My 3 Season Coastal Maine Adventure





Iron Stairs

  




Morning Fog

  



Portland Lighthouse

 



As I have mentioned in previous posts that I am exploring different techniques that I have grown very interested in.  To name a few HDR (High Dynamic Range), Texturing, Hand Coloring, Infrared, and more Black & White.  I also want to try different photographic compositions like, landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes, more reflections, more city abstracts.  Just to name a few.  The photographs seen here are some of the concepts I want to improve upon.
So I got to thinking of where to go to get these photos.  I have a couple of shows in Connecticut where I grew up and I know lots of locations there, but I really wanted to get more locations here in Maine since this is where I live and most of my art shows are here.  Have to say that I don't know Maine as well as I should.  So that is why I came up with My 3 Season Coastal Maine Adventure.  I choose 3 seasons, because frankly I am not a winter person, and I spend most of the winter catching up on things.  So March through October I have chosen 10 coastal towns and cities that I will be visiting with the March through October time frame.  I will be scouting out locations in March and regularly visiting these places on Sundays or Mondays when traffic is lowest.  The anticipated towns and cities I plan to visit are Machiasport, Bar Harbor, Stonington, Belfast, Camden, Rockland, Boothbay, Bath, Freeport, Portland.  I will be visiting locations in and around these towns and cities.  This will build my collection of photographs with the objectives above in mind.  And I will also get to know the coastal area of Maine.  If this goes well then next year I go inland to explore. 
This year is all about exploration of my skills as a photographer, myself too and exploring this great state of Maine.  Through my adventure I will be tweeting, posting on facebook and of course blogging.  And as always keep an eye on my website for new photos.
Just some added mentions:  I will be attending both the Rockland Farmers Market and the Newport Farmers Market where I will be selling my cookies and photography. My second job and more avenues to market my photography.

Monarch on Globe Thistle

Original Monarch Butterfly on Globe Thistle



Textured Version




Black & White Version

Hand Colored Version

Well here is my second attempt at hand coloring.  Actually have tried many photographs, but this one and the Blueberries so far are my favorites.  With the Monarch Butterfly for textures I used:  Beowulf, Muscatel and Fly textures 30.   In Photoshop Elements I used the black and white conversion with the vivid tool to lighten up the photograph.  I had to lighten the shadows even more by about 10%.  I still of course need lots of practice, but I believe I am on the right track.  Both the Blueberries and the Monarch were hand colored in a 5x7 size.  I will enlarge them to 8x10 and 11x17 and sell them at those sizes too.  I have another Monarch I want to try and a Cosmos flower.  And I think that will be a good starting point for me to master the hand coloring techniques for hopefully the 4 photographs.  Until I can get some new photographs.  I mentioned in the last blog that I was going to hand color my Ivy Door.  I did and at first I didn't like it.  It wasn't as nice as the traditional hand colored one I did on fiber paper using colored pencils.  I know I am using a whole new technique, but I had to compare and of course I was very disappointed.  So I set it aside and now the more I look at it and once I enlarge it to at least an 8x10 (it too was a 5x7) maybe I can make it work out better.  Again I have to practice and not compare.  Because it won't be the same.  Before long I will get it.  As they say practice, practice, practice!  Practice makes almost Perfect.

From Original To Textured To Black & White To Hand Colored

Original Blueberries

 This is the Original photograph before any thing was done to it.  These blueberries where from my own garden.  Which where quite tasty and my dog Ben thought so too.



Textured Blueberries

 
This photograph was textured using Flypaper Textures.
The textures I used were:
Colbalt Clouds
Evening Veil
Beowulf
Nuriel Clouds.
I am really liking the textures and how they look in black & white then to hand color.


Black and White Blueberries


I converted the textured photograph to black and white in Photoshop Elements 8. I convert it to black & white then used the infrared tool to lighten so I could keep all the textures details and then lighten up the shadows quite a bit.
I do want to point out that after I had sprayed the photo with the Premier Art Spray it darken up the photo a bit.


Hand Colored Blueberries



This is my first attempt at hand coloring using techniques that were taught to me by Dianne Poinski.  Unfortunately I don't have a flatbed scanner yet. So I had photographed the photo which I am not really good at, but this is the closest to the original photograph I could get.  It is very close just there is a little more green in the light colored berries and more green in the background, but the blue is pretty right on.  Some of the tools I used were q-tips for mixing my colors and the cotton balls were used to dab over the background and used blending sponges to blend.  It isn't perfect nor is it ready for sale, but I think I am on the right track and with more practice I will soon be almost as good as Dianne.
Over the next few days I will be doing some butterflies, sunflower, and ivy door and others.  Which I will post in future posts.

Textures

Sebasticook Lake, Newport, Maine

Monarch Butterfly

I am in love with Textures!  I have added a Textures Gallery to my website which I would love for everyone to check out.  I had a great time this week going through old photographs and seeing which photographs would work and which wouldn't.  I had to really look at each photograph and figure out which texture and which colors would work well together.   I have Photoshop Elements so I am limited to what I can do, but when I get Photoshop CS5 (I think that is the current version) I imagine the sky may be the limit.  So I have learn something new and challenged myself to see my photos in a different way.  I am pleased with the out come and I hope they will do well at the Festivals this year.  I have printed some black & white photos that I textured and I will be trying some hand coloring.  I am not sure which way will look better.  To hand color a textured black & white or to hand color a regular black and white then add texture.  I will try both ways to see which will work.
I will be sending out 4 more festival applications on Monday and I will be adding some samples of the textured photographs. 
Have a wonderful Day!

New Life to Un usable Photos

I have found a wonderful new technique to revive some of my photos that would normally end up in the junk pile.  I am using textures from Flypaper Textures.  It is alot of fun and I can really get creative.  I love the new look and I want to add them to my website.  I would love your opinions. 
I have actually discovered alot of new techniques in the past few months that I will be trying out.  Of course my hand coloring which I am working on and I hope to incorporate some textures to those hand colored photos.
I have also found an interest in HDR (high dynamic range). Thanks to Rob Hanson who recommended Captain Kimo e-book which I found very helpful, I will be playing around with HDR.  Unfortunately I don't have some of the software needed and I will have to invest in that later in the season.  I expect to be adding a lot of new works during course of the year.  Both in textures, HDR and hand coloring.  I am looking forward to a bunch of new photos and adding some kick to my collection.