Peter Lik

Posted by Bayly Buck on

In Honolulu, and a few of the cities in the US, I have come across one of the coolest landscape galleries I have ever seen. Peter Lik is from Australia and has won many awards for his amazing landscapes. He travels around the world capturing these insane places at the most amazing time of day. If you have never seen his work in person it is remarkable. The saturation of the colors is unreal and it gives them this amazing three-dimensional look. His photographs actually change mood depending on the lighting. They look one way when the light is bright and then as you dim the lights its like actually watching a sunset in some of them. One great thing about his landscapes is that he doesn’t print small. All the photos in his galleries are huge prints with natural frames that only enhance the photos. He uses a Linhof Technorama Panoramic camera to do most of his landscapes. I have heard that he is starting to put digital backs on these cameras but still primarily uses the film format. Like I said his work is absolutely stunning and I hope you click on the link to his website and check out his stuff. —> www.peterlik.com 

Below is a photo that I have taken with a panoramic film camera. The experience of going out in to the jungle to capture this amazing waterfall was awesome. My brother and I decided to make this hike which is open to the public. The name of the hike is called Manoa Falls Trail in the Manoa Valley just outside of Waikiki in Honolulu, Hawaii.(here is a link for more info –> Manoa Falls Hike) The trail isn’t very difficult and the result is worth it. I really love the black and white feel of this photograph and it really brings out the contrast in the rocks. With the long exposure I was able to make the water blur and feel like silk running down the rocks. I love this photo and I am planning on doing a lot more film panoramas in the future. Please feel free to comment and give me your thoughts on my shot and/or post your own panoramas.

Panoramic photograph of Manoa Falls using a Fuji Film Panoramic camera

Sunset Over Diamond Head

Posted by Bayly Buck on

Last month I got to travel back home to Hawaii for my travel class. I got to shoot with a friend of mine around the sunset time and in between outfits I snapped a shot of two of the sunset. This shot was taken at China Walls which is a cool spot yet really dangerous. I have had a first hand experience seeing someone die over there. Even though this spot is really dangerous it offers a great vantage point for watching the sunset. Let me know what you think and I encourage you to comment with your own sunset shots from Hawaii.

Photographed from China Walls

Minature/Lens Baby Photoshop Tutorial

Posted by Bayly Buck on

Aloha everyone…the last post about Lomography Photoshop effect was so popular I thought to do another and this time about the miniature/lens baby effect. Below is my own tutorial on how to create this effect in photoshop.

here is a shot of Times Square with the Lens Baby effectThis is the final image that I came out with and I will show you how to achieve that effect.

Step 1.

Open your image and duplicate the background layer so we aren’t doing any destructive editing.

Step 2.

Press the “Q” button on your keyboard to go in to quick mask mode. Then grab the gradient tool by either holding down on the paint bucket tool or pressing “G” and then “Shift G” to get to that tool. Next we will choose which part of the photography we want to be in focus. Click and hold the shift button while dragging up. You should get something like this. (I chose one of the taxis in the middle of the frame

Step 3. 

Press the “Q” key again to exit quick mask mode and you should see a selection box similar to the one below.

Step 4.

Next we are going to go up to “Filter”  then “Blur” and then “Lens Blur.”

Step 5.

In the Lens blur window the default setting should be fine but if you want to experiment go ahead and click “Ok” when you get the effect you want.

Step 6. 

Repeat steps 2-5 but instead of dragging the gradient line up choose the same spot or a little higher and drag down. Once you repeat the “Lens Blur” filter you will get a gradiated blur on the top and bottom of the selection point. This will make the image sharp in where selected and the blurry on the top and bottom making the Lens Baby/Minature effect.

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If you would like you can add contrast by using the “curves” panel and making an “S Curver) and can add saturation using the “Hue/Saturation.” Experiment around with those until you get the desired effect. 

Hope this tutorial helped and if you have any question don’t hesitate to ask :)

Please comment and leave your Lens Baby photos you created!

Times Square photo was found at http://newconstructionmanhattan.com/nyc-apartments-by-landmark/times-square

Lomo Photography Effect Tutorial

Posted by Bayly Buck on

I was cruising around the internet and came across this cool photoshop tutorial. Lomography photos typically have a vignette and are very contrasty and over saturated. The over saturation came from taking the E6 slide negatives and cross processing them with standard 35mm chemicals. The style is really cool and I found a tutorial to make your digital files immolate that style. The tutorial is extremely easy to follow and the result is really cool as well. This effect struggles with blown out skies as you see in one of the photos I did. Here is the link to the tutorial –> Lomo Effect Tutorial. Enjoy and please post a photo that you did using the effect I would love to see! ENJOY!

Here is one that has the blown out sky

This one of Hailee is cool

Camera Phones!

Posted by Bayly Buck on

Was playing golf at Glenn Annie golf course today and snapped a shot of their club house from across the bridge. Seems like camera phone photography is becoming pretty popular these days. The quality has been getting way better and this is a way for people to take quick shots here and there. Every day we see people pulling gout their cell phones and taking shots of friends, themselves, landscapes, and events. The iPhone really started things off and one organization starting doing an iPhone photography competition. The IPPA (iPhone Photography Awards <–check it out) was started in 2007 and has been running ever since. Take a look at the entries and winners from the past contests. There are some pretty cool shots out there which make you think that maybe phone photography will be the next respected form of photography.

Check out this article about an award-winning photographer who’s camera phone photos have been under controversy. People are saying that his camera phones are not photo journalism…check it out A Grunt’s Life Photo Story Controversy

the view from across the bridge