photonelly.com

Another one of the shots I worked on in post this week. It was from the helicopter tour I took in September during the Maui Photo Festival, and given a once over in ACR and Topaz Adjust to bring out some color and details.

Fresh to the web, I wanted to share a new site that was recently launched by a few of the great people I met at the ‘09 Maui Photo Festival, Legion Photo.

The Legion Photo website is a stunning collection of photographs from nine very talented, and very brave, men and women who took their cameras into combat, fighter planes, and more dangerous situations than most other photographers would dream of. The result is a candid, captivating, intense, and emotional view into the lives and sacrifices that our nation’s true heroes make to keep our freedom safe.

I had the extreme pleasure of getting to fly with two of the photographers featured at Legion Photo, Stacy Pearsall and Andy Dunaway in September when they led a series of aerial shoots over Maui by helicopter. They were some of the nicest people you’ll ever met, and following along with them online after the workshops, they do so much to give back to the veterans community, it’s amazing.

Their New Mission

It takes a lot of talent and dedication to do what the photographers, or legionographers as they’re referred to, featured on Legion Photo do behind the camera. They have taken their own individual experiences and come together to offer a wide range of commercial photography, video, and creative services. Given the locations and conditions they have shot under in their military careers, I can’t imagine there’s a job out there they couldn’t handle.

More from Legion Photo

In addition to the photos and profiles (coming soon) on their website, you can also interact with Legion Photo on Facebook, Twitter, and their blog. Be sure to check out the links below and let them (and me) know what you think of their work.

• Legion Photo website
• The Legion Photo Blog
• Legion Photo on Facebook
• Follow @LEGIONphoto on Twitter

Thanks,
– Kris

Right before this entire week got away from me, I managed to start playing around with one of the other cool things I picked up from the Maui Photo Festival last month, and that was using Topaz Adjust in the digital darkroom.

I also played with it for about 20 minutes, and it was really cool. From what I saw in the workshops last month and from the galleries on the Topaz website, I can see myself having a lot of fun with this.

For about the last 2 years or so, the majority of my serious photography focus has been around the technical side of getting in right in-camera, and not so much on the creative side of things in post.  Now that I’ve gotten to a strong enough point there (with still room to grow, of course), spending a little bit more time with Photoshop is in order. That, plus not being able to spend as much time shooting out in the field as I’d like to, seem like a logical progression for my work.

If you want to see a few more samples of what I’ve been playing around with, you can check out the Topaz Adjust Practice photoset on my Flickr site. There’s only five photos posted so far, but as I find more time to practice and go through some of my shots from over the years, you’ll see more shots there, too.

Not only have my “get it right in camera” skills come a long way in the last year or so, but I continue to get creative and pick up new skills here and there in Photoshop.

The above image is a creative work of the source image down below. It was taken early in the morning on the grounds of the Hyatt Regency Maui during our stay there for the Maui Photo Festival last month.

Honestly, I can’t say that I pre-visualized the above result when I took the source image, which was one of the keynote sessions from Scott Bourne at Photo Focus at the festival. It is a case, however, of not settling for or ignoring an otherwise mundane shot and being a little creative with it. Not something I do all the time, since I typically try to “get it right” first, but it’s still fun from time to time.

Source Image

A shy little penguin that lives in a habitat set up in the main atrium at the Hyatt Regency Maui.  Yes, penguins in Maui, I know.