The World According to Angie

Let Go(d)

I shot this photograph of the Atlantic Ocean on a trip to Florida several years ago. While revisiting older photos last week, it jumped out at me and wanted to play.

Texas Sky, aflame

While at one of Veronica's football games out in Wylie, waiting oh-so-patiently for the halftime show, I shot a couple frames of the sunset as it began to dip below the school. Add a filter or two in Photoshop, and this is the result: the Texas sky, all aflame.

Shot with Nikon D200 + 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 Nikkor lens; 1/8000s at f/5.0 and ISO 800 at 180mm. Post-processing done in Photoshop CS3 (including Rusty Cage from Totally Rad Actions).
 

Such mischief in her eyes

She's such a sweet little thing, but sometimes, you can see the mischief in her eyes. This photograph just made me laugh...!

Shot with Nikon D200 + 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 Nikkor lens; 1/250s at f/8, ISO 200 using natural light. Post-processing done in Photoshop CS3 to convert to b/w and add vignette + blur.

A Texas Tuesday Night

Tuesday nights in Texas - at least during the fall - means middle school football. We were there to see V perform in the halftime show, but the bonus was watching the sky light up as the sun set behind us. Add a couple filters in Photoshop, and this is the result.

Dogs are miracles with paws

Today, my parents said farewell to a long-time family member of the four-footed variety. They rescued Sieger from the pound in 1996 when they were stationed in Hawaii. He was about 4 years old, and wild. My Dad's firm hand and obedience training turned him into a loving, sweet, and obedient guy.

In his younger years, he chased Frisbees until your arm would give out. We'd take him to the beach and play fetch-the-stick in the waves; I distinctly remember nearly falling on my behind in the sand with laughter as he dragged a huge piece of driftwood back instead.

From Hawaii to Missouri to Texas, Sieger made every move with my parents in the last dozen years. He lived a long life full of love.  He will be missed.

Shot with Nikon D200 using 55-200mm Nikkor lens; 95mm at 1/60s, f/4.8 and ISO 200 on November 28, 2008. Post-processing and text design done in Photoshop CS3.

Evolution of a shot into a portrait

 

I love this portrait. Love, love, LOVE it. It's a combination of my slowly-improving photography skills, an awesome lens, and some Photoshop magic.

Here's the original photo, straight out of camera (SOOC):

 

By itself, it's a pretty good picture. But I used Lightroom to crop it in tight on his face (and rotate it a bit, because I find there's more energy and interest in angled images) and tweak the exposure just a bit.

Then, I took it into Photoshop and used a couple filters to pump it up (Bring On the Eyes from Pioneer Woman Action Set 2 and Bitchin BW from Totally Rad Actions). Finally, I added an "edge burn" layer with a feathered-edge parallelogram rather than a circle to follow the same angle as his eyes.

Voila! Photo to portrait.

Growth... through play

 

I was playing with focal length, exposure settings, and unusual angles the other day while exploring my own front yard. This shot is almost SOOC; I just applied a quick softening filter in Photoshop before adding the quotation. I'm thinking this might wind up printed and hung on my office wall.

Sometimes, it's just fun to play...

Shot with Nikon D200 and 50mm f/1.4 lens at ISO 200 and 1/400s at f/1.4.

Mood Swings

 

My darling niece, shrieking with joy while swinging in her backyard.  Unfortunately, the sun was direct and harsh, and I hadn't learned the trick of manual exposure settings just yet, so her face is sort of blown out ... so I figured this photo called for some Photoshop play.  This fun filter is called Colorized, and comes from Pioneer Woman's 2nd set of actions.  Good stuff.

Oh, this is also when I discovered my new 70-300mm Tamron lens is godawful slow to auto-focus.  I finally focused on her face on the backswing, and waited for her to get back in frame before shooting.  Sigh.  That's the difference between a $200 lens and a $2,000 lens, I guess.

Shot with Nikon D200 at 300mm, 1/1250s at f/5.6, December 29, 2008.

The Reeds, Take Two

I absolutely love this photo of Audrey and Chris and their firstborn, 3-month old Logan.  It took a bit of patience, about a dozen frames, and help from Jim, but we managed to get them all looking at the camera (and a smile from Logan).  Audrey likes the ethereal look of this particular photo filter (called "Super Fun Happy") so I did a little post-production work in Photoshop.  Shot with Nikon D200 at 55mm, f/4.0, no flash on a cloudy day.

Man Builds, Nature Takes Back

While exploring Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg, I discovered this padoga-type area.  I'd imagine it's stunning in the springtime, but its stark beauty in the autumn is no less impressive.  Shot with my Elph on a manual setting.  I crouched low in the leaves and moved around until I was happy with the perspective I saw through my viewfinder.  And I applied some filters in Photoshop to create this quasi-antiqued look.