Three Panoramics taken at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park

1. Light Painting Panoramic – 3 overlapping images, taken at night with a tripod and spotlights; Nikon D600
2. Sunset Panoramic – 3 images taken at Sunset, taken with my Nikon D600
3. iPhone 5 Panoramic – One continuous panoramic taken at sunset with my iPhone 5

A little over a week ago, I was able to spend some a beautiful day in Yellowstone National Park with my Professional Imaging class and we ended up at Mammoth Hot Springs for a beautiful sunset. So we lingered long enough to pull off a few light paintings during blue hour, which is the hour after sunset. I rotated my tripod to capture three adjacent scenes, taking to use big spot lights to “paint in the light” to feature certain portions of the beautiful geothermal formations.

It was fun to combine four things I love to create this image:
1. Light Painting with good friends
2. Yellowstone National Park
3. Panoramic Image Blending in Photoshop (I added some accent dodging and burning)
4. Comm 316 Professional Imaging Class Excursion

CLICK images to enlarge – Light Painting Panoramic – Three overlapping light painting images merged in Photoshop

Three separate, overlapping light painted images – Merged in Photoshop (see blended pano above)

Sunset Panoramic (three images) taken with my Nikon D600 at sunset

iPhone 5 Panoramic – Panoramic Image taken with my iPhone 5 at sunset

I used a small continuous LED light to take this portrait of one of  my favorite people on the planet, Annie Brown! She was chosen from a competitive group of young artists as the Young Artist if the Year to play with the Idaho Falls Symphony. I was lucky enough to take her portrait for the event/program and be in attendance while she wowed the audience with a once-in-a-lifetime-performance that roused us all to a standing ovation. Congratulations, Annie, and thank you for letting me be part of it!

Our neighbors on Mill Hollow Rd. have an awesome tradition of creating an ice sculpture every winter. They run a hose during the coldest part of winter and let it freeze into a unique shape. They set up a light box inside, so it glows at night. I have been having fun photographing it at sunrise and moonrise the past few weeks. It takes on different shapes as it melts, and a unique hole developed about a month ago. It was fun to try and position the moon through the hole. It is getting much smaller each day and soon it will be gone, but I was able to capture some light paintings of it a few nights ago using a flashlight. Here’s to you, Bart and Joanne! Thanks for brightening up our neighborhood!

Thanks for stopping by for my weekly blog post. I would love to hear which are your favorites, so feel free to leave me a comment. Enjoy the last few days of winter!

AJ Buruca by Julie Peterson

It is an extreme pleasure to welcome a talented and versatile photographer, AJ Buruca, as my second Guest Photographer. (See my first guest: Marissa Carlson here) AJ can shoot and edit anything! He is an expert with light painting, macro, food, portrait, you name it. I love his cityscape and architectural images. He does a tasteful, professional job with his HDR images.  Take a look for yourself and leave a comment with which images you like best! Please welcome, my friend, the incredible…

AJ  Buruca – Website: www.ajburuca.com

It is an honor to be featured in Caryn Esplin’s blog. I have been able to learn a lot from her in her Digital Imaging and her new Professional Imaging courses at BYU-Idaho.  I have done photography as a hobby for about two or three years now, but professionally since the start of the Professional Imaging course in September 2012.

I like to consider myself a multi-purpose photographer. I like to try out new things and share them with the world. Currently I have tried out macro, portrait, HDR, landscape, food and product, light painting and many other creative photography works. One of my favorite types of photography is cityscape. I was born and raised in Boston, where my passion for photography began.

At first I was terrified of using Photoshop, or any type of photo editing software. Now as an experienced photographer I use a lot of editing techniques for editing my photos. My current editing process consists of Lightroom 4, Photoshop CS6, Photomatix for HDR processing. My editing process tends to change a lot as I discover new formats of editing to improve my photos.

If you want to see more of my work, you can log on to my website at www.ajburuca.com

AJ Buruca – Salt Lake Assembly Hall

AJ Buruca – Macro Water Drop

AJ Buruca – Portrait

AJ Buruca – Light Painting – Bannack

AJ Buruca – Salt Lake City

AJ Buruca – Salt Lake City

AJ Buruca – Food Photography

AJ Buruca – Light Painting – Virginia City

AJ Buruca – Rexburg LDS Temple

AJ Buruca – Salt Lake City LDS Temple

AJ Buruca – Portrait

AJ Buruca – Stephen’s Hot Chocoloate

AJ Buruca – New York City Times Square

AJ Buruca – Boston Chinatown

Congratulations to these winners for top awards in the Winter Semester 2013 – Bannack Shootout Contest. We had 160 entries in three categories. See all entries here: flickr group.
Click here to see the finalists from our Winter 2103 photo excursion  to Bannack Ghost Town, Montana,  in all three categories, announced last week:
Portraits   -    Ghost Town    -    Creative

Thanks to all who voted on their favorites! The Blog Winners, who will receive their choice of a 5-in-one Reflector, or Scott Kelby Digital Photography Book. The Overall and first place Judges Winners, below, will receive one of the following: a YN 56o II Flash, LED continuous 160 dimmable light on a CowboyStudio Light Stand or Sunpak pistol grip tripod. Other winners will receive their choice of light stands, reflectors and Scott Kelby books.

The camera gear prizes total over $300 and I will award them today in class before we prep everyone’s large format framed posters. All students from the Comm 300 classes will be showing their large, framed prints in the Spori building foyer for the next two weeks. We have such a talented group in both sections of Comm 300 Digital Imaging this semester. Thanks to everyone in both classes for all your hard work.. Cheers!

Blog Winners

Portrait:  Aaron Woodward
Ghost Town: Abigail Ebberts
Creative: Heather Mosley

Judges Winners

Overall Versatile Shootout Winner:  Casey Ross
Casey had the most finalist winners and placed in all three categories…Wowsie!

Portrait Category:
1st Place: Chelsea Call
2nd Place: Destiny Tirrell
Third Place Tie:  Denise Green, JT Dewey, Casey Ross

Ghost Town Category: 
1st Place: Abigail Ebberts
2nd Place: Casey Ross

Creative Category:
1st Place: Heather Mosley
2nd Place: Casey Ross

1st Place Portait: Chelsea Call (Model: Megan Bennett – Joseph Kivett)

2nd Place Portrait – Destiny Tirrell (Model: Megan Bennett – Joseph Kivett)

3rd Place (Tie) Portrait: Denise Green (Model: Julie Peterson)

3rd Place (Tie) Portrait: J.T. Dewey (Model: Molly Smock)

3rd Place (Tie) Portrait: Casey Ross (Model: Karl Hansen)

Blog Winner Portrait: Aaron Woodward (Model: Alejandra)

1st Place – Ghost Town: Abigail Ebberts (Also the Blog Winner)

2nd Place – Ghost Town: Casey Ross

1st Place – Creative: Heather Mosley  (Also the Blog Winner)

2nd Place – Creative: Casey Ross

Portrait Category Finalists – Winter Semester 2013
Voting ends Saturday at 12 noon

Congratulations to our finalists in the Ghost Town category of our Bannack Shootout contest for the Winter 2013 semester. Overall, we had 160 entries in three categories. View all entries in our Flickr group here.  PLEASE VOTE one time on your favorite image in this category by adding a COMMENT (above) with the letter of the image. Also, don’t forget to SCROLL DOWN to the next blog post to vote on your favorite from our other two categories: Bannack Ghost Town and Bannack Creative. Thank you for participating and A VERY SPECIAL SHOUT OUT TO ALL OF OUR MODELS AND TAs WHO DONATED THEIR TIME TO MAKE THIS AN UNFORGETTABLE PHOTO EXCURSION.  For the first time in history they allowed us to drive our giant BYU-I travel bus right down the middle of the ghost town! Click here for more photos from our memorable trip.

A – Denise Green – All Bannack Models

B – Chelsea Call (Model: Megan Bennett – Joseph Kivett)

C – Denise Green (Model: Julie Peterson)

D – J.T. Dewey (Model: Molly Smock)

E – Heather Mosley (Model: Danny Morgan)

F – Aaron Woodward (Model: Alejandra Lopez)

G – Annie Mills (Model: Danny Morgan)

H – Destiny Tirrell (Model: Megan Bennett – Joseph Kivett)

I – J.T. Ker (Model: Zach Kelly)

J – Katie Sykes (Model: Hysen Sisco)

K – Casey Ross (Model: Karl Hansen)

L – Destiny Tirrell (Model: Zach Kelly)

Ghost Town Category Finalists – Winter Semester 2013

Voting ends Saturday at 12 noon

Congratulations to our finalists in the Ghost Town category of our Bannack Shootout contest for the Winter 2013 semester. Overall, we had 160 entries in three categories. View all entries in our Flickr group here. Please vote one time on your favorite image in this category by adding a comment with the letter of the image. Also, don’t forget to vote on your favorite from our other two categories: Bannack Portrait and Bannack Creative. Thank you for participating! For the first time in history they allowed us to drive our giant BYU-I travel bus right down the middle of the ghost town! Click here for more photos from our memorable trip.

A – Abigail Ebberts

B – Casey Ross

C – Matt Spencer

D – Denise Green

E – J.T. Dewey

F – Casey Ross

G – Dan Sisco

H – Jalissa Robinson

I – Casey Ross

Creative Category Finalists – Winter 2013 Semester

Congratulations to our finalists in the Creative category of our Bannack Shootout contest for the Winter 2013 semester. Overall, we had 160 entries in three categories. View all entries in our Flickr group here. Please vote one time on your favorite image in this category by adding a comment with the letter of the image. Also, don’t forget to vote on your favorite from our other two categories: Bannack Portrait and Bannack Ghost Town. Thank you for participating! For the first time in history they allowed us to drive our giant BYU-I travel bus right down the middle of the ghost town! Click here for more photos from our memorable trip.

A – Casey Ross

B – Heather Mosley

C – Blake Maxwell

D – Ethan Anderson

E – Abigail Ebberts

F – Kristina Dikhyarova

G – Katie Alvarez

H – Katie Alvarez

Winter Semester Photo Excursion – BYU-Idaho Comm 300 Digital Imaging Classes

We had a fabulous time on our Bannack Ghost Town photo excursion last Thursday, Valentines Day! The day started out sunny and gorgeous, but it cooled off as a cold front moved in for the afternoon. During the last hour of the day, when everyone headed in to warm up and get some food, AJ took the opportunity to capture some HDR images on Main Street and try out some wide angle zoom lenses. I used the Nikon 16-35 on my Nikon D600, while AJ used the Tokina 11-16 on his Canon T4i.

The sky started getting that ominous stormy look and these images were the result of that experience. I usually don’t get to shoot while on a student photo excursion, so it was a rare treat to photograph a place I love so much. I have a lot of fun memories of Bannack Ghost Town and now I can add these to the mix. This was the most snow I have ever seen there, so the images are unique.

For the first time in history they allowed us to drive our big bus through town on the Main Street of Bannack Ghost Town. The back access road was icy and we almost slid off into a ravine on the way in, so this was our best option to get out safely. Cruising the big BYU-I bus by the old Hotel Meade was a once-in-lifetime experience and it was fun to shoot this memory! The lighting and winter sky was just right for a nice finish to the beautiful day at Bannack.  Fun times!

Artichoke Harvest in Castroville, the Artichoke Capital of the World!

I was looking through my images from our trip to the San Francisco Bay Area last summer and I came across these photos of the artichoke harvest in Castroville, California, which is the artichoke capital of the world! We were driving by one morning on the way from Monterey to Felton to go on the Roaring Camp narrow-gauge steam train. Fortunately we had a few minutes to watch the harvest process. I was amazed at how they sorted and boxed the artichokes right in the field. The large truck parked right next to the workers who walked the rows searching for all the ripe artichokes. They would grab on as they walked by and toss it over their shoulder without slowing a step. At the end of a row, they hoisted the bag up to someone on the truck and it would boxed in no time. Now I have a hankering for those yummy fried artichoke hearts! They melt in your mouth and I hope you get to Castroville sometime to try them fresh during late July when the artichoke harvest is in full swing! Of course, you could just go pick up a few in your local grocery store right now!  Maybe I should work for the California Artichoke Commission… Haha.

This guy could outwork all his younger counterparts. He always filled his bag first and was so fast seeing the ripe ones! Notice the artichoke he just tossed up in his bag?

We took a trip to the Roaring Camp Railroads in Felton, California in July and it was a blast! We rode this old steam engine through a gorgeous redwood forest and it was fun to see how they still operate these beautiful old trains. The conductor and engineer were the real deal and I was wishing I had the whole family along. They also run a train down the mountain to the beach- boardwalk in Santa Cruz. Now that is a fun little town. Sometime I want to return for sure. They had beach volleyball setup, and an entire carnival set up along the boardwalk.

So I took my three favorite images from the excursion and blended them together in a montage. This is not to be confused with a collage, where images are cut out and placed on a background image in full opacity. To be a true montage, in my opinion, the pixels in your images must intermingle, so they become one. Notice how you can see through the conductor and he seems to melt into the train and forest. No hard edges are allowed!

Caryn Esplin – BYU-Idaho – Comm 130 Visual Media Course – P4 Learning Activity: Photoshop Masking

TRY OUT THE TUTORIAL WITH MY IMAGES
You have my permission to download these four images and try out the tutorial. Just click on an image to make it larger, then right click to download. All I ask is that you leave my name in the .jpg filename and provide a link to my website and list my name when you use the images or post them.

This is an activity I created for my students in Comm 130 Visual Media, part of the Comm Dept. at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho. Have fun with it!

Photoshop Masking Introduction

If you know some basic editing techniques in Photoshop, it is time to start using layers and masks to blend images. If you stack two images, they will be on two separate layers, but you will only see the layer on top. So you can reduce the layer opacity of the top layer to see through to the lower layer. Or just add a layer mask to the top image, then paint with a black brush to hide parts of the image. Then if you want to reveal that layer again, you just add white paint to the layer mask.

Black paint hides; White paint reveals!

Then you can reduce the opacity of your brush to get a gradual blending effect. This gradual blending technique will help you create a photo montage. You don’t want any hard edges. Instead you want an intermingling of pixels so you can see parts of both images where they merge. Take time to practice this important image editing skill. Complete the reading assignment and this learning activity so you can master the masking technique.

Definition of Montage:  When the pixels of two or more images are gradually blended together to become one. (A collage is when you cut out images with hard edges and they are fully opaque. So they look pasted on the background image.)

Masking Tutorial

Follow these steps for a gradual blending effect to complete the activity:
1. View the P4A-TrainMontage example, so you can create a close facsimile.

2. Open the three provided images in Photoshop.

3. Start with the background train image. Click the crop tool and open the dropdown on the top left, then choose Size and Resolution. Enter 11 inches by 8.5 inches with nothing in the Resolution. Reposition the crop tool as desired and double click to make the crop. (Check the example to know where to crop.)

4. Select the image of the conductor. With the lasso tool, make a selection with wide margins around the conductor, so you will have room for a gradual blend.

5. Click the Move Tool (black arrow) and drag the “conductor” to the right side of the background train image.

6. Add a layer mask to this top “conductor” layer.

7. Hit B to load the brush tool and make sure the hardness is turned down in the top menu bar. Be sure that black is your foreground color.

8. Use a smaller soft-edged brush at 100% opacity to hide the hard outside edges.

9. Use a larger soft-edged brush at 30% opacity to gradually blend the top image into the bottom image.

10. Drag the train ticket image into the lower left side of the background layer. Except this time do not make a lasso selection. Just drag the entire image on top of the train layer, then hold shift to drag the image smaller as needed to fit. (Remember, never drag images larger!) Then follow steps 5-8 to blend in this image.

11. Save the project as a .psd to keep the layers for future editing. Then flatten the layers and save the image as a jpeg.

TIP:  Flattening the layers before you save your file as a jpeg will make it about four times smaller, but it will still be high quality!

I just love the entire San Francisco Bay Area, but the Golden Gate Bridge has got to be one of the highlights of any trip to San Fran. I hope you enjoy these images taken one evening when the sunset was glowing on the bridge.

Before we went to San Francisco the end of July, two people told us to be sure and visit the Muir Woods National Monument. This advice came from two reliable sources whom I trust: my father and my dear friend, Maija-Liisa, who lived in the area for awhile. So we made this stop part of our plan and we were pleasantly surprised at the natural beauty of this redwood forest. I have been in many beautiful redwoods before, but there is something special about this forest. The reverence of nature seems to abound in every moist leaf and moss-covered branch. I loved the signs that reminded us to be quiet, so we would not disturb the peace and serenity for others visiting and meditating in the woods. I loved our visit to Muir Woods National Monument near the Golden Gate Bridge in the San Francisco Bay Area. I hope you enjoy these images and can partake of a little of the peaceful feeling of this very special place.

I took these HDR images inside the Monterey Bay Aquarium, south of the San Francisco Bay area…which is part of the famous Cannery Row buildings. You can see from the warehouse setup, this was once an active fish cannery, but now a beautiful aquarium on the bay. They bring in natural sea water in huge tanks for large fish and all types of sea creatures. I posted some of the aquarium images a few months ago here: http://www.carynesplin.com/monterey-bay-aquarium/
So this time I focused on showing the beauty and textures of the cannery setup. I love varied textures, colors and contrast. The light was pouring in through several skylights and large windows, so I could not resists doing some bracketing (shooting three different exposures) to try some HDR (high dynamic range) images.

HDR Cannery Row – Monterey Bay Aquarium – San Francisco Bay area

HDR Original exposures: -2; 0; +2 Monterey Bay Aquarium – San Francisco Bay area