Salem Mass and How to Make Your Photos POP!

Greetings Fellow Readers!

So I know it has been a while since the last post, but worry not as I will make up for it with some great photos from Salem Mass. I would have updated sooner, but I have just started another semester in college (last one!) and have also been busy with the music world. Of course I don't want to make excuses, but things have been crazy to say the least! 

With all that mumble jumble out of the way, here are some of the pictures I took from Salem Mass: 

Pee-pee Doll? Gift shops really do have some of the strangest items, and this is up there on the list. 

The reflection from the marble on the left wall almost creates an "invisible" effect!

Oops! Forgot to remove the lens flare in this one! 

One of the old stone churches in Salem. 

 Love this building art! It is done very well. 

A monument in the central park. I didn't edit these shots at all, and the sky is BEAUTIFUL in these. 

 1626! 

 The famous John Ward house which was built in 1684. 

 Yummy apple! This tree was next to the John Ward house. 

 House that I couldn't resist photographing as we were walking around. 

 This is blurry, but it's a clever use of a STOP sign. 

 Lovely flowers! 

 Old building (Edited) 

Old Building (Original) 

Salem is truly a beautiful place, and it was almost effortless to find great photo-opps! 


I now want to direct your attention to a couple of photographs (Juicy Apple, Lovely Flowers, and Old Building) and show you an easy way to create very simple subtle enhancements that will really make your pictures come to life. The best edits are those that enhance the image, without having that "over-edited" look to them. It is very easy to get carried away with the effects in Photo editing software (especially Photoshop) but you don't want to loose the original concept of the image. 

I will be using Adobe Photoshop CS3 for this demonstration, but you can do most of these adjustments in GIMP or any other software you may be using.

First, let me explain what I did, and then we'll look at how to do it. 

Take a look at the Old Building pictures, original and Edited, and notice how the colors are rather "blended"  on the Original image with the other elements. This has a lot to do with lighting, camera, etc, but generally speaking, nothing is really standing out here. If you now look at the edited image, you will notice your attention is drawn to more specific elements of the image (Yellow around door and windows, green mold on the brick, and the enhanced shadows). This is a very simple process I like to call Color/Shadow enhancement, and it is very simple to do. 

If you look at the other images I mentioned, you will see that the key elements stand out from the background, and the result is more contrast and overall, a nice looking photo. Notice how the apple stands out in relation to the background, the flowers are bright and vibrant, and the colors are vivid and well defined. 

How do I do that? 
1. Select an image you want to enhance, and pick out the certain elements of the image you want enhanced. Some images are easier to do than others, so start off with something simple, like the apple picture I have here. We will be using this image for this demonstration. 

2. Open your photo editing tool, and use one of your selection tools to select just the apple in the image. I used the Magnetic lasso tool, as the other selection tools were not as effective for me. You may use any selection tool, just make sure the apple is the only thing you have selected. 

3. Once you have the apple selected, navigate to Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast in the Menu bar.  Increase both the brightness and contrast slightly to enhance shadows and brighten up the apple a bit. You only want to do a minor increase to make the apple jump out a bit (I used +3 for Brightness and +8 for contrast). 

4. Apply the changes, and then navigate to Image>Adjustments>Hue Saturation. It is here when you will really start to see the apple come to life. Change the hue to about -3, and increase the saturation to your liking to make the green stand out. I did around a +18 for saturation, but more or less may work for you depending on the desired result. As previously mentioned, be careful not to over-saturate the apple as you will loose much of the fine texture and detail and get undesired results. If you are using PS, make sure Preview is "ticked" so you can preview the results before you apply the changes. 

5. Once you are happy with your adjustments, click OK. Were going to be making one final adjustment, and that will be to use the Burn Tool to take out some of the background light around the apple (Don't use the Burn tool on the apple!) to make the apple really jump out. I used a 400px brush and the Shadows mode with a 31% exposure. 

6. With the burn tool selected, left click on the leaves and branches around the apple to create shadows and depth to the image. Be sure not to hold down the mouse button, as you will end up darkening too many areas of the picture. You areas of focus should be around the apple, around the edges of the picture, and in areas on the leaves and branches to increase the shadow detail level. You may have to play around with it a bit to get it exactly how you want, but just be patient! 

7. Once you are finished with the burn tool, you may adjust the master Brightness/Contrast levels for the entire image if desired to bring out the detail, but it is not necessary. You may also increase the color saturation if you like, but only make very minor adjustments or you will loose detail and wash out the picture. 

8. Now save your image as a .jpg and or PSD if you are using Photoshop, and you are finished! You should now have a nicely edited picture that looks good enough to eat! 

Tips and Tricks:
You can use this handy little effect in a lot of your pictures, and you will be shocked at how much more you can get out of them. It is a very simple edit to make, and it really adds a WOW effect to your shots. 

You may also find there are other ways to get the same result, but this is the way that works best for me. If you find an alternate way to do this, feel free to post in on this Blog in the comments section!

If you use the tutorial to edit your own photos (or the Apple), please POST the Before and After pictures in the COMMENTS section to show me your work, and tell me how you did it. I will then be selecting one of your submitted photos in two weeks to be featured in an upcoming Blog Post of how you did it! 

What I'll be posting in the upcoming weeks:

- Some breathtaking shots from Portland Maine
- Creating your own "custom" business card designs in Photoshop

- Scranton's "Lost History" 

Be sure to check back nest week, and don't forget to submit your images. I can't wait to see them! 

Also, let me know in the comments section what you think of the larger image sizes. Would you prefer them this way, or a bit smaller? Let me know! 

Until then, walk on your hands and feet and bark like an elephant should! 

More Tour Pics, Lynnewood Hall, CS6, and MUD!

Grab a caffeinated beverage of choice, and kick back for a while.... 

Because this is going to be a big one! So before I waste any more time, here are some more pictures of my vacation from a few weeks ago. Mind you that I still didn't even get a chance to go through my two other memory cards, which easily have over 1000+ pictures. Trust me, there are going to be some good ones. 

BUT, before I crack those open, here is some new eye candy in the meantime:

Tour Photos

Rochester, NY: Baseball Hall of Fame 

Baseball Hall of Fame: Inside 

Scenic Overlook in Vermont 

I believe this was also from Vermont. You can see where the flood level was from last year! 

What appeared to be an abandoned building in Vermont 

Inside of the Hall of Fame 

Coolest Gas Station I have ever seen! I think this was in New Hampshire 

Upstate New York. This is the first time I can actually say the grass is greener, the sky is bluer, and the clouds are crisper, and actually have pictures to prove it! Oh and BTW, the air is crisper too because of the elevation. Kinda hard to capture that "essence" though. 

Ommegang Brewery! Theres a shop here, and they have a Brew Pub inside. Picked up a hoodie and a 24oz bottle that I have still yet to try. I do wear the hoodie every chance I get

Yep, even James Cooper drank Aquafina, and here is the darn photo to prove it.

'Nuff Said  

Took this while moving, but I love how the focus is on this one! 

Well, that is that, NOW onto Lynne Hall and why it's even in this blog in the first place. 

Lynnewood Hall

And heres what it looks like:

I don't even specifically remember how I foind this, other than browsing on YouTube. OH WAIT, I do remember now. I was actually looking up HOW TO drywall videos and this was in the Recommended For You tab. I don't know what the 2 have in common, but either way I am very glad I found it. 

ANYWAY....

After doing some researching on the Pedia of Wiki: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FLynnewood_Hall&ei=vZtFUMyIBuPz0gGMnICIDA&usg=AFQjCNF9v_OaeQRsQfMgfh4zW95vAnv22g&sig2=eSGpcWmvBFw37d4B69Bbow I found out it is in Pennsylvania and it is..

Get ready for it...

ABANDONED!

Now here's the thing with this place. It's located in Montgomery County, and it was built for Peter Widener in the 1800's. It was later given to the Free Library of Philadelphia  I won't reiterate whats in the Wiki article, as it is there for you to read, but there is a lot of history to the family as you will see from brief research of his name. 

This mansion is clearly an architectural masterpiece and featured its own art gallery, ballroom, swimming pool, and its own power plant. It is one of the largest standing mansions of its kind still standing in Philly today.

Now why am I mentioning this? Well, after many different ownership changes, it is completely abandoned and falling to neglect by its current owner. Much of the art and paintings have been removed and sold, and the actual building itself is beginning to crumble. Most recent reports that I have seen mentioned that many parts of the roof have actually collapsed. 

I would love to be able to get the opportunity to get in there and go to town with my camera to do the best blog post of the century, but the only problem is the owner has security dogs on the property behind the iron gates that enclose the property, and the owner is constantly around so it is basically impossible to get in. And even if you did manage to sneak into the gates, goodspeed at trying to get through the mile high doors in the entrance.

A brief rant, and I'll move onto my next topics:

It really is incredible how neglectful this country is with lack of preservation of historical buildings such as this. Why is this building just sitting there and crumbling to pieces, instead of the Historical society restoring it and preserving a piece of history? I don't understand how we are the youngest country, yet we allow these monumental pieces of history sit and fade away. If you look at other countries, they have architecture that is thousands of years old and is still standing in better shape then this.

Bottom line: Cut the nonsense, and bring these incredible buildings back to life! 

Ok for my last 2 topics, and i will make them fast as this is becoming more of a short story than blog  post.

Actually, on that note, I'll save the last 2 topics for next weeks post.

Until then, put on your shoes backwards and sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in your nearby Gas Station! 

London Bridge is not the one...

A New Picture, and the story of the 800 missing pictures...

Before I get into the story of how I ended up loosing over 800 freaking pictures I took on my vacation, lets start on a good note by me showing you one of my favorite pictures I took so far while going through my memory card, as well as some other really cool ones. 

HERE IT IS! (My favorite so far) 

And another good one  (side shot of the Bridge):

So a brief description of whats goin here, Camera wise, why I like it, etc.

First off, may I add that these pictures were taking sequentially while sitting in the back seat of a car going about 50 mph. Thats the first wow that went off in my head. For the first photo, I used the manual setting on a Rebel XS with F 3.5 ISO 200 and a pretty quick shutter speed. Everything you see here was a complete result of the camera, and one of the main reasons why I love Canon and want my own SLR. 

Second, there is absolutely not a single bit of editing work done to either of these pictures, both are in their pure raw beauty. 

In my opinion (and a very unbiased humble one at that), the stars were lined up for this one, and it really made me realize that you know when you have a good photo. There are many other great photos that I will be sharing from the trip that are great shots (some pictures I didn't even go through yet), but I knew this was "the one" as soon as I saw it. While I do love photo editing in the trusty old PS, nothing beats the victory of a "untouched" piece. 

The second photo is also a great shot, but in my opinion is not quite as breathtaking in terms of color, light, etc as the first. 

Well then, what photo is your favorite? What makes it superior to the other? Leave in the comments below as I am really curious to see what others are thinking. 

And that ends the pat on the back, and starts the story of the 800 lost photos. READ ON... If you DARE! 

As I mentioned in my first post, we had the opportunity to stop in Salem, MA in our travels and take a tour of the town. We liked it so much, we spent 2 days there. I really got some great pictures from there, and will post them soon to see what you guys think! 

So I digress. Salem is known for its history of Witchcraft, but it was later found out after the trials and deaths of many people that the stories were basically some "wise tales" women told in the cold months to keep themselves preoccupied. 

There it is, the myth of Salem debunked, and not by me of course! So what the heck does this have to do with loosing pictures, and my camera randomly turning off....

We were walking down the old streets of Salem on the second day, and I was taking pictures of each of the streets we were on as each told its own unique story. Being it was our second day there, we decided to go into each of the shops (1st mistake) to find a souvenir for each of us to bring back home. As I had my camera strapped around me pretty much the entire time we were in Salem, I couldn't help but notice the No Photos signs posted in every single one of the shops we were in. I also noticed that some of the shops had what I first thought were novelty witchcraft items, later turned out to be the real deal (need I say more!) We went into one shop in particular, and it will remain unmentioned for privacy issues, but there was some really strange things happening in there. Different herbs, potions, symbols, and rooms off to the side blocked by canvas to see into the future and find out any trouble ahead. There was no nick nacks so to speak, but mostly items to practice the real art of witchcraft. 

As first I didn't think much of it, and actually commented to my friend CJ as we were leaving on how I thought the music was pretty cool. As we left, I turned my camera on to continue taking pictures of the new terrain we were approaching. It was then when I noticed something strange on the screen: an error message that read "Cannot Read Folder, Insert new card" of something along those lines. I didn't think too much of it, and hit the preview button to see if my photos would come up on the card. Thats about the point when I freaked out. The screen said "No IMAGES." What do you mean no images, !@#$%^& (Note the preceding) symbols represent adult content which has been censored for all ages viewing. 

I was fuming to say the least. A lady which was near us happened to overhear my frustration and asked what had happened. I told her and she said that another person had the same exact problem a couple weeks back while taking pictures in Salem. Sound strange? I thought so, but was still aggravated, so it really didn't sink in all too much.

It must have been obvious we were tourist because we got lost and ended up going in a circle, and walking past the shop that send my memory card into an auto reformat.  

Well.. 

That must have not been enough because when we walked past there a second time, my camera just completely powered down and would not turn back on, even after numerous troubleshooting attempts. Strangely enough, it came right back on soon after we passed the shop. 

Ironic?

Coincidental? 

Just plain weird?

I would say all of the above. I have experienced some strange paranormal situations before, but never any in broad daylight with tons of people walking about. 

Well that about wraps up my excitement for one night. Time to go write some tunes and think about happy times, and that photo I posted in the beginning of the blog:

WOULD YOU KINDLY:

- Comment on your favorite picture and tell me why you like it most

- Tell me if you believe in the supernatural, and if so, an incident that happened to you that you remember most vividly.

Until then, Put your sneakers on backwards and run until your feet hurt! 

Is there more than just old folk tales?

Time to Share! 

Well, hello everyone! This is something that I have wanted to do for a while now, so I FINALLY decided to stop monkeying around and create a blog. I hope for this to be for anything interesting that I may find that I would like to share with others, but the main purpose is to share my love of Photography with everyone. Recently, I was fortunate enough to get a hold of a digital SLR camera (Thanks Mike!) to use for my vacation, and I was thrilled because I have never used one before, and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to actually get into digital photography and grasp a real camera for once. 

I would like to use the following series of blogs to post some of the amazing shots I was fortunate enough to capture on my week long travels to the North US, as well as share some of the stories behind each one. Since it is late (almost approaching 2AM and I have work at 9) I will keep this one brief by sharing one photo. 

C'mon cut me some slack here... This is my first blog post. Don't we all hope they keep improving. 


One can hope



Anyways, on to the photo: 

Ahh, the infamous Salem, MA, where the famous Witch Trials were held. This is actually a perspective shot of one of the museums we went in along the journey through town. Although the trip did not start here, I did choose this photo for a reason, as it is where the first series of photos are on my memory card. I did take prior photos (approx 800) prior to this photo shoot of Salem, but they actually went "missing," which is an entire story amongst