My GPS Camera Phone

In an effort to learn the inner workings of Photoshop, I joined a new Flickr group called Second Shotz. It’s a group run by two great photographers, Chica from Photo Projectz and Drew from The BenSpark. Some members are new to Photoshop, others quite experienced, but none of them are arrogant and condescending. It’s a good group of people willing to learn from each other.

From the group description:

This group has been created to let you take and edit a “Straight out of the Camera” image. Edit it as you see fit and upload it back to the group. Each week a new image will be posted by the moderators. You will have one week to do your best on the image and upload them to the group. The top three images each week will be featured in blog posts on Photo Projectz http://photo-projectz.blogspot.com/ and The BenSpark http://www.benspark.com.

For me, this is more than just playing in Photoshop. It’s about learning Photoshop.

I often find myself balking at having to create anything in Photoshop, leaning toward Illustrator instead. I’ve always been partial to vector (points and lines), but I’m discovering that there’s a whole lot more to raster (pixels) than I give it credit. This group has already helped me learn more in two weeks by simply having fun instead of forcing myself through boring training videos or tutorials with no reward at the end.

I’ve posted a Flickr widget of the group in the sidebar if you’re interested in viewing or joining. There’s already been some great entries and I can guarantee that there’s more to come.

Yes, I’ve been away for a bit. Thanks to Dan for checking on my status, which kind of made me feel a little like Abe Vigoda. In case you were wondering, he’s still alive.

Anyway, I’ve been running around like crazy trying to tie up a thousand loose ends before I undergo minor back surgery on Thursday. I’ll be out of work for almost three weeks, so I’m hoping to be around more often, at least for those three weeks. Thanks for being patient (pun intended) with me. On to the good stuff.

I’ve included a video tutorial created by Revver user jennyrusks who can be found at Laughing Lion Design, based in Dublin Ireland. Jenny clearly explains how to create a duotone image, which is just that – an image of two colors. Pay attention, because this is some good stuff. I’m going to be posting my own camera phone duotone (that’s catchy) soon and I’m thinking about taking a page from Chica’s book and asking for submissions.

Enjoy the video and I’ll be back on Wednesday with another Wordless Wednesday abstraction.

Today’s photo is inspired by a tip from Chica over at Photo Projectz. She says in her first “Monday Photography Tips” post:

One of the things that I’ve found extremely rewarding is not looking through the viewfinder. Take the camera away from your eye, place it in an otherwise impossible position, and snap away. You might be surprised.

I took this to heart and gave it a go. The first few shots ended up looking horrendous, but I think it was only a matter of determining the angle of the dangle needed to get a decent shot.

This morning, I looked out the back door and saw the sunlight reflecting off of my daughter’s bike (which desperately needs to be ridden). Photo number one was a direct shot from the side and looked unimpressive at best. Then Chica’s tip came to mind and I put the camera underneath the back wheel, capturing a pretty good image. The angle is definitely more interesting than the first one.

After a little bit of cropping, burning and sharpening in Photoshop CS2, here’s the final image.

Don’t forget to submit photos anytime for guest posting! I’m accepting camera phone photos from anyone, photo professionals to beginners. E-mail them to photos(at)mygpscameraphone.com. Spread the word!