Psychedelic gecko one of 200 new species discovered in South East Asia

Psychedelic gecko one of 200 new species discovered in South East Asia

Began working on prosthetics today. Got the first coat of Pro-Adhesive on and waiting for it to dry so I can put on the second coat. Then make up. Will post pictures when I get them done.

Used FilterForge's Radiance Filter on the first one, Grunge Filter on the second one, LOMO Filter on the third one and the last one I used Old Photo, by FilterForge.

Found this little guy building a web in my side yard.....

Opportunity

Got a really great opportunity that I am working on seeing if I can make it work. A buddy of mine offered me the opportunity to work in photography. I am checking out how much start up costs are going to be, what kind of equipment I will need, and SBA loans and how to start a business.
I really think I can undercut the competition and I think this would be a lot of fun to work in. I love photography and I haven't been able to do much with it, except for some of the projects that I have done on my blogs.
I have had an increase in interest in my photography and I have several people wanting me to do their graduation pictures. Since they are teammates and friends, I would all ready do the free thing for them.
Portraiture, though is something else. I have never worked in that medium before preferring to use the natural light, etc. More updates on this exciting new venture soon.

Willie the Orangutan

My tribute to Willie-RIP

Filtered with Filter Forge’s LOMO Filter.

Willie the Orangutan

Sadly I found out today that Willie, the Sumatran Orangutan, at the Columbus Zoo, passed away on August 24th. This shot was taken of him on April 29, 2011, the last time that we went to the Zoo.

He always acted like he enjoyed it when people came over to see him, often looking like he was posing for pictures. He will be missed by his many fans.

Jebenezzer Law Water Reflections

Used the LOLO Filter from Filter Forge.

Jebenezzer Law

Used Filter Forge’s Old Photo on this one. I want to play around with this one on some other shots.

Spider

Used Filter Forge’s Grunge Effect Filter. Kind of like this one if I am looking for that dirty, grunge look.

Monarch Butterfly

Used one of Xero’s Filters on the second shot called Softmood with the settings on:
Haziness: 50
Glow-Red-50
Green-50
Blue-50
Brightness-0
Contrast-0

The first shot is the original shot and is kind of sun faded because of how bright the sun was. The filtering really brought out the darkness of the greens and the color of the Monarch Butterfly. So the original went from mediocre to vivid. I like this filter.

Butterfly

The top shot I used the filter from Xero called Radiance with the settings:

Strangeness-128

Charm- 50

Truth - 128

Beauty - 255

The bottom shot is the unedited original.

Reflected

Playing around with two separate pictures…..a dark water scene and Zombie Jebenezzer. Bottom layer was full opacity with some burning along the edges. Middle layer was a warped twice and left at a 66% opacity. Then the top layer was a copy of the the bottom layer, the dark water scene, with an opacity of 6%.

Filters used were: Xero’s Radiance to bring out the second layer a little more.

Blog Entry dated 8/29/2011 6:40 PM

Spider web that we took at  Englewood Dam 8-25-2011.  I filtered the shot with Chromasolarize from Flaming Pear

A lot to catch up on

Well, sorry I have been so neglectful, but I have been busy bringing my other blogs up to date....Be prepared for an influx of photographic projects and other updates...a lot has been going on and there are going to be many updates.

Night Shot-Different Angle

Night Shot

Transformation

After getting some criticism for how quick the transformation was, I slowed it down and this is what it came out as.

The Lewisburg Haunted Cave 2011

Do you like Haunts? If so then check this place out. I have been to a lot of Haunts and this is probably one of the best ones in the State. Takes about an hour to an hour and a half to get through.

According to Guinness Book of World Records, Lewisburg Haunted Cave is ranked the Longest walk-through horror house in the world. Come see for yourself in October!

Operation dates for 2011:

September 23-24, 30

October 1, 7-8, 14-15, 21-22, 28-29

Gates open at 7:00 pm

Ticket Prices:

Adults - $13.00

Children age 10 and under - $5.00

You can get a money saving coupon at:

www.hauntedcaveatlewisburg.com

This is the best Haunt in the area for the price. You are 80 feet underground bewitched and tormented by creatures like the Diabolical Brent Archer, Zombee and his Hoard, Jebenezzer Law and his underground Jail Cell, and the finally, you will visit the very pits of Hell and come face to face with the Devil himself.

Petunia Study

Figured I would work on some photographic skills.....lol. Now I have to work on my posting skills....lol. Anyway,

The second picture is supposed to be the first picture. This was shot in RAW format and then cropped. I didn't want to mess with any compression, but I had to convert them to JPEG so I could post them.

The first picture is the RAW photo with the Colorworks filter by Cybia. I used the inverse filter with a range of 128.

The third picture is the above picture with the Colorworks filter by Cybia applied again, using inverse and a range of 128 again.

Jeb Morph

This is the second attempt....actually the third of fourth, but I don't count all the resizing....lol.

Broken Up

Did a combination of comic book style filters and a brand new background of a tunnel that was warped and distorted.

First Morph Attempt

Second Attempt at Burning Effect

I like this one a little better. Changed the hair color to blond and it showed up a lot better in this effect. My buddy Kyle said I look like Gimli...lol

Attempt at Burning Effect

First attempt at a burning effect. Not to happy with it...looks more like infrared....lol

What Lies Beneath

Ripped the flesh off to let everyone see what lies beneath…lol. There are several layers of adjustments. Totally experimental. For the background splatter effect I used glossy blood splatter brushes.

First Reflection Attempt

After noticing one big giant flaw….didn’t make a layer opaque enough to let the edges blend a bit better, this is the new and improved reflection technique. I had to play around with some of the suggested settings to get this effect. After many adjustment layers and a lot of tweaking….I was kind of happy with what it turned out to be.

Got the background from a royalty free site, used Jeb’s head from another shot and this is what it turned out to be.

If you are interested in doing something like this…here is the tutorial link:

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/water-reflection/

Comic Effect

Tried a tutorial on comic book effects with a picture of Jeb that may look good on the cover of a potential comic book….Not really happy with the results, looks more like an art effect gone wrong….lol. If you would like to experiment with this effect, check out this link: http://pshero.com/photoshop-tutorials/photo-effects/comic-book-photo-effect.

Text idea came from a buddy of mine….I co-opted it word for word…lol. He thinks that Jeb would be a great character in a Zombie comic…I don’t know about that since he is partially dead anyways…maybe not a bona fide Zombie, but pretty close to one.

We have been working on several story lines though. I am leaning more towards a Zombie that retains memories, etc., but still has a hankering for the taste of live prey….lol

Second Attempt

I like this one a little better. Shows a bit more of the darkness I was trying to encompass. The background started out with just plain black and then I added Chains and Spiderwebs with brushes from Inobscuro. The cracks were created with Solalia’a crack brushes. Smudged and Burned with the tools in Adobe Photoshop. Layers and layer masks for the eyes. Liked the eyes….I think I will work more with some of the eye changing techniques in other pictures.

First Attempt

Messing around with some new effects. Didn’t really like the way this one turned out….too much texture, but it hid a lot of flaws. Looked more cartoonish than a serious attempt. The background is kind of cheesy also. Used too many effects to list, which means I can’t remember what all I did to it (lol), but not one of my favorites.

Part II Ripple Effects

Part I Ripple Effects

This is the first five images that I manipulated with a reflection/ripple effect. I then used various filters to see what they would look like after I filtered them. All the filter effects came from Xero. Unfortunately, I didn't write down which ones I used, so I have no clue what they were...lol. I was going to do this in a slideshow, but I didn't feel like changing computers.

Fire Sky

Picture of my oldest done with various filters.

Pale

This is a picture of my oldest done up with various filters for the effect.

Earth Sign

Found out that as a Virgo, I am an Earth sign...I liked the part of blending into the background, especially the background that I live in...cold, damp and dark....lol

New Look?

Just started messing around with some pictures with PhotoShop and I came up with this using the Titanium Filter from Xero.

Zoo shots with Captions

Zoo Shots with Captions

Nativity Ornament or Stand Alone Decoration

• Made out of mahogany, this piece measures approximately 3 1/2 inches tall and 3 inches wide.
• Finished with 3 coats of MinWax Polyurethane.

The mahogany is coming from a cache that I had acquired from my brother-in-laws late grandfather who began woodworking later in life. These have always been a big seller at the shows we used to go to. It can either be an ornament or used as a stand alone piece.

The Punisher

• This piece measures 10 1/4 inches tall and 7 1/2 inches wide.
• It’s made out of scrap pine with a back board of luan.
• Painted with acrylic paints and finished with four coats of MinWax Polycrylic
• Finished off with a bracket for hanging off the wall

This was my first foray into the paying respects to the comic book world that I love so much. The Punisher is one of my favorite characters. This design was adapted from the artwork that was used in the first movie starring Thomas Jane.

Jalopy

• Made out of Western Fir, Pine, Mahogany, Birch dowels and Maple this piece measures 9 1/8 inches long and 2 7/8 inches wide.
• Front end is tapered, rear end is rounded over
• Four coats of MinWax Polyurethane

I forgot all about this one. Found an intact model in a box out in the shop. This one was another favorite of the nephews and the neighborhood kids.

This one was inspired by an old car collector that we knew when we were younger. He had all sorts of old cars and after gleaning my memory for inspiration I settled on on of the cars that he had that I remembered.

Drawing it out was a lot of fun, but rounding over the rear end and narrowing the front end, really set this car off for me.