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BC Trip 2012

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 15:17:26 +0100

See our entire trip at this page: http://www.geddesphotography.com/bc_trip_2012.htm

This is a recap of our trip to BC Canada. Travelers in our party were myself, James, my better half, Nancy and our trusty traveling companion Cosmo.

Aspen Road

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:57:21 +0100

The photo I took has some of my favorite elements such as a leading line with the road taking you the viewer into the photo. But I was not pleased with the breadth of the road. I wanted it more personal, a more intimate experience for the viewer. I spent 5 days photographing this region and I had driven many one lane roads to gain access throughout the area.

So I took another photo of the same area roads and over laid it onto this base photo. This created

a layer that I could manipulate with the orginal photo. I like using layer masks to build my compositions but if you are not real good at Photoshop you can simply use the eraser. Layer masks allow you to undo and do again where as eraser strokes are permanent history.

Now lets see the two together. You can still see the shadowed road sections from the overlay. I also took artist license and changed some of the highlighted areas in the trees etc. I also lightened the bend in the road so it was the lightest value of the painting which draws your eye back into the painting.

Creating the pastel painting from an under painted surface is a slow process of layering. Here you will see the watercolor underpainting. I rarely use water to under paint my surfaces due to the chance of the paper or board peeling or warping. I use Wallis Museum grade paper mounted on 1/2 inch foam board by dakota arts. I am hoping to make my own boards after speaking with Paul De Marrias.

I do under paint 99% of my pastels before laying pastel to ground. I like using turpentine and hard pastels to block in the large value shapes. First the hard pastels and then I paint the pastel with turpentine starting with the lightest value first. I try to have about 4 to 6 values in my paintings (general rule of thumb). I also like to have the values heavily weighted. In other words have the painting mostly consist of lighter values and a smaller but important value area that is much darker. Or visa versa. Here I am laying in the darks. I will establish the darkest dark but leave myself some "wiggle room" in cast I need to drop the value down another notch.

Now that the dark background value is established I start building some color in the foliage. I have also established the lightest value where the road turns and catches the afternoon light.

Here I open up the tree canopy and start building the darker values in the foliage. I lay in the highlights on the aspen trunk in the foreground and add some trunk texture.

I have just about completed the shadowed foliage and can soon add the highlighted foliage.

Here I have added a top layer of pastel without any touch blending, only using sticks to blend the highlights, mid tones and shadows. The road takes on a lot more character and the strips of sunlight contine to the far side of the road. The highlights really make this piece pop!

The Arborist

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 02:49:10 +0100

Forgive me for being such a slacker on my blog duties... I had been swamped with work and then went on a couple week paint around and supervising Nancy in the garden!

I have continued with my photography and pastel painting which is mostly done from photos that I take on trips around western and eastern WA. This is why my blog is called Photo Painter.

My latest painting was completed this morning after a day of preparation. I created my own surface on a 16x20 rigid foam core. This required a Golden pumice mixture diluted with water and spread over the surface three times in opposite directions. I allowed it to dry in between applications.

The surface was somewhat gritty but nothing like a quality piece of Kitty Wallis Museum Grade or U-Art 500. But this was the first surface I have created in this way and it is a prelude to a new project which will be a 16x60 inch piece... so I have to use a self prepared surface.

I also created an additional surface of 16x20 on Masonite (much more rigid) and I abraded this before applying the Golden GOOP. This time I started with a garnet dust mixture which is much more coarse then I am used to. I followed this with two applications of Pumice mixture... I think this will produce a looser work so I am going to try to chose my subject accordingly.

The Arborist:

This is from a photo I took last Friday on an excursion to photograph barns in our area... I came upon this scene out in the farmland and it reminded me of a Craig Nelson DVD sketch I had watched only a week ago. So I photographed it and brought it into the studio.

Here is the rough sketch and the head of the arborist.

As you can see I toned the surface with some Payne's grey as the Golden Pumice dries clear. This is about all I need to get started with a painting... This particular one doesn't have a lot of background layers or sky work so it is pretty simple.

Next Putting in the Trees:

This is setting up the background trees and the mauve distant hills along with some body work.I wish I could tell you exactly what this gentleman is doing but I cannot. I would appreciate you telling me if you know. It appears that he is thinning out trees and then pruning the tops of the trees retained and attaching them to the long wires (3). Each of the contact places with the wires have the leaves in tact. You will be able to see this in the next image.

Foreground Trees:

Now you can see the activity as I paint in the action part of the work.

Final Piece with a Digital Frame:

Here is the completed painting with the discarded trees in the foreground and you can now clearly see the attachment of the trees to the wires.

Our YELP Link

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:19:02 +0100

Find Us Here

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KK Comment 2009: James Geddes and Take Your Best Shots have done an excellent job taking photos for our youth sports program, The Maple Valley Raiders! They do an amazing job, reasonable price, great quality and are kind and professional!

Young Friends and Old Friends

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:59:31 +0100

Over the years I have been involved with students, young athletes and their parents as a coach, parent and artist. As a sports photographer, it is exciting to see the game through the lens and capture those special moments that no one else in the stadium was able to get. I love shooting sports with my son and daughter who I trained throughout my years in business. Shooting sports action is not about "what happened" it's about what is going to happen. You have to have some understanding of the game you are shooting so you can anticipate the action about to occur. It's a lot like playing or coaching. I am constantly going over situations in my head as I am photographing the game. "Ok, two down, runner on first and second, left handed batter, batting third in the lineup, count is 3 & 2.... what if he lines to left? loops to right? bunts down third base? Believe me there is a lot more going on in the seasoned sports photographers mind than where he or she is going to grab a burger on the way home!

I have watched many many athletes become young men and women... The AAU basketball club I started in 1992, The Pacific Pistols, is still active in CA. This organization's coaches have coached hundreds maybe even thousands of young ladies in their pursuit of a college scholarships. I still talk to many of these young ladies but our conversations now are about the teams they coach, their children and their parents.
Many of the girls on this 10U team are now playing their first college season... This was the last Pistol team I coached.

Today I have made some very good friends here in WA and I enjoy watching their children grow as well. I met Sherry Racy at a Pony Baseball tourney in 2005 and created a sketch from a photo I took of her son, Tanner, who was playing in right field. It was getting dark, as the last few rays of sun were waning and the lights had been turned on, when Sherry came and asked me to try to get some photos of Tanner who had been "riding the pine" that game. As luck would have it. a ball was hit in his direction and I was able to get the photo. The resulting sketch that I created from that event launched a number of contracts in the area. This was due to the word of mouth advertising from Sherry and others on the team that also ordered with us...

This year, Sherry's daughter has moved into competitive Cheer leading and the request for an additional sketch was in order. I've created two other sketches for Mallorie but making this squad was a BIG deal and should be celebrated with an image sure to spark a memory for years to come.

We, "Take Your Best Shot & SportSketch" try to support the leagues, teams and coaches we work with. We offer fund raising products and team prints at no cost. I know how much work, time and money goes into coaching a team or being involved with running a league. These small tokens are our way of saying "thank you" to those that give their time to insure that many kids can benefit from sports. We are aware that some organizations are now counting on these fundraiser and sincerely hope that we can continue this practice as long as we are working with each group.

Website: www.geddesphotography.com
Website: www.TakeYourBestShot.com
Website: www.SportSketch.com
"The photograph is just beginning of the art!"

Painting Clouds

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:13:46 +0100

Palouse Cloudburst

Pictured: Karen, my instructor and yours truly

As I continue my pursuit of painting, I returned to the only instructor I have had personal lessons with. Karen lives here on the island about a 25 minute drive down West Beach to her home and studio overlooking Hurricane Ridge and the Olympics Mountains rising out of the sound. It's a wonderful place to view clouds and water which were the subjects that I was seeking help with.

Pictured above are Karen and myself with the cloud painting I completed between classes... Karen had painted this same scene and her paining is to the left and behind her. This class was just what I needed to take a step up to the next level and to evaluate where I need extra attention... I think I need to read and practice perspective drawing... the simple stuff at least with vanishing points etc...

Anyway, Karen is much looser than I and that is why I gravitate toward her instruction. That and the fact that she is a super person! She's a character, kind of like myself... straight talker, not afraid of taking a risk because she is confident and knowledgeable. This confidence rubs off! I have only taken 4 half day classes so far and the first two were tough... I didn't really know enough to grasp what she was showing me. But this time I was ready for her and looked forward to the hours spent.

Painting clouds revolved around creating volume, roundness. This is done with shading and shadow... Emphasis is on using the side of the pastel rather than the point or end. I used the side of my finger a lot to blend certain portions of the clouds. We flipped the value colors both upward and downward to create a value change that is feathered. I did most of that within the cloud body and in transitions from one portion to another. The outside edge, especially against the blue sky, I left with a hard edge. When the temperature of the air is cold around a cloud, the defining edges are sharp... as a thunderhead rises into the upper atmosphere, the air temperature drops dramatically. I never used white, but many of the tints were close to it... I kept my colors warm on the earth and in the sky. This made a nice contrast with the cool blue.

I really paid a lot of attention to the discussion we had on values and put those practices to work. Finding colors of the same value and using them together will make a world of difference in your finished piece!

Why Photo Painter?

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:31:53 +0100

I was just mentioning to my pastel teacher yesterday that I have 3 Terabytes of images stored on hard drives and backed up with even more in the queue for filing. A Terabyte is 1000 Gigabytes. I am not in a race to see who can have the most images... it's pretty normal for professional photographers to amass a gynormous amount of images... And Now I have a large selection of superb images to paint from during these long wet months in Washington.

The shear diversity of photography and subject matter, conditions and expectations, has kept my interest for a number of years. Add to that the artistic outlet that is necessary for inner happiness, and the ever-changing technology world that encompasses photography, and you have MY perfect niche.

Many years ago I was creating sketches from negatives in the darkroom. Then I devised a way to create the sketches with a computer. Now I do the background work with a computer but rely on pencils, charcoal and graphite to complete my works.

I have always wanted to paint but have no experience at all... Even in my college classes I skirted the creation complex works on a blank canvas. Eventually the desire caught up to me and overtook my fear of looking like I am totally inept. After all, I had told my students for years that failure is a large part of learning and helps drive success... In 2007, after a fall photo hiatus to Banff and Jasper in Alberta and spending a 2 hour boat ride across lake Maligne with a group of enthusiastic watercolorists, I found myself ready to take the leap into painting.

But wait... YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT PAINTING!!!

Oh yeah, well, how hard can it be? After all, I like drawing and sketching...

Well, it has been quite a learning journey so far. Just because you can operate a camera doesn't mean you will get great photos! It takes a lot of practice. A lot of failures and a number of discoveries... But most of all, it's fun and rewarding. Something I can do to relax and exercise my creative side, my motor skills tied to my critical thinking... keeps my mind sharp and provides us with many wonderful pieces of art. I think Dale Gullickson, an acquaintance from years ago would say, "visual delights".

I would truly like to encourage you to take up a hobby or something that will challenge you. The gratification is really immeasurable. This will open doors to friendships, allow you to shop for items you never know existed, give you purpose and discover yourself again.

I have witnessed the phenomenon of people getting older and regressing to a state similar to being young again... an activity that challenges you will encourage younger thinking and you will remember what it was like to not be old and wise again... Have some fun, take a risk, even if it's just on paper or canvas, learn something you have always wanted to do, there are many experienced in these activities that are fulfilling their challenge by teaching others... seek them out and you will find others on the same path that you travel. You're never too old to try something new!

Happy Homes for Artwork

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:52:28 +0100

In 2004-2005 school year I was asked to take the senior football player's portrait for Tahoma High School. I had been working with many of the parents from the Maple Valley and Covington area at the time and photographing sporting events. Thanks to Sherry Racy and Janice Bundy, Take Your Best Shot was becoming pretty well know in the area after I had created a sketch of their Pony Baseball all star players. Janice organized the senior portrait and sent my "athletic crew" out to pull off the job! Andy Lin and Amber hiked to the bottom of Snoqualmie falls and that year's portrait was created. A couple of weeks later Janice came up with another idea. She asked if I would do a sketch of each of the senior players for their parents as gifts from the school and booster club. This has become a tradition at Tahoma. I have also created sketches for the wrestling team and basketball team. This is when I first created a sketch for Sandy and Mike and their son, then a senior player for Tahoma. I had never met them personally.... until this year when I became more acquainted with their family. Sandy contacted me and told me that they had moved to southern CA where their second son played football. She explained that he had always wanted a sketch like his brother and so did Mike and Sandy. This was the start of a year long project that Sandy tackled, so to speak. Shed sent me a photo of her son and asked if I still had the original of the first sketch. I do have the original so she ordered two 11x14 sketches. Here is the comment upon receiving the sketches: " We have the sketches and they’re GREAT!! You did an amazing job on both boys. Those turned out so well that we will be ordering a sketch for our 2 girls also. All I need to do is find the right picture – my new Thanksgiving project. Thanks again for everything Sandy" So the project continued with a daughter who is a rugby player and a daughter who is a soccer player. Both sketches turned out great. At that time I was wondering what Sandy and Mike were doing with all these sketches??? Giving them as gifts? So I thought I had completed the project when in rolled two more photo copies. One of Sandy as a swimmer and the other of Mike taken from a newspaper while playing football. These were a challenge but I knew they must be an important part to a much larger puzzle. Sandy and Mike are very pleased with their sketches and recently allowed me into their home for a "rare" look at my work on display with the photo below. Or I guess I should say "OUR" work, Sandy was definitely an important partner in this project. I can tell the family treasures their wall of sketches! Sandy just sent two more images which I sketched for two senior football players as grad gifts. I think that Sandy, Mike and family are some very special people! I feel blessed to have shared this with them. James Geddes

Breaking News!

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:27:08 +0100

Okay, I promised that I would let this cat out of the bag as soon as I could. I just received the signed copy of the sketch composite I created for Blake Griffin! I didn't take the photos, those were provided by Blake's trainer, D. Rich and the sketch was commissioned by Darby for Blake.

This project was awesome! I had watched Blake play during the NCAA March Madness tourney and felt he was one the toughest players I had seen in a very long time. I was thrilled to be able to create this for Blake and hope it finds a place in his trophy room!

Darby's comments: "...a picture of a great athlete by a great artist." "I look forward to doing more business with you, and I already have several people asking about your work. Hopefully I can send some your way soon."

BLAKE GRIFFIN: Standing 6'10" and weighing over 250 pounds, Blake Griffin is the projected No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft.

With the raw ability to dunk the ball on virtually anybody in his path and the size to overpower nearly everyone on the boards, Griffin looks to exceed analysts' and fans' expectations all around the NBA. Griffin is an absolute powerhouse, with arms and legs of steel. During his sophomore season, he averaged a ridiculous 22.7 points, 14.4 rebounds (best in league), 2.3 assists, and 1.2 blocks per game, shooting 59 percent from the field and putting up 30 double-doubles on the year.

The Web site NBADraft.net had the following to say about Griffin: "He has an almost mindless killer instinct and intensity level, giving 110 percent every time he steps foot on the court. Has incredibly intimidating size for an NBA small forward, but is probably going to be more comfortable playing in the post for the time being. An excellent ball handler capable of facing the basket and getting by defenders"

If Griffin can expand his game on the perimeter, he will force opposing teams to either place a smaller player against the beast or put a bigger and slower man on him. Either way, Griffin wins that battle. The man is extremely aggressive and is not afraid to go up on anybody that guards him. He has the speed and agility to blast by defenders and is outstanding at finishing near the rim. Griffin has great stamina and is a lot more athletic than he seems. He is used to being double-teamed and, at times, triple-teamed as well. With tons of experience in college, he is clearly ready to move on to the next level.

Regardless of who drafts him, Griffin will become a big time star in no time. He has the body, the talent, the experience, and the right mindset to dominate in the NBA He is a unique basketball player who will use his size and phenomenal mobility to take advantage of absolutely anybody who attempts to guard him or walk in his path.

Pictures, Pastels and Pencils

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 20:53:51 +0100

I have had a busy week! We finished the photo work with the local high school teams, created the products, printed the packages and returned the orders... During this time I had a number of sketch projects arrive
via the internet and USPS. My wife, Nancy, and I went to our grand daughters birthday bash then she flew out to CA for her dad's 90th birthday... And I am still in excruciating pain with plantar faciitis and back pain... I don't want to know if that can get worse!

I am continuing my experimenting with my painting.

I completed two more pastels this week and learned a lot more about under painting from reading Richard McKinley's blog and and watching Robert Rohm's DVD on landscape painting with pastels.

Being a photographer tends to make me gravitate toward detail, lots of detail... when you spend your time processing photos it is sometimes a challenge to look at a scene and only see large shapes not objects, values not colors and suggest objects not focus in on them... Creating a more painterly piece

is what I hope to be able to achieve. At that point, if I ever arrive there, I think I can blend the two inner warring factors and create some beautiful work.... that is this down the road....

On the Sport Sketch site I have two new entries into the "Work in Progress"

area and some REALLY BIG NEWS developing that I can't tell you about just yet... But I can tell you that I did a super composite sketch for an NCAA superstar... I have to wait to see if I can post it for public viewing before I let the cat out of the bag.... Who is he/she?
If you know basketball, you know this player!