Inventory Sale

Posted on June 24, 2008 by Daniel Slocum

If you haven’t noticed, there is a page link in the menu bar above describing my planned trip to Israel later this year. In an effort to raise money for the trip I’m having an inventory sale. They also include no credit check loans or soft credit check loans Citrus North with same day deposit and approval.

Click here to go to my online sale page where you can buy online using your PayPal account. If you’d like to make other arrangements for payment (cash or check) please contact me directly by phone or email.

Of course, I can always order prints for you with custom text such as your favorite Bible verse or famous quote. Choose from any of the images found in this blog, at my main gallery, or from any of the images on the inventory sale page then contact me for a quote and to provide the special text.

Special order prints are available in nearly any size from tiny to huge and can be printed on many types of paper or canvas.
360.539.9262, daniel@danielslocum.com

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The Lopez Family -1

Posted on June 16, 2008 by Daniel Slocum

Alexa, Acacia, Rasaja, Reggie, Abraham and Asaph allowed me to snap some shots for my photography class. It was cool to shoot the family of my friend Richard on Father’s day as it gave me the opportunity to send him some photos with which to feel “in touch”.

Click on the images to see a larger version in a new window or tab.

Asaph Rasaja Reggie Abraham Acacia Family

These images are pretty nearly snapshots. We didn’t use special lighting or tools of the trade while shooting. I have done some post processing to convert Acacia to a “painted” black and white. You’ll notice flaws here and there. It’s part of keeping it real. In a studio or with portable lighting these anomalies can be precluded. The shadow on Alexa’s face is an issue in the family photo that I’d have taken more care of if this had been a client shoot.

If you like what you see let me know how I can help you capture memories of your family or friends.

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Photoshop Touch Ups and Editing

Posted on June 5, 2008 by Daniel Slocum

Adobe Photoshop is a wonderful tool. With it you can you can take an average photo and make it shine, you can remove blemishes and years from a portrait of your “Dear Aunt Sally”, you can combine elements from multiple images to form an entirely new photograph and you can even create images from nothing.

This post is here to highlight what I mean by Touch Ups and Editing when I give my clients a quote for prints or work done after the photo shoot.

Touch-Ups

The below images are of my Sister-in-law Susan. She’s an attractive lady for sure and both images reflect that. But as you notice in the original, “forgive me Susan”, there are a few indicators that she’s not as young as she used to be.

Click on the images to make them larger.

Susan OriginalSusan After

Here’s what I did during the touch up process.

  1. Corrected the luminosity. This brings out the natural glow in her skin tones while reducing the number of pores we can see. This technique is used in Glamor shots for print magazines and advertisements.
  2. Removed a mole from near her right eye. (Camera left)
  3. Diminished crows feet and lines under her eyes.
  4. Diminished lines on her neck.
  5. Diminished lines on the bridge of her nose and between her eyebrows.

Editing

Editing is much harder work than touching up photos because with editing a big change is going to take place and if I don’t get it right it’s seen right away as an obvious fake.

In these examples of editing I’ve merged two images to make an entirely new image of my niece Crystal and I’ve changed the original green jacket color of my friend Jenni to purple which adds contrast and visual interest to her photo. On other technology related news, take a look at how you can prevent apt attacks.

Click on the images to see a larger view.

Crystal Photo 1 Crystal Photo 2 New image -> Crystal Final

Jenni Original New image -> Jenni Purple

Posted in Photography, Technical Stuff | 2 Comments

O Bee Credit Union Assignment Photography

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Daniel Slocum

O Bee Credit Union is a local financial institution formed in 1955 by employees of the now defunct Olympia Brewery. The vision of O Bee’s founders lives on in the small town feel of its two branches located in Tumwater and Tenino Washington. I understand there are plans for a new branch in the Hawks Prairie area of Lacey WA but I don’t know when or if that will occur.

Summer 2006; in keeping with their local town feel, O Bee hired me, a local boston wedding photographer, to do photo shoots of two families who’ve been members since early in the Credit Union’s history.

It wasn’t until recently that I managed to get copies of the final artwork and I wanted to post them here as reference for future business. I hope you like them.

Ad Copy O Bee full color
Note: The B&W ad was scanned twice and merged together in Photoshop as it was too big for one pass of the scanner. As a result you notice a fine line from top to bottom on the left side.

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TrailBlazer Magazine

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Daniel Slocum

For those of you who are members of Thousand Trails camping resorts, you are familiar with TrailBlazer magazine. TrailBlazer is a publication of Thousand Trails distributed free of charge to its members. For a subscription fee of $20 non-members can also subscribe. The magazine aims to highlight Thousand Trails properties (called preserves) and recreational activities in the surrounding areas.

In the April 2008 issue of TrailBlazer was published a “Mini-Feature” entitled Northern Exposure and subtitled A sweet sampler of the great preserves of the Pacific Northwest.

As part of the highlighted activities the magazine noted that Mount Saint Helens National Monument is near the Paradise Preserve in Southwest Washington and the Chehalis Preserve about an hour north.

And…. drum roll please….. to add graphic impact to the article TrailBlazer dedicated nearly a half page to my photo of Mount Saint Helens taken from within the Johnston Ridge Observatory. A bit of additional trivia.. the two silhouettes on the left of the image are my Brother-in-law, Rusty and my Nephew, Robby.

Here’s a scan of the page (19) from the publication. I’ve inset a copy of the cover over some of the text.

TrailBlazer

TrailBlazer secured the rights to use my image from the online photo stock agency Dreamstime. To view my portfolio at Dreamstime click here.

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Snowy Hike Near Cispus

Posted on April 23, 2008 by Daniel Slocum

Recently I had the opportunity to hike in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest here in Washington State. There was fresh snow falling throughout most of the hike that challenged hikers even with the best hiking poles and camera gear alike. The trail started at Cispus, near Randle, and by way of a loop lead past Curtain Falls and Angel Falls.

I’ve never quite nailed down what it is about waterfalls that intrigues me so much but I’m drawn to them as a moth to a flame. I’ve driven hours just to see one and I’ve even fallen in a snow clad creek while trying to get the perfect shot. Angel and Curtain Falls generally are easy to access and wonderful to view but on this day it seemed as if we were the first to discover them both. Nature dished out hail, snow, and a sideways blowing mixture of both that was both painful and covered the trail to the point that our guide took a wrong turn that lead us up a dead-end canyon. It was a fantastic experience!
Here are two images from the trip. The base of Curtain Falls is on the left and Angel Falls is on the right.
IMG_5504.jpg  Angel Falls

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WHS, Beauty and The Beast

Posted on April 18, 2008 by Daniel Slocum

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a production of Beauty and The Beast at my niece’s High School. My niece Meredith played the role of Cogsworth.

If you’d like to buy a DVD with a slide show and the original images for your own personal use send $10.00 to PayPal account daniel@slocummedia.com or by mail to 7724 48th Loop SE, Lacey WA 98503. Be sure to include your address if you send payment by mail.

I had the show here for viewing but sadly had to take it down as I needed the storage space on the web server which I set with the help from sites like https://www.servermania.com/dedicated-servers-chicago.htm. If you are interested in “trying before you buy” let me know and I’ll get it posted again for you to see.

Posted in Family, Photography | 1 Comment

Roller Coaster Frenzie

Posted on April 16, 2008 by Daniel Slocum

Last week while traveling in California for Spring Break with my family I had the pleasure of taking everyone to Six Flags Magic Mountain. While my amazing wife looked after our “to short to ride” almost 5-year-old, Brandon (soon to be 9) and I took to the skies by way of steel superstructures and restraint bars. We did convince Catherine to ride The Viper but we didn’t capture it on video.
My son has turned into quite a coaster junkie. Over our last three visits to this park he’s ridden a total of 30 times between the 15 coasters in the park. Brandon doesn’t head for “kiddie land”, if you go to the park with him be prepared to experience everything the park can dish out in the way of maximum thrills. He’s ridden (from lowest thrill to biggest) Goldrusher, Ninja, Revolution, Colossus, Batman, The Riddler’s Revenge, Scream, Viper, Goliath, and Tatsu. On our next visit we’ve planned to round out the adventure by riding X2, and Deja Vu.

So, why all the talk about coasters? Because I have video! Using a Nikon Coolpix S51 point-and-shoot digital still camera in video capture mode I filmed our experiences on both The Viper and Goliath. Our friend Mariel Thomas rode Goliath with us. It was quite a ride. Check them out and let me know what you think! Below the video links you’ll find some interesting facts about these two coasters.


Goliath – Magic Mountain

Viper – Magic Mountain

Goliath

  1. 7th tallest drop in the world at 255 ft (78 m)
  2. Max speed is 85 mph (137 km/h)
  3. 235 ft tall (72 m)
  4. Max vertical angle 61 degrees
  5. Max G Force: 4.0, Because this is sustained longer than on most roller coasters you can have a grayout or blackout if you don’t compress your stomach as you hit the double helix.

Viper

  1. 7 inversions varying between loops, corkscrews, and a butterfly (some call it a pretzel)
  2. Max speed is 70 mph (110 km/h)
  3. 188 ft tall (57 m)
  4. 171 ft drop (52 m)
  5. Max vertical angle 50 degrees.
  6. Max G Force: 4.1. Very short.. no grayout or blackout issues.
  7. Holds the current world record for the highest 360 degree loop maxing out at 144 ft above ground.
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Washington State Capitol Rotunda

Posted on April 2, 2008 by Daniel Slocum

Happy Thursday everyone,

Last Saturday I took some time to shoot around the Washington State Capitol campus. With special permission to lay on the gold inlayed state seal located in the center of the floor under the apex of the capitol dome I snapped 5 unique images and merged them together in Photoshop CS3 to create the attached image.

Please take a few moments to let me know what you think.
Camera: Canon 40D, Lens: EF 24-105 L IS USM, Aperture: f/3.5, Shutter: 1/15s, ISO: 100.

Washington State Capitol Rotunda

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Coventya includes SlocumMedia in it’s web design.

Posted on March 19, 2008 by Daniel Slocum

Thanks to Coventya for purchasing the rights to use my image “Shower Controls” as a primary graphic within their web design they were using a dedicated server. The original image is below. You can find it here on the Coventya web site. Photo Credits are found on the sites Legal Terms page.
“Shower Controls” was taken in a prominent U.S. hotel chain while traveling on business.

“Shower Controls” is Copyright, © 2006, Daniel W. Slocum.

Shower Control Shower Controls by Daniel Slocum in use on Coventya.com

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