Ferne Clyff State Park

In my little social media kick I'm on I've been wanting to take some photographs to post on my blog, twitter, fb, etc. Finally - they are here. Both of these images were taking this morning (6/30) at Ferne Clyff State Park in Goreville, IL. Here's the part where I say how long the exposure was and aperature I used, type of lens, camera, etc. Well, I used Canon EOS Rebel XTI (not my cup of tea, I prefer Nikon, but it will do), with a Canon EFS 18-55mm lens with a polarized filter. Aperature and exposure time I cannont say, because well, I deleted the original photo when I was editing (it was somewhere in the range of  f4@1/50). 

What I love about both of these images and is that they are both extrememly close to a type of photography called Macro Photography. The exact definition of Macro Photography is "close-up photography". I consider Macro Photography one of my favorite forms of photography. I suggest Googling some Macro Photography work because some of it is pretty spectacular. It really shows images of the world that really aren't seen by the eye on an everyday occassion.

Now you're saying, "Yeah half of that is 'photoshoped'. Wrong. I love photography that is natural. I agree that HDR photography is absolutely fascinating with the options that one is able to use to alter the photo, but I still consider the natural method the best. By natural I'm talking about only changing a couple of things in the photograph. I did two things to both photos: 1) Added a levels adjustment layer for color correction 2) Added a High Pass filter to increase the sharpness a bit. Many more photos to come from this morning in the near future!

I'm on this social media kick right now in attempt to reveal who I am to the mass public through my designs and photos (soon to come). So, here is my latest design for my twitter account (username: KWillis_33). 

Depending on your screen resolution you may or may not be able to see the full image. The template I used was kind of off on the resolution sizes but it worked out nonetheless. Once again I used Photoshop CS3 to layout the design. I used the burn tool to give a shadow behind the skull because it needed some depth very badly. 

The type face I created (KWillis_33) above it was actually fun to mess with. I found a tutorial by Justin Seeley (Murray State Alum) in which he gave step-by-step instructions on how to apply a double stroke. I made a type layer and then rasterized it so I could add effects to the layer. I added the stroke and then applied an inner glow to give it an "inside" stroke. Fun design to work on. 

SotY poster

Wow! It's finally here and looking great. The above image is a poster I'm designing dedicated to a Story of the Year concert I went to a couple years ago. Before the show the band signed my ticket and cd, gave me some FREE stuff, and after the show the bassist threw me his towel. Needless to say, I wanted to make something great to display all the cool stuff. The show was in the great city of St. Louis, Missouri, therefore the Gateway Arch is must have and the black swan behind it comes from their album art. 

Creating the image took a little time because I wasn't quite sure the size or the layout I wanted. Using Photoshop CS3, I tinkered around for a while before I finally decided how I wanted to go about it. I downloaded a stock image to get a form of the arch, and downloaded a few fonts that were used on the album cover. The rest of it is pretty self-explanatory. I plan on placing the cd, ticket, and towel inside the arch but I don't really want to cover up the black swan. It's still in the works!