Ugh, so I violated the first rule of blogging, which is: no one will come to visit unless there is new content to see. I have no real excuse other than real life has been occupying most of my time.
No Quarter recently did a kids' Christmas party for pictures with Santa. It's the third or forth year in a row I've done this function. I found it hard to be creative due to the line of anxious children, but that wasn't why I was there. Each family gets a 4x6. And I had them printed in time for Christmas. Santa was accompanied by an elf this year, which was a fun touch. I won't be posting any pictures on her due to the lack of a model release.
I was also asked to do a family portrait for my assistant and her siblings as a Christmas gift to her parents and grandparents. It was hard to get everyone at the same place and time to get it done. Ultimately I had about an hour long window to get it right. I didn't have any advance knowledge of the site we went to, so when I got there my mind was racing. Set the scene. Dial in the lights. De-fog the lenses (my fault, they were in the trunk too long). Get everyone in place. And try to catch four very strong personalities at the same time. Below is an outtake and a final copy. Everyone liked them, which is all I can hope for.
I've been practicing my Photoshop skills as of late. I don't have my to show for it, as most are tutorials that focus on a specific skill. About a year ago I bought a graphics tablet. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I never touched one before, but everything that I read and watched had the artist using one. I did some research and got a Wacom Intuos3. I got frustrated quickly with it which I thought had to do with my clumsy hands. I told myself that learning to use it would come with time, so I picked it up and have been trying to almost exclusively use it for Photoshop. I've had much better results once I turned down the sensitivity of the pen. Much more subtle and controlable now. My recent hurdle is drawing smooth lines, but that's for a different day.
I saw Avatar in 3d this past weekend. It was amazing. I was overwhelmed by all the detail that went into the presentation. I read enough about the movie beforehand to know that about 80% of the movie was digital effects, but it all seemed real and believable to me. There were so many little things, like dust and bugs and scratches that added to the feel. I won't give away the plot, but it was an average story that's been told before. The ok plot was made into a great movie by all the production that was done. I was surprised to find how much the developers used Adobe products, as discussed here. My first thought was that they were using some in house software to put it together, but they used several programs that I have and others that I'm familiar with. Granted they used it much better than I could ever imagine, but it's exciting to know I have access to programs that could do that.
So, the New Year's resolution for No Quarter will be to publish more content and to take better pictures. This will be the first full year of my assistant at my side, so together I know we can make something great. Thanks Jess! Without you it wouldn't be as fun.
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