Gladiators enjoy modern luxuries like cigarettes and cell phones.

I have no clue who these people are.

One of the most recognizable buildings ever.

A view from the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) in Firenze, Italia.

I have no clue who these people are either. If you haven’t tried taking photos of strangers, it’s a lot of fun.

I taught Renee about the wonderful world of wide angle lenses (or the wide zoom setting on your camera) and how to manipulate it for creative effect. The zoom control on your camera is not meant to replace your feet. Use the zoom to control perspective first, then framing.

Next time you take pictures, play with the zoom setting. Use a wide setting and get close to your subject. Take a few steps back and use the telephoto setting to make your subject about the same size in the frame. You’ll get two dramatically different photographs.

For portraits and headshots, the long end of the zoom setting will give you a more flattering perspective. Conversely, this is why you look terrible on your webcam (aside from the sub-optimal lighting). The lens on your webcam is a wide angle.

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We adopted Portnoy last year. A friend of ours took in three strays and found homes for them. One of them found his way into our lives. He has been nothing but lovable, playful, and very well mannered for the past year.

Portnoy is named after Mike Portnoy, the drummer from my favorite band, Dream Theater. Ever since I discovered Dream Theater, I thought Portnoy would be a great name for a cat.

Pet photos get a bad rap, and rightfully so. They are often taken at eye level looking down with harsh on-camera flash. They are out of focus, motion-blurred, and composed poorly. Dogs are slightly more cooperative than cats. Many animals don’t like flash.

Fortunately, I have the equipment, knowledge, and patience to achieve better results. I captured this goofy expression with my Nikon D80. I aimed the flash unit straight up to bounce the light off the ceiling. This lights the scene evenly, as if no flash was used at all. I got down on the floor to his level. Patience is what makes or breaks pet photos. You have to sit and wait like a sniper.

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In 2006 and 2007, glass blowing artist Dale Chihuly showed his work at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens in Miami Florida. The 2006 exhibit was the first time Fairchild had done anything like this. It was such a success, they did it again this year.

The gardens are usually open during the day, but for a few select Thursday nights, they opened again from 6pm to 10pm for “Tropical Chihuly Nights.” Dale Chihuly’s work is fantastic to see in broad daylight, but when backlit with carefully placed floodlights, they explode with color.

Photographing at night presents challenges. Artificial light sources are many times brighter than the darkest areas. The difference between the brightest and darkest parts of a scene fall outside the camera’s ability to render them. At the time, I thought doing a composite image in Photoshop would allow the image to be rendered as the human eye sees it.

Artists must always grow and progress. I know I have since I took the shot you see here. Even if you’re not an artist, you can relate. Think back to a situation at work or in your personal life and how you handled it. Now think about how you’d handle it today. If I’m not embarrassed by the photographs I took a year ago, I haven’t grown as an artist.

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My Nikon D70s has served me well since January of 2006. The D70s has been to the Florida Keys, Tennessee (twice), and Italy. It was my camera of choice to document Ariana’s birth and early life. The instant feedback of the LCD screen allowed me to learn more about photography in the past 18 months than I learned in the past 18 years. The most significant advancements I made were in the use of studio and location lighting.

I pressed the shutter over 18,000 times on the D70s. That’s over 750 rolls of film. If you consider film and processing costs, the camera paid for itself 8 times over!

A few months ago, my friend Richard offered me his Nikon D80. He is always buying the latest and greatest, and needed to unload his camera before he could pander to gear lust again. I finally caved in last week when all the good reasons piled up:

• Richard’s D80 was like a garage-kept roadster. My D70s has been on multiple road trips. I’d be “turning back the odometer” by 14,000 shots.
• Digital cameras have a life cycle of 2 years. I gained another year of service out of my rig.
• As much as megapixels don’t matter, they matter to potential clients.
• All my Nikon lenses and flashes are 100% compatible.
• The D80 has a few new features I’d actually use and benefit from.
• I could flip the D70s kit for Richard’s asking price on the D80!

There are always cons to balance out the pros. The D80 takes SD memory cards while the D70s uses compact flash cards. The maximum flash sych speed goes down from 1/500th second to 1/200th second. 10 megapixels means bigger files.

Today, I bid farewell to this workhorse when I met with its new owner. Three guys got new cameras this week.

Being proficient in Photoshop comes with some baggage. I will occasionally enhance or manipulate images, sometimes to extremes. My preference is to do as much as possible before releasing the shutter. Some things (like magnificent sunsets) can’t be faked convincingly. This image was made with help from Mother Nature and Nikon, not Adobe.

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I plan on posting a new photo every week. Digital photography has made it so easy to share photos, yet we still don’t leverage the potential this technology offers. Many photos languish inside memory cards that haven’t been downloaded, and in forgotten folders on your hard drive. Even fewer get printed.

I wil take a break from the acerbic wit and describe the photo. Lincoln Road in Miami Beach is one of the premier people-watching destinations around. You will see the young, old, beautiful, not-so-beautiful, rich, poor, expressive, and nondescript. Eclectic shops and cafes line the streets, ready to lure curious and hungry pedestrians.

Renee accompanied me on my first visit to Lincoln Road. Having been a Miami Beach resident for four years, she knew her way around. Her friend Chris lives in South Beach, so we met up with him for drinks. We call him “Tex” for obvious reasons. Who would’ve thought two people born in Texas would be showing the 27 year resident of South Florida around a Miami tourist attraction!

If you are photographically inclined, you often hear, “Your camera takes great pictures!” I’m pleased with my camera’s artistic abilities. It knows how to frame subjects in interesting ways and has an uncanny sense of timing for capturing decisive moments.

Don’t be so silly! My camera doesn’t take the pictures. I do!

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Photoshop Has Many Uses 

I am very proficient in Photoshop, as I use it in a professional capacity just as much as I use it for pleasure. Whether it’s for graphic design or photography, I know Photoshop.

Laughter is great therapy. Comic relief is universal. I enjoy making people laugh. You read the last paragraph, so you know where this is going. Heheheheh.

Last year, Austin befriended a neighborhood kid who is, at times, difficult. Actually, he’s always difficult. The only difference is Austin’s tolerance. They get along OK for a while, then Austin gets really sick of him. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

During one of the “friend cycles,” I snapped the photo you see above (or to the left, depending on your web browser’s settings. I love web design. NOT!) I don’t know if I had any premeditated intentions when I took the photo. He asked me about a piece of equipment, and I was simply demonstrating it for him.

After a recent falling out, I launched Photoshop and got to work.

This was double-duty therapy since this kid can get under my skin too.

The first image was a relatively simple manipulation, but it definitely elicits laughter at every viewing. This image distortion is partially possible without the help of Photoshop, but I wanted to amp it up.

Since I didn’t set up such a shot with such a use in mind, I had to dig within the archives. The only suitable photo I found is the one at the beginning of this post.

I used a perspective correction filter to distort the image. This was done to simulate using the widest zoom setting and shooting from above looking down. Then I used the Free Transform tool to stretch his head, and the Warp tool to, well, warp it even more.

One thing every Photoshop jockey has done is to put a different head or face on someone’s body. Depending on the skill level of the Photoshop user, the results are either glaringly obvious or scary realistic. I will let you grade my effort here.

I even did the extra credit work and made this model’s hair color match the kid’s. Austin was, of course, eager to share it with his other friends. They all know this kid too, and are equally annoyed. I thought it would be best if Austin prefaced the unveiling of this image with, “I’ve been chatting with this girl online and she sent me a pic. Tell me, do you think she’s hot?“