Hey everyone knows that models that we see in magazines and the like get a little bit of touch up.  That’s no shocker…

A few days ago I was invited to this exclusive party full of models and photographers.  I was picturing a scene like in that episode of Seinfeld when George Costanza went to that secret party.  Well it was nothing like that.

It started with a little road trip with some photographer friends… and, well… more after the link… but we ended up talking a lot about Portraiture.  I decided to give it a whirl, and so I whipped up a little Portraiture Review for you.  I think it’s great, and I am shocked it took me so long to give it a run.

In the review, you can read more about the process and the software. You can also see the original photo, since people always seem to see the “Before” and “After” of these portrait shots! And, if you like modeling kinda shots, I have them mixed in this set here on Flickr, some of which are the product of my Textures Tutorial.

I was reminded of my time in Iceland because my friend Helga just tagged me in that 25 Things deal that is going around Facebook. I guess I have to do it now, eh? Helga, you have something to do for me too… a surprise for the readers here on the blog! So get on it…

In honor of that, I’ll post a photo from her home town, up in one of the northernmost fjords of Iceland in a small village called Akureyri. This is a little church that was sitting alone in the morning snow, after I woke up early to go out and do some exploration…

I’ll post that 25 things later today if I get around to it! 🙂

Hey everyone! The crew over at HDR Max has decided on winners for their photography contest. The winner receives a brand new 15″ MacBook Pro! 2nd and 3rd place get full copies of the software.

• 1st place – Justin Kern – Hall of the Mountain King
• 2nd place – Tamara Bauer – Life Is All About Choices
• 3rd place – John McCormack – Three Brothers

I was not the judge, but I know it was a hard choice because I did get to see all the finalists. Really amazing work out there! You can see the three photos on here on my site with the original post or at the HDR Max site.  The contest is over, but you can still get a free trial.  If you decide to order, use the HDR Max coupon code “Stuckincustoms” to get $20 off.

Also, if Justin, Tamara, and John contact me, I want to make sure it’s okay if I post their pics here on StuckInCustoms.com – thanks!

And to celebrate, I have chosen for today’s photo a fun shot of Isabella chasing a baby goat out near Horseshoe Bay, Texas.

Outside of Rudyard, Montana, I found this old grain silo that was still standing tall against the elements. There was a newer silo just down the tracks, but I thought this one had a bit more personality. The newer one was kind of predictable and boring, so where’s the fun in that? I walked around it a few times and looked at the clouds until I feel like I found a pretty good vantage for capturing the silo in its element.

My shoes have never been the same since I started tromping through this muck. That part didn’t bother me so much, but I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to make a hasty escape if something started running after me. I didn’t see anything that would start a chase… there was a herd of about 14 elk about 300 meters away. I had never seen them stampede randomly in the direction of a photographer, so I felt kinda good about that. Remember, all of these were just half-fleeting thoughts that were only half-baked… I was mostly just peacefully staring at the sunset and listening to my iPod alone in the wilderness.

Do you recall this tale?

The Persian king Shahryar got somewhat upset with one of his wives, had her killed, then married a fresh virgin each day. Then he had them beheaded the following day, which was generally bad in form. Then, as the kingdom ran out of women, the vizier’s own daughter, Scheherazade, married the king with a plan… She told him such interesting stories and things night after night (1,001, to be exact), he became endlessly enraptured.

I do love train stations in Europe!

I think each one has a personality of its own, and the gestalt is a function of the trains that come to visit. Leipzig wouldn’t be Leipzig if it never made a connection to Dresden. The stations really have no say in the matter and connections just get made on their own. It’s the natural order of things. Whatever it is about Dresden that makes it special becomes part of Leipzig, and vice versa.

This is from my upcoming LucisArt 6.0 tutorial… I’m still a-workin’ on it when my mind has moments of lucid thought.

There I was, minding my own business in the part of the temple where I probably was not supposed to be. But sometimes when you are just wandering around, you can meet interesting people. It reminds me of the Douglas Adams book about Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. If you are lost, follow someone that looks like they know where they are going, and you will end up somewhere you probably needed to be anyway.

So here I was in the back halls of the temple and this guy popped onto the scene. He seemed friendly enough. There was not a lot of spoken words, but there was a lot of international wild gesticulation which appeared to indicate that he worked part time at the temple to help clean up. Since we were in a remote part of Malaysia, I don’t think he got to see many white people with devil-blue eyes, and he seemed to enjoy twisting his head this way and that while grunting at me.

After just a short while, we ran out of things to wildly flail our arms about about, and I asked him if I could take a photo. He happily agreed, and started twisting his head again, looking into the camera.

It was a nice experience all around, and a gentle reminder that the most interesting things seem to happen when you are somewhere that you are not supposed to be, talking to someone you probably have no business talking to in the first place.

While I was working on this, I was thinking how nice it would be to have someone near me who could speak French… I always love the sound of it, and the words can make matters seem ephemerally okay.

Paris is one of those places where the streets are always a little wet, at least in my head. If they are wet, then they are slippery and traffic will be crazy… so it sounded like a capital idea to go out into the middle of the Champs-Élysées to get a quick one!