Bill Pador > 
 Shadow from Light Challenge...03/30/09
The Challenge:Show us your interpretation of "Shadow from Light"
The Participants: Kre8ive, John (300m), The Curious Camel, Karina, Creative Deviance, Lady Kate, Johnloguk, MSpencer, Trevlan, FotoEffects, Hillary, and myself.
The Result:We had a cool lighting storm last night but as you know capturing it is not an easy mission. after hundreds of frames I was finally able to capture light and the shadow of my neighbors house & tree and this was the ONLY frame worth posting making it a true challenge to me. I had orignally shot a small statue against a bright light for this chllenge but this situation came up late last night and was able to capture this single frame ~Bill~
Bill Pador > 
 The Something New Challenge...02/23/09
The Challenge:Show us your interpretation of "Something New."
The Participants: Kre8ive, John (300m), The Curious Camel, Karina, Creative Deviance, Lady Kate, Johnloguk, MSpencer, Trevlan, FotoEffects, Hillary, and myself.
The Result: "Bill Starts a NEW YEAR at the Dailies"
I wanted to do something different & interesting with the theme "Something New" and not just shoot an item that was new, that's way too easy. Using DOF I played with some wording and EXTRA letters simulating a game of scrabble which has my statement of Starting a NEW YEAR at the Dailies which takes place in less then 2 weeks. In the distance is the word QUAGMIRE, I wanted something that signified WHY I was starting a new year (because it's hard to leave) - (noun) a situation from which extrication is very difficult & a HIGH Value word in scrabble so I chose QUAGMIRE - which is a minimum 20 point word and is long enough to cover a double or triple word square no matter where you place it, NICE ! I ALSO used my NEW OnOne Photo Frames 4.1 PRO to give it a nostalgic look to match the age of my copy of scrabble (with my warped game board LOL) Very little PP besides the frame, applied basic sharpening is it. . . . 

My sentence of words equals 61 points + Quagmire of 40-60 points would have me running a nice game, Thanks for looking & hope you enjoyed my little game that represents something NEW today!
Bill Pador > "Looking Up To The Heavens"

 The Looking Up Challenge...02/16/09
The Challenge: Show us your interpretation of "Looking Up."
The Participants: Kre8ive, John (300m), The Curious Camel, Karina, Creative Deviance, Lady Kate, Johnloguk, MSpencer, Trevlan, FotoEffects, Hillary, and myself.
The Result: As soon as the theme of Looking Up came to light I knew exactly what I wanted to use for this. Since I was very busy this week with client shoots and spending countless hours in the digital dark room I chose to use this shot that I felt deserved to be viewed because of it's bold look. This church was processed as a single frame HDR, using Photomatix to process the original image, then tone mapped. It was then brought into CS3 where I began to Dodge & Burn certain areas to bring out the contrast, boost color & adjust curves. Although I'm not a very religious man, the final piece gave me an over whelming feeling of looking up into the heavens with a peaceful relaxation and I especially enjoyed the lens flare glowing on the cross on the front of the building. Hope you all have a wonderful week and remember to stop along the way to look to the heavens to make all your dreams come true.

Best Regards,
~Bill Pador~
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 > "The Coffee Kid"

The Coffee Challenge...01/12/09
The Challenge: Show us your interpretation of the word, "Coffee."
The Participants: Kre8ive, John (300m), Karina Boese, The Curious Camel, Creative Deviance, Johnloguk, Lady Kate, MyKey, Trevlan, Fotoeffects, Hillary, and myself.
The Result: I figured it was time to have some fun with one of these challenges and this one had me laughing my butt off. When setting this one up I started off in my studio and set the Still Life Stage up. Well there wasn't enough room for me to set the lighting up the way I wanted so I brought all my stuff upstairs to my kitchen area and set up on the table. Lighting used was a Nikon SB-600 with portable soft box attached to the left table height @ 7 O'Clock for shadow fill and as the main light SB-800 with mini soft box at 5 O'Clock placed on the floor and aimed upward @ 45'. Both units were triggered using Nikon wireless TTL system. The SB-600 was triggered as a Rear Curtain at 1/8 power and the SB-800 fired straight out @ 1/4 power bouncing 1/2 of the light off the ceiling which is white. A small 2' round white reflector was placed on a chair at 1/2 the height of the table facing the left side of the doll for slight filling purposes. I used my Nikkor 18-200 VR and shot the image from 7 O'Clock from about 3' away with the camera twisted to the right.

Shot in RAW I headed for CS3 Bridge to adjust the Blacks and then into CS3 where a touch of NIK Color Efex was used to boost color slightly and then Focal Point for some addition DOF & Movement Blur were added. Finishing off with OnOne Frames 3 to give it the black custom blurred vignette and then OnOne Photo Tools to add the Black frame & Key line. Total Time Spent was about 40 min. from start to finish !

PS: I had a lot of fun with this because I had a HELPER, my cat Oreo saw the need to hop on the table to SUPERVISE me but he kept knocking the doll & coffee bag over until I asked him to please stop which he did but only after destroying the set just one more time LOL. I laughed so hard during this one that it was worth doing the shoot just for the humor I got from Oreo. I guess the smell of the coffee attracted him to the set but I refused to make him a cup because he's wired enough without having extra caffeine running through his system :) So instead he went over to the Water Cooler and got himself a drink, yes he DRINKS from the Water Cooler by himself and doesn't spill or waist a drop. I shot a frame of him doing his little trick, if you'd like to check it out CLICK HERE

Thanks for looking at my challenge shot this week folks !
~Bill Pador~
Bill Pador > "Reflection of My 2 Sides"

The Reflection Challenge...01/05/09
The Challenge: Show us your interpretation of the word, "Reflection."
The Participants: Kre8ive, John (300m), Karina Boese, The Curious Camel, Creative Deviance, Johnloguk, Lady Kate, MyKey, Karina Boese, Trevlan, MSpencer, and myself.
The Result: "Reflection of My 2 Sides"

This Self Portrait image was born with the idea of showing my 2 personalities which are the serious business side and the wild, free artistic side. As you all know I'm not one for being on this side of the camera too much but once in a while I feel it's not only my responsibility to join the model side but it's also KINDA fun. I'm always the one at the party or vacation TAKING the pictures but never seem to be IN any of them documenting my place in history so I decided to use this challenge to document a little history at this point in my life. ON the left wearing a Nikon hat & reading glasses represents my serious business side along with the deep involved artist who's passion for photography is nothing short of an obsession. On the right I like to be free, wild and always taking risky chances to allow the other side of my artistic abilities to show and with the mixture of the 2 I become a whole person, blending the 2 halfs together to become who I really am, an artist, photographer, father and middle aged man who has goals & dreams that are still on the horizon ! Thanks for reading & viewing my REFLECTION Challenge image today, it was a LOT of fun and gave me a chance to show & tell a little of who I really am ;)

THE SHOOT: This was created using 2 images taken in the same exact spot, standing as still as possible to change props and then blending the 2 together in layers and masking 1/2 image out for the other on top. The camera is set on a tripod off to the right of the mirror using a remote release, (*the mirror wall is at 45' angle to the camera). Then after 1st shot was taken trying not to move I changed props and shot a 2nd image. This is a TRUE reflection shot and has not been altered in any other way except blending the 2 shots together. A faded white custom vignette was added and then the frame with white keyline, DONE! Total time 38 min. including the shoot which was done in TWO FRAMES oh and a cigarette break!

PS: I put this up a few hours early in case I fall asleep later, I'm bushed LOL

~Bill~
Bill Pador > "The In-Sense Rose"
Challenge Code for 'SENSE' 12/29/08


The Sense Challenge...12/29/08
The Challenge: Show us your interpretation of the word, "Sense," or any spelling of the word.
The Participants: Kre8ive, John (300m), The Curious Camel, Creative Deviance, Johnloguk, MyKey, Trevlan, MSpencer, and myself.
The Result: Until Saturday Morning I had no clue on what I wanted to do for this weeks challenge shot. My original idea was to shoot a pair of Givenchi cologne bottles I received for Christmas (for the Sense of Smell) but then it hit me right in the face because of some Incense sticks I also got - So the In-Sense Rose (or Incense) was born. I shot several streaks of incense smoke burning and then off I went into CS3 to create this piece using the techniques I developed while doing my Smoke Art Creations. This piece was created entirely using 3 different smoke patterns, then individually mirrored and placed side by side. The colors then created using various layering techniques and masking to form it the way I wanted it to look. Then I applied a blank white canvas behind it and placed a texture into the piece to give it some body, then finally the lettering was added.

Looking at it you can see a pair of Abstract Roses at the top with some fire flames burning in the middle to light the roses and some lets say carnations on the out sides of the bouquet. Use your imagination and you'll see what ever flowers or objects you want, that's the beauty of art isn't it! I had a lot of fun with this challenge, I hope you enjoy my entry 
~Bill~
Bill Pador > "Christmas Horns"

The Horn Challenge...12/22/08
The Challenge: Show us your interpretation of the word, "Horn."
The Participants: Kre8ive, John (300m), Karina Boese, The Curious Camel, Creative Deviance, Johnloguk, Lady Kate, MyKey, Karina Boese, Trevlan, and myself.
The Result:"Christmas Horns"
I had decided on a totally different shot for this challenge but due to technical difficulty I was forced to change course. I was going to use my Italian Horn necklace pendant surrounded by gems on a mirror as a macro shot but I couldn't get the clasp undone because it's stuck & bent. It hasn't been off my neck in 8 years (when I had my spinal surgery LOL) so I give you this shot. While scrambling my brain on what to do I thought I would look on my Christmas tree to see if I had any horn ornaments, bravo I did and I choose these 2 to set the shot up. I hung them staggered front to back and used a medium DOF to blur the back one out. I also used a gold ball that has a lot of texture on it to fill the gap in the middle, set a few tree lights in strategic positions to allow for nice shadows & highlights and went for the shot. I got what I needed in 3 takes and then headed for CS3. Adjusted the curve slightly and then applied a few filters in OnOne Photo Tools & NIK Pro Effex, finishing off with sharpening and a custom frame developed in Pro Frames 3.1.

So I was able to finish the challenge and do it with a holiday theme as well. Killed 2 birds with one stone, yea for me LOL.

PS: If you missed the (5) images I put up in my Daily yesterday from the snow storm (*seen in this gallery) along with the (12) images I put in my Extras Gallery here: http://billpador.smugmug.com/gallery/5243214_M8SAm/1/440721916_jq4Cr

"THREE DAYS" till Christmas - Get that shopping done !

** Please Don't forget to visit the St. Jude's Childrens Hospital "Poster Project" for some great gift ideas to support your local Daily Group Artists & the Hospital !
http://www.freethoughtphoto.com/stjude/ 
~Bill Pador~
Bill Pador > 
The Track Challenge...11/10/08
The Challenge: Create a photo with your interpretation of the word, "Track."
The Participants: Kre8ive, John (300m), Karina Boese, jawsnap,  Creative Deviance, and myself. 
The Result:"Get Your Life On TRACK - Start Eating Healthy" 


For this challenge I must admit I broke out the BIG GUNS for this one, Lighting was provided using my FULL studio set including 2 reflectors to acquire enough light & shadows to pull this off. (3) 600 watt BRITEK studio lights from side, front & over head, 3' square Britek HALO PRO soft Boxs on 2, white brilly on the other. Shot in NEF (RAW format) First work was done in Lightroom 2 Then into CS3 for the final touches, total time spent was approx. 90 min. on this one. Enjoy folks and have a great prosperous day!

~Bill~

Shadow from Light Challenge...03/30/09


The Challenge:Show us your interpretation of "Shadow from Light"

The Participants: Kre8ive, John (300m), The Curious Camel, Karina, Creative Deviance, Lady Kate, Johnloguk, MSpencer, Trevlan, FotoEffects, Hillary, and myself.

The Result:We had a cool lighting storm last night but as you know capturing it is not an easy mission. after hundreds of frames I was finally able to capture light and the shadow of my neighbors house & tree and this was the ONLY frame worth posting making it a true challenge to me. I had orignally shot a small statue against a bright light for this chllenge but this situation came up late last night and was able to capture this single frame ~Bill~
Bill Pador > 
 Shadow from Light Challenge...03/30/09
The Challenge:Show us your interpretation of "Shadow from Light"
The Participants: Kre8ive, John (300m), The Curious Camel, Karina, Creative Deviance, Lady Kate, Johnloguk, MSpencer, Trevlan, FotoEffects, Hillary, and myself.
The Result:We had a cool lighting storm last night but as you know capturing it is not an easy mission. after hundreds of frames I was finally able to capture light and the shadow of my neighbors house & tree and this was the ONLY frame worth posting making it a true challenge to me. I had orignally shot a small statue against a bright light for this chllenge but this situation came up late last night and was able to capture this single frame ~Bill~

Shadow from Light Challenge...03/30/09


The Challenge:Show us your interpretation of "Shadow from Light"

The Participants: Kre8ive, John (300m), The Curious Camel, Karina, Creative Deviance, Lady Kate, Johnloguk, MSpencer, Trevlan, FotoEffects, Hillary, and myself.

The Result:We had a cool lighting storm last night but as you know capturing it is not an easy mission. after hundreds of frames I was finally able to capture light and the shadow of my neighbors house & tree and this was the ONLY frame worth posting making it a true challenge to me. I had orignally shot a small statue against a bright light for this chllenge but this situation came up late last night and was able to capture this single frame ~Bill~
See photo in gallery

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Bill Pador Photography is a Member 'Professional Photographers Association of America' & 'National Association of Photoshop Professionals' Specializing in Weddings - Sweet 16 Parties - Portraits
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