William Henry Jackson

We are to create a PowerPoint presentation on a photographer of our choosing.  I probably could have named only two or three mainstream photographers.  So I looked around a little, and I decided the work and contributions by William Henry Jackson could be an engaging topic.

Jackson, circa 1870's (on left) and later in his career, circa late 1920's or early '30s (on right).

Jackson's life spanned nearly a century, incorporating:

• his passion for photography (the focal point of my PowerPoint presentation)
• publishing
• artistic talents
• veteran of the American Civil War (Union)
• Hollywood film advisor

Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Before Jackson began his work taking pictures for the United States government, the photo above was simply a hot springs geyser in a very unexplored area of the U.S.  Now we know it as Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park.  It was photos like these, shot while Jackson was out on survey teams that helped encourage Congress to establish our first National Parks.

Jackson's work took him throughout the relatively unexplored West, but it did not end there.  Travels took him all around the United States and to different continents.

High Bridge and Washington Bridge over the Harlem River

I look forward to learning more about William Henry Jackson and his work. My passion for landscape photography and especially that surrounding our National Parks and the American West, makes me feel like he will be a great topic for my PowerPoint presentation.

Denver's 5 Points section of town

J210 Unit 3 Name on Canvas Project

For this portion of our photo assignments in Unit 3, we were to take photos of objects to create our "name" out of them.  Each of the photos were shot individually and enhanced using PhotoShop.  Standard, consistent enhancements included adjustments for brightness and contrast, saturation, and lightness.  Cropping and image size adjustment were performed to ensure they "filled" the frame, and were a standard 5" tall for consistency, making it easier to "join" them together.

A new project was created in PhotoShop, with a canvas large enough to group all five of my pictures/ letters into it, with some spacing around everything for the background.  I simply moved the enhanced photos into the new project, changed the background to the red, flattened the layers, and saved the photo as a new, single image.

Each of the letters that I took a picture of were something related to my life.

• C -- I enjoy my video games. Always have since the days of the Atari 2600.
• H -- A valet that was my grandpa's and my dad's, passed down to me.
• R -- A library table that was my grandma's, passed onto my mom.
• I -- Dad taught me how to play chess when I was probably about 8 years old.
• S -- It's great to be a Parrothead.

And the result....

J210 Unit 3 Enhancing an Indoor Photo

This is Dash.  I told my friends I needed to exploit him for homework.  The homework being, an indoor shot taken without flash, and then enhance the lighting.  Below is the original picture before any editing.

 I went ahead using PhotoShop to adjust brightness (an increase) and contrast (very minor increase).  I increased saturation a few ticks, and cropped some of my buddy Sean's gut out of the picture to finish it off.  I like the lighting around the collar and I think the adjustments really show around Dash's eyes too.  Below is the edited photo.

J210 Unit 3 Enhancing an Outdoor Photo

For this portion of Unit 3, we were to take a well-composed outdoor picture and enhance it by making the colors "pop".  In the below photo, I was standing in the tee box on the fifth hole, "Desert", at the Royal Portrush Golf Club in Portrush, Northern Ireland.  All of the holes on the golf course provided similar photo ops, due to the links-style setting (a very natural, coastal dunes, rolling environment)

Hole 5 "Desert" at the Royal Portrush Golf Club, County Antrim, Northern Ireland

After importing this to PhotoShop, I made a few simple adjustments to enhance the vibrancy of the colors, the lighting, and the scope of the image as follows:

• An increase in the saturation across the picture
• A decrease in the lightness of the photo across the picture
• An increase in vibrancy across the picture
• A small cropping of the tee box from the bottom of the photo

Below, you can see the enhanced version of the picture.  I feel it really helps to bring out all the different "greens" that they are known for in Ireland, without appearing manufactured.  Really.  It is that green over there, everywhere.

UW Badgers' Fans Under the Lights

No assignment here.  Just thought I would share a picture I shot while at a football game last Saturday.  Something, sadly, that IPFW appears to not be working toward at all.

I have been carrying my camera quite a few places since class started.  I wasn't sure I wanted to bring it into the Wisconsin--Nebraska football game.  I wasn't even sure I wanted to bring it out of the house, knowing we were tailgating for almost 10 hours.  A lot of destructive stuff can happen that time in that atmosphere.  But I decided to go for it, and I was glad I did.

The below photo has been enhanced with PhotoShop.  I thought that might bring out the colors better in the beatdown that the Wisconsin Badgers put on Nebraska for their official "Welcome to the B1G Ten" game.

Unit 2 Completed

I just wanted to express my own confusion (a state I try to avoid) as Unit 2 wrapped up yesterday.  Almost the entire class (I didn't check to see if it was all of us) did the Unit 3 discussions which weren't due until October 16th.

Did we all just work fervently ahead?  I sincerely doubt this.  One or two people posted to the discussions, and soon we all started doing it, myself included.  It says "Unit 3" right on them.  We all have a calendar and syllabus telling us dates these assignments are due.  And it appears we all just ignored that, panicked, and got our discussions in a good two weeks early.

I'm sure there is a sociological study somewhere in this on group mentality.  And, at least we all find ourselves slightly ahead of the homework for a short while.

J210 Unit 2 logo information

I probably could have talked about the logo I created in my first blog post, but I didn't.  So, to complete my J210 Unit 2 blog posting assignment, I thought I'd quickly share some information about my logo (which you can see at the top of this blog's homepage).

I knew I wanted something whimsical with a dash of color to it.  While I am taking the class and assignments seriously, I did not want my blog to be overtly serious.

I used PhotoShop to expand the canvas from my original photo to the right of the portrait, to give it a more rectangular view, something akin to a business card.  Exactly what I wanted.  This was saved as a .jpg file.

PowerPoint was used to add the font.  It was as simple as starting with a blank slide, and inserting a picture.  It took a little time, and some trial and error, to get the font I wanted, and the size I wanted it.

I changed the font and color for the word "Warp" to give it something that stands out.

This was all then saved as a single picture, in a .jpg format.  This allowed me to easily upload it to my blog as it's logo.

J210 Unit 2 Cropping edit

Following in yesterday's footsteps, today I am providing an example of how to utilize PhotoShop to remove extraneous information from a photograph.  The picture I chose to edit was from a hike up Long's Peak.  I was enjoying an early lunch in the Boulderfield campground before beginning my descent.  There was a mischievous marmot getting into other hiker's backpacks, so I quick grabbed my camera for the shot.  I always knew I could edit the picture later.

In the first picture (above), I got the shot of the marmot I wanted.  What I didn't want were the other hiker's backpacks in it.  I couldn't ask the marmot to pose again, so I was left with this.  I felt this could be easily remedied.

Below you can see the edited picture.  This was done simply with cropping in PhotoShop. I was able to incorporate the Rule of 3, attempting to keep clutter out of the picture, and keep the focus on the upper and left thirds of the photo .  While I was editing, I also decided to take the time to make adjustments to the brightness and contrast.

I feel this edited picture accurately reflects my goal of showcasing the marmot in the best way possible, while removing unwanted clutter from the sides of the photo.

As you can see, with photoediting software it is quite simple to change the entire look of a picture.  Please be responsible when using PhotoShop, Picasa, etc. when making changes to photographs.

J210 Unit 2 Lighting edit

This is an example of how you can utilize PhotoShop to make adjustments to the lighting and contrast of a picture.  The photo I chose for adjustment is one of me on a route to summit Long's Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.

In the first photo (above), you can see it is exceptionally bright.  This is due to the rising sun being at an angle directly reflecting off of the Boulderfield and then reflected yet again against the Keystone and surrounding rock.


Below, you can see the edited picture.  I utilized PhotoShop to bring out the shadows and adjust the brightness and contrast.

By making these enhancements, I feel I've kept the true colors of my clothing I am wearing and that of my backpack, and the color in the sky is more accurate to the day I shot this.  You can also see a large difference in the shadows, most noticeable is the one in the nook directly below where I am seated.

As you can see from these photos, photoediting software can allow you to enhance a picture in a manner that could bring out the best in the visual cues of that picture.