portfolio

just in case you got a minute or two why not stop by and check out my initial portfolio?
You can find it here: http://udsigt.daportfolio.com/

let me know what you think :-)
thank you

ps. While you are at it maybe take a look at the state parks to see the ones I submitted there (resolution is horrible since they require images to be <200k)
but here goes: http://www.stateparks.com/whitney.html

New tutorial available

Finally got another tutorial ready.

Here is a tutorial on light retouching of a portrait
Light retouching - create clear portrait

Before

After

Why are you running around in the dark taking photos...

I get a lot of questions like that.

Well... just because... something like this when a car passes ;-)

Twilight polo

Finally got the photos from the Twilight polo match on 4th of July ready ;-)
Check out a few of them here: http://udsigt.blogspot.com/

Michael Jackson was a 7...

ok. I am not much into the big media hype and stuff like that.

But like it was with the presidents Kennedy and Lincoln there are a few things indicating that Michael Jackson was a 7...

A few facts to base it on:
- Michael Jackson signed his will on 7/7/02.
- Michael Jackson's memorial was on 7/7/09 ... exactly 7 years after the will was signed.
- Michael Jackson's two biggest hits -- "Black & White" and "Billie Jean", were each #1 for 7 weeks.
- Michael Jackson's three biggest albums -- "Thriller," "Bad" and "Dangerous", each produced 7 top 40 hits.
- Michael Jackson was the 7th of 9 children.
- Michael Jackson was born in 1958 ... 19 + 58 = 77
- Michael Jackson died on the 25th ... 2 + 5 = 7
- Michael Jackson has 7 letters in his first and last name.

well you be the judge but 7 does seem to be present there...

Air safety

The ones that have been on a plane have probably seen the safety demonstrations video or "live". After a couple of times not many pay attention to it though.

To "combat" that and make sure people pay attention New Zealand Air has come up with a new video. The pilot, pursers and crew goes bare and wears nothing but body paint...

Family photos...

So I did fall behind on the uploading of family photos...
Just a little bit... Since March that is..

Here are all family photos that I finally got uploaded:

Family photos June 2009

Family photos May 2009

Family photos April 2009

It will pass

Sometimes weird weather happens. Even in the northern Virginia where we reside.
A Friday evening where we sat down to watch a kids movie I noticed that the light outside was kind of weird looking. This orange/yellowish glow



I know it can look like I just got the color balance way off or something like that. But the color of the sky was really orange and kind of weird looking.



At the same time as the colors were all off from the usual heavy clouds were coming in and it was getting darker fast.



ok so I did zoom at the same time as taking this photo... but kind of cool and taking advantage of the funky colors.



Doesn't this just look bouncy...



As it was getting darker the sky turned more purple...



And we got a little thunder and lightning. But as usual it stayed clear of Warrenton with the Warrenton split that cause the weather forecast to be wrong about 90% of the time.

CMT music awards 2009

Is it just me or did someone leave the audience on mute???

I was surprised to see the B52's coming on stage (yeah it's been a while) but with Sugarland it was pretty darn hot... However I am not sure if the audience were wondering about who the B52's are or someone just left them on mute.
Singing the love shag there is the spot where the audience "help out". Something like the band singing "bang bang on the door baby" and the audience belching "BANG BANG" (think cheesy cartoon graphic here).
But at the award show there wasn't a peep out of the audience. I thought for sure it would be mentioned on the radio but nope... maybe it's just me...

Jason Aldean singing She's Country with Keith Urban was beyond cool. That rocked the house and was one of the best.

I must admit I haven't been much into the Hannah Montana of country music (Taylor Swift that is). But I must admit the cross roads performance with Def Leppard... now that's actually cool. I might just have to go to Walmart and pickup the cross roads DVD.

A few from the horse show

Finally got a few photos posted from the Upperville horse show or should I say Jumper classic.
Hope you like them :-)

You can find them on the photography tab or just right here: Budweiser-Upperville Jumper Classic.

monumental...

Ways of making your monuments "stick out"....

well here is one of them...


see more Fail Blog

On a sunny Sunday

As you may have noticed on Jacki's blog we went to the 156th Upperville Horse and Colt Show with the Budweiser-Upperville Jumper Classic.

It was a sunny and hot day for sure. Going through the photos I got a few family snapshots to share before Jacki starts showing off the horse photos.

First order of business is to get something to eat after arriving. Saves us from dragging food around :-)



For Emma of course the horses are the big thing... She started out with a small pony and loved it.



Then she got on the next one which was a little bigger.



And she loved it...



From the Leesburg zoo there were a few animals in the petting zoo area. Including a lama, goats, baby chicks and bunnies...



And I sure did hear a lot about the fuzzy bunny... not just from Emma!!!



At one time I was taking photos of the horse show where the ride the horses around and ribbons are given to the best of breed and all that. When I turn around I see one of the riders holding Emma and she is in the face of a horse petting, hugging and all that. Not just any horse... it was a Irish Draught!!! These are big horses... there is no pony feel in those ones... ohh yeah I don't think Emma will get one of these anytime soon though....



When going to an event like this there are always the special people with special parking. I guess if you have that privilege one should really arrive in one of these... It was very very nice looking indeed....



When Emma wasn't ohhing and ahhing as the horses jumped she was playing with her toy jumper horses and always wearing the hat to get a little shade (she really didn't want the hat on but it was needed...)



And finally a view of the lawn where we were watching the main event from. Notice the lack of shade... yeah it was a hot one.



Stay tuned as Jacki post a few horse photos ;-)

A short walk in the mountains

Last weekend Emma and I went to the mountains. Actually we were planning to try out a new trail that is nearby but not knowing too much about it and low elevation combined with heat. I figured heading out to the mountains and get to a nice temp would be cool (hmm so to speak...)

At the first stop Emma just couldn't wait to get out of the truck to see the view. Look dad... see this view... don't I just look cute in front of it??? (yeah I know there goes a couple of gray hairs...)

This stop is also where I noticed a smell of gas and found that the gas container in the bed had tipped and leaked all over which left the truck bed somewhat flammable...

Anyway. Couldn't spend too much time worrying about details like that when Emma is ready for her photo in front of the view...



Turns out that the temperature was pretty good in the slightly higher elevation. And even though we didn't plan to head to the tippytop we did venture down some nice trails like this one.



And Emma's eye do spot things...



The birds are fast but for the first time I got a photo of a blue one :-) and one of the more common visitors.



As we were watching the birds we came on the topic what birds eat... yep birds gotta eat... like hmm these



Having talked with her mom a lot about gardening we know that trees and flowers grow in dirt and you have to water them. But dad... what about that one... yep of course I would have to do a little explaining about a tree growing out of a rock...



ohh recognize the trail?



Posing on the rocks with yet another view... Something tells me I should start getting concerned... She really do likke to show off ;-)



and just for the fun of it. One last view of the Shenandoah valley... (gotta click to enlarge it)

first shots in the new house

Sooo Sunday I finally got the studio backdrop mounted and a couple of lights setup to get the first couple of shots in the new house.

Emma has been waiting to have her photo taken so here is a few from a rainy Sunday:





And a single photo with a texture applied in ps



Just the first few of hopefully many to come :-)

it's official

with all the moving and everything going on... yeah... there is a lot. but it's official. It has actually been 5 years...
check out Jacki's post here: http://jackidyrholm.blogspot.com/2009/04/happy-belated-anniversary-to-us.html

got the flu???

A designer/illustrator/cartoonist I have been following for a while depicts it very well ;-)

be sure to visit him here: Brad Colbow.

In these changing times...

As you may have noticed we are in the packing/cleaning up/painting/moving mode and sometimes we find a few items here and there.

One of them sure tells you about how times are changing.

Emma got a tape from Jacki and was happy as can be since it was a tape called best friends with happy music.

When putting her to bed (me having forgotten all about the tape) she kept talking about the music that will make her sleep soo good and well I sure didn't have a clue...

The music was coming from the tape which I guess in a close to five year olds mind is something "magical". She put the tape on her jewlery box and a feather on top of it (the player) and she was "listening" to the beautiful music...

Now give her a CD, DVD, IPod, computer and she will know exactly what to do with it. A tape though... yeah that's in the magical item category. I just wonder what she would do with an LP (yeah I still have them)

Being special

Ok it has been a long time joke around the house that I am "special". It started about the first time my Mom visited and well you know she does pretty good at the English but sometimes (just like me) she has a Danish word and well have to "search" for the translated word.
So she had the famous statement "yes, Peter has always been special". And well you can see how that turned into "special"...

Now we went to closing and well we did ok on getting the closing costs paid by the seller and our Realtor and broker did really good at using every little bit they could so it's ok... (det er ikke så ringe endda). Anyway they too mentioned "you are kind of special" (again...).

But the good news is that we closed on the house. And just in case you didn't see it previously. Here you can see a video walk through of the house. And you can find a few pics from around the house here and do check out Jacki's blog too ;-)

Travel blog...

If you haven't noticed Jacki started a travel blog. The kick off for her Friday travel blog is from a place close to home. Be sure to check it out...


Click here or on the picture to be transported to Skyline Drive and the Shenandoah National Park.

Outsmarted...

As any good dad I am trying to read to Emma each night and sometimes you come across books that will teach good things.

So as I am reading princess manners (a Disney book) and come to the part where Cinderella cleans up her crafts before starting a new craft I thought that I was really clever :-)

Before reading it I scan the page and make a slight change to it. "Cinderella is good at cleaning up all her toys before getting out a new toy to play with...". Bear in mind that the book ends with "this is how princesses are. Wouldn't YOU like to be a princess???".

So you can see I am thinking this is a really good point since I know Emma wants to be a princess and they clean up their toys before getting a new out :-)

Emma's response though... "Yeah, I'm still working on that!!!". No kidding. That is exactly what she said... I wasn't quick enough to hmm "handle" that one...

Time lapse

As some may have seen I have experimented a little bit with time lapse. Once looking into it I have been trying to find info to what others do.

On Vimeo there are several beyond great examples. Find time lapse on Vimeo here.

On that is a wee bit long but includes mountains, clouds, traffic, northern light and... yeah a lot of cool stuff all in HD is this one.


Pixel's Revenge timelapse demo reel from ridindave on Vimeo.

Just tooo cool :-)

A few portraits

So over the weekend I made a stack of portraits for Lily and her acting portfolio.
For these portraits I didn't use photoshop at all... I used nothing but lightroom and portrait professional and I think it turned out pretty ok ;-)

You can find a few examples and workflow description on my photo blog

End the week the fun way...

Browsing through photos here and there sometimes I stumble on some pretty hmm different things.

Remember back when UFO's was the big topic? Back with the crop circles and all the UFO spotting here, there and everywhere?

One web site hosting some photos is the ECETI (Enlightened Contact with ExtraTerrestial Intelligence).

On the front page they have this photo of "Tensor transmission and probe"



and in the UFO photographs they have a photo of "A Fighter Jet Chases a UFO Near Mt. Adams".



I thought that stuff was looooong gone. If by chance you are interested in buying a photo or two of blurred birds jets chasing UFO's please send me an email. I got a few but only for the ones that are seriously interested (got too much money to spend on nothing).

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

As you probably already know st. patrick's day is coming up...
I wonder if the green beer is going to start growing in the garden on time ;-)

New tutorial - enhance and pop color

Last night I finished a new tutorial.
I started creating it based on a photo I manipulated quite some time ago. I kind of forgot how I got the result so it took a little experimenting.

But finally there is a new tutorial available :-)

Enhance and pop color