I actually love to feel tired after a good, hard day of shooting photos, riding mountain bikes, hiking, or just work in general.  To lay in bed and feel exhausted, there's nothing quite like it.  The day is done, you can rest now.  Such a refreshing feeling of life. 

Then there's weary.  You're tired, but you still have work to do.  You are exhausted, but you are not done yet.  You have been going for too long, and you still have a long way to go.  This completely contrasting state is one not of life, but of death.  You WANT to rest, but you cannot.  Rest escapes you, and you wish "it would all just end"...  :-X

I am so happy and  thankful to be able to feel TIRED right now!

Eventually, I'd like to archive the fine art articles on my main website, for people to read through all at once, or at least all in one place.

Since it's after midnight and I still have a ton of work to do, I'll just put up a few photos from the misc. small things I DID get to do this past week.  Let's start with RHU's 2nd Tuesday night photography workshop...

Dane checks out the 8x10's we all made, and picks his favorite...

One of the prints gets the approval of Mike, and wins a prize too!
(Three image panorama, shot hand-held holding the camera up above my head using live view...)

Jessica talks about how she shoots candid moments, and how you might interact with complete strangers. (and get their consent to photograph them...)
(Three image panorama, shot hand-held.)

I'm taking care of Joy's guinea pig, Batty, while her parents go away on their honeymoon.  He's a cute little furry burrito!

(In other news, Joy just toured Italy for spring break, and is back in Oxford now.  I talk to her every afternoon on my international calling card, when she's about to go to sleep.  I really miss her like crazy; it's been really hard going THIS long with out a hug or kiss from her...  Seriously just hearing her voice every day and looking at her picture, ...almost makes me tear up.  *sniff* 

  ...Okay!  That was a little too much of my soft side.  Alright, something manly and macho to even this out, hmm, hmm.  Ah, reptiles!  A snake!  A huge burmese python!  ~80 lbs and ~12 feet long!

Meet Michael Bloom, of Reptile Rescue.

The python would actually be illegal to own if it were capable of killing a human.  This "giant"
can only stomach animals the size of a chicken, rabbit, or uh, my cat, or Joy's guinea pig...

As soon as kids are confident that the snake is safe, they can't get enough of it. 

By the way, HER name is Checkers. 

Okay, some more RHU photos, here's a bit of week #3...

(I let the image go dark intentionally, to try and convey how dark it actually was during slideshows...)
(Two image panorama, shot hand-held)

Professor Mike is exemplary at explaining exposure.  ...And making me want a D3 sensor!!!

Seriously, some of the prints that people are coming up with in this class are AMAZING...

1.)  Digital panorama capture and construction:    Entries into the OC Fair are due soon, so the latest I can plan to go and re-shoot my panorama is May 10th or 17th, if I pick a Saturday so that others can come along.  (Or, is a weekday / Sunday better?)  Email me if you'd like to learn how I create the dynamic, multi-image panoramas that I (used to) make.  And oh, click HERE to see my gallery of panoramas...

I rarely do SERIOUS panoramas much anymore, so this will be a good opportunity to learn...

2.)  Mastering nocturnal photography and motion blur:  I'm thinking that any night  starting May 17th is good, or the 24th, and / or the 31st, but then after that I get into summer weddings and things get a bit dicey with scheduling and being busy in general.

All you people who have a  tripod, a DSLR, and who have ever commented about my night photograph and asked how I do it- this is your chance!  Email me (or just comment) ...and let's seriously make YOU a master at night time photography!  I just have this itch to get these techniques out of me and into other photographers, seriously I gotta TEACH something or I might explode!  I don't care if just TWO people are interested and available, I guarantee that I will totally pour out everything I know.  I'm compelled to...

Take care,
=Matt=

Today I thought I would bring up a few photographic techinques and styles that are basically the mechanics and theory behind what we do today with our "image overlay" photoshop magic.

The first, of course, is the simple reflection.  There is no simpler way to get two "images" into one than finding a reflection.  You snap ONE picture and get two, three, or MORE images in one capture.

There is no better way to illustrate this technique than to share with you a photographer who I already shared long ago, Jeffrey Aaronson.  His small-but-sweet gallery of New York city reflections is by far the most stunning I have seen.  Some of his images first appear cluttered and confusing, but slowly you piece the chaos together and begin to visualize & understand more about the city than you could with "normal" photographs.  The city itself is full of chaos, and Jeffrey finds art in the chaos...

That's why I said "real men just take ONE picture."  Not because I actually think it's cheating to photoshop two images together, but simply because I want people to open their mind to real-world concepts and possibilities, instead of restricting themselves to doing everything in photoshop.  There is a world of "composite imagery" OUTSIDE photoshop, my friends!

The second "oldschool" techniques involve more than one click of the shutter, but still only ONE "latent image". (un-photoshopped image, for the non-linguists)  Can you guess where I'm going with this?  That's right, multiple exposures.  Originally with film photography, this was achieved by simply taking two pictures WITHOUT advancing the film.  You'd end up with an image overlay effect just like using layers in photoshop.  Except THIS way you'd have nothing but your exposure and focus to influence how the final image looks.

Some digital cameras have this capability still today.  At least I know my D200 and D300 can do it, in fact they have two different options-

Multiple exposure:  The true "oldschool" method; I simply tell the camera how many pictures I'm going to take, and as I take them it keeps adding them to the same, one image.  The camera can use an auto "gain" (brightness) thing to automatically fix the overall exposure and give you good brightness in your final image.  If you want one image to be more prominent than the other, you have to over-expose to emphasize and under-expose to de-emphasize.  I took this first shot for example with the image of my cat at +1 EV, and the image of just the bed at -1.3 EV...

(These images are all straight out of the camera, by the way...)

For this second shot, I simply took one image in focus and one out of focus...

Image Overlay:  Simply shoot two photos, and then in the retouching or playback menu of your camera, find the two (RAW) images you want to merge.  With this "after-the-fact" method, you can then chose HOW each image affects the final image.  For example in the image below, I made one capture that was in perfect focus, then I made a 2nd capture that was totally out of  focus.  I put the images into the image overlay tool, set the out of focus images to 2x, and left the sharp images at 1x.  This added more "dreamy effect"...

Made from THIS and THIS image...
(Who knew an ordinary water bottle could look so glamorous!)

Created from THIS image, using the texture of the week and THIS  texture.
(Yes, I used the in-camera overlay feature twice, once for each texture...)
Slight photoshop was required to tone down the overpowering warmth.

Texture of the week:

This texture is great for enhancing motion blur.  Both if you blur the image in-camera, OR blur it in photoshop...
If you want to download the texture of the week, CLICK HERE.  It's free!
Then, CLICK HERE to view my complete fine art texture portfolio, or click HERE for more info.

Made from THIS and THIS image...

Some people have no interest in "restricting" themselves in this way, they would rather have as much image data on the front end as possible, as many options to pick from as possible, and just do it all in photoshop.  I can understand how some people feel like it's just plain boring or stupid to go "back" to the oldschool ways of doing something when they're so much more challenging.  But, fine art photography is a craft, and there will always be people who think it is fun to use more primitive tools to create their art.  They enjoy the challenge, they enjoy the sense of accomplishment when they do something that few others can.  That's part of the reason I still shoot film, and that's part of the reason that so many old traditions in general are kept alive by cultures around the world.  Just because there is a sense of something bigger, when you follow a tradition.

(Don't make me sing fiddler on the roof!)

I think that also in a way, restriction will foster improvement.  Sure, you could do any of this in photoshop, in fact sometimes I do.  But by restricting yourself, your senses will become sharper, you will be able to visualize a final image more skillfully, and therefore you can save yourself time by finding the best elements in a scene faster, and sparing yourself a bunch of photoshop time later.  By playing around with my camera and working towards mastering its operation, I hope to hone my skills as a visual artist.

So, maybe TRY going out and thinking "what can I do with my camera and nothing else?"  Maybe dedicate one personal shoot to only capturing ONE image that contains many elements, either by reflection or by other means of visual framing.  Concern yourself with how to eliminate distractions and place emphasis on one, or multiple, subjects.  Or, if your camera is able, shoot some "dreamy" multiple exposures, or simply take a photo of a texture and try to merge it with another in the camera....  I can't promise you'll enjoy it, but I can promise that if you earnestly give it your best shot, (pun intended) ...it will make you a better photographer.

Thanks and take care!

=Matt=

PS:  I sincerely apologize for not being able to post since LAST "Texture Tuesday!"  I've been swamped with work this past week, and I'll have to blog more photos later sometime...  Not much personal photography going on in general, though...

Alright sorry, gotta runnnn!!  Today I still need to shoot a couple headshots, process this past weekend's shoots, hit up a photo lab, contact some clients, email out my "texture add-on actions" to all the photographers who purchased textures recently, and then head on over to RHU for tonight's photography intensive with the fantastic trio!  (See some of you there!)

Take care,
=Matt=

There are pretty much weddings going on at the Arboretum every day of every weekend, and the arbor is pretty much totally grown over by now.   Far more greenery than flowers, but still very pretty.  And hey, it's shade! That was nice for today, since it was 92 degrees out.  Good grief, it's almost pool / beach weather, already!  I'm sure it'll get cold again before it gets warm for good, though.  But nonetheless, got some great images at the Arboretum today.  Had to stay out of the bright sun, but bright sun is always great for back-lighting, at any time of day, so if you know what to look for then you can still get some great images.  And with out any further ado...

Taken the other night, with my SB800 flash pointed straight up, and my 42" gold-n-silver reflector a few feet above the whole scene...

Mmmmmm, green...

Mmmmm, greeeeeeennnn...

LOL!  Late lunch?

I just LOVE the vibrant red of a Coral tree!

I guess it's ladybug season?

Light like this is what I live for, photographically speaking.  All-natural, light, very representative of the original scene.

(Yep, back/side lighting on EVERY single shot here.  Hmm, what does that tell us?)

And now for the ANNOUNCEMENTS!  I've got a couple things:

1.)  I would really like to get together with the intrepid, advanced-amateur photographers out there who want to master NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY, involving  subjects containing moving water, moving clouds, and the stars.

I've had some good times "after dark" (what a silly phrase) meeting up with other photographers, but the nature of casual shooting just doesn't lend itself to a complete pouring out of the deepest technical understanding of night photography in a thorough way.  If "a few good men and women" are interested, and own TRIPODS, (...and DSLR's, but a tripod is MORE important) ...I would love to host a NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP.  A cover charge would be $40, not so that I make bank, obviously, but so that only people who are serious about learning will come to this "get-together-shop".  (We'd have to keep it down to no more than 5-10 people, max.)  If you're at all interested, email me-  matt (at) matthewsaville, and I'll send you details on exactly what I want to go over...  This could be as early as this coming April 20th, or later in the summer when it's nice and warm even at 10 PM here in OC.

2.)  ALSO, I'm going to enter some of my nature photographs, MAYBE some of my fine
art portraits, in the Orange County Fair.  What does this have to do
with you?  Well, I'd REALLY like to re-shoot one of my favorite images,
the vertical panorama of tidepools at sunset.  (My current profile photo)  The thing is, photos
entered must be captured within the last two years, and I think I shot
that image juuust over two years ago.  SO, I've got to re-shoot it.  It
was just a concept anyway, and could stand some perfecting, in my
opinion.

SO, anyone who would like to experience first-hand,
start-to-finish, what goes into making one of my signature DYNAMIC, CRAZY PANORAMAS, (...my original concept image already won grand prize in a DeviantArt panorama contest)  ...I'd love to have some other photographers along for
the experience.  The deadline for entering the competition is drawing near, so it would have to be within the next few weeks.  I'd be willing to turn it into a full-blown dynamic-panorama workshop, where we focus on nothing BUT panorama stitching.  That workshop would also have a cover charge of maybe $40, again, so that everyone is more motivated to focus on the "task at hand", and truly learn the technique.   As much as I would love to just do a totally open-ended get-together, I find it hard to teach extremely technical things when I'm just hanging out with a wide assortment of friends and shooting casually.  (Again, no more than 5-10 people, because I want to make sure that you go away from this knowing EVERYTHING you need to make ANY panorama happen...)  Again, email me- matt (at) matthew saville, and I'll send you details on what we would cover and how the event would be structured...

Hmm, anything else?  Well in general, just remember that from now on any Fullerton Arboretum get-togethers are subject to scheduling, meaning it could be a Saturday *or* a Sunday that I go, so please email me to see what's up for a particular weekend!  You never know what'll happen, whether we'll have a fashion model, an engaged couple, or just a bunch of friendly nature photographers...

Take care, and see you soon hopefully!
=Matt=

Manifesto: 
To promote a finer quality of imagery in the photographic community
today by a two-fold effort:  Following the cutting-edge techniques and
embracing a finer and unique creativity that is already inside you, while also avoiding trends, bandwagons and cliches...  Bottom line:  Anything is possible, when done with TASTE!

One look that I have always admired, and always found extremely difficult to achieve in an artistic way, is when an image has lost it's white point highlight, or lost it's black point shadows, ...and yet somehow it still "works".  If you just take the contrast slider and drop it way down, usually the image just looks flat.  Here's the secret-  subtle moderation, and inconsistent application.  What I mean is, the effect has to be subtle enough, not over the top, such that people don't REALIZE that a photograph is missing it's white point or black point, and also, it helps to be inconsistent in that you DO keep a pure black and / or a pure white SOMEWHERE, even though other parts of the image have gone flat.

Take this image for example.  You won't notice it unless I point it out, but the corners of the image still reach a pretty black tone, and some of the leaves on the ground still reach a good enough white, as do the bride's eyes.  But the sky, some of her dress, and her skin, have gotten pretty monotone.  I was careful to keep visible detail in her dress, and I added visible detail in the sky via a texture, however, and that is usually a good idea.  And lastly any faces in the image are the most important focus, of course; you don't want to make an image so flat that you just see eyes / nose / lips floating on a sphere of tone, you want to keep a little definition in their cheeks, etc...

I was also very careful with the conversion from color to black & white, because I didn't want the two very close tones of the bride's dress and the sky to "meet".

In fact, that is distracting #1 in many images, either having something in the background "touch" your subject, like a tree branch growing out someone's ear,  or some part of your subject just completely blends into the background, like when someone with dark hair is photographed in front of a dark, fuzzy background-  You don't know where the subject ends and where the background begins!

That is rule #1, if there ever was a rule-  Visual attention needs to go straight to the subject, without any detours or distractions.  (Now, to make sure I don't sound like I'm putting myself above anyone else-  I make ALL these mistakes on a regular basis!  That's how I know about them, and that's why I'm telling you about them now.  The CRITICAL piece of the puzzle is to identify your mistakes right there on the spot, and simply re-compose and shoot some more!

Created from THIS image, using  THIS and THIS texture, plus a burning & dodging.
(Bring on the "I liked it better in color!" comments, I can take it...  This is MY art.)

Here's a  tip on how I usually go "flat"...

You can see that, instead of just lowering the contrast via the usual "brightness / contrast" sliders, I used curves and literally dragged the black point away from pure black, and the white point away from pure white.  If you look even closer you can see that I also dragged the red "black" point up away from zero, as well.  That's just one habit I have, cause I like my shadows to be warmer than the rest of my image.  Just a slight signature look, so to speak.  And yeah, I'm BIG on curves, far more than anything else.  I know that some of the newer tools in Lightroom and Bridge are super slick, but I just like the nitty-gritty, nuts-and-bolts kind of tonal management because that's what I learned.  I've always been a really hands-on kinda guy...

And here's the particular B&W conversion I used...

Ah, hue 34, my favorite!  (More or less...)

[edit-  Okay, lets see if we can go 24 hours with zero comments.  I'm so sorry if this was too technical or logorrheic.  I'm bad at writing; I explain stuff better in person LOL.  I'll throttle it back a little next time!  More images, less technical jargon!  I get it!]

A visit to the Nix Nature Center in Laguna Canyon, with Mary and Janet...

Shot an airshow in Riverside with Stephen...  Remember this guy from last October?  Sean D. Tucker, the legend...

The "pro section", collectively pointing $35,000 skyward...

Gotta love the C-17 demonstration...

Shot a bunch in Laguna Beach, and the sunsets were pretty nice...

Night photography is so much fun, when you have a tripod!

Fashion mag style shoot, with one of my (beautiful) 2007 brides, Kate.  In the wind...  I hope the processing gets that across! 
Created from THIS image,  using THIS and THIS texture, plus my "texture enhancement actions"...
(By the way, I email these texture enhancement actions to everyone who buys a texture, of course!)

Created from THIS image,  using THIS, THIS and THIS texture, plus my "texture enhancement actions"...
(I know that sounds like a lot of work, but honestly it took only 14 minutes and 38 seconds, and that's WITH
commentary... (Yep, you guessed it, I record almost all my image edits!  But that's for my semi-top-secret project!!!)

And this is why I use a (circular) polarizer!  (The dark part with the beautiful clouds is where the polarizer has it's effect,
...the lighter section is where the polarizer loses it's effect, due to the angle from the sun.  A perfect "with/without" example...

The polarizer, more effectively used.  (using composition and cropping to make the polarization look even...)

Hanging out with some UCI peeps / alum, including Victor...

Last but definitely not least, I'm attending a weeknight evening workshop at Rock Harbor church, on missional photography...
Let's play guess who these three (photographers) are!!?!

Take care,
=Matt=

AND, before I get any further, I have to post this bulletin-  There is an AMAZING opportunity right now to photograph hummingbirds in flight...  Anyone who has a telephoto lens and enjoys any kind of wildlife photography, you really don't want to miss this opportunity, and I highly recommend coming out to the arboretum next Saturday at the latest, or if you're self-employed and can work from anywhere, I propose packing up your laptop and joining me for a few hours of relaxation and hummingbird photography tomorrow! (Monday the 7th)

You see, a particular flowering plant is in full bloom right now, and there are hummingbirds all over it, literally.  And the way this plant shoots up it's flowers, well, the hummingbirds are sitting ducks:

This is what the situation looks like, standing back and zoomed out.  If you zoom in and sneak up, you might be able to almost fill your viewfinder with a hummingbird.  Seriously, this is such an easy shot, anyone with a DSLR and a lens that goes to 200mm or 300mm (or longer) could pull this off, no D300 or f/2.8 lens required!

Alright, I hope some will be interested and want to join me.  The Fullerton Arboretum is right off the 57, just north of the 91.  Pretty central for almost anywhere in the OC / south LA area...  Now, on to today's photos!  I had the pleasure of being joined by a good number of friends, including an engaged couple whose wedding I'll be photographing in July.  Needless to say, we did a little less landscape / nature photography, and a little more impromptu engagement session photography...  It was fun though, we kept things really relaxed and just sorta did whatever we wanted.  We took turns playing around with my reflector, blinding each other with the gold side, etc...

Like I said, I'll go back tomorrow and get the more close-up shots.  The wisteria has definitely peaked though, and the arbor is now growing over with mostly green.  NEXT, I can't wait to see the tree behind blossom in totally vibrant pink!

Nikon D300, Sigma 150mm 2.8 macro @ f/2.8
(Patiently awaiting Nikon's affordable FX DSLR... )

Nikon D300, Sigma 50-150 2.8, HEAVILY cropped.

Nikon D300, Nikon 17-55 2.8.  26mm @ f/4 & ISO 200.
RAW image processed in Bridge CS3 using one of Scott Robert's Lightroom presets...

Nikon D300, Nikon 17-55 2.8. 17mm @ f/2.8 & ISO 400.
RAW image processed in Bridge CS3 with one of Scott Robert's Lightroom presets...

Nikon D300, Nikon 17-55 2.8.  17mm @ f/2.8 & ISO 400.
RAW image processed in Bridge CS3 using one of Scott Robert's Lightroom presets...

Nikon D300, Sigma 50-150 2.8.  80mm @ f/2.8 & ISO 400.
JPG image processed in Bridge CS3 using one of Scott Robert's Lightroom presets...

Ahhh but I can't wait 'til Tuesday to see what I can do with Scott Robert Lightroom presets PLUS my textures!  Woohoo!

Take care,
=Matt=