A tree covered in spanish moss at DeLeon Springs park (Florida), in black and white.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 28-135mm, 1/500, F3.5, 28mm, ISO400, 2008-12-31T09:28:49-05, 20081231-142849rxt

Download a perfected high-res JPEG or download the source image (Canon Rebel XTi RAW file).

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Credit me as Richard X. Thripp, and link back to richardxthripp.thripp.com or rxthripp.com. Thanks!

Power lines through a field of brush. It’s a jungle out there!

I added contrast and vignetting in Photoshop. This is the first photo I’ve posted in over a month; I’m glad to be back though.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 28-135mm, 1/1600, F3.5, 35mm, ISO100, 2008-12-31T09:30:31-05, 20081231-143031rxt

Download a perfected high-res JPEG or download the source image (Canon Rebel XTi RAW file).

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Credit me as Richard X. Thripp, and link back to richardxthripp.thripp.com or rxthripp.com. Thanks!

Ashley says hello to a 17×11 print of Yellow Grasshopper. That was hard to carry around, but it was worth it so they could meet. She’s funny and cute. The grasshopper is too, but he’s more the serious type.

She was smoking (see her left hand), and I rested the print on the ash can nearby. It was the only way to get them both in the shot looking at each other. Smoking is still as popular as ever.

I added brightness and vignetting, and corrected her skin tones. I set my camera to sunshine white …

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Holes in the red-brick wall, by the theater (bldg. 220) at Daytona State College. They made the wall like this because it looks interesting.

I converted this to black and white because the color wasn’t working. The repeating pattern plays tricks on your eyes, if you look at it long enough.

For editing, all I had to do was add contrast and vignetting. The image isn’t perfectly level, but it’s as close as I could get, and I got complete holes on the sides which makes the image aesthetically stronger (because they’re dark).

Think of this wall as …

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It’s a blizzard! A snow day, at least.

This was a downpour of rain that started while the sun was still out. The sunshine reflected all across the newly fallen water in the parking lot, making it look like snow. I shot this car backing out of a parking space, at 132mm from about thirty feet away.

I made the water look like snow by over-exposing and adding contrast in Photoshop. I also converted to black and white. I didn’t even notice that Adobe Camera Raw 4.0 has a vignetting slider under “Lens Corrections,” but I’m using it now …

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Rachel, pointing out into space.

She has the same name as my seven-year-old sister, who doesn’t post much.

This was the only pose I could think of. I’m running out of ideas…

Anyway, I took color out of the background so the focus is just on Rachel. She’s pointing up at a squirrel or something.

I also darkened the background a lot.

Rachel is a photographer and has her own photographs here: photographsbyrachelwhited.com. She’s a great model too. I’m only good at photography, fortunately.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 28-135mm, 1/200, F6.3, 38mm, ISO400, 2008-01-13T12:04:27-05, 20081113-170427rxt1

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Light blue flowers, like velvet in the sun.

This was framed well. There are a whole bunch more flowers on the left and below, a dark plant on the right, and deep turquoise sky above. It wasn’t quite like that in reality, but I changed the color of the sky and made the flowers lighter in Photoshop, by manipulating curves on the a and b channels in the Lab colorspace.

These flowers are near bldg. 300 at Daytona State College. I had to sit near the ants on the sidewalk while pointing my camera up to get this …

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The golden highway: International Speedway Boulevard in Daytona Beach, Florida, near the race track. I shot this through the windshield of the car from a few hundred feet away, with my lens at 135mm, the maximum telephoto. Since my camera has a 22.2×14.8mm (cropped) sensor, that’s the 35mm equivalent of 216mm.

The light around the cars struck me immediately. Shooting through a scratched windshield actually makes the scene more beautiful, because you have streaks of light and contrast around the highlights. The downside is that the photo is initially low-contrast. I cranked up the contrast with …

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A glass rose my Grandmother found at a garage sale. Its appearance changes dramatically under different light; the highlights turn out best with bright light shining down or from the side. I think it looks great here.

I bought a new lens: a Canon EF 28-135mm F3.5-5.6. I got a good deal ($260, refurbished). It’s been a lot of fun to work with. Quite a bit heavier than the old 50mm prime, but much more versatile. I like the image stabilization gyroscopes; they really work, unlike on some cheaper cameras. I used them here to hand-hold …

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Bethany, receiving an intriguing text message before class. I don’t know why people use text messages when they could just talk over the phone, but they’ve become quite popular somehow.

She’s in cosmetology at the college, which apparently involves applying makeup and such. I think that’s why she has a purple apron. She could also have a future in modeling, because when I told her to be serious, she didn’t crack up like this girl.

I burned in the corners a lot (vignetting). They were bright to start, but darkening them really strengthens the portrait. You’re in Bethany’s …

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