Pure Digital - Challenge Yourself!

With the release of cutting edge technology and collaborative software, there are truly no limits to the abilities and imaginations that can be released with digital images. Whether these are purely made on the computer as digital art or modified versions of your photos, it's amazing the possibilities.

Always challenge yourself and push beyond what you see as the normal photograph. Don't worry about if others will like it and view it as good. Remember, art is all within and different people will respond differently. Regardless, it's a piece of art and it's yours. Be proud of what you produce and keep on producing!

For instance, take a look at these digital art pieces I did purely on the computer. You can do these with your mouse, of if you wanted to spend a little extra money (~$80-$125), you can get yourself a nice drawing tablet that connects directly to your computer and allows you to draw with a pen size instrument!

June Contest Extended to July!

I've decided to extend the June Water Reflections Contest until July 15th. We only received submissions from two individuals. Ideally, I'd like 5 or more so if you haven't sent your pictures in yet, please do so!

June Contest Deadline Approaches!

Have you submitted your Water Reflection photos yet for the contest?

If you haven't, there is still time! You have 4 more days until the deadline of Friday, June 15th! Hurry and send those pictures in to be counted as a participant. We have only received a couple submissions and I'm hoping to receive several more. Remember, it's open to all ages!

If you're interested, it's not too late!
Click Here and read for further details

Macro Marchers

There are workers that seem to have endless jobs. These tiny little Macro Marchers work night and day and travel miles in efforts to be providers. These Macro Marchers are none other than ants!

One day while out an about I took some time to study these wonders and captured a few entering and exiting their homes in the earthen soils all over the yard. When you get a chance, take some time and visit your own Ant Condo in your own front yard! I'm sure they won't mind getting their pictures taken either.

This one shot I applied a 20 pixel feather around it. This basically makes the cloud or fade effect on the image. Using a crop tool, you select the image and the pixels are slowly faded out from center to the edge. Also, for some effects, I applied a Sandstone filter, almost like the canvas one I did previously, to make it appear to have texture.

Where ever you are, take pictures of everything. Don't always look on what's eye-level. Look in the air and on the ground. There is so much out there.... start shooting and enjoy.

Filling The Always Empty Pool

In regards to reflections, here is a pretty decent one I took a couple summers ago. This was with one of my older Nikon cameras which still seemed to capture the moment. This is our cat Sophie.

Cats are amazing animals. Sometimes they're way up in the trees, other times prowling through the grass or just lounging around waiting for you to keep petting them as if queens and kings and you're the visitor! In this case, Sophie was pretty thirsty! We were wondering why we had to keep filling up the pool!!!

Oh the joy of animals... how precious they are.

New Mystery Picture Posted

The newest Mystery Picture has been published. Since the previous two were a little difficult and went unanswered, I'm going to publish this one which is a little easier. When you know the answer, please send them in! Once I receive a winner, it'll be posted.

June Readers Photo Updated

I've selected the next June Monthly Reader's Photo and have published it on the site. I want to thank S.B. from Taftville, CT for sending in this submission and spicing up the page with beauty and such vibrant color! Thank you.

Also, June 15th is the Water Reflection deadline. So far we haven't received too many submissions so there is still plenty of time and plenty of opportunities to win! Send your submissions in now and enter to win the $25.00 Online Wal-Mart Gift Card!

Water Marking Magic

A concern for many photographers, especially those who publish pictures on the Internet, is having their pictures downloaded and then reprinted or used without permission on other sites. Some even take it to the extreme of passing off a picture as if it were theirs. What can be done about this?

Well, first know your rights as a photographer. It doesn't matter if you're a professional or just one who takes a few pictures on the weekend. Knowing what you can and can't do as well as what others can and can't do is very important! Here is a good reference article that you should all read and even print. Legal Rights of Photographers (Adobe Reader PDF Format) published by Andrew Kantor.

With your own photos, there are quick ways to deter people from even thinking about using your photos. A very simple way, but not practical for those who really want to display their pictures online for sale or in a portfolio, is to reduce the image size and/or resolution. This degrades the quality of the image but is a simple and effective method.

Another way, my personal preference besides adding digital marking (another story), is by adding watermarks. In simple terms, a water mark is another image overlaid across your original image but very lightly or faded. This can be done in just about any photo editing program. As you can see in these cloud pictures, I inserted a watermark that are just the words - 'SAMPLE'. Note also in the lower right corner I also inserted the copyright image, the date, and my name. Check out your photo editing tools and get familiar with this process. In a future article, I'll be publishing how to do this in Adobe PhotoShop.

Open June Photo

I'm still pending a new photo from the reader community for the month. If you'd like to send in a photo for June to be displayed on this blog for the entire month, please do so as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Site Updates & News

I added some site design changes with a new template to kick off Summer! Hopefully you like this one as well. If not, please send me your comments so I can adjust accordingly. Also, added are some news feeds in regards to digital photography. This is a new Google News features so I figured I would test drive it and see how it works.

We didn't get any winners for the Mystery Picture either so I've published the answer and will post another one shortly. The closest we received was from Beth in CT which commented it was an animal from the circus we previously went to and published pictures on. This was very close! It was an animal but from our Bronx Zoo trip. Take a look at it and you'll see the answer. Thanks Beth for the guess!