John Paul's Video Tutorial Series #1

For my dear friend Steph and my other photo friends,

This is first of some quick video tutorials that I would like to share with everyone on my blog. The title for this one is "How to Create Multiple Images in Photoshop in order to view them side-by-side with texts."

There will be other videos showing how to edit and use Photoshop, Lightroom, Elements, Paintshop Pro and actions!

Enjoy,
JP

Stephanie Lewis Photography

Check out Stephanie's latest House of Blues indoor photos.

http://www.stephanielewisphotography.com/slideshow/TrailerChoirHouseofBlues/photos/

JP

Using Pro Touch before and after

For my dear friend, Steph:

Phototip/Technique: This is the before shot. Then using the Pro Retouch action to airbrush the subject's skin. Finally adding the Fun action for a final look.

JP

Photo of the Week Vote Extended

Hi All,

I'm extending the voting for last week's submission for a few more days. Please vote for your favorite image!

JP

In Memoriam

As a former juvenile probation counselor, graduate who majored in Criminal Justice and interned with 2 police departments in college, I understand how dangerous the life of a peace officer. This week's event brings it close to home. Although I am currently not working in the law enforcement field any more, I still have respect and admiration for those who do.

God Grant Peace and Repose to the 4 Oakland Police Officers slain this week in the line of duty: Sgt. Ervin Romans l Traffic Sgt. Mark Dunakin Officer John Hege l Sgt. Dan Sakai. May they rest in peace....

May God also grant Mercy on Lovelle Mixon who killed the 4 officers' and whom was also killed that day.

-JP

This week's Entries (Full Size Slideshow)

***New*** Chelsea's Senior Photos

Here are some of the edited photos I took for Chelsea's Senior Photos and Debut.

Photo Tip: I shot in Aperture and Manual mode that day. Since it was pretty Sunny for the first part of the shoot, I applied the Sunny F16 rule. Everything else was Lightroom and Photoshop for curves adjustment and applying my favorite action to give it that snap!

JP

Holy Cow?!~! New CLS Tutorials

I found this link on strobist about some newby videos for Nikon's CLS system. Any of you Nikon users, this is a must see video!

http://www.dtowntv.com/2009/03/205/

JP

Last Week's Photo of the Week Winner!

Congratulations to Ashley of mytravelbugblog.blogspot.com for winning last week's JPP Photo-of-the-Week contest! Ashley will be receiving a free professional 8x10 Print in 13x16 Frame (black or white double mat). The two runner ups, Stephanie Medley of amedleyofmemoriesphoto.com and Stephanie Lewis of stephanielewisphotography.com, will both get a free 8x10 print.

Please send in your favorite photos by Thursday 3/26 for submission in this week's contest.

Thanks again for everyone's participation.

Cheers,
JP

For a good cause

Hi Everyone,

My good friend from work, Shelly, sent me a link about the orphanage that she and a number of her friends started after a trip to Tanzania. If you have the time, please drop by their website. They have some nice success stories. And if your in a generous mood, you can donate to their cause. In fact, I decided myself to start donating 5% of all my paid photo proceeds to their cause every month.

www.tanzanianorphans.org

Take a chance, you can make a positive change in some Tanzanian child's life.

(Note: photo courtesy of tanzanianorphans.org's website)

Cheers,
JP

Photos from Casa Real Vineyards

I'm pretty excited as we get closer to Gena & Shaun's wedding date. My good friend, Glen and I went to Casa Real Vineyard in Pleasanton, California earlier today. This is the reception location for the wedding. We were scouting it out for lighting and potential backdrops for the day of the wedding. I'm hoping come April 18th, the grape vines will be green and blossoming!

Here are some sample photos of the location.

JP

This Week's Photo Submissions

Photo of Bobby's Daughter at the Office

Here's a photo that my friend Jaclyn took of a colleague's daughter in the office. I guess she was so tired of waiting on Daddy that she fell asleep. Pretty cute, huh?

Photo Tip: Auto color balance in Photoshop CS4. Applied Smart Fun action and added custom border and texts.

JP

Just for Ashley!

Here's a photo that I think has a very Hollywood 40-50's style look. I made this just for Ashley who has become my favorite model to work with!

Post Processing Technique: With the helpful assistance from Ariana, I applied a high pass filter with some minor masking and hue adjustments. Afterwards, I applied an action for the black & white effect.

For a lot of the recent images, I usually do my level/curves adjustment and/or more detailed editing in photoshop before applying a Totally Rad or Kubota actionfor the final look.

JP

New book from Pro Photographer - Joe McNally

I found this great post on Strobist's blog. It talks about one of my favorite photographers, Joe McNally. Anyone who is a Nikon fan or a fan of Nikon's flash system should check this out. I may drop by the bookstore this week to see if I can pick up McNally's book.

JP

Other Photos....

Here are the other Photos from Yesterday.

Enjoy!

JP

Some New Photos

While taking my lunch break at the church near my work, I brought a long my Nikon just because it was such a nice day for taking photos. I met a nun and a mom with her kids during my walk near the church. The nun, Sister Anna, asked me if I was a photographer. Of course, I indicated that I was indeed a photographer. She asked me to take some photos of the kids playing in the very bright yellow mustard flower field next to the church. Although it wasn't super sunny, I did apply the Sunny F16 rule. I compensated by stepping down a few stops between F11 and F14/ The following images are the ones I took of the kids and Sister Anna. Yes they were post processed in photoshop CS4. =)

JP

Winner Announced for Last Week's Entries

Congratulations to Stephanie Lewis of Stephanielewisphotography.com for winning last week's JPP Photo-of-the-Week contest! Stephanie will be receiving a free professional 8x10 Print in 13x16 Frame (black or white double mat). The runner up will get a free 8x10 print.

Please send in your favorite photos by Thursday 3/19 for submission in this week's contest.

Thanks again for everyone's participation.

Cheers,

JP

And a few more....!

JP

Photos from Printroom's St Patrick's Day Party Last Friday

Here are some of my favorites. This is real candied look at Printroom's staff when were not working our nose to the grindstone!

JP

Voting Poll for Photo of the Week is working

Voting Poll for this week's photos is live. So vote for your favorite photo!!

JP

This Week's Photo Submissions

*Update on Photo of the Week Contest*

Hey all,

As kindly pointed out by Jodi, here's instructions for submitting an image. I am working on a better submission and viewing images which I should have up shortly.

Right now, to submit an image click on the Submit Your Image banner on the right column. It should open to my website. You can use the contact info to send me an email. Simply attach the image with a title to the email. If your image gets the most votes, I will contact you for your shipping address.

To see the images, I will be posting them on my photobucket gallery which is currently running as a slideshow just below my blogger header. Or simply click on the sldieshow to go the photobucket gallery.

Cheers,
JP

NEWS FLASH!! STARTING THIS WEEK, ENTER JPP'S PHOTO OF THE WEEK CONTEST!!

{John Paul Photography's Photo of the Week}

Purpose: To Share Photos and Techniques

Contest Rules:
Anyone can submit one original image with a title a week. Each submitter can vote on their favorite image. Optional: Include your camera settings and pre/post techniques in the shot.

Deadline: Please submit your images by Tuesday evening of each week. No other submissions will be accepted after Tuesday of that week. Voting will start Wednesday thru Saturday. Winner will be announced at the end of the week.

Prizes: Every week we will give the winner a free professional 8x10 Print in 13x16 Frame (black or white double mat) of their winning image with free shipping.

Good Luck!
jp

My New Look (Blogger)

Hi All,

Yesterday I decided to change the color and settings on my blog. You'll notice it has a new look which is more reflective of my personality and taste. The real John Paul likes dark colors, not bright. It also, I believe, makes a nice background for showing images.

I've also resized the header photo to fit inside the default border.

In any case, let me know what you think!

JP

Who me?

This is one of the images I edited for Ashley the last model I worked with.

JP

Yet Another Great Photographer

While trolling the photo forums today, I spotted some great photos posted by a second shooter. One of the responses was from a photographer from Toronto - Jeremy Clay. I checked out his blog link, and, wow!, he's got some amazing stuff. The photos from his engagement are something that could be out of a Calvin Klein ad. Here's some examples of his work. Click on the image to go to his blog.

JP

Cool Wedding Sample Video I Made

Cool Blog Site

While perusing some of my favorite photo forums, I found a post from a photographer in Dublin, Ireland. After checking out her blog, I have to admit I love the topic of her blog. I'm sure there are a lot of beginner photographers' who will appreciate the Elaine's perspective and experience as a starting assistant photographer.

http://elainemariablog.blogspot.com/

JP

Aspect Ratio video

Hi Everyone, I've been working on a training video for work for the last couple months. The topic of the video is aspect ratio and how it relates to printing. If you are someone who has bought a digital camera (point & shoot, DSLR, Pro DSLR, etc) you really should watch this video. It explains what aspect ratio is and how it affects when ordering prints. To make a long story short, the best advice to avoid having your prints cropped too much is when taking the image with your digital camera make sure you leave plenty of margin or space around your subjects. This way when the lab has to crop for different print sizes on one image (4x6, 5x7, 8x10, 8x12), they will have plenty room to crop without cutting off important parts in the image (i.e. your subjects!!). Video will uploaded soon.... JP

2 Great articles by Thomas L. Friedman of NY Times on Energy and the environment

Both are highly recommended reading!

The Power of Green

The Inflection Is Near?

JP

2 Recent Discoveries

As though having a blog was not enough. I've discovered Facebook and Twitter. My newest and dear friend, Dayla, helped me put together a Facebook page last week. I finally uploaded some of my favorite photos in different album categories last night!

Also heard about Twitter last week and been hearing about it even on the news (KGO 810) this morning. So I decided to sign up for a personal and photography business twitter account. I'm going to link my photography twitter account to my blog soon.

JP

My New Facebook Cover

I'll upload it to my facebook when I get home tonight.

JP

Very cool flash technique

I found this technique while doing some research for work on some photography blogs.

http://flashflavor.com/blog/post/374

Ex: Sample of the technique shown by the Pro from the link above.

I'm totally excited to try this out. I'm just undecided on using a live subject (i.e. a model) or something more abstract as the subject. If I feel 100% recovered from my cold this week, I'll try to do a shoot this weekend.

Otherwise its spring cleaning on the weekend instead.

JP

Welcome March 2009!

Sorry for the lack of update this last week. Between work and a head-sized cold this past weekend, I'm a little behind. I have a couple of planned photoshoots which I will post the best photos on the blog as usual.

Cheers,
JP