The Art We Breathe

Photoshop Tutorial (class project)

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:01:00 +0000

Well, school has started again (hence the less regular posting...sorry).

So, while you wait for me to actually process some photos (I have some interesting ones coming soon, stay tuned), here's a project I just finished for school.

I designed this photoshop tutorial site for my Web Design II class. Enjoy:

Self Portrait - New Strobe Test

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:54:00 +0000

I just bought a used Sigma EF-500 flash and wanted to put it to the test.

Here's the rundown on how I lit it—

I used the new flash as the main light, diffused through a white umbrella. The rim lights are created by snooted Vivitar 285HVs behind the subject (me!) at 45º angles.

The Vivitar strobes were triggered by Cactus V2s and the new strobe was triggered via its built in slave (it fires when its sensor sees another flash pop).

Pre-Fay Sunset

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:46:00 +0000

I always love the weird weather that comes along with tropical storms and hurricanes. The low, quickly moving clouds often make the light change in ways we usually never see. I happened to look out my window yesterday evening and saw the following sunset:

Biplane

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:50:00 +0000

Dirt

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:48:00 +0000

I went for a walk the other day and discovered an interesting area just outside of a newly built neighborhood. They're digging it up, I assume to put in some more houses at some point.

This first photo is a 13 image stitch. It reminds me of Horseshoe Bend in Colorado. ^^^ Click on Photo to See a Larger Preview^^^

The Transaction

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 19:01:00 +0000

Click Here to see more photos from this shoot

My friend Ian is in town for a few weeks and I wanted to take some portraits of him while he's here. The other day I noticed a tipped over train car on a back road to my house and decided it would be the perfect place for a photo shoot!

So, last night around 9:30 PM we headed to the train car and I set up some lights. Since it was pitch black out there, I used a high flashlight to focus. Sometimes I ended up using the flashlight to add a bit of warmth to Ian's face.

There was a surprising amount of traffic on that road, and we must have looked really strange to passers-by...

Speaking of which, partway through the shoot I got a call from some friends of mine. They asked me where I was, and I said I was doing a shoot. They said, "By a train?"...you get the picture.

So they turned around and hung out for a while. Naturally, I took a few portraits:

Kyra and Tim's Wedding

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 05:37:00 +0000

I just posted photos from Kyra and Tim's wedding on my Facebook Page.

Raccoons!

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:25:00 +0000

The pool at my house has been drained for quite a while now, waiting to be painted. The other day (ok several weeks ago...) some baby raccoons decided to swim in the rainwater that had filled up part of the deep end. So, while they were enjoying themselves, they were kind enough to pose for a quick portrait session:

This one enjoyed the pool light.

Posing for a close-up...

Then it was time to go...and no he didn't make it up the ladder. He ended up going up the stairs in the shallow end.

Chicago

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:29:00 +0000

So it's taken me a month to get these up here, but here they are—photos from my trip to Chicago.

The first night, after watching Wall-E (which I thoroughly enjoyed), my sister took me for a drive around Chicago. I decided to experiment with some motion blur, so I lifted my camera up out of the car through the sun roof, strapped it securely to my arm, braced it on the roof, and shot away:

These are from Gino's East. The whole interior is (intentionally) covered with it:

I also got to check out the Threadless store which was awesome:

Reader Challenge: And the Winner Is...

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:33:00 +0000

And the winner is: Natalie Seidel!

The Answer: RocketFive Photography

Congratulations, Natalie. Pick out which photo you want and I'll get you your print!

Thanks to everyone who tried! If there's interest I'll do more contests like this in the future.

---

I started RocketFive Photography before I had ever done any kind of paid shoot. I liked the design alright, but I soon realized that the name was not something I would want to stick with.

Thus, The Art We Breathe was born...

Reader Challenge: Get your answer in now!

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:17:00 +0000

Between the first clue and the second clue, I have effectively given you the answer.

THE FINAL CLUE: Put the answer from the first clue together with the answer of the second clue and plug it into google.

That's right, my original site is still up, it can be found via google if the correct search terms are used.

The first person to comment with the correct name or post the link to the site wins!

---------------

The Art We Breathe on Facebook
In other news...The Art We Breathe Photography is now on Facebook! This is where I'll be uploading my most recent photos, including this gallery of photos from a recent show I went to:

Click on the photo to see the gallery:

Reader Challenge: New Clue! Bigger prize!

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:28:00 +0000

Ok, the first clue was this: What do Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert Esnault-Pelterie, and Robert Hutchings Goddard have in common?

Answer: Rockets

Here is the second clue. It will lead you to a number:

1. The current Roman Catholic Pope is Pope Benedict _____.
PLUS
2. The number of Spartans who fought to the death at the Battle of Thermopylae.
MINUS
3. The number of Psalms in the Bible.
DIVIDED BY
4. The atomic number of helium.
MINUS
5. The year of Clay Aiken's birth was 19___.

EQUALS ________.

Type your answers in the comments. Oh, and by the way, whoever gets the final answer right (i.e. not just this clue) will win a free ~~8x10~~ 11x16 print mounted on matboard!

Reader Challenge Update

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:10:00 +0000

Robert Hutchings Goddard (1882-1945)

No winners so far in the Reader Challenge. Nobody knows? I'm going to make this interesting then. Here is your first clue:

What do Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert Esnault-Pelterie, and Robert Hutchings Goddard have in common?

Type your answers here.

Reader Challenge! Win a free 8x10!

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:04:00 +0000

Photo by Beth Cloutier. Taken in 2005.

It's hard to believe, but I've been shooting now for about five years, and shooting professionally for about three years.

I'll give a free 8x10 print of any photo from my site to the first person to answer this question: What did I originally call my photography company, before The Art We Breathe?

i shall imagine life

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:12:00 +0000

I was in Chicago, IL and Bloomington, IN this week. I'll post a few shots from Chicago soon. First, a few shots from an impromptu photoshoot in Indiana. I was in Bloomington visiting my friend Kyle.

When I arrived at his house, one of the first things I noticed was a metallic lamp with a red bulb hanging from the ceiling above a chair. I filed it away in my mind as a possible photograph location.

After a great Turkish dinner at a quaint restaurant called Anatolia, we went back to the house and listened to a few LPs from his awesome record collection.

Then, feeling nostalgic, we decided to go out in his back yard and catch some fireflies...ah, the memories...

(Note: fireflies are hard to shoot, especially without a tripod! you can see them at the top left and bottom right of the inside of the jar. Click on the photo for a larger view.)

Anyways, back inside, I noticed the light fixture again and asked Kyle if he'd be willing to sit in for a photoshoot. He graciously agreed, and here are the results:

BTW...Kyle is really not a creepy guy, he's just really good at appearing that way in photos!

Apartment Shoot

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:23:00 +0000

These are from an apartment shoot I did the other day:

These first three are HDRs created in Photomatix using three exposures:

These next two are both 4 image stitches stitched in Photoshop with photomerge. This was my first shoot using strobist techniques to light up interiors:

Paint Me Irrational - Category Five Photo Shoot

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Wed, 28 May 2008 00:37:00 +0000

Here's a video from a recent photo shoot I did with Paint Me Irrational:

The Short Version:

The Long Version:

And the results:

New Music! A Lowland EP

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:31:00 +0000

My new EP, "A Lowland EP" is now available for download! You can download it from the player below.

The EP features 7 songs that I have written over the past 7 years.

The first track, "I Hate Goodbyes", is actually a song I wrote while a part of my former band, The Dropowtts. The lyrics were written by Phil Seidel.

The songs are mostly piano compositions, and a few have some keys, guitar, and drums added in.

The last song, "This Day Shall Bring", was intentionally recorded very Lo-Fi. I recorded it entirely with the built in microphone on my Macbook Pro and mixed it in Garage Band. The percussion is literally pots and pans (whatever I could find in the kitchen that made noise...).

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this EP. Look for a full record before too long (hopefully!).

I'd love to hear what you think!

Senior Portrait Special!

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Wed, 07 May 2008 03:05:00 +0000

When you sign up, type "BLOG456" into the comments box and you'll get a free 8x10 print of any photo from your session (a $20 value)!

Gainesville Mystery Site

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:47:00 +0000

I've been taking a web design class this semester, and it's been a lot of fun. I have learned a ton (i.e. be looking out for a total site re-design within the next 6 months).

Here's a site I designed for class. We had to create a website featuring "The Gainesville Mystery Spot - The most unique attraction in North Florida." It could be anything we wanted, so I decided to do something conceptual.

I put together a shoot that ended up taking me two days to complete.

Here's the site, I may or may not post more info on it later (if I feel like it, hehe):

The Gainesville Mystery Site

Finally a photo!

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:46:00 +0000

I haven't been shooting as much as I'd like to lately because of school, but I finally was able to take some photos this week. Actually, as it turns out, these photos were actually for school.

I'm taking a web design class right now and we had to design a site for a fictional movie theater at SFCC. Here's the link to my design - it's not great, I didn't spend as much time on it as I'd have liked to. Oh well, here it is - http://theartwebreathe.net/sfcc/sfcc_theater

Site Update!

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 05:32:00 +0000

I spent most of today working on the photo galleries on my site. There are several new photos and I also changed the layout of the galleries a bit. Enjoy!

Britt and Drew's Wedding I

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 22:56:00 +0000

This is the first in a few posts from Britt and Drew's wedding:

Fire!

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:53:00 +0000

I was driving the other day and saw smoke off in the distance. As I got closer I could see that there was a relatively large scale fire going on, so (naturally) I parked my car on the side of the road and started taking photos. (I would have called and reported the fire but I saw fire trucks heading in that direction, so it was safe to assume they were on it...)

Brittany and Drew Preview

noreply@blogger.com (The Art We Breathe) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:57:00 +0000

I have a lot of post processing ahead of me (about 850 photos), but I thought I'd post a preview photo from the wedding I shot this weekend on Anna Maria Island.