Technopod Adventure at Lark Camp

Technopod Adventure at Lark Camp

A Vacation in the Woods with a World of Music You may have noticed that I haven’t posted in a while. That is because I was in the Mendocino Woodlands camp for the 31st year of Lark Camp, an annual festival of world music unlike anything else!     I...
Quick Before They’re Gone

Quick Before They’re Gone

A Photographer’s Guide to Backup I have an e-book on backup strategies for the photographer—its called “Quick Before They’re Gone” and you can find it on Amazon or buy directly from me. I thought I’d give you all a little preview of the...
The Process of Seeing

The Process of Seeing

Photography on the Universal Backlot with APA LA I recently participated in a special tour of Universal Studio’s backlot organized by APA LA to introduce photographers to the location rental services geared to still photographers. This was a fun event for APA...
Secrets of the Mask Panel

Secrets of the Mask Panel

I haven’t posted a tutorial in a while so I thought I’d get something up from my upcoming DVD – Here is a 24 minute video examining masking techniques associated with the new Mask Panel in Photoshop CS5 – I pay special attention to the Refine...
Photo Safari at Los Angeles Union Station

Photo Safari at Los Angeles Union Station

Touring Union Station with the Los Angeles Conservancy & the LADIG This last Saturday I participated in a special photo tour of downtown Los Angeles’ Union Station, one of the great art deco landmarks in Los Angeles architecture. The tour of the train...
New Technopod Adventure – Potrero War 2011

New Technopod Adventure – Potrero War 2011

Lee Varis visits the current middle ages I spent this past Memorial Day Weekend down in Potrero Regional Park for the Society of Creative Anachronism Event “Potrero War 2011” and, of course I brought the Technopod.   Unfortunately, park regulations...
Carpool Info for Summer Workshops

Carpool Info for Summer Workshops

Light Photographic Workshops on the central coast of California 1062 Los Osos Valley Rd., Los Osos, CA 93402 Coming to my workshop in Los Osos? If you need a ride or if you have a ride to share please leave a message in the comments! Light Photographic Workshops in...
3 Lighting Design Insights

3 Lighting Design Insights

Some insights for Photography in a TED talk This wonderful TED presentation about lighting design and the importance of darkness reveals some important insights for photography. Perhaps we should strive to orchestrate darkness rather than light in our images. The...
Make the Magic Hour!

Make the Magic Hour!

Creating the Ideal Twilight Moment in Architecture Photography   I recently had an assignment to do some architectural photography for Santa Monica College. Part of the assignment was to get a good shot of the swank Eli and Edythe Broad Stage which is a little...
Think Fast – How to Capture Action in Still Photos

Think Fast – How to Capture Action in Still Photos

Secrets of freezing peak action in photography I did a photo shoot recently where the primary challenge was to capture dancers in action for the package design of a video game. In many cases the dancers were holding various game controllers but the object was not to...
New Skin Smoothing Technique

New Skin Smoothing Technique

This step-by-step video tutorial was part of a presentation I just gave at Orange Coast College. I examine a brand new technique for ironing out bumps and blotches while preserving the fine skin texture using only one additional layer. This technique is very easy to...
Beauty Retouching Tutorial

Beauty Retouching Tutorial

Sometimes you have to completely reconstruct the skin texture for that beauty look Here is the complete Skin book tutorial, step-by-step – including skin smoothing, skin textures and my signature “Pixie Dust” skin highlight technique. This was recorded as...
How to Really Use Content Aware Fill

How to Really Use Content Aware Fill

Tricks for forcing Content Aware Fill to Work the Way You Want This step-by-step tutorial examines one of the new features of Photoshop CS 5, content aware fill – most demos simply show the process. I show you how to really take advantage of content aware fill...
How Secure are Your Images…

How Secure are Your Images…

All of Your Archived Backups Will Soon Be Obsolete     For quite a while I was very concerned about legacy images, primarily with film based images from my early career as a commercial photographer. I saved reams of photo paper prints and I had boxes and...
Use High Pass Overlay for Texture

Use High Pass Overlay for Texture

A new Video Tutorial on enhancing wrinkles and texture… I haven’t uploaded a tutorial in a while so here is a short video on how to emphasize wrinkles and get a sharpening effect using a High Pass layer in Overlay mode. This was part of the seminar I gave...