Image manipulation with Match Color

Here's another example of experimenting with Photoshop's Match Color technique to apply color palettes from source images to your photographs.

Full tutorial here.

Here's the original image:

More shutterbuggery...

This week I was interviewed by Julia K of Beyond Robson for her weekly local photographers feature. Needless to say, I was pretty honored to be part of such a great series.

Anyone who knows me probably realizes how much I'm into photography at the moment, and it's always nice to be recognized by others who share my interests. So again, thanks very much to Julia and everyone at Beyond Robson.

You can see the full article here.

Hot Buzzz

Another one of my photos, 'Buzzz', has been featured on this weeks Beyond Robson photo feature page. Thanks guys!

You can see the feature here.

Finally!

I finally got around to paying for a Flickr Pro account. For $24.95 a year you get unlimited storage, uploads, bandwidth, and sets and permanent archiving of all images.

Considering all the photos I've taken since the beginning of the year, I thought that was a pretty good deal. Finally ALL of my images are displayed on my Flickr page instead of the latest 200. Plus I get to organize them into easy-to-browse sets. Yay!

Check out my new improved Flickr page here.

Three Woody's in one day...

One of the things I love about the apartment building I live in is that people are always leaving used books in the lobby for others to read. A couple of days ago, somebody left behind this great boxed collection of three of Woody Allen's books from the 60's and 70's. Just last week I picked up Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time (I passed on the collection of lesbian erotica).

Even if I don't get around to reading them, I can just leave them lying around the apartment and people will think I'm intellectual or something.

Full circle

I've never really considered myself a spiritual person, but I do believe that there is some sort of pattern to the apparent chaos of life, some sense that eventually everything comes full circle.

Circles are a recurring motif in director Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain; there are Mayan symbols, tunnels, wedding rings, globes floating in space, closeups of eyes. Characters frequently gaze directly into the camera, the circles of their eyes framing a chaotic thread of color and light.

The story weaves together three parallel stories from the past, present and future. Hugh Jackman plays all three central characters; a conquistador, a scientist and a space traveler, each, in their own way, seeking to discover the secret of eternal life. The Fountain is not a traditional science-fiction film, but uses the genre (much like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Solaris) as a backdrop to a meditation on human existance. Amidst the spectacular photography, backdrops and beautifully organic special effects, it is the heartbreaking performances of Jackman and Rachel Weisz as his eternal love, that really ground the film and bring it that much needed touch of humanity.

The film's ending is, like 2001, open to interpretation. I'm not sure if I completely understood it, but I was satisfied by it. There is a feeling of rebirth, renewal and an acceptance of destiny. Moments can be shared by many lives over many years, much like a needle and thread piercing hundred of pages from the same book. By sharing these moments, we can never be alone.

#9 Dream

One of the great things about Flickr is discovering the great wealth of talented photographers and artists that Vancouver has to offer. Juliainc of Beyond Robson recently did a feature on #9 dream, a photographer who takes Polaroids to a whole new level. In this day of digital cameras and Photoshop, it's refreshing to see a more 'lo-fi' approach. #9 dream has a great eye for what makes a moment special and his Polaroids have a texture and quality thats dreamlike and timeless.

Check out Julia's feature here.

For more of #9 Dream's photos, check out his Flickr page here.

Note: Juliainc's photography is well worth checking out too. Some wonderful portraits and city scenes. Check out her Flickr page here.

Icky Thumping

After a day of hail, showers, thunderstorms, cringing and nailbiting, the weather finally came through for The White Stripes on Sunday night. Not a drop of rain during their entire set - thank God!

It was obvious from the get go that we were in for a White Stripes show; a bright red stage, stripy microphone and roadies dressed like cartoon hitmen in black suits and red ties. I was in the eternal beer line up when they finally hit the stage (I mean, really.. one hour for two Strongbows??!!) but, my God, what a glorious sound those two make! Cute little Meg flailing away like a muppet behind the drum kit, and Jack prowling around a demented rooster. It just goes to show that you don't need smoke and ice, costume changes, flying pigs, children's choirs and Moroccan drummers to put on a great show.

I loved their cover of 'Jolene' (thanks Kieran for pointing out that it was originally a Dolly Parton song) - beautifully raw and haunting. And of course 'Seven Nation Army' was amazing to hear live. It's definitely one of the best rock songs to come out over the past few years. That guitar solo feels like it's been around since the beginning of time - and I mean that in a good way.

It's my first time at the Deer Lake Park venue. It's a really great place to see a show, but they really need to figure out how many people to work the beer stands. Half an hour to line up for beer tickets (maximum four) and then another half an hour to line up for the beer (maximum two). I persevered, if only because it didn't seem right to see the show completely sober. That would just be wrong.

My only regret is that I didn't pick up the concert T-shirt featuring a monkey playing a red guitar. Sigh.

Alive and Kicking...

(Yep, I'm still here!)

Oh my God, has it really been two weeks since I've been on here? Just a quick note to say that yes, I am still alive. Work has been crazy busy over the past couple of weeks, hence my lack of blogging. I will be sure to blog some more in the next week. I've got lots of reviews and photos and stuff worth posting.

Off to The White Stripes at Deer Lake Park tomorrow. Woo-hoo!

Here's their awesome new single (with an awesome title too), Icky Thump:

Match Color in Photoshop

To be honest, when I first heard about the 'Match Color' function in Photoshop, I never really considered the creative possibilities. Simply put, 'Match Color' takes the color values from one image and applies them to another. I recently came across an interesting Photoshop tutorial that uses famous paintings to create color palettes for your photography. By keeping a small archive of favorite paintings (or photography) on your hard drive, you can use them as a valuable resource to add some extra drama or dynamics to your existing photographs.

You can view the full tutorial in detail here.


Here's a couple of quick examples of this technique on one of my photographs:



(Original Image)



Here's the first example, using the color values from a Gustav Klimt painting:



(Color Source Image)



(Resulting Image)


And here's another example using an illustration by Arthur Rackham:



(Color Source Image)



(Resulting Image)

A new logo low

The new logo for the London 2012 Olympics was recently revealed. I appreciate that the design firm may wanted to do something avant-garde and edgy, but wow - THIS? It looks like an 80's compilation album cover. My favorite reaction is from somebody who said 'It looks like Lisa Simpson performing an unnatural act'.

Apparently, the animated version may be pulled from British TV for fear of inducing epileptic fits. The static version definitely induces nausea as far as I'm concerned.

As if designers didn't have a hard enough time getting people to understand what they're paid for.

You can view the London 2012 site here. Have paramedics standing by.

We have a winner!

I just found out that my photo In Transit (pictured above) won the latest Beyond Robson photo contest. Pretty nice eh?

First prize is a $100 gift certificate to The Wolf and Hound, an Irish restaurant on Broadway. I look forward to having some bangers and mash and a couple of pints of Guinness to go along with my warm fuzzy feeling.

You can see the Beyond Robson contest results here.

We Like You, We Like You, We Like You

On Friday night I went to see The Dandy Warhols. I love their albums, but for whatever reason, had never had gotten around to seeing them live before.

First of all I loved frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor's T-shirt (album cover for Sonic Temple by The Cult). So that, in itself, was pretty cool. Sound was a little iffy at first though, and it didn't really help that the idiot behind me kept yelling "SOUND!!" for the first few songs. Other than that, a really good show. I wish that they had showed just a 'little' more enthusiasm and energy - maybe they were just tired or stoned. High point for me was 'Godless'. What a great song.

By the way, is it me, or are these guys kind of like this generation's Lemonheads? Maybe the songs aren't all that similar, but they do share the same kind of slacker-stoner vibe.



A great album cover - an even better T-shirt.

Indy Flick

Raiders 2.0 Crew in 1988



Raiders 2.0 Crew today

I recently found this great story about a group of friends who, back in 1982, decided to remake Raiders of the Lost Ark shot-for-shot with a rented video camera. It cost them $5000 and took them nearly 7 years. The film finally debuted in 1989 and was pretty much forgotten until it resurfaced in 2003 at a alternative film-fest. Since then, they've met Spielberg and have become heroes to movie geeks all over the world.

You can read the whole story here.

Shooting has already begun on the fourth Indiana Jones movie (with a 65 year-old Harrison Ford). I still remember how exciting it was to see the original Raiders back in 1981. My dad took me to see it when my sister and Mum were on vacation in England. He wanted to treat me to a movie, but I wanted to see Superman II instead. Why would I want to see an archeologist fighting nazis, when I could see Superman fighting General Zod? The following week was his choice: Raiders of the Lost Ark. And yeah, Dad was right.

May the road rise with you

(Click image to view larger)

Here's a collage I created this weekend in Photoshop. I used a combination of photographs that I've taken this year.

Here's the originals:

Are Friends Electric?

Apparently, at the recent Jarvis concert at The Commodore, he performed Gary Numan's 'Are Friends Electric?' for the encore. I was sorry to have missed the show, if only for hearing his version of that song.

Gary Numan has long been a favorite of mine and 'Are Friends Electric?' is one of my top songs of all time. As far as I'm concerned, Numan was way ahead of his time and extremely underrated. But that's just me.

Here's Gary and the Tubeway Army performing the song on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1979. Surprisingly good quality too.

The Queen

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown" - Henry IV, Part II

I finally got around to seeing The Queen this weekend, a film that definitely lives up to the hype that surrounds it.

The film could have been simply another stilted, drawn-out biopic, but instead, director Stephen Frears chose to focus on Queen Elizabeth's life in the weeks following the death of Princess Diana. As a result, it made the film a tightly focussed study of the essence of who the Queen is. Credit must also be given for the editing, particularly with the scenes intercut with news footage of the late Princess. It's still tragic to see clips of her in her final interviews. In many ways, she seemed like a ghost of herself before she died.

Helen Mirren's performance is restrained yet impressive. She portrays the Queen as a woman trapped in a dusty time capsule with her family; strong willed, stoic and determined to maintain her dignity at the expense of her emotions. In one scene where Elizabeth encounters a stag on her estate, she finally allows her grief to take over. Mirren is incredible in this scene, going quickly from tears to joy, before finally rearranging her features once more into her public mask.

The royal family is portrayed mostly as "freeloading, emotionally retarded inbreds" (in the words of the film's Sheila Blair), with corgis scampering underfoot. I wouldn't be surprised if some day, a member of the monarchy snuffs it by tripping over a corgi. Prince Philip, in particular, spends much of the film doddering around the estate hunting stags and discussing the temperature of the tea. The portrayals seem somewhat heavy-handed, but, sadly, probably close to the truth.

The relationship between Elizabeth and Tony Blair provides the most dramatic dynamic in the film. His handling of the 'Diana situation' made him extremely popular, but, as the Queen warns him, the time will come when the public will turn against him. It's strange to view this film ten years later on the eve of his resignation. It now seems that his time in office will be best remembered for the handling of the 'Iraq situation'.



Tony Blair's response to Diana's death in August, 1997.

Faithless - Bombs

I'm surprised that I had not heard of this video before now - 'Bombs' by Faithless. It features some very powerful juxtapositions that bring the horrors of war closer to home. A very simple concept, but very well done.

Granville Island

Yesterday, I enjoyed my first 'official' vacation day of the year. I'm taking a few long weekends here and there, with about a week and a half off at the end of August.

I ended up going to Granville Island Market for the afternoon, and ended up taking a whole heap of photos. So lucky to live in a place where I can hop on a ferry and visit the island so easily. I spent some time checking out the Emily Carr Undergraduate Exhibition, looked in some stores, had a bagel, sat in the sun, but for the most part, looked for photograph opportunities.

You can see more photos here.

Mando Diao

Considering I'd never really heard them before, I was pretty impressed by Mando Diao at their show at the Plaza last Saturday night. I was actually there to see Pop Levi (the opening act) again, but was glad to get a chance to see Mando Diao too. For a bunch of Swedish guys, they sure know how to channel some good gritty Britty rock. I thought I was in for some Strokes type stuff, but their jangly melodies and harmonizing were much more 60s, more The Animals or even The Beatles. The two main guys even shared the mike like John and Paul used to.

Pop Levi was great again - but I'm still looking forward to seeing him perform a full scale set at a decent venue. He seemed to be a lot more relaxed and 'out there' than when I saw him last. And just like last time, he stretched out the opening number 'Sugar Assault Me Now' to ridiculously epic proportions. He really knows how to wind up a crowd.

By the way, I'm not sure who was responsible, but playing Sigur Ros over footage of a young Michael J. Fox in the film Class of 1984 isn't the best way to pump up a crowd between sets. The film was good trashy fun, but come on - Sigur Ros?