September 2010 Photograph of the Month Tafoni

Tafoni - Wide Screen

Tafoni - Narrow Screen

This months photograph is titled “Tafoni”

I shot this image in El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve. Tafoni are small cave-like features caused by weathering and erosion found in granular rock such as sandstone or granite. They are found in intertidal areas, such as our coastline, as well as in deserts.

My wife Erica and I enjoy exploring the open spaces of the Peninsula, and when we found this remarkable feature of the landscape I knew I could get some really cool shots. And since my daughter suggested that I stretch my limits, I felt this was a good opportunity to set aside my innate preference for realism and explore the abstract.

Please let me know what you think by calling me, sending a e-mail or posting a comment here on my blog.

All images in my “Photograph of the Month” series are sized and formatted as a screen saver or computer desktop wallpaper. Please, share it with your family and friends, with my compliments.

Please call me if you have any need for photographs and I will do all I can to help you.

Thanks,
Dean

Permanent Link

Project Daedalus The Day The Universe Changed

Today is the big day. Today is the roll-out of Project Daedalus, the next evolutionary step in how interior designers present their work on-line. Using conventional interior design photography in video format with musical accompaniment, title slides and voice overs I create a vehicle to display my clients talents, theories and accomplishments.

The goal is to increase my clients ROI from social networking, improve search engine rankings and help get their phone ringing while making it easy to do.

Here you can see two videos I created for my clients: Joseph Hittinger Designs and Viscusi Elson Interior Design.

A few of the many benefits of my Daedalus Videos are:

• Videos are an elegant and powerful sales tool allowing you to personally make your best “pitch” to the client regardless of time of day or their location.
• Cost effective and fast – there is no need for a web designer, and no additional charges for web design or site hosting, upon completion the video is uploaded to youtube and immediately ready for you to use in blogs, forums, social networking and e-mail.
• “Gee Whiz” factor – clients and prospects are motivated to share the video with family, friends and social networks because it makes such a great impression.

Please call 866-499-8083 or send me an e-mail to learn how I can help you… “Helping you is why I am here”

Pre Roll-Out Announcement of Project Daedalus

What lies beyond?

Today I am announcing Project Daedalus, named after the master artificer of Greek legend who is attributed with many great works and inventions (such as lifelike imagery and sculpture, building the Labyrinth at Knossos, and who is most famous for crafting wings for himself and his son Icarus to escape their captivity in said labyrinth).

For two months I have been working on Project Daedalus to help my clients increase their ROI from social networking, improve their search engine rankings and help get their phone ringing, while making it easy to do.

The official roll-out is coming soon; keep your eyes and ears open.

August 2010 Photograph of the Month Twilight on the Sea of Souls

Twilight at the Sea of Souls

Twilight at the Sea of Souls

This months photograph is titled “Twilight on the Sea of Souls”

This image is another in a series I did of the Pigeon Point Lighthouse near Pescadero, CA back in 2006. I really love this particular lighthouse because of it’s archetypal architecture. It is the only classically styled lighthouse on the west coast because this is the only point that does not have cliffs of sufficient height on which to build the structure above the fog.

This is a pseudo high dynamic range image. Normally to shoot HDRI you need several different exposures of the same scene, however if you only have a single exposure you can still get unique and very dramatic results.

I hope you like it.

You can download this month’s screen saver by clicking the images above. A new window will open with a larger version that you can save to your hard drive.

All images in my “Photograph of the Month” series are sized and formatted as a screen saver or computer desktop wallpaper. Please, share it with your family and friends, with my compliments.

Dean

ASID CA Peninsula Board Meeting and Dunn Edwards CEU

Rise Krag of RKI Interior Design, ASID CA Peninsula Membership Director for 2010/2011

Last night I attended a joint board meeting with both the incoming and outgoing board of ASID CA Peninsula. We met at the Dunn Edwards store in San Jose it was a bright open space and a really enjoyable place to hold the meeting.

There was also a CEU being presented that evening: Designing for Healthy and Productive Interiors: Light and Sound for Optimal Human Performance CEU AND Decorative Lighting, Accessories and Art Spotlight.

You can see all the photographs from last nights meeting and the CEU by following this link to my portfolio gallery.

July 2010 Photograph of the Month “Temple Hoyne Buell Theater”

Temple Hoyne Buell Theater, Denver Center for the Performing Arts

Temple Hoyne Buell Theater, Denver Center for the Performing Arts

This months Photograph of the month is titled “Temple Hoyne Buell Theater”

This image is the last photograph I shot as a semi-professional photographer way back in 1992. I had been working for five years to build the skills and acquire the experience necessary to open my business as an architectural photographer and finally all my plans were coming together. I had one more goal to achieve before I went out completely on my own and that was to photograph one large, dramatic public works project.

I pleaded my case to the theater manager and he decided to let me do my thing. He was very kind because not only did he let me into the theater on a Sunday morning he gave me free reign to make any changes to the lighting that I needed. It took me about a half hour to figure out the lighting controls and once I had mastered them I was all set. I shot five different images that day, using my 4×5 camera and black and white polaroids, this is the single best image.

In fact it’s so good I have used it as the closing image in my portfolio ever since. It’s still one of my favorites and always will be.

I hope you like it.

All images in my “Photograph of the Month” series are sized and formatted as a screen saver or computer desktop wallpaper. Please, share it with your family and friends, with my compliments.

Please call me if you have any need for photographs and I will do all I can to help you.

Thanks,
Dean

Digital photography provides some amazing benefits.

Alta Mesa Memorial Lunchroom - High Dynamic Range Image

On Tuesday June 1st I shot a job for Shirley Lo and Loretta Spence. I delivered first draft proofs on Wednesday June 3rd via internet, by Monday the 7th we had gone through six generations of proofs until Shirley and Loretta declared the color of the images and the retouching to be “perfect.” And I delivered their images via electronic download.

This is amazing because now we can complete a job in the amount of time it took to get first run proofs when shooting 4×5 film.

Meeting with Patrice Greene Yesterday

I had the pleasure of meeting with Patrice Greene of DzignIT. We spoke for about two hours and I really enjoyed the afternoon.

At one point Patrice told me that she was a little disappointed with digital photography. I asked why and she showed me a few shots that another photographer shot where the color was not great.

Since I had my computer with me-as usual-I asked if I could see what I could do with them. It only took me a couple of minutes of “playing” with the color & contrast to make major improvements to the images. After was done Patrice was so impressed she ran a print off and immediately replaced the existing copy on her display shelf.

I pointed out to her that this was easy for me because I have been working with digital images on a daily basis since 1996. After fourteen years, I’ve developed some appreciable skills with digital photographs.

Many photographers want to do all of their work in the camera and leave it at that. My background of working in photo labs back in the eighties and early nineties taught me that taking a picture with the camera is just the beginning of the photographic process and that there is no photograph that cannot be improved in the darkroom, or on the computer.

Some photographers have objected to this, feeling that their creative opportunities and professional responsibilities pretty much come to an end once the shutter clicks. I like to point out that Ansel Adams, a well known and highly respected photographer wrote three books on photography “The Camera”, “The negative” and “The Print.”

As you can see according to one of the most well known and respected photographers of the twentieth century taking the picture is only part of the creative .

High Dynamic Range Photography of Interior Design

I was speaking with Meera Chawla after the ASID CA Peninsula board meeting yesterday and she told me that she was impressed with the crisp liveliness of my photographs when viewing my portfolio. I told her this was the result of my use of high dynamic range imaging.

High Dynamic Range Image of Residential Kitchen

The high dynamic range imaging allows me to create images of spaces as humans perceive them, with rich colors and a wealth of detail in both highlight and shadows that capture the delicate interplay of color and texture. This technique allows me to go beyond showing the furnishings and accouterments to communicating the mood and emotion of a space with unparalleled fidelity to the designer’s vision.

As I say in my seminar on photography for interior designers high dynamic range imaging will soon become the standard for interior design photography. I recognized it’s utility and value the first time I had the opportunity to work with it, this is why I have worked to master the technique. and now my clients can benefit by having photographs of their designs that contain a life and sparkle that was never before possible.

You can view more high dynamic range images of interior design in my portfolio galleries.

ASID CA Peninsula Continuity Board Meeting

ASID CA Peninsula Continuity Board Meeting

(Board members above, from left to right, first row: Carol Spence Carr, Marie Chan, Jane Higo. Second row: Debbie Snider, Jeanette Loretz, Divya Vijayanandakumar. Not shown but in attendance: Anna Sarkissian and Dean Birinyi)

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with the current board of the ASID CA Peninsula chapter at the continuity meeting at AS Design in Los Gatos. This was the beginning of the hand off from the leadership of Marie Chan to that of Carol Spence Carr.

I’m looking forward to working with the chapter and hope I am ready for the challenges I will be assigned as my duties. The upcoming board, on which I sit as the Industry Partner Director is meeting on Monday.

High Dynamic Range Image of the Tech Museum in San Jose, CA

I also had the opportunity to speak with Meera Chawla regarding the 2010 ASID CA Peninsula Design Awards Gala. I will be photographing the event and look forward to having the opportunity to help tell the story of the event.