While I was browsing some of my photos of the Pilgrim Monument (Province Town, MA) I came across a perfect example of a stone sin I took two pictures of.  One picture the flash happened to go off, and the second I made sure it was off.

The flash washed out all the detail.  The text of the sign was almost entirely unreadable.  With no flash, it took a little more time, and I had to be steady, but the picture is clear and has great color.

Sure, a flash has a plethora of uses.  They are used with staggering frequency in portrait photography, or really any art photography that involves people.  Also, professional Ebay auctions have items captured using either a flash.  However, almost none of these are using direct camera mounted flashes.  If people are using camera mount flashes they are probably A) with the press and need to guarantee light for each shot, or B) doing some sort of sports photography which may require additional light for very fast shutter speeds.

This probably glosses over details that should probably be filled in about flashes and their uses, but it gets the point across.  Besides, you can check out these links for more details:

Short Courses – Using a Flash/Studio Lighting

Dan Heller Photography

Related posts

• You Could Save! (0)
• The Beauty of Shirotori Garden (4)
• Monday Music: Ray Pizzi (0)

I am back at Deviant Art and posting some of my photography from the last couple of years.  You can find me there as Doc-Shadow.  I took a hiatus of about 2 years from the site.  Partially it had to do with the rather underhanded way they got rid of Scott Jarkoff, one of the founders, and partially a general apathy.

With enough encouragement I may even start playing with space art again… Ok, I don’t really need encouragement, I just need to collect some textures and brushes again so that when I pull out my tablet there is something to work with.  Back in the day when I had an abundance of such things it was rather easy to just sit down and start on a project.  It would only take me a couple of hours to put a decent starting point back together, but inertia is evil. 

Luckily, posting from photos is slowly getting the ball rolling so that the inertia will eventually be on my side rather than against me. 

Related posts

• What I Need to Say (2)
• Uncle Chris – Reading is Fun (0)
• Tuning Out For a Bit (0)

So, for this post I will talk a bit about Shirotori Garden along with some of my favorite pictures of it.

First off, the garden is in Nagoya a short walk from Atsuta Shrine (one of the ‘Big Three’ which I will post on later). It is also right next to Shirotori Park and the government center.

Overall the area of Shirotori Garden is small. If you looked at it on the map you would probably skip it… Don’t! Once you get through the gates it is anything but small and full of beauty. It is also in a rather suburban district, so despite occasionally being able to see the city over the walls it is very quiet.

Now… The picture on the left. They have koi at the garden. These are not your average koi, most were easily the length of my forearm and a good number were bigger than that. They actually snap at the ducks that land on the water, and I feel even more sorry for the turtles that get to live with them. It was amazing to watch them swarm near people tossing in food pellets.

The trees were also amazing bright shades of green. It probably helped that these pictures were taken mid-spring, so everything was in full bloom.

The number of flowers everywhere was also incredible. If I remember correctly, there were about 5 areas to the garden and each had a careful picked assortment of flowering plants and trees and tastefully matched colors. Leave it to the Japanese to tell an story and create a painting with a garden. I was lucky enough to catch the flowers to the right while they were still there. If I had gone a week or so later I probably would have missed them. These particular trees were also probably some of the few that had not filled out with leaves yet.

But all of these trees and fish were really just the very beginning of the garden.

The majority of the Shirotori is based around the stream that goes through it.

The stream is definitely man-made, but with the amount of shore growth they added and the attention to detail with winding it around the garden made it feel very natural. At times it was right next to the path, at others it flowed rather far away. They also made the two cross at a few points to put in pretty little bridges. I’m sure during the original design of the park there was one guy on the board who really loved bridges and made sure he got at least a few thrown in.

Many of the sections of the garden are also dived vertically. So there were a few very pretty little waterfalls. It also added to the natural feeling of the whole place as it mimicked the mountainous terrain of japan without actually forcing you to hike.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little adventure through one of the gardens I loved! I know I haven’t written nearly enough about the sites I saw while in Japan, so look forward to a number of posts that will give you my photos along with a little writing about what I saw.

Related posts

• Welcome to Training! (0)
• Welcome to Nagoya (2)
• The Hotel and First Day (1)

Related posts

• Monday Music – Light Painting (4)
• Back at DevArt (0)

It has been raining all day today. So it was time to post a couple of pretty pictures I took at Shirotori Garden in Nagoya, Japan.

Related posts

• No related posts.

Related posts

• No related posts.

You can learn to be a great artist without training. Doesn’t sound very earthshattering or even very common-sense does it? But the truth is formal training does not make a person a good or even a better artist, it simply makes people with creative talent better faster. You didn’t think I was going to say there was beneficial about training and education did you?

However, there are many artistic people who do not have or cannot get any formal training. Speaking for myself, I went to college to pursue a decidedly non-artsy career path, or at least not the path that encourages sketching at work. I also little to no interest in being a professional artist. That said, I love to create things and use my imagination, just like thousands of other people who have creative leanings but not the inclination to make it a profession. So what is this hope I mentioned earlier? Your desktop background.

If you produce any computer generated art, or you own a scanner, I know the perfect technique to improve your art. Any time you finish a project you will have a task. Go in and set your new image as your desktop wallpaper. Most times it will have this effect:

Every time you first startup your computer or close all your windows you will have this thought — Dear lord! What sort of 5-year old made this! And why was I stupid enough to make this my hideous background… Oh wait, I made that, I should probably practice some more…

It really does motivate you to work at your craft. Even images you really like will begin to bug you. You’ll notice the small imperfections, the areas you aren’t terribly good at will stand out, and you’ll start thinking about how to fix those things every time you look at your computer screen. I have issues with depth of field and light dynamics. I get to look at what some people consider fairly good space art and think to myself about why a planets moon doesn’t look like it is in the orbital position I really wanted to project. Or I think about how the shadow of the planet really doesn’t corespond that well to the sun. Then I try to figure out what professional artists that I respect are doing with their creations that I sorely lack. Then a few practice images, photos, or renders later things start looking that much more refined.

This little trick also works much faster than simply practicing. Very few people can just pop open a blank photoshop document and know they need to work more on shading and then get right down to it. Without the reminders of our own work the vast majority of us poor souls with no training can easily stagnate on a problem. Without that constant introspection on our own art we just keep creating new things and saying “damn, that problem again.” What trained artists have that we lack is the training to skip this process because they have spent years being told how to do it in their heads without constant reminders… and, you know, lots of education on how techniques should work rather then just having to guess until something looks right.

And that is how anyone can do a very simple, free, and quick thing to improve.  Amazing what hate of your own flaws can accomplish through repititous beating.

Related posts

• No related posts.

T.E.D.D.Y. is, what I will call, a Sketch 3D program. You merely create a sketch and the program procedurally creates the rest of the volume to create a 3D object. You can then make changes and additions to the model with the same sketch technique. Just view the video below.

Now this program certainly not going to create rich and highly detailed models for use in next gen games. But it suddenly allows many artists with basic skills to begin to be able to realize their art as models that can be manipulated in new ways. And with evolution of this program it may become a platform to create much more detailed designs.

The game Spore is also going to revolutionize both gaming and 3D design. The ability to create living breathing creatures to look and be any way you want is amazing. And the game will procedurally animate anything you make. Just watch Robin Williams play with the creature editor and make the most implausible animal a very real creation in the game.

With proper scripting editors could be made for many levels of complexity. This could allow the budding artist to quickly and easily create a fairly stunning 3D render or animation without needing years of additional training and practice. Your average person would still not be making any movie or next gen game level models, but the field would no longer be such an exclusive playground.

I very much look forward to seeing how these ideas develop on the larger software scale over time!

Related posts

• No related posts.

Spray Can Creation – video powered by Metacafe

Related posts

• No related posts.

This is a photo I took in my backyard the other day. Thought it turned out nicely.

Related posts

• No related posts.