"Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” Steve Jobs

Going to San Francisco? Maybe.

The plan is to move to San Francisco to attend the Academy of Art University and enter the Master of Fine Arts program. A lot of things need to be worked out, but my goal is to make the move in the Summer of 2012.

So, a new Road Adventure begins.

East Texas Trees: A Brief Study in Texture and Form

Just a couple of photos taken in a park in Nacogdoches, Texas, on a hot summer day. Shade from the east Texas pines were no help in cooling things down. 

Watercolor Sample Test Post Five

Cody's Farm California

Watercolor Test Post Four

An Afternoon in Santa Fe

Watercolor Sample Post Three

Pietra Santra

Watercolor Sample Post Two

Church in Pearce, Arizona

Watercolor Test Post One

Napa Valley  California

 

Happy Birthday (yesterday). I thought about you all day. I miss you, of course.

Drawing Journal Test 2

Drawing Journal Test

Test scan from drawing journal.

Main Street Days in Grapevine, Texas, Part Final

Main Street Days in Grapevine, Texas, Part 2

Main Street Days in Grapevine, Texas

Wolfgang Gallery, Mikey Teutul's Abstractions

WHCC Prints and Calibrating My Monitor

When I received the test prints from WHCC, I immediately noticed they were 1-2 stops darker than my original files. I needed to calibrate my monitor to resemble the color and brightness of the prints. This is the only way I will know what the prints from WHCC will look like. A calibrated monitor will make the colors and brightness on my monitor match the colors in the WHCC prints.

WHCC suggests buying a hardware monitor calibration device. These devices attach to the front of the monitor and read the color displayed. The recommend the "eye-one display" from GretagMacbeth or the Monaco Optix XR. For now, I'm doing the calibration manually by eye.

Below is a sample of a photo original sent to WHCC, and then the calibrated and profiled photo that resembles the test print I received. I adjusted only the Color settings and the Brightness once I opened the file in Gimp. I also manually calibrated my monitor prior to making adjustments in Gimp.

To summarize, when I take a photo: I'll change the profile setting on my monitor to reflect the sRGB color profile set on my camera (Nikon D7000) if necessary. Then I'll open the image in Gimp and apply the preset calibration in the Color and Brightness settings. This will resemble what the WHCC print of the image will look like. I edit the image to my liking prior to sending it on the WHCC. I make sure to embed the color profile. If all goes correctly, I should have confidence in WHCC printing the image I want.

Original photo sent to WHCC.

This is the photo after I calibrated it for my monitor, adjusting the color and brightness. This photo closely resembles the original test prints mailed to me from WHCC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Setting Up Account with White House, Part Deux

Once I sent the test photos to White House, I received an email that my photos had no color profile embedded in them. The color profile is useful in assuring that my monitor, camera, and prints are all equal in value and color shifting is kept to a minimum.

I assumed the sRGB color profile was embedded because Gimp is set up that way as a default. After a lot of emailing with White House and working inside Gimp, I discovered that my computer had no ".icc" files, no color profile file anywhere. So I had to download one.

I went to the Adobe web site and downloaded the Adobe 1998 RGB color profile and placed it in a file directory I named "Color Profiles" along side the other Gimp program files. This file location should not be moved once it is set up, so I wanted to place it in a permanent location. I then opened Gimp and set the color profile in  "Preferences" to the Abobe 1998 RGB profile.

Next, I opened a test image in Gimp. I went to Image:Mode:Convert to Color Profile and coverted to the Adobe 1998 RGB profile. This fixed the problem. After converting all the test images this way I submitted the images to White House.

I now have an account set up with White House and my camera, monitor and their printing services should all be synchronized to reflect the best color values I see as I edit images.

How to Add ICC Profiles in Gimp

The Adobe 1998 ICC Color Profile at Adobe's web site

Setting Up Account with WHCC

To set up an account with WHCC I had to submit five 8x10 photos for them to print out as tests. They will mail me the  prints and then set up an account for me. These are the photos I submitted:

Contribute | The Photo Argus - A Photographer's Resource

Contribute | The Photo Argus - A Photographer's Resource

Super Bowl Week in Texas and the Monster Storm of 2011

I visited Sundance Square in Fort Worth on Monday to check out the ESPN production for the Super Bowl. It was cold and cloudy, but the Monster Storm didn't hit until Tuesday morning. I haven't been able to leave my house in three days...I'm packed in an inch of ice and can't get out.

More practice shots with my new Nikon D7000, 85 mm lens.