The Art of Go and Green

Quebec City, Canada on a cool, damp night makes the streets glisten with reflecting color.

There's good art in green and bad; the green art here is good, meaning one can pass. Bad green art comes with interaction as in "green with envy."

Spread the good green everywhere--

*Let people pass or at the very least give them some leeway when driving.
*Look at green; take a walk in a park.
*Go green, these days it's more important than ever.
*Exercise your green thumb in your yard.

Art Can Be Made From Anything...

What's this made of?

Find the Hidden Word Art

Come on now people lets get together--one another--right now...right now.

Find the hidden word in the art photo of a retro typewriter, then type the first word that comes to mind in the Comments section.

Don't be shy. It's art! I need 100 responses so I can make a pie chart of negative vs. postive words. Text and image art with a purpose!

Remember one word only.

Free Book Contest

Needed some color today, coming home from Montreal was somewhat of a let down.
Come on give me a lift. I'll mail a free copy of Digital Art Photography for Dummies to the person who can produce an image that includes--

1. A photo of one object

2. Hand drawn in the shape of that object.

3. Digital manipulation of the object

4. A solid background surrounding the object

5. A tiny copyright trademark at the bottom left side of the image.

The first person to email me his/her photo will get the book mailed to them and his/her image displayed on my blog.

FYI: This blog receives from 30 to 50 hits a day.

Constellation prize: Your image will be displayed on my blog along with a link to your site/blog.

free book, free book, free book, free book, free book, free book, free book, free book, free book, free book, free book, free book, free book, free book, free book

Performance Art Canada

Ten Kinds of Performance Art

1. Dressing up and walking on stilts (in picture).

2. Adding a bell to your attire each day till you're ringing off the hook in a couple of weeks.

3. Wearing the clothes of an 80 year-old man and stooping while walking with a cane (you'll need to add some wrinkles to your face too).

4. Leaving the house dressed just like Brittany Spears.

5. Speaking in a Southern drawl all day long.

6. Wearing white gloves all day and opening doors for people.

7. Using American Sign Language without knowing it.

8. A mom wearing her 10 year-old's clothes.

9. A dad and son dressing exactly alike (and I thought only twins did this).

10. Climbing a tree in a busy neighborhood and staying up there from dawn to dusk.

Okay, come on everybody, send me a photo of you're idea of performance art and I'll post it on my blog.
...and if you're too busy for that leave a message of your idea of performance art (cumon ya'll be nice, ya hear).

Protest, Freedom and the Photo Set

This photoset tells a story.

Answer the following questions...

Why are people here protesting?
What tactics are they using to protest?
Where is this protest taking place?
What groups of people are protesting here?
What laws permit people to protest?

Let's keep this right free!

On the St-Lawrence

Now this is a real river, one that travels from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.

Adding and Blending Text in Photoshop--My New Logo

Here's an example Header made in Photoshop.

Here are the steps to add and blend the text in Photoshop to finish off a header with your blog's name on it.

Adding Text in Photoshop

1. I added the text "Digital Traveler" first by clicking on the "T" in the palette box.

2. Photoshop adds a new layer when you click on your image I adjust the Font and Text size in the upper menu bar.

3. Then I type in "Digital Traveler."

4. I can move the words "Digital Traveler" by moving the curser just beyond the text. The icon will change to an arrow.

5. I want waves in my text so I select all of it by clicking and dragging over it. Up in the menu bar there's a little "T" with a curve under it.

6. A Warped Text dialog box comes up and I first move the drop down menu next to where it says Style to choose the types of warps I want.

7. Then I play with the horizontal and vertical sliders to get what I want.


Blending Text in Photoshop

1. Choose Window>Layers to open up the Layers palette.

2. Click on the Text Layer to select it.

3. Click on the "f with a curve" at the bottom of the Layers palette.

4. A drop down menu bar will come up. Click on "blending options"

5. Slide the sliders and play with the rest of the controls in the Layer Style dialog box that comes up and when you get what you want, click "OK."

6. Click on Layer>Flatten Image

7. Take a look at my book on Amazon to learn lots more.

8. I teach "Digital Art Photography" also at Betterphoto.com Come and join me for a month. It's cheap!

Now there's something asthetically wrong with this header. It's too busy and will turn people off. Watch for upcoming posts where I make a new one.

Travel Destination Neither like Europe nor the United States

I've traveled to China, Russia, the Baltic States, and live in the United States, and I've photographed the old and new with my digital camera, and it is here in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada where the very old looks new, and the new looks as if it's never been touched.

I'm not saying I don't like this place, because I do. The younger crowd went more hippie with dreadlocks, skateboards and smiles that say, "peace, man."
With wardrobes that are mismatched with the squeeky clean streets and freshly painted and/or refurbished buildings, most here are mismatched with their surroundings.

Then you have the seasons here--a brutal long winter and a short warm summer. Today it's hot--near 90 degrees--and the locals are exuberant. You can spot them as they weave in and out among the throngs of tourists. Their gait, determined; their demure, relaxed.

Last, you have the seasons. Winter has the city bathed in white and ice, a totally different look than in summer. As desert rat originally from Miami, I find warm best and above-100 degrees and below 50 worse. Palm Springs sizzles now, so hot you can fry eggs on the sidewalk.

Quebec City in July is like I've gone to good-weather heaven.

Montreal Just for Laughs Festival

The Just for Laughs Festival is a giant event in Montreal













Performers during the day.


Street Theater at night.

10 things about Quebec you might want to know

1. The trains have Internet while you're moving.

2. Quebec City is the only city in North America with a wall around it.

3. Many people in Quebec do not speak English, as French is their first language.

4. Montreal has almost a dozen festivals in July.

5. Montreal does not have bakeries everywhere like they do in Paris.

6. Throughout Quebec, you'll experience many beautiful cool mornings all summer long.

7. Montreal has a good subway system.

8. Have a passport; Canadian customs officals can ask a lot of questions.

9. Don't drive if you don't have to in winter; temps fall to -30 C sometimes.

10. Visit all the neighborhoods up and down St. Catherine Street.

Mystery Dome

What is this? Where is this?
Answer tomorrow plus more info about others.

Montreal Summer Performance Art

Angle is everything in photography. Many know this, but point-of-view also can make or break a photograph.

After photographing the front of this man-performer, I started to walk away. But then the beads caught my eye.

I quickly swiveled and shot with the flash on and viola, I shot so that the beads were the main focus of the photograph.

Lucky as I was, the man's back and the back of the chair turned out quite nicely too.

Oh Canada!

New and Old Montreal side-by-side

Everyone really does speak French in Montreal, as it's kind of a proud-Quebec thing. I'd estimate about half here speak little or no English.

Coming through customs in Canada is, without-a-doubt, one of the most uncomfortable procedures of all the countries in the world though which I've traveled. No smiles here, just a firm questions of "Do you have a place to stay and a ticket to go back?"

These days, I believe, it's far better to have a Canadian passport than a US one.

Lest to say, I'm glad I've got a US one, because many in many countries have none or have no way of getting one.

I'm very sorry to say, I've not gotten to Israel and Lebanon, two places that I've heard are fascinating. So sad it is.

But here on the other side of the world people are happy cause it's warm. They're everywhere enjoying the mild weather from the small city parks to sitting on a bench overlooking tree-lined streets.

I'm in Old Montreal, a place that, while it's not up-to-par with older European cities or the walled cities of the Greek Islands, it is charming, if not overdone.

I can remember when Canada and the United States were like sisters (or brothers) with few challenges and easy access to one another. Well, not anymore.

Seems as if Canadians don't like the war in Iraq, not too fond of the American government (which, sometimes extends to the American people, though not often).

The United States it seems would like to dictate to the Canadians how to make social policy from legalizing pot to passing pro gay marriage resolutions country-wide.

My thinking is how and why did the United States turn to pro-war and religion for everyone as part of its social policy?

And, wishing (if not praying) that the United States and Canada can once again be harmonious siblings.

Southern California Wildfire

This is the Sawtooth Wildfire taken from nearby Palm Springs on July 13th.

It had started as a tiny billow of smoke on July 12th. Within hours it grew until it covered the entire horizon. As dusk left, the red flames circled the mountains. Governer Schwarzenegger has declared all of San Bernardino County a diaster area.

Train Station

Inaugurated in 1846, this train station is one neo-Corinthian gem.

What's it called?

University of Advancing Technology

After flying over a plume of smoke yesterday that drifted eastward from Palm Springs toward Las Vegas, I was relieved to arrive in Phoenix (after an intermediate in Las Vegas).

On the plane (literally with propellers) I silently meditated that one of my favorite spots to visit--Pioneertown--survived.

I came to Tempe to speak at UAT (University of Advancing Technology).

My seminar, Telling Stories through Digital Photography" will give the students an idea of where the material for a story begins (from life experience).

I'll also touch on a few topics from my book, "Digital Art Photography for Dummies."

Above ?

Above Chicago
Above New York
Above London
Above Paris
Above Hong Kong

Na, not above any of these; but above where?

Please feel free to take a guess.

Tip: Climbing a skyscrapter in one of those upscale hotels offers great photo ops.

There's a Place for Everything

Venice Beach, California

Brown Tones in Myanmar (Burma)

You don't always have to have a pair of contrasting (complementary) colors--colors across from each other on the color wheel--to create a decent color balance in a picture.

You can also have analogous--colors adjacent to each other on a color wheel--to create a subtle color blend as shown here--

Who? Bush?

Who do you think wrote this? It's a good word, "who."




When you type it into Google you get WHO listed first.

One of the first images that comes up when I typed that into Google images was a photographer's blog that asks--Who was first with the cobblestone road, the turkish, or the belgiums

And when you type in "who" and "bush" in Google, the first entry today is Tom Paine's Web site, an interesting one to check out.

And when you type in "who" and "bush" in Google images one of the photos is a little worrisome to some...

Some days it's just nice to "roll the dice" and see what you get. That's what "who" is all about to me.

Panorma, Stitch, Photoshop--What US National Park is This?

You say stitch; I say merge; Photoshop says photomerge...they're all the same, though, as they take a series of photos and put them together.



Here's a photo of a great US national park stitched together from five shots taken one after the other as I turned to catch one part of the park after another. The shots were merged by placing them side by side in Photoshop (File>Automate>Photomerge...). Can you guess what national park this is?

Digital Traveler's Time Machine

I've always suggested to people who are into art photography to take a look at their past--not just the recent past, but all the way back to birth.

When you do you'll discover a gold mine of new ideas for your shots--ideas you can relate to. And if you can relate to them, then there's a good chance one group or another of like-minded people will relate to them.

Take, for instance, the following examples of an event from the past along with the art subject matter that can be created from it.

Sunday car rides in dad's Oldsmobile Cutlass--photographs of Oldsmobiles

Picking hibiscus flowers in Florida while you say "Hi Biscus!"--photographs of hibiscus

A football game where Joe Namath was the quarterback--Old found photos of football games

The halloween you dressed up as a witch/warlock--Geeze, if that comes to mind--get out there in the fall and start photographing or at the very least give your kid a camera while he/she goes trick-or-treating.

I suppose by now that you got the "picture."

Tip: If you're a photographer or photographer wannabe and haven't gone through your old family photos, it's about time you may want to go and find them and take a look.

Photos like these are sellable. Can you imagine selling old pictures of yourself? I have and made a bit of pocket change in the process.

Flag Burning--Burning Desire

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Iraq War Photos

After reading the blogs about the war in Iraq, I don't recall seeing many photographs of what's happening there. Unfortunatly there aren't many on the net.

Photos tell the story much better than harsh political words. Some people in America can't read very well, or at the very least don't want to. Pictures, though...as the old adage says...are worth 1000 words.

Here are some:
* Marlboro Man
* Heart Wrenching
* A UK view
* Soldiers Blog
* Views of Baghdad

Shoot for Color

Colors matched by man are truely incredible. Find the colors in this picture on the color wheel.