Photojournalism with a Twist and a Vape

Good Morning Everyone and Happy Sunday,  I know its  been a while since my last blog, but my current class of Intro to Photojournalism and some other obligations have been putting me through the ringer. Today's blog won't be a  long one and I apologize about that, but I wanted to share with everyone some things I have been working on. Within the last two months I had quit smoking, thanks a few wonderful people in my life. This opened up a whole new area to photograph. Its called Vaping or e-cigs... Call it what you want it saved my life and thousands of others.

I had the opportunity to attended a Vape meet at Liberty Vapor in Phoenixville, PA as part of my photojournalism class and Vapor myself, I found that everywhere in the vaping community there are people willing to help enhance your own personal creativity. Below are some of the photos that I took for my final assignment.

You can check out Liberty Vapor at www.Libertyvapor.net if you dont live in the Phoenixville area or stop in they would love to help you take that next step.

Photos by Wayne Salat

Photos by Wayne Salat

Photos by Wayne Salat

Photos by Wayne Salat

Photos by Wayne Salat

Again if you have any comments or questions please feel free to ask.

Enjoy Your Sunday and Photograph Something Everyday!

Sunday Ambassador~ Wayne

Creative Self-Portraits

Happy Sunday Everyone! We all made it through another long and busy week. I think I mentioned somewhere that my current class is Photographic Design. Honestly when I started the class, I wasn't sure what to expect. The information on it really didn't go into great detail. We just hit the end of week 2 and class is just cruising by, I wanted to talk a little about one of the assignments this past week: Creative Self-Portraits. This assignment took a lot of thought and serious reflection on my part. I mean you have to think about who you are and what makes you, you.. Keeping in mind that you, cant necessarily be in the photo itself. That means no putting it on the tripod and taking a full face shot. You can have body parts in the photograph, but not your face.. Sounds difficult.. Slightly, but if you really think about it, the ideas will come streaming out.. Don't forget to jot them down so you don't forget..

I did some research and found some really amazing photos taken by some very talented photographers. That just added to the motion in my head. So I pose this question to all of you out there hopefully reading this blog.. What do you think makes a great or outstanding creative self-portrait and how far would you go to take one that will really make an outstanding impression.

Below are a few that I took this past week. Please feel free to leave feedback... We all LOVE feedback.

 Photos by Wayne Salat

                                                                    Photos by Wayne Salat

 Photos by Wayne Salat

                                                                                           Photos by Wayne Salat

Enjoy Your Sunday and Photograph Something Everyday!

Sunday Ambassador~ Wayne

Current Project...

Happy Sunday Everyone! I hope you had a great and productive week. Today's blog wont be a long one, I just wanted to talk briefly about personal projects. Many photographers have a personal project that they choose to do for their own reasons, many are unsolicited.

I had mentioned in a previous blog post about the current class that I have Digital Image Illustration. The final assignment is to produce a surreal image for a fake company that is "Green" and what could happen if we abuse our natural resources. While initially it was just a school assignment, it put so many different ideas in my head, which lead to my personal project.

My personal project I think can and will speak for itself, but the reality is... we could end up in this situation if we don't step up and take action. My personal project has me photographing then doing so radical edits to images of people in different settings wearing gas masks.

This is a work in progress below are some of the newer images I have created this past week.

 Photos By Wayne Salat of Flash Mob Photography Network

  Photo By Wayne Salat of Flash Mob Photography Network

 Photo By Wayne Salat of Flash Mob Photography Network

  Photo By Wayne Salat of Flash Mob Photography Network

  Photo By Wayne Salat of Flash Mob Photography Network

  Photo By Wayne Salat of Flash Mob Photography Network

 Photo By Wayne Salat of Flash Mob Photography Network

Sorry for such a short blog this week, life has been a bit crazy

Enjoy Your Sunday and Photograph Something Everyday!

Sunday Ambassador~ Wayne

The Wrong Perspective!

Have you ever experienced a time when you just couldn’t deal with someone? You couldn’t come up with any reasonable explanation or solution for what was happening. Then someone tells you to think in a different way. “Look at it from his perspective,” they say to you.

When we photograph tall object, like buildings, we can run into a similar situation. It looks right to us when we look at it with our eyes, but when we photograph it, we get the wrong perspective. The buildings look wrong.

Thankfully, there is a solution for this problem in Photoshop. You can transform a distorted building with Perspective.  

If you have never used the Transform commands (on the Edit tab) then it might be helpful to check out this video from Adobe. This is just a general overview of the transform options, but it will give you lots of ideas.

http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/transforming-objects.html.  

Looking at some images taken last week of very tall buildings, you can see that they look distorted. It is easy to manipulate them just enough to get the right perspective for our human eyes.

So, go find something really tall and take shots of it that make it look distorted. Then go into Photoshop, create a new layer, and play with the new layer using Edit/Transform/Perspective and see what you create.

Welcome to Mobile Friday

How is your relationship with your smartphone?

Do you like its cool touch screen for texting and checking Facebook?

Do you go to it for help in times of need only to find yourself frustrated with tiny buttons and terrible mobile sites?

Or have you thrown caution to the wind in a passionate affair; said goodbye to keyboards, desks, and carpal tunnel? You know the dangers and it doesn't matter, you two are meant to be.

If you’re the last one, there are several Smartphone Addicts Anonymous groups around the country that can-

Okay I admit, I fit perfectly into the passionate affair category. All my jeans have a spot worn in the pocket where my iPhone sits secure and at my fingertips.

But whether you are an avid smartphone user, or use it just for the basics, they are great tools for the online photography student. Every Friday I will be posting helpful apps and tricks that will help you mobilize your online education, including the AIOnline mobile website, as well as some useful photo and “iphonography” apps.

Of course feel free to comment and share any mobile and photography related info, especially if you’re an Android user. Just because I use an iPhone doesn’t mean you Androiders have to be left in the dust. I’ll do my best to stay informed on both.

                

 So that’s Mobile Friday. As for me, just call me Friday.

-Friday Ambassador

Photo by Jade Deakin on Hipstography.com

Deakin, Jade. Untitled. Photograph. 

Rozan, Eric. Hipstography.com. 2012. web. 15 June 2013.