Last Sunday I did some headshots for Jake Sheff at my friend's studio in the west bottoms KCMO. Jake is using them for his resume. If you need headshots let me know! I charge very little for headshots and the turn around is very fast (about five-six business days).
Music video pick of the day: Journey to Plastic Beach by the Gorillaz *16min video - make sure to watch the whole thing, its a good one
I'm very please to announce that I will be having my first show at First Fridays this July! The show will be at Cellar Rat, the photos will be displayed during the whole month of July. There will be an opening reception on July 2 (First Fridays) from 5-9 pm. Come enjoy my photography and a wine tasting! I made a facebook event page too, so all you facebookers click here to join the event.
Again; if your unable to come on the 2nd, the photos will be displayed through the whole month of July.
Yesterday was the first day of Summer. This time of the year in Kansas City MO is consider the peak of sever weather. In the last two weeks it has stormed every other day it seems. Last Saturday we had 3 sever weather and tornado warnings within 20 hours from each other. Luckily, Kansas City didn't exeprience any damaging weather over the weekend. KC just got heavy rain fall, where many of the rivers flooded. The Missouri River didn't flood but the water level did rise high, almost 20+ feet! The picture below shows a spot along the MO river I frequently go to, and it was partially flooded due to the crazy rain we've been getting.
The second picture was taken in the Crossroads of Kansas City (along 18th street). The Crossroads is one of my favorite districts in KC, so much going on there. This was taken right in front of the new Volker bike stores.
Music Video pick of the day: The Seed (2.0), by the Roots
Last weekend was the NRC (National Race Calendar) bicycle race Tulsa Tough in Tulsa, OK. This was my first year going to this race and even though I didn't race I had a blast watching the race. Not only it was a blast watching the pros race but it was a blast watching the amateurs race too.
When I first arrived in Tulsa last Saturday, I really didn't expect the race to be so popular with the locals. It was a festival, just like you would see at any international UCI race. This was a rare site for me and most Americans. Normally one would have to go the Tour of California/Missouri or to Europe to witness such a festival like atmosphere at a bike race.
I would be the first to admit that cycling in American is not that popular, but I what I witness in Tulsa I might have re-think that statement now. Take a look at the photos below to see for yourself.
Tulsa Tough was a three day NRC bike race that started on the fourth and ended on the sixth. I was only able to go to the race on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was in the Brady district which was in the northern most edge of downtown Tulsa. The Brady district was a cool part of town that hosted many cool local restaurants/bars and businesses. My personal favorite, and I'm sure it was true for anybody at the bike races, was a bar called "The Sound Pony." The Sound Pony is a true "biker bar" aka bicycle bar. The establishment had bicycle frames, bike jerseys, tour de France and other European races posters for it's decor. The sun was setting as the Pro race started and quickly became a night. The streets were lined with hundreds of people cheering on the riders. When the night ended, I thought to myself that how can this day of racing be topped off? The very next day came and more people showed up to the races. On Sunday there was another great turn out for the third and last day of Tulsa Tough. Most people congregated on a hill that was dubbed "cry baby hill" due to its long and steep grade. The houses along cry baby hill open up there homes and front lawns for everybody. There was even a band that was playing on top of the hill.
Enough typing for me now, I'll let the pics tell the rest of the story.
*I made the pics smaller for you so that it won't take forever for the page to load up. If you want to see them bigger just click on the photos to see them through my flickr.
Pro rider before his race, watching the Cat 1 2 race.
5x World Champion Steve Tilford pre race:
Brian Jensen pre race
during the Pro race at night
Brad Huff in his way to winning that night's crit
Brad Huff after winning the race
Philip Mann, post race
Hey Brad! I think that kid might be a little young for your soigneur.
Phil and Alex of Team Bahati Foundation
Shortly after they open the course, I saw this girl crossing the finishing line with a few other people.
SUNDAY's RACE!!! What a Party
Cry Baby hill, pre race: People started drinking and dancing before the pro race started
Cry baby Hill! During the Cat 1 2 race (still before the pro race) it started to get crazy Teammate: Matt Ochs People out in full support
The Band on Cry Baby Hill:
The Pro race. Brian Jensen won Sunday's race solo!
Other people that I saw at the races
Brian breaks away from the group and wins Sunday's race SOLO! Dave Towle interviews Brian on his win Congrats Brian
Pro Women's Tulsa Tough omnium winners: Jennifer Purcell having a good year so far. She won collegiate nationals last month and now Tulsa Tough omnium.
Pro men's Tulsa Tough omnium winners. Brad Huff wins omnium while his teammate took second in the omnium. Way to go Jelly Belly!
Thats all the photos i want to share with you on this post, but make sure to check out my Flickr to see the whole set of the Tulsa Tough race.
or just view this slideshow:
Here's some video that I took with my iPhone of the pro race:
Video pick of the day: Seven by Sunny Day Real Estate This song takes me back to my high school days.
HDR was one of the first things I learned on Photoshop. I was first introduced to the full potential of Photoshop during the summer of 2007 when I was studying in Florence; back when Photoshop was still CS2! Last week, Photoshop CS5 was finally released. One of the newest things that they added to PS (Photoshop) was HDR Pro. PS had HDR functions since CS2 but lacked tone mapping that photographers want in a HDR image. Photographers had to purchase plugins like Photomatix to achieve great tonal range that they wanted. CS5 new HDR Pro function solves this problem; not fully but pretty damn close.
Q: What are HDR photos?
A: HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. HDR photos is a post process technique whenever there's 2 or more photos taken of the same subject with different exposure values (typically most photogs shoot about 5 photos). The photographer will then add these photos together into a single image using editing software such as Adobe's Photoshop. The benefit is that a single photo will have a greater range in lightness, mid tones, and darkness in a single image. This greater range will give the photographer an opportunity to create a surreal photograph.
For the most part, creating a HDR image is very time consuming and takes up a lot of space on the hard drive. Also the HDR image is sometimes too digitize...well for me anyways. It's not my favorite technique to use, but sometimes I do get some good images out of it.
Below are some HDR images that I did in PS CS5's new HDR Pro function. However, first one is done with PS CS3 two years ago with the Photomatix plugin. The second image is the same photo but with the new CS5's HDR Pro. The other 2 images is also using CS5's HDR Pro. Further editing was done with all images after creating the HDR image (levels, curves, color/lens corrections and etc)
7 photos at different exposure. Using PS CS3 to create the HDR image, then using a trial version of Photomatix plugin (why the watermarks are there). Take a look at the ghost like airplane flying above the bridge.
Same photo but using CS5's HDR pro. Notice that it preserved the airplane that is flying above the bridge.
HDR with 5 photos
HDR with only 2 photos
Check out Ben Godkin's HDR photos on his flickr: click here Ben was the first person to introduce HDR to me when we're both in Florence.
