January, 2010

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Animals on Parade

Monday, January 11th, 2010

I was contacted by a music teacher in Guam. She wanted to know if she could use the title cut from one of my CDs for a show her students were going to perform.

drawings by Jess Blake

see: http://animalsonparade.com

In fact… see the coloring book pages that father drew for the album at:

http://animalsonparade.com/ColoringBook.cfm

They’re superb! He used to draw for Disney. My dad raised us by drawing caricatures at the major county and state fairs.

I wrote out lead a sheet (lyrics and chords) and sent the music teacher a copy along with the entire song to reference.

About three months later I received a package in the mail (from Guam). It had a number of hand made thank you notes from all the kids in the program and a video of their performance from their teacher.

Check the video out on the Internet.
http://ngws.com/animals/

Now, I’ve been back stage with Paul Simon, Donovan, toured with the Doobie Brothers, travelled in Russia with Cyndi Lauper and Michael Bolton, been in the recording studio with Julio Iglesias, been asked to give my assessment of new songs by the Beach Boy’s Bruce Johnston (I Write the Songs that Make the Whole Sing) while sitting in his limousine listening to his demo being played by Little Richard… and I can go on and on naming the major recording artists I’ve interacted and worked with.

When I opened this package from Guam, I was never so touched and impressed by something to do with my music endeavors as I was with this. At the time, I was driving to a rural school in the San Joaquin Valley to teach underprivileged 9 year old children how make videos and use digital cameras. I received a grant to purchase the cameras for my educational programs.

Tears streamed down my face when I heard those little voices from Guam singing a song that I wrote. I called a close friend of mine who writes music for Disney and (while still emotional) told him about this package from Guam. He confirmed that it is things like this that are truly where it’s at. I was absolutely overwhelmed. In my own way, I had just won my “Grammy” award.

When you go to measure your successes in life, it seems to me that the measuring stick you use will very from one type to another depending on your life’s situation. How fragile we all are and how blessed we all are to have opportunities to affect the lives of others.

I generate income from teaching and training others to be better at the things they aspire to be. I also help a number of manufacturers grow their businesses. I’m involved in photography, video production, web, music, marketing, writing, education and more. I’m always busy. I work from 8:30am to 10:30pm seven days a week. Even then, there’s still not enough time for me to do all I aspire to do.

I get quite a bit of personal fulfillment from the creative projects I do. When I see that I’m helping others with what they seek it makes me feel successful.

Come on and sing…. “Animals on Parade!”

Fe Fi Feux Fun with Backgrounds

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Textured Backgrounds for Portraits and More - photo by Marc Blake, a photographer from Fresno
Textured Backgrounds for Portraits and More – photo by Marc Blake, a photographer from Fresno

It’s good clean creative fun to make your own backgrounds in Photoshop.

In this tutorial I demonstrate how you can create your own backgrounds. In the photo above I’ve used the background I created in the video as a backdrop for a holiday portrait. You get to paint away all day and never spill a drop!

Be sure to think about ways you can implement some of the techniques you’ll see me use to help boost your productivity with your regular day-to-day Photoshop workflow.

Pool Rules

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

Pool Rules - photo by Marc Blake, a photographer from Fresno
Pool Rules – photo by Marc Blake, a photographer from Fresno
Nikon D200
Location: Mendota, California – The Cantaloupe Capital of the World

There are certainly some rules of photography that you just never want to break! One of them must be that you NEVER cut someone’s head off.

I’m all about breaking the rules on Thursday, January 7th of the year 2010. Well, to clarify, as long as it is nearly 4:00 AM on the west coast of the United States. When I start my day tomorrow, I’ll get back to playing by the rules.

So what is this all about? Sometimes, you need to cut off their head. Let’s take a look at why and then I’ll tell you the “real” reason I’m writing tonight’s article. [TEASE: It has to do with the DaVinci Code!]

When you don’t have a model release, you really don’t want to post a photograph of somebody that would be in any way whatsoever recognizable. It’s not legal and probably immoral at some level.

When you have a composition that is not going to create much of a challenge in the form of creating any intrigue you might need to think outside that proverbial box. Off with their heads!

This image was useless, until I cut off the head (and arms). Once I did it became a perfect composition. By breaking one rule, it fell into place and is perfectly aligned with a number of rules of art and composition.

The horizon in the background sets right at the 1/3 level as do the vertical elements – perfect for following the “rule of thirds” consideration for good composition.

The fence posts and chain links create an array that promote tremendous repetition of shape. Another superb compositional rule to follow.

The colors of the swim shorts match the pool sign words elegantly – perfectly following some of the rules of color coordination.

Plus, the fact that the swimmer is caught in mid-air creates excellent tension for this composition. Thus, we are following the rule of creating tension for our viewers. I’m pretty sure I just made that up… but let me remind you that I’m “not” following the rules tonight!

So let’s get to the real subject at hand. Let’s get down to some real art. I received a call yesterday from someone whose name I may not disclose. He called to share information about an exciting opportunity on which he was embarking. What he said was, “I’m leaving tomorrow for _ _ _ _ _ _ to look at the lost chalice by DaVinci.” That’s what he said. However, what I (wanted to) hear him say was, “how should I photograph the lost chalice created by Leonardo DaVinci?” So, I advised him on the lighting gear and set up to use and expect that he “will” follow my instructions to every letter of the rules of proper lighting when photographing one of the most rare pieces of historical art in the history of man. I’ll try to get copies of the photo to post in a future article.

So, tonight’s article is actually just so say, “How cool is that? My buddy is going to have a one on one with a rare work by one of my favorites.” Love what he did with Mona by the way.

Dear Wind that Sets the Barley Free

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Dear wind that sets the barely free,
Blow home my true love’s ship to me.
Fill her sails.
I a weary wait upon the shore.
(Donovan, from “Widow with a Shawl, a portrait”)
Low Tide in Devon - photo by Marc Blake, a photographer from Fresno
Low Tide in Devon – photo by Marc Blake, a photographer from Fresno

I took these (above) photographs while on a music project in England, South England, near Penzance, as in, The Pirates of Penzance, as in on the very edge “me lova,” as in Devon on the very absolute tiny southern tip of Great Britain. This is such an unusual part of the country that the low and high tide exposes, then hides the land trail that leads hundreds of yards away to what becomes an island when the tide rolls in. By morning the land trail appears again.

The opening lyrics of this article remind me of the time when I was expanding my musical creativity as a songwriter at a very young age. The creative process and the emotion that is a motivating factor for just about any form of art, for an artist, is a type of life fuel in itself. The fact of the matter is that artists just cannot help themselves when it comes to creating.

It’s no different today with a computer as a canvas along with the keyboard and mouse combination as the paintbrush with its palette of colors.

Sometimes I just need to create for the sake of creation itself. The journey through the creative process can be so rewarding that it’s easy to get lost and exciting when you find your way to a meaningful result.

Like the lyrics above indicate the wind becomes my motivation and the barley becomes the creativity. A very special thing about art is that often times an artist’s production becomes part of a project that benefits others. Of course sometimes some art is simply for art’s sake.

Now let’s return to the photographs above…

I know what you are thinking. You’re thinking that I keep saying “photographs” yet am displaying only one photo. I do know what I said and I meant what I said. This image is a composite of two images that I glued together in Photoshop and then enhanced with a variety of filters to yield this final gallery presentation.


Two photos that are rather mediocre combine forces to become a dynamic gallery presentation.

The gallery image at the top contains four colors. Red, blue, white, and green – predominately. Some of the most striking visual images are uncomplicated in terms of their color palette. In this project I chose to alter the tone of the yellow boat because red is a color that the eye will see first. In fact, that’s why stop lights and stop signs are red. Here’s a hint-more speeding tickets are issued to red cars than any other color for those of you looking to help save General Motors with a new car purchase.

I took the image below while waiting for a train. I really have nothing to tell you about this photograph at all except for the fact that I like it. So I’ll just leave this one alone. Art for art’s sake.


Another from my series of gallery images. This one is called, “Going to Take a Fast Train.”

If anyone is having a problem with all this heavy lifting (manipulating) I’m doing with Photoshop just keep one thing in mind… “Yes, I can” make you look 10 years younger!

Color to B&W Conversion with Control

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

Barn and Field (color) - photo by Marc Blake, a photographer from Fresno
The original image of a barn and field – photo by Marc Blake, a photographer from Fresno

Barn and Field (color) - photo by Marc Blake, a photographer from Fresno
A black and white conversion using Photoshop.

Click on the frame above to view the video

  • Add Saturation Adjustment layer: Color Layer Blend Mode
  • Add Saturation Adjustment layer above that one
  • Desature it 100%
  • Then use the lower Adj layer to tweak the HUE
  • Converting a Color photo to B&W with Photoshop

    Monday, January 4th, 2010

    Here is one way to turn a color photograph into a nice black and white photograph using Adobe Photoshop.


    Click on the frame above to start the video tutorial

    Panorama Bay - photo by Marc Blake, a photographer from Fresno

    I’ll show you some other methods that will provide you with even more control in future articles.

    Let the Games Begin

    Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

    I took a photograph (40 years ago) inside the corridor of arches at The Coliseum in Rome, Italy. The photograph was not particularly interesting to look at. It was not a bad composition. It was a bad quality photograph. Below is a scan of that original image. I scanned it with a subtle sepia tone effect thinking that would make it a nice photo. Holy gladiator, was I wrong.

    The Coliseum - photo by Marc Blake, a photographer from Fresno
    The Coliseum 1967 – photo by Marc Blake, a photographer from Fresno

    I really needed something more interesting for my viewers to enjoy and decided to see just how much detail I could get out of this boring photograph. I used Adobe Photoshop, a combination of filters by Topaz Labs and an interesting frame to create the following representation of my photograph. Click on the video link below the image to see how this was done.

    WARNING: The video tutorial happens very quickly!

    The Coliseum - photo by Marc Blake, a photographer from Fresno
    The Coliseum 1967 – enhanced with Photoshop and a variety of plugin filters
    photo by Marc Blake, a photographer from Fresno
    Grungy border image from Fotolia.com

    Watch the “Making of…” video

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    Retro Speck

    Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

    Images of 1969 Europe - photos by Marc Blake, a photographer from Fresno

    In the days of old, in the days of gold
    How oft’times I repine for the days of old
    When we dug up the gold, in the days of ’49.
    (Bob Dylan, from “Days of 49″)

    I’m not really so disgusted that I repine my months of study of art history in Europe in the late 60′s.

    We (photographers) shot film in those days and I do have my collection of several thousand images well archived. At the time, I never thought for a moment that four decades later my images would be eligible for categorization as retro or vintage or historical or old time or collectible or antique or anything else associated with photographs from a long time ago.

    I would have shot so much more. I would have had such motivation to see things with an even more scrutinizing eye.

    I understand now why people read history books. [I was never much of a history buff in school]

    gold barsYou can learn from what others before you have done. Uh… hello! Parents? Are your children listening to you and learning about not making the mistakes you made?

    There is something to learn from history if you are in a learning mood.

    When shooting “stock” images now, it will be much more aggressively since I’ll be reminding myself about the days of old in the days of gold.

     Michelangelo's Signature on his statue 'David' in the Gallery in Florence, Italy - photos by Marc Blake, a photographer from Fresno
    Michelangelo’s “David” photo by Marc Blake, 1969 – taken in the Gallery of the Academy, Florence, Italy, Nikon F, Tri-X Pan, processing “normal” in Kodak D-76, digitized in 2009 with a Nikon Coolscan 9000.

    Did you know that Michelangelo signed his statue of David near the base in the back of the sculpture with a self-portrait of his profile?

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    Sending New Energy

    Friday, January 1st, 2010

    Ready?

    Sending New Energy - New Years 2010 photo by Marc Blake, a photographer from Fresno

    By now we’ve resolved that we’re up for trying again to get it right. Like the cargo ship pictured above, we’re loaded up and headed out to the sea of life seeking adventure and good fortune beginning on this new year’s day of 2010.

    I was a young songwriter when I wrote these lyrics to one of my compositions entitled, “The Peaceful Ship.”

    The Peaceful Ship.
    Strong with tradition
    yet open to a new sea of ideas
    where gulls make leave their pleasant homes.

    It was about being willing to take risks and go outside our comfort zones (a.k.a. laziness and status quo) in order to find ways to enhance ourselves and hopefully those we come into contact with. A lofty task for a fifteen year old? Not so much. I think it more risky to be willing to expose one’s feelings in such an uncontrolled public forum as the Internet. At the risk of even one person “getting it,” I put myself at risk.

    My good friend and talented professional musician-buddy Dan Bates told me that even when playing gigs in clubs where the house (number of people in the room) is small, the music your putting out there will affect someone in a positive way. He went on to say, “that counts!” Yeah Dan.