(click on the image to see larger version)

For the past two weeks my digital media students have been playing around with text effects in Photoshop.  This is an example of one of the effects I showed them.  For those who have never been there, Bryce Canyon is one of the natural wonders of the world.  The giant hoodoos that make up the canyon floor are works of art carved from the stone by centuries of erosion.  Perhaps it is best summed up by the famous words of Ebenezer Bryce (who the canyon is named after) who described it as, “A hell of a place to lose a cow.”  Placing the image inside of the text puts a new spin on a well photographed icon.

The image was captured using a Canon 1Ds, 17-35mm lens (set to 34mm), at 100 ISO.  The camera was supported using a Gitzo tripod with a Kirk Enterprises’s ball head.  The image was taken just before sunrise.

(click on the image to see larger version)

If you are a parent, I will warn you, never play hide and seek with your kids.  No matter how hard you look, you never find them.  It is almost like they can be in multiple places at the same time.  I never knew this game could be so hard.

I came up with the idea for this shot a few weeks ago and my kids agreed to help me carry it out over the weekend.  The image is a digital composite, made up of four different images.  In the first three images, Kara and Tristan each hid in a spot where the camera could see them.  They then changed hiding spots for each image.  For the final image, I stood in the middle of the room and looked confused (little acting needed).  Tristan (age 3) pressed the cable release for me, so I guess he owns part of the copyright for this image.  The four images were then brought into Photoshop where they were stacked on top of each other.  Layer masks were then used to reveal portions of each layer so that I was surrounded by 6 kids.

The images were created using a Canon 1Ds mark 3, 17-35mm lens, at 1000 ISO.  The camera was mounted on a tripod so that aligning the images in Photoshop would be easy and the shutter was triggered with a cable release (again, to keep the camera from moving).  Kara has decided that she wants to take a copy of the image to school for show-and-tell.  I wonder what here teacher will say when she can provide evidence that she was in three places at the same time……

Remember, in addition to recording your inner vision, photography should be fun.  So let your creative juices flow and see what you can come up with.