Brandon's Photo in Midwest Living Magazine!

I know some professional photographers are going to be angry about the content of this blog post, but hopefully not too many of them bother to read my little blog. Yes, I gave away an image to a publication for free. Obviously this lights a fire under pros who think they should be compensated for every shutter press. Ehhh... sorry? When it's your kid and a magazine with a circulation of one million, I think you'd opt for the bragging rights. :)

Back in July the kids and I visited a very cool indoor play area in Chicago -- Dayfrog! If you're ever in Chicago, check it out with your kids. We enjoyed it so much that we spent two days of our visit there. While I was there I took some snapshots of the kids (shocking!).

The images weren't great quality, just family snaps in low light, but I had a couple that were OK. A while back the owner e-mailed and asked if I would send him something for an upcoming article. Of course!

Here's a photo of Brandon that accompanies their article in the December issue of Midwest Living Magazine! How cool is that? I'm supposed to receive a copy of the magazine soon. Brandon is trying not to let it go to his head. ;)

Click the photo to see the whole page.

Photoshop Actions

I've ended up with a small selection of actions that I've created by request or for my own use. I thought it would be good to have a designated place to collect them. These are my basic actions for color workflow and web finishing. I've also included two brightness/contrast actions that I thought might be helpful for contrasty scenes.

Basic Color Workflow -- Sets up adjustment layers for all of the main adjustments with the proper blending modes selected. Arbitrary starting values are selected, but each layer should be adjusted for the actual image.

Selectively Brighten -- Brightens midtones and shadows. This can be run right after the main color workflow action to instantly brighten and smooth the image. You can also run this 2 or more times to achieve a brighter result.

Even out Shadows -- Pulls down the brightness on the highlights and pushes up brightness on midtones and shadows. This evens out the tones in contrasty scenes. This can also be used after the main color workflow action, but probably should not be combined with the selective brightening action above.

Double Drop Shadow Frame (portrait and landscape) -- These add a fancy double shadowed border to your image. This action also resizes and sharpens your image for web. Choose the appropriate action for the orientation of your photo if uniformity is desired. Click here for a sample.

Basic web finishing(portrait and landscape) -- These add a basic black border with white keyline. This action also resizes and sharpens your image for web. Choose the appropriate action for the orientation of your photo if uniformity is desired. Click here for a sample.

Sharpen for Web only -- Just what you'd think -- flattens and sharpens your web-sized image without resizing or adding a border.

These actions are available for download here:

http://www.andrearubash.com/POTN/Andrea's Actions.atn

Winter is coming...

... and I'm getting ready. I liked winter so much more before I had kids, especially toddlers. Slush, mud, snow, and puddles are coming -- for the next 6 months. I've built a simple portable studio to keep me busy this winter.

I've tried it out with both kids and I can already see that some big powerful lights need to be on my agenda. Right now I'm working with 2 speedlights, an umbrella and a tiny softbox. I have 3 paper colors so far, but I can see that paper will become addictive.

Here are a few shots from my very first try. I'm pretty excited about the possibilities! I just need to get a little more creative.

There is a difference...

If I could will the world to learn something (I won't say one thing because there are a lot of things I want the world to learn), it would be that there is a difference between what is RIGHT and what is legally acceptable. That ethics, morality, and right and wrong are not dictated by the laws of this land.

In so many cases, I hear people excuse behavior with the "it's perfectly legal" clause and I see people whose actions demonstrate this without words. I see people returning items to stores that they admit having used for almost a year just because the store policy allows for it. I see people who lie shameless to get what they want because it is so rare for honesty or compassion to flow freely that they feel they have to in order to get what they need or want.

I like to believe that there was a time in this country, maybe not so long ago, when people still truly believed that right and wrong were completely separate concepts from what their government allowed. I believe there was a time when customer service wasn't dead and when people gladly waved you into traffic. I believe there was a time when generosity was common and people truly helped one another -- and not just in the midst of a crisis or natural disaster.

These are things I want to believe. I need to believe that this spirit might still be alive somewhere -- because we might need it someday.