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Bill Pador > "The Draw Challenge"...11/03/08 *Please VIEW LARGE to see full detail* The Challenge: Create a photo with your interpretation of the word, "Draw." The Participants: Kre8ive, John (300m), Karina Boese, jawsnap, Creative Deviance, and myself. The Result: My interpretation of this challenge focuses on DRAWING ATTENTION to an image within an image, this being my image titled "Egg_n_Egg" The goal was for me to create a well balanced image that would enable the viewer to be DRAWN to a specific part of the image, this being the Egg WITHIN the Egg. I wanted this to look like a Cooked egg was contained in the egg shell with interesting lighting, shadows & textures using just 2 common objects being 1 egg and a set of high priced silverware that was a wedding present 20+ years ago and never used LOL. So my task was to give the forks a USED & textured look instead of it's new & shiny look so it would fit my final goal of having various textures & contrast instead of a plain flat image. The hardest part was to crack the egg so that I had a nice defined edge which was accomplished by taking a straight razor blade, scoring the egg shell the way I wanted it to look and then using the back of a knife to crack it ever so gently, I managed to get it right the 1st time out! I had to replace some of the egg white which was lost during this conversion with water to float the egg yoke high enough for the photo, then the top shell was placed back on top using the rear fork to support it in the correct position. See I told you there were a lot of details LOL. Way too many layers & techniques were created for me to describe the process here but I will tell you that I spent a TOTAL Time 6.5 hours from start to finish and created over 60+ layers total. I even had to create my own Gun Metal TEXTURE to age the forks and then a slew of lighting techniques were used in my Still Life Studio for the original shot to have the proper elements for the completed project to look the way I wanted it to. This started life as a 9 image Bracketed HDR shot which was processed & tone mapped in "Dynamic Photo HDR". It proceeded into CS3 for the rest of the processing to include mega layers and custom Dodging & burning to bring all the high lights & shadows out especially in the egg shell cracks and to bring the egg yoke and mass out to look like a cooked egg which is where I wanted your eye to be DRAWN to. This image enabled me to try & create new processing techniques that will definitely help me in the future. So not only did I have fun with this one but I learned a ton of valuable information for business purposes. Thanks for looking at my "DRAW Challenge" creation, I hope you all enjoy my creativity & hard work on this one. Best Regards, ~Bill Pador~
Bill Pador > Hi Folks, Sorry I've been MIA for the last 4 days but I've been very ill again with my spinal injury taking it's toll once again. Never did I think I would suffer a life long injury like this but it's something that I have to deal with for 8 years now but it sure isn't fun. I'm feeling better today and is the first day I haven't spent laying on the couch wishing for my eyes to shut, I can only describe the pain as something that never lets up and plays with your mind like nothing I'd ever wish on my worst enemy. Hopefully some day they will come up with a cure or special surgery to fix the rest of my nerve damage and the pain all the titanium screws & rods that are in my spine cause me. I often try to think of why this has happened to me and what the reason could be, because I do think that things happen to people for a reason, but I'm sure stumped on this one LOL. I know it's made my life a lot worse in some ways but better in others. One being the time I get to spend with my girls which I didn't get when I was working as a police officer and also has allowed me to pursue my dream of being a professional photographer but other then that I often wonder if it was all worth it in the end. It's also opened my heart & feelings to those who are worse off then me and allows me to see all the good or should I say great people out there that support me in my time of need. I'm sorry for the ramble but it's just been a terrible last few days and as you know I use this place as a sort of life's journal sometimes and I consider you all my friends so why not share the bad with the good right? I took this shot of an icicle melting on my front porch and it reminds me of my life in a way. Sometimes it's frozen in time when it feels like it will never move again, but then you get that small hint of sunshine that begins to melt the ice away and the water comes back to life again. I hope you are all enjoying life in good health and I look forward to a better week for all of us. For now I'll just have to depend on modern chemistry & medician to ease my pain. Enjoy your Monday and may all that life has to offer to you spring up to make you smile, Best Regards, ~Bill~
Bill Pador > "LAKE SUNSET" large looks best Morning Guys & Gals - I had a wonderful day and topped it off with this sunset compliments of 2 COKIN Filters and some selective Dodging & Burning. I went out to the photo store today to get myself a new Tripod & a small daily travel bag for my gear. I got tired of either throwing my camera equipment on the floor of my car, using my full size Tamrac bag or an old Tamrac backpack I hated. So while picking out my new Bag (Tamrac Adventure 74) & Tripod (Vanguard Tracker 3 w/P-55 Fluid filled pan head) I saw an offer from Cokin for a filter holder with a free filter (Sunset P-197) So I grabbed it up along with a Grey (ND Grad P-121L). After leaving the store I drove by a lake I saw the sun starting to go down over the water & decided to stop. I loaded up the filters, set a custom Kelvin white balance temp of 10,000 added +0.7 exposure compensation, sat on the concrete wall surrounding the lake and started firing. What you see here is the result of shooting directly into the sun and capturing the trees in silhouette and some awesome clouds reflecting off the water. The colors are pretty much true for the exception of a slight levels adjustment to calm the intensity of the outer part of the sun and then some selective dodging & burning of the clouds to bring out a bit more contrast and intensity. The image was finished with an edited & blurred frame in black compliments of OnOne Photoframe Pro 3.1that I used as a custom Vignette effect instead of a plain old oval or square type vignette so that I could control the shape and depth of it in the end. That's about it ans sorry I got stuck on another sunset but I had to try out the new filters to see what I could do with them and I'm quite happy I bought them now. ~Bill~
Bill Pador > Well it's late Sunday night and I'm just started to wind down, relax on the couch and read some more of my SB-900 manual. I just took this short a short while ago of my cat Zena who was hanging out on the kitchen table looking cute just begging me to shoot her image so I obliged. Using the SB900 at full power on camera, bounced off the ceiling left you can see the beautiful soft even light across her face and the perfect slight drop off behind her on the wall shades & NO SHADOW bringing her image to the fore front nicely and a great catch light in her bright eyes. No special settings, EV compensation or gels were used BUT I did wanna try the High Speed Sync FP capabilities so I did shoot this at 1/8000 sec. @ f/5.6 ISO 200 zoomed to 170mm from about 6' away to really push the light and boy I was surprised it was DEAD ON with my planned shot and the light is gorgeous IMO & to push through a 1/8000 sec. exposure - "WOW". *(view @ X2-X3 to appeciate fine details in her eyes & face) - - "Your Opinion & Comments on the lighting appreciated" ! - - Tomorrow I will start experimenting with some off camera 2 light shots maybe using some interesting macro still life or even some portraits of my kids to put it through it's paces. To be honest it's just a pure joy to use so I'm very happy with the purchase. To all of you who have to get up early in the morning to WORK your M-F gigs, have a great day - For those of us who don't, Enjoy the extra sleep dreaming about your your next shot ! ~Bill~
Bill Pador > 1/1/09 . . .In case you don't feel like reading my RANT below I would like all of your opinions (which I value IMMENSLY) real quick. I'm entering a "Photograph of the Year 2008' contest and have narrowed my entry to these 3 images. Please let me know which one you like better in your comment,Thanks! "My Daughters Eye/Shadow Portrait" http://billpador.smugmug.com/gallery/5590869_gCPr2/1/351725612_W2Wcu "Eye Abstract" http://billpador.smugmug.com/photos/357825988_8KZVy-M.jpg "Lake Sunset" http://billpador.smugmug.com/gallery/5957529_DbeQJ/1/374382348_x4rhH WARNING: "RANT BELOW" So last night was the good old bring in the new year festivities. When I got home I planned on hitting the sack and getting some shut eye, seems my body had other ideas possibly because of this extremely windy & cold weather here in NJ with temps below zero instead of me being in sunny Florida basking in the sun and the titanium screws in my spine decided to act like they owned the playing field and incited a riot. In plain English, I'm in a lot of pain and couldn't sleep LOL. Not a big deal as I live with this every day of my life and no need to worry but I had to do something to keep my mind busy so off I went into PS Land to play ball. Unfortunately I could not concentrate which in turn makes an artist get a major case of creative block the size of Manhattan so this is all I could come up with for my introduction to 2009. I sat in my still life studio shooting all kinds of things and nothing seemed to work, it was crazy really. More like aggravating to say the least, everything I shot went in the trash bin and I mean EVERYTHING! I know you have all had days like this and it's never easy to swallow no matter what the reason. Well I'm sorry for ranting so much but I just had to get that off my chest and I figure what are friends for right? This shot of my female cat Zena was taken on the dining room table, right next to the napkin holder. So a little crop was in order LOL. Then I played around with some ideas and this was the result. Sorry it couldn't be more but I'm just glad I was able to put SOMETHING together for today's POD. I've learned to deal with adversity and know that Tomorrow will be a better day without a doubt. I'll end this by saying "REACH FOR THE STARS BABY" ! I hope you all had a fun evening bringing in the new year and everyone arrived back home safe & sound. ~Bill~
Bill Pador > "Lake Side Autumn Colors" UPDATE: 11/19/08 - *This image is now a FINALIST in the 'OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHERS MAGAZINE' "2008 Natures Colors National Contest" and I need your votes for the Secondary 'Peoples Choice Award' by clicking on the following link to cast your vote:(*Thanks for your Support) Voting ends 12/1/08 - Please tell a friend too ! **~ VOTING IS NOW CLOSED ~**but the image is still available to see in the finalist gallery online CLICK HERE TO VOTE: http://www2.outdoorphotographer.com/colors/gallery-fin-lg.php?gal=nature&id=4929#j Well after yesterdays lack of creativity & plain old energy I felt MUCH better today after sleeping in until 1:30pm this afternoon. I woke up feeling refreshed but got off to a slow start. After a cup of Joe, my medication & a few minutes of stretching I was ready to go for day 226. After speaking to John (300m) on the phone I headed out to capture the quickly turning colors around town. To start off, I didn't have to go far just by walking across the street from my house where the wood line was scattered with multi-colored trees & bushes for as far as you could see. Part of my trip brought me back to one of my favorite locales and THE LAKE HOUSE. I shot this wide angle from the west shoreline with the sun behind me blazing down on the far shore & mountainside which lit up like the Vegas strip at midnight as you can see. I was thrilled to see how cool the shadows & reflections from the shore glazed into the water reflecting not only the colors but a cool right angle in the shape of a 'V' & water so clear you could see the bottom. Without a cloud in the sky and the most PERFECT conditions for shooting I couldn't ask for a better day of relaxing & productive color chasing. This image has very little post with only being hit with a very slight crop & contrast adjustment and that's all folks, not even any sharpening was needed to show the mountainside scattered with the lovely colors of Autumn! * To see the entire shoot from today, you can visit my "Brand New" FALL/AUTUMN COLORS 2008 Gallery It is FILLED with crazy colorful images that is sure to please every colorful landscape enthusiast ! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and for all my American brothers & sisters enjoy your 3 day weekend compliments of Christopher Columbus! PS: I'm now available on "SKYPE" user name: bpphotos feel free to add me to your contact list! Best Regards, ~Bill Pador~
Bill Pador > "Fire MAN & The Mermaid" an abstract moment created by fire - by Bill Pador OK I'll try to make this as simple as possible, I was sitting by the fireplace playing a video game before and I started staring at the fire log burning and watching all the neat shapes it was creating while the flames jumped around. Feeling in an artistic mood I grabbed the camera & fired off few frames to see what I could capture. This frame jumped right out at me and in MY HEAD it told a story with fascinating forms of light, fire & smoke and just by staring at it for a few seconds I saw the following story in the frame and found it appropriate for Halloween. See if you can visualize the images I see when I tell my story below. . . . . Boooooo Hoooo hoooo hoooooo (dreary organ music plays in the background) No Flame Ghosts were harmed in the making of this image! There once was a male ghost laying in front of his TV and having had one too many beers, the last one laying by his hand he begins to fall off to sleep. He begins to dream about a mermaid who comes to comfort him dripping wet and places her back against his for support after her long swim to shore. Some of us dream in color, others in black & white but our ghostly man dreams in both. So the story ends with our ghostly man getting his mermaid and both live happily ever after, on Halloween of course ;) ROTFL - I just felt like having some artistic fun with this one, if you look at the image in full color you can see the same images (which have been untouched & unmanipulated). When I looked at this frame that's what I saw but figured I would do a little selective color work to this to better show what I saw in the flames. The image was simply done with a few layers, the master in color and then I made a custom black & white layer above it, used a layer mask over those and then brought back the color parts of the flames I wanted to use to highlight the story in my head so it was easier to visualize in others minds. You can clearly see the man & woman back to back, the bottle of beer at his hands and the TV in front of him. I then let some of the orange flame color & highlights off the fire log come through on the bottom to give it some contrast & texture of what they were lying on. I liked how the woman's hair is highlighted & contrasted with different shades of orange & yellow flame heat and also contours her body nicely along with the man, bottle & TV all did the same naturally in the fireplace like this & makes it look likes it's suspended or floating. It's one of those light & burn 3 hr. fire logs I had lit and I just had a lot of fun making this abstract image for a change rather then just shoot a photo today. Hope you all enjoyed my ABSTRACT MIND today, tomorrow I will be back to NORMAL LOL...... "HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE" ! Enjoy the kids and their GHOSTLY COSTUMES! ~BILL~
Bill Pador > "Willow Lake" Well we had another rainy Sunday which seems to be the norm here in NJ for the last 4 weeks the word is RAIN and I mean EVERY DAY! I'm starting to feel I live in Washing State or London now. I managed to take this shot in between storms. Using the gray sky to my advantage to get some awesome reflections in the lake and nice deep foliage color especially in the weeping willow tree (my favorite). I did some burning & dodging to bring some of the highlights & shadows out more and cleaned up the lake some since there were some spots that had a lot of moss floating on top in the foreground. Other then that some minor sharpening and that's about it. This lovely scene is located about 1/2 mile form my house and I have passed it countless times without shooting it. Finally I remembered it was sitting there waiting for me & my camera so I ran over when it stopped raining to get the shot. I'm going to wait for it to be nice one day and get this same shot with some cool clouds or blue sky on the horizon to see how it looks with blue color in it too. Have a great week everyone ~Bill~
Bill Pador > "Horse Farm" I've been really busy with some personal stuff so I grabbed one out of the archives from the fall. I shoot this at my favorite horse farm around the corner from my house and since I have been playing a lot with B&W and Sepia's the last few days I figured I would develop this one into an antique sepia with selective color and use some burning & dodging techniques to bring all of the detail into play to really make it pop. I couldn't resist bringing the rusted fence back in color, it had some really cool texture to it. Thanks for everyone who has signed up at www.photographycorner.com and made your 5 posts so that your ready to vote for my image next week. If you want to help me out and haven't signed up yet please see the intructions posted on yesterdays POD. Hopefully this will be my year to take a prize home, I could really use it ;) Best Regards, ~Bill~

"Willow Lake"


Well we had another rainy Sunday which seems to be the norm here in NJ for the last 4 weeks the word is RAIN and I mean EVERY DAY! I'm starting to feel I live in Washing State or London now. I managed to take this shot in between storms. Using the gray sky to my advantage to get some awesome reflections in the lake and nice deep foliage color especially in the weeping willow tree (my favorite).

I did some burning & dodging to bring some of the highlights & shadows out more and cleaned up the lake some since there were some spots that had a lot of moss floating on top in the foreground. Other then that some minor sharpening and that's about it. This lovely scene is located about 1/2 mile form my house and I have passed it countless times without shooting it. Finally I remembered it was sitting there waiting for me & my camera so I ran over when it stopped raining to get the shot. I'm going to wait for it to be nice one day and get this same shot with some cool clouds or blue sky on the horizon to see how it looks with blue color in it too.

Have a great week everyone
~Bill~
Bill Pador > "Willow Lake" Well we had another rainy Sunday which seems to be the norm here in NJ for the last 4 weeks the word is RAIN and I mean EVERY DAY! I'm starting to feel I live in Washing State or London now. I managed to take this shot in between storms. Using the gray sky to my advantage to get some awesome reflections in the lake and nice deep foliage color especially in the weeping willow tree (my favorite). I did some burning & dodging to bring some of the highlights & shadows out more and cleaned up the lake some since there were some spots that had a lot of moss floating on top in the foreground. Other then that some minor sharpening and that's about it. This lovely scene is located about 1/2 mile form my house and I have passed it countless times without shooting it. Finally I remembered it was sitting there waiting for me & my camera so I ran over when it stopped raining to get the shot. I'm going to wait for it to be nice one day and get this same shot with some cool clouds or blue sky on the horizon to see how it looks with blue color in it too. Have a great week everyone ~Bill~

"Willow Lake"


Well we had another rainy Sunday which seems to be the norm here in NJ for the last 4 weeks the word is RAIN and I mean EVERY DAY! I'm starting to feel I live in Washing State or London now. I managed to take this shot in between storms. Using the gray sky to my advantage to get some awesome reflections in the lake and nice deep foliage color especially in the weeping willow tree (my favorite).

I did some burning & dodging to bring some of the highlights & shadows out more and cleaned up the lake some since there were some spots that had a lot of moss floating on top in the foreground. Other then that some minor sharpening and that's about it. This lovely scene is located about 1/2 mile form my house and I have passed it countless times without shooting it. Finally I remembered it was sitting there waiting for me & my camera so I ran over when it stopped raining to get the shot. I'm going to wait for it to be nice one day and get this same shot with some cool clouds or blue sky on the horizon to see how it looks with blue color in it too.

Have a great week everyone
~Bill~
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