Gettin Ready...Christmas time at the Mall

Here we go again.  29 days of 8 hours a day, 7 days a week in the Santa Booth taking photographs and printing on site with our new dye sub printer that is just beautiful to say the least.
Today has been super slow....but weekdays always are.  It should pick up in a little bit after folks have supper and come to the mall.

Multiple lighting not only in front, but in the back also..8 lights being used.  Fill is a ft white umbrella in "shoot through" position for total softness, and a small soft box to the left at 2/3rds stop brighter than the fill.  A good ratio for soft definition and light direction.  The rest of the lighting are small ac plug in flash units to light trees and background.  Have added another light on left in the back to act as separation and hair light.

We enjoy doing this type of photography although, not artisticly exciting, it is a good profit generator.  Just long hours and a daily grind though all of December until Christmas Eve...
This schedule does not leave any time for teaching and consultations, but keeps me out of trouble too.

I hope all have a great holiday season, and look forward to posting again in January.

Bruce

Getting ready for December

December is a wonderful month.  First cause it gets you ready for Christmas.  Then there is the fact that we have had a hard freeze and so we can say goodbye to most allergies.  But the best part if December is doing our, what Judy and I call our Christmas Gig.  And Gig is right.  After 10 hour days, 7 days a week for 27 days you feel like a frog that has just been gigged and all they wanted was your legs.

With our wonderful new dye sublimation printer tested and ready to rock and roll, we are set for Santa's arrival at the Mall.  This new printer just blows my mind.  The photographic quality is better than most chemical processed prints.  The color, contrast and saturation are dead on without a bunch of fiddling around.

We are even providing the convertible for him to arrive in.   Sure hope it don't rain..

Judy has added more and varied add on products this year.  Here are just a few of them.

 Frames and trains, snow globes big and small, some are musical, and everything is of good quality.

So this is were we will be from now until December 24th .  But just look at the fun we have.

Bringing out the smiles on the faces of those that believe is the greatest reward for this type of work.  It sure ain't glamorous, but Lord it sure is a reality check!.
So if your within driving distance of Elkhart, and the Concord Mall, drop by and say hello to Judy and I , and of course to Santa who is everyone's main man during this time of year.  And just so you know, this is the Real Santa. Come sit on his lap and if your a PPA member I will make your picture free of charge and even post it on Facebook for ya  *wink.

ya know, a good photographer would have more than a cell phone around when he needed it!!!

To all of our family and friends,

Best wishes to all in this holiday season.  Happy Thanksgiving,  May we all be thankful for where we live and what our families have done in the past year.
And of course Merry Christmas, please remember who's birthday it is, and send him best wishes too.


Bruce and Judy Roberts
Elkhart, Indiana

The First Week of November 2011

Today, Judy I are in Iowa visiting her mother, Mary Stoll,  who had her 89th birthday yesterday.  She still lives on her own, takes care of her yard, and plants a small garden. She is a true pioneer lady.  Living in North Dakota until a few years ago, she is as country smart as anyone.  Couldn't say street smart, cause where she started out I don't think they had streets.  30 miles from the Canadian boarder in the middle of the state, I am sure in the early days, survival was the number one thing in Winter. But she has agreed to take on the task of quilting some found, embroiderer  squares into a large quilt.  One of the block is shown below.

 Not only are we here for her birthday, but to start a quilt that MY Mother made blocks for when she was in High School.and the fact that Judy's mom is a master quilter, we ask if she would assist in putting the blocks into a finished quilt for posterity.  Here are a couple of images of the work in progress.

 this is the entire quilt with blocks, Judy's sister Elsie working on the far corner. Judy in in the front left corner.  But the most important people in this story are my Mother, and Judy's mother Mary.

  some of the embroidered birds.

Mary Stoll at 89 still makes a tight stitch

.

So for the last few days they have been at the quilting boards putting this family treasure together.  While very appreciative of the work,  my large hands were not meant for quilting, so I have enjoyed the quietness of the days and trying to recover from some sort of chest congestion stuff.  But, here we are, having the  time to at last make and new entry in the blog.I thought I would share something that I love to do and it is not that hard in Photoshop.  At least it is not as messy as working with oil paint.  .

Hand Coloring Black and White Photographs in the Digital Age

The following came about sort of by accident.  I had been scanning the family slides and in the box was this contact print image from a 120 negative from about 1943 of  mom, dad and me at about age two just prior to dad leaving for Europe in WWII.  Once scanned into the digital world, I was clear this was a true family memory that had to be preserved in a larger version.  I now have an 8x10 over my desk that I can view every day to keep life in perspective.  In my words, we are, from where we came.

Just a little time in Photoshop allows one to do a hand color on a black and white old original.

Each color is applied on a blank layer over the top of the background layer, varying the color hue as needed while painting, then adjusting opacity of that color layer to provide the intensity wanted..

An added effect can be achieved by changing you B&W to a brown tone or Sepia prior to starting your painting. This process can be applied to any photograph.  A landscape, or candid, it just takes time and patience.

If the original is in color, it might be interesting to made a duplicate layer (ctrl j), then reduce the opacity of that layer, shut of the bottom layer, then use the light version as a guide for color and apply on separate layers.