Shards and Phractures

There's one Photoshop trick that's always fascinated me. I've always been intrigued by the idea of changing a photo into a drawing. I've seen at least a hundred tutorials on the 'net for doing this, but they never seemed to do exactly what I wanted. They always looked more like a bad watercolor drawing. I had a really hard time finding exactly the effect I wanted. But I think I've finally hit on the technique I was looking for. It was deceptively--and surprisingly--easy, and I've spent the last several days trying out various pictures and effects with it. It helps to start with a clear, sharp picture, with good contrast. In the finished drawing, the sharp lines come in clear and crisp, just like they should. But even when the original shot isn't so sharp, the end result can still be fun and interesting. Shots of people and animals are the hardest to make work. Since a flash can wipe out details, the drawings that come out often show people missing ...

That's right, your Shards and Phractures author, photographer, and all around geek is moving to a whole new place...all the way from Phoenix to Nebraska, believe it or not. ...and I've got to admit, it's a whole new world, photographically speaking. I mean, there's this green stuff all over the place, and the various plants don't bite if you get too close to them like they do in Arizona... And, about every other day, this strange and mysterious thing happens...WATER actually falls from the sky! I've heard of this occurring, but didn't really believe it was possible. In Arizona, there's nothing much to look at on the ground, and if you want something interesting, you need to silhouette it against a cool sunset. Here in Nebraska, though, you can find some interesting stuff to shoot. The local animals are a little more tame, too. ...this guy actually posed for me for a few shots. Most of the squirrels don't stand still long enough to really get a decen...

"...to boldly go where no one has gone before..." Sure, it's a tagline from Star Trek, but it applies to photography also. It's one of the reasons for photography, I think...to see things no one else can see. To really stop, and really LOOK, and get down on your hands and knees and see things you never knew about before. And, more importantly, to try to record those things after you've seen them. That's why I'm into close-up photography, or "Macro" photography. Did you know bees wear fur? Did you know beetles have spikes on their collars, like a natual built-in punk rocker fashion design? You can't make out a bug's fashion sense from five or six feet in the air...you have to climb down to his level, look him in the eye, ask him nicely to hold still...and hope he's in an agreeable mood... I enjoy shooting bugs and flowers and water droplets and anything else that will sit still long enough for me to zo...