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Bill Pador > "A VERY Close Call" OK This image shows why you should NOT go outside during a lightning storm holding an umbrella over your camera equipment and yourself to get a shot. I was on my way home last night when it started pouring violently and began to give off an awesome light show. By the time I got home, rushed into my studio to grab my equipment and set it up the storm had calmed down a lot. I went out onto my back deck set the tripod up along with my wired release and opened the lens real quick before I got the proper settings just for a TEST SHOT to see what settings I was going to use. All of a sudden a HUGE BRIGHT LIGHT flashed before my eyes and almost immediately a crack of thunder that was deafening exploded above me. Well I just about soiled my trousers (think that's what they say in the UK I believe right Johnloquk?) Seems my TEST shot was a LUCK shot, not only lucky I got this wild lightning shot hitting the tree in my back yard which is about 40' away from me but lucky I'm not dead or burned to a crisp. If you notice the light was so bright where it hit in the tree it basically OVERLOADED the camera sensor to where there is loops & whirls of light and if you look closely at the bottom left corner you can see the lightning bolt traveling through the trees from the one in the center to the one on the left corner. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would hit so close and so fast since the storm seemed almost over, the rain had slowed considerably and I had just gotten outside.I have a Type "A" personality and I'm an adrenaline junky, but I can honestly say I haven't had this close of a call or a jolt of excitement like this since I retired from being a cop 8 years ago. Honestly I was VERY SCARED but felt so alive at that very moment but Needless to say this is the only shot I got because I grabbed my equipment and RAN inside and called it quits :) LOL I may be dumb but I'm NOT 'Stupid' ! I'm not kidding about it being my lucky day, not only did I not get killed here but I got 3 out of 5 numbers on the Jersey Cash 5 Lottery tonight and won a whole $12 ! Hope you like it, I know it's not exposed properly but I don't know if I could have gotten anything different with so much light hitting at once so close, I attempted to scale the exposure down using levels etc. but I had not set the camera on RAW yet so my adjustments were very limited and I was too scared to try again for the night. Lesson Learned, BE CAREFUL OUT THERE Folks ! "Sorry Mom" ~Bill~
Bill Pador > An Apple a Day keeps the Snow Storm Away - - NOT ! 3/1/09: Time to baton down the hatches kiddies, We are in for one hell of a ride in the next 12 hours or so, here in New Jersey there is one word we fear and know means business when we hear it and that is: "Nor' Easter" and when they hit they hit with a fury. We are in the beginning stages of an Nor' Easter Snow Storm right now and having only snowed for the last 2 hours we have 3" on the ground already and they are calling for 15"+ in my area in the mountains of North West NJ. I'm NOT Happy about this because of several reasons, one is that the low pressure they bring kills my spinal injury and makes for a rough night sleeping, plus I don't feel like snow blowing anymore LOL Oh well no need in crying about it, it's here and I might as well photograph it tomorrow right ! UPDATE: It's 2:00am and I posted 3 hours ago we had 3" of snow, well in 3 hours it dumped 7" MORE and there is 10" on the ground now, I just measured. OMG this is BAD !@ I found this apple in the fruit bowl tonight and not only did I feel like playing with low light & water but Bill got a New TOY ! OnOne's Photo Frame Pro 4 ! I gotta tell you if you like to play with Frames, THIS is the program for you, with over 4500 stock frames in it and the ability to customize each of them along with stacking up to like 16 frames on top of each other the results are limitless. I just loaded it and took a quick look see and i was like WOW that is a LOT of frames LOL. So I decided to use it on this shot and this is just a basic stock frame that came with it and I blurred the edges (oh you can do that too). I love the reflection of the flash in each water drop in this one. Look forward to posting some snow shots in my EXTRA gallery later on this afternoon, so for now it's good night and have a great week everyone ! PS: Be sure to read my special message above in my gallery description ! ~Bill Pador~
Bill Pador > The Something Old Challenge...02/23/09 The Challenge:Show us your interpretation of "Something Old." The Participants: Kre8ive, John (300m), The Curious Camel, Karina, Creative Deviance, Lady Kate, Johnloguk, MSpencer, Trevlan, FotoEffects, Hillary, and myself. The Result: An old 1940-50 ish 35mm ARGUS CINTAR box camera I had laying around, I left the dust & dirt on it for originality and shot it on a block glass light table and used a warm WB not sepia. Lighting was provided by 5 small halogen lamps in various positions to subtlety highlight each component of the camera PS: It does not work any longer, the film gear is frozen :( UPDATE: After some FIGITING I was able to Free up the film gear and it is now WORKING! I'm going to get myself a roll of 35mm and see if this thing actually takes pictures LOL Wouldn't that be a hoot to see what this little gem can produce ?
Bill Pador > I was playing around in my Still Life Studio tonight and happen to find a really nice looking tomato in the fridge, so I decided to shoot it for one of my subjects tonight. I used an old nasal spray bottle with water & a drop of blue food coloring (to bring the detail of the drops out more) and the background is my waste paper basket which is like an iron mesh behind it. The tomato sat in a plastic cup to bring the height up to match the mesh part I wanted to put it in front of. Then I took 2 small clip on halogen lights below the tomato shooting straight up to back light the tomato, 1 desk light from above & behind, 1 light at 5 o'clock shooting up/back to give that small highlight on the lower right, then I dialed in a custom white balance to change the hue of the light to get the basic colors you see. I managed to get a blue & reddish color out of it that way but kept the tomato nice & red without changing it's color. Oh BTW this was shot in RAW format so I had full control in LightRoom, Once in Lightroom I did normal sharpening & contrast adjustment, adjusted the black level and boosted the hue of the blue to purple and the reddish orange hue a bit but couldn't move the sliders much or it screwed up my tomatoes color. I also adjusted the yellows which brought out the water drops a bit more and gave them some punch since the white balance I used made the light reflection of the water drops on the yellow side which was good to bring the drops to life. I also added a slight edge darkening & vignette to tone down the edge colors, then saved it. I actually have a few more shots I'm going to post in my EXTRAS gallery tomorrow of a few different items I was playing with like a wine glass, wine bottle & glass and a dried out leaf I saved from fall time. I'll let you know when their done & posted ;) Oh I almost forgot - "I WON the contract for the Junior Formal at the High School in May", I guess my work spoke for itself over the others, so Thanks for all your support & well wishes on that one. I'm very proud to have gotten that contract, it will give me a chance to show off my work to a lot of high school kids & parents this year. Have a Wonderful Thursday everyone, here it's been snowing all day & night. Only have about 2" but it's that wet heavy crap and everything is a mess now. Hope your bathing in the sun where you are ;) ~BILL PADOR~
Bill Pador > Meet my little buddy 'Smiling Joe' I couldn't find my latest issue of Digital Photographer and while looking around the house for it I spotted an odd scene in the bath room. There was Joe relaxing on the thrown with my missing magazine. OK I can't blame him for wanting to educate himself on the latest Creative Techniques & study some inspirational Images but geez don't you think it would be nice to ask permission to take my stuff? Joe was preparing for his trip around the world and spent more time in the rest room then Bush spent looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction for cryin out loud, matter of fact maybe someone should have looked in my bath room for those, because Joe left a WOMD of his own in there, does anyone have a match ? Well I'm going to help Joe pack up for his trip where he'll spend the Spring & Summer of 2009 traveling to all 4 corners of the globe, (is there actually CORNERS on the globe? Isn't it round?) But anyway we'll let you know when he's on his way and where he'll stop first and as soon as he sends me some pictures I'll post them up for you to check out. Check back soon to see all of Joe's adventures, it should be a great trip !
Bill Pador > "Dried Flower Oil Abstract" I was feeling artistic tonight so I headed off on a scavenger hunt in my house to try and find something worthy of an artistic hit. I stopped at my dried flower arrangement that graces the entrance of my home to shoot this oil abstract. It went through several filters to create the final image to include - TOPAZ 'ADJUST & SIMPLIFY' - FOCAL POINT - PHOTO TOOLS - NIK COLOR EFEX PRO 3. I must be feeling sympathy pains in my back because of John (loquk) because I'm not feeling too comfortable tonight plus I got one of my very few headaches tonight as well. After taking some pain meds and some Advil I dozed off into a 2 hour nap but when I woke up I felt much better. My headache is 90% gone and the back is feeling 50% better. It's probably the result of staying up 2 nights in a row to complete post on the fashion show images but I finally got them done and have started the upload which I hope to complete tonight. I got a lot of great shots to share with the participants and think they will be very happy with the results. I went back to Best Buy today and got my $70 refund back since the new Epson photo printer I bought went on sale less then 24 hours after I bought it for $70 less. I didn't walk out of the store with the money though, I spotted a new SAITEK back lit key board that I wanted on sale for $71, so I bought that and had to take $1 out of my pocket LOL. To me it was like getting it for free since I had already spent the money on the printer any way. This keyboard is very nice and is making it much easier for me to type FAST with a lot less energy to press the keys plus it looks awesome since it has 3 different back light colors you can change with the push of a button. I have a great idea for tomorrows image to show off my key board, so stay tuned for it LOL ! Have a great day everyone, thanks for all the great comments on my images the last few days! ~Bill~
Bill Pador > The Looking Down Challenge...02/09/09 The Challenge: Show us your interpretation of "Looking Down." The Participants: Kre8ive, John (300m), The Curious Camel, Karina, Creative Deviance, Lady Kate, Johnloguk, MSpencer, Trevlan, FotoEffects, Hillary, MyKey, and myself. The Result: "Looking Down the Length" The perspective of looking down the length of this kitchen tool using DOF to draw your attention in
Bill Pador > I thought these huge stainless steel silver pipes made for a great abstract with the teal color behind it highlighting the shape of them along with the lines in the glass panels. The only post was regular sharpening routine I do for all my images in CS3, file made smaller and the frame. Nice & simple for a Friday. ** Oh has anyone else been having problems staying logged in with your cookie on SmugMug by any chance ? Seems when I log off IExplorer and then fire it back up my cookie is not keeping me logged in and have to log in again for some reason. Just started happening about 1 week ago and I don't know how to fix it. Anyone have any ideas or having this problem ? Have a GREAT Weekend everyone ! ~Bill Pador~
Bill Pador > "Frozen In" This was a great old sailing ship that caught my eye. After looking at the shot I knew I had to turn this into an old post card type image. I turned it into a high key B&W, desaturated the ships bright red color and then brought the color back by about 50%. The lighting was key to this shot and the sun was blazing in from the left at about 9 o'clock giving a cool fill but leaving some of the shadows. I finished it off with a light white vignette on the corners and gradually let the tone get darker toward the middle to draw the eye in. I had an interesting night setting up my still life shot for next weeks "Motion" Challenge which kept me busy for hours and again I had my little helper OREO supervising me though out the process. He's such a great cat and I love him dearly, I'm sure glad he approves of my work LOL but he needs to learn to stay off the sets ;) Hope your all having a wonderful & Warm day, me I'm freezing again at a whopping 12'F Brrrrr ~Bill~

"A VERY Close Call"


OK This image shows why you should NOT go outside during a lightning storm holding an umbrella over your camera equipment and yourself to get a shot. I was on my way home last night when it started pouring violently and began to give off an awesome light show. By the time I got home, rushed into my studio to grab my equipment and set it up the storm had calmed down a lot. I went out onto my back deck set the tripod up along with my wired release and opened the lens real quick before I got the proper settings just for a TEST SHOT to see what settings I was going to use. All of a sudden a HUGE BRIGHT LIGHT flashed before my eyes and almost immediately a crack of thunder that was deafening exploded above me. Well I just about soiled my trousers (think that's what they say in the UK I believe right Johnloquk?)

Seems my TEST shot was a LUCK shot, not only lucky I got this wild lightning shot hitting the tree in my back yard which is about 40' away from me but lucky I'm not dead or burned to a crisp. If you notice the light was so bright where it hit in the tree it basically OVERLOADED the camera sensor to where there is loops & whirls of light and if you look closely at the bottom left corner you can see the lightning bolt traveling through the trees from the one in the center to the one on the left corner. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would hit so close and so fast since the storm seemed almost over, the rain had slowed considerably and I had just gotten outside.I have a Type "A" personality and I'm an adrenaline junky, but I can honestly say I haven't had this close of a call or a jolt of excitement like this since I retired from being a cop 8 years ago. Honestly I was VERY SCARED but felt so alive at that very moment but Needless to say this is the only shot I got because I grabbed my equipment and RAN inside and called it quits :) LOL I may be dumb but I'm NOT 'Stupid' !

I'm not kidding about it being my lucky day, not only did I not get killed here but I got 3 out of 5 numbers on the Jersey Cash 5 Lottery tonight and won a whole $12 ! Hope you like it, I know it's not exposed properly but I don't know if I could have gotten anything different with so much light hitting at once so close, I attempted to scale the exposure down using levels etc. but I had not set the camera on RAW yet so my adjustments were very limited and I was too scared to try again for the night. Lesson Learned, BE CAREFUL OUT THERE Folks ! "Sorry Mom"

~Bill~
Bill Pador > "A VERY Close Call" OK This image shows why you should NOT go outside during a lightning storm holding an umbrella over your camera equipment and yourself to get a shot. I was on my way home last night when it started pouring violently and began to give off an awesome light show. By the time I got home, rushed into my studio to grab my equipment and set it up the storm had calmed down a lot. I went out onto my back deck set the tripod up along with my wired release and opened the lens real quick before I got the proper settings just for a TEST SHOT to see what settings I was going to use. All of a sudden a HUGE BRIGHT LIGHT flashed before my eyes and almost immediately a crack of thunder that was deafening exploded above me. Well I just about soiled my trousers (think that's what they say in the UK I believe right Johnloquk?) Seems my TEST shot was a LUCK shot, not only lucky I got this wild lightning shot hitting the tree in my back yard which is about 40' away from me but lucky I'm not dead or burned to a crisp. If you notice the light was so bright where it hit in the tree it basically OVERLOADED the camera sensor to where there is loops & whirls of light and if you look closely at the bottom left corner you can see the lightning bolt traveling through the trees from the one in the center to the one on the left corner. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would hit so close and so fast since the storm seemed almost over, the rain had slowed considerably and I had just gotten outside.I have a Type "A" personality and I'm an adrenaline junky, but I can honestly say I haven't had this close of a call or a jolt of excitement like this since I retired from being a cop 8 years ago. Honestly I was VERY SCARED but felt so alive at that very moment but Needless to say this is the only shot I got because I grabbed my equipment and RAN inside and called it quits :) LOL I may be dumb but I'm NOT 'Stupid' ! I'm not kidding about it being my lucky day, not only did I not get killed here but I got 3 out of 5 numbers on the Jersey Cash 5 Lottery tonight and won a whole $12 ! Hope you like it, I know it's not exposed properly but I don't know if I could have gotten anything different with so much light hitting at once so close, I attempted to scale the exposure down using levels etc. but I had not set the camera on RAW yet so my adjustments were very limited and I was too scared to try again for the night. Lesson Learned, BE CAREFUL OUT THERE Folks ! "Sorry Mom" ~Bill~

"A VERY Close Call"


OK This image shows why you should NOT go outside during a lightning storm holding an umbrella over your camera equipment and yourself to get a shot. I was on my way home last night when it started pouring violently and began to give off an awesome light show. By the time I got home, rushed into my studio to grab my equipment and set it up the storm had calmed down a lot. I went out onto my back deck set the tripod up along with my wired release and opened the lens real quick before I got the proper settings just for a TEST SHOT to see what settings I was going to use. All of a sudden a HUGE BRIGHT LIGHT flashed before my eyes and almost immediately a crack of thunder that was deafening exploded above me. Well I just about soiled my trousers (think that's what they say in the UK I believe right Johnloquk?)

Seems my TEST shot was a LUCK shot, not only lucky I got this wild lightning shot hitting the tree in my back yard which is about 40' away from me but lucky I'm not dead or burned to a crisp. If you notice the light was so bright where it hit in the tree it basically OVERLOADED the camera sensor to where there is loops & whirls of light and if you look closely at the bottom left corner you can see the lightning bolt traveling through the trees from the one in the center to the one on the left corner. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would hit so close and so fast since the storm seemed almost over, the rain had slowed considerably and I had just gotten outside.I have a Type "A" personality and I'm an adrenaline junky, but I can honestly say I haven't had this close of a call or a jolt of excitement like this since I retired from being a cop 8 years ago. Honestly I was VERY SCARED but felt so alive at that very moment but Needless to say this is the only shot I got because I grabbed my equipment and RAN inside and called it quits :) LOL I may be dumb but I'm NOT 'Stupid' !

I'm not kidding about it being my lucky day, not only did I not get killed here but I got 3 out of 5 numbers on the Jersey Cash 5 Lottery tonight and won a whole $12 ! Hope you like it, I know it's not exposed properly but I don't know if I could have gotten anything different with so much light hitting at once so close, I attempted to scale the exposure down using levels etc. but I had not set the camera on RAW yet so my adjustments were very limited and I was too scared to try again for the night. Lesson Learned, BE CAREFUL OUT THERE Folks ! "Sorry Mom"

~Bill~
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