thing that I did to this one was adjust the white balance
because the bright sun and the distance to the bottom gave it a washed
out look but the grass was really that green and I caught the kid
running on mid stride right on the center of the frame. I especially
like how the center is brighter than the edges, I didn't do that, it
just came out like that. I love this one.
Nature in the desert
these pictures. I took about 500 pictures but only a few stood out,
these were some of them. I was lucky enough that the night before one of
the contractors that I worked with let me borrow his Nikon 70-300mm lens
which allowed me to zoom in really close to this butterfly without
having to get close to it and possibly scaring it away. I fell in love
with this lens and as soon as I can convince my wife to let me buy it, I
will. I didn't do much to these images other than fixing the white
balance, cropping and removing some of the dirt from the pedals. Hope
you enjoy them as much as I do.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
On guard
I took this picture when one of our 18 wheeler supply trucks broke down
and we needed to stop and keep watch while it got fixed. In was one of
the few day missions that we had so it was more comforting being able to
see everything around us unlike the night missions when everything is
pitch black. I used GIMP do darken the gun trucks and get a better
silhouette around the sun. I also cropped it vertically, I took it
horizontally with more of the gun truck showing to the left.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Drama on Iraq's Roads
I took this picture on a mission in Iraq with my Samsung point-n-shoot
through the one inch thick bullet proof glass of my gun truck. I thought
it was a pretty dramatic shot but it is so common to see accidents in
the roads that it turned out to be the first of many pictures I took of
road accidents. I felt that by converting it to gray scale it added to
the mood of the image. Do you agree?
My First Blog Post
In an attempt to get better at photography I will begin this blog to show my work and hopefully get some constructive criticism that will help me and motivate me to continue to learn. I took this first image of a set of bag pipes in Kuwait, where I'm currently located, during a going away BBQ being hosted by the Army's 101st members as they were getting ready to go back home. I found it interesting because you don't see these too often plus after 16 months in the desert it was something new to take a picture off. Let me know what you think.