Photography
Photography is one of my favorite hobbies, right after teaching kittens to play ping-pong.
Like most of my writing, I approach my photography with a sense of humor. If you would like a print of any of my photos, or need a freelance photographer (or writer) in or near Lansing, Michigan, please contact me.
The list below will take you to specific photography samples on my site. Enjoy.
Animal Photos :: Attraction Lost :: Black and White Photos :: Escape to Alcatraz :: Event Photos :: Food Photos :: Lansing Photos :: People Photos :: Photoshop :: Still Life Photos :: Travel Photos
Here are 42 my favorite shots from the different categories above. Click on a thumbnail to view the full size image on Flickr. The image will open in your current window. You may right click on a thumbnail and choose Open in New Window or New Tab if you wish.
You may also view these photos as a slideshow on Flickr. I have plenty of other photo sets on Flickr for your viewing pleasure.
![Tim Bograkos - TEDx Lansing 5.20.11](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3384/5740987254_5e1ec3990f_s.jpg ""Don't Act Like a Fart in a Skillet."")
![Happy Towel Day 145/365](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3334/4640802434_3ee57cd87d_s.jpg "2010 Day 145
Happy Towel Day! <a href=\"http://towelday.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">towelday.org/</a>
I decided to try a trick I saw in a photo magazine--masking yourself so it looks like you are floating or something. The important part is having matching backgrounds.
step 1: Found a simple background. My boring closet doors were perfect.
step 2: take a picture of the background by itself. I had my camera on a tripod and used the timer to avoid camera shake. Using Live View helped with lighting/focus.
step 3: picture of myself. same way as step 2.
step 4: dump it all into Photoshop. The original background is the bottom layer, the photo of me is the top layer. Added a Mask to the layer with me and "painted" myself out of the picture.
With a Mask, anything you paint Black disappears (this is preferred to erasing because you can just paint something White to bring it back). TIP: drop the Hardness of your brush down a bit so the edges aren't so jagged/sharp.
and that's pretty much it.
Lighting didn't turn out exactly as I would have liked, but I'm happy with this over all.
You can see I cut out parts of the towel, which is fine--I was going for more of a flying carpet look anyway.
I also wrote a <a href=\"http://danieljhogan.com/home/2010/06/03/flickr-photoshop-fun-how-to-disappear/\" rel=\"nofollow\">blog</a> about this process, which contains some helpful screen captures.")
![Docking Bay 349 (13/365)](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2671/4272011247_8d9898ff74_s.jpg "<b>2010, Day 13</b>
It seemed appropriate that with this being "2010" and all that I do at least a few science fiction inspired pictures.
This is actually a "help" phone in a parking garage in downtown Lansing, Michigan (the red button says "push for help"). The color light it gave off and the construction reminded me of something out of <i>Aliens</i> or <i>Blade Runner</i>. I thought of sticking some kind of alien (or rather "Alien") lurking in the shadows, but meh.
Obviously, I tweaked the colors: I used the Curve tool in Photoshop to boost the blue and red levels--and I did what I could to hide the (thankfully empty) parking spaces behind the column.
I had to be creative to get rid of the church that you normally see through the window. A few passes with the magnetic lasso tool and I got rid of it, but I liked the blown out light look.
I doubled the layer, blurred it and used the Vivid Light layer blending feature to really bring out the color and to distort the image a bit.
The planet in the background is just a circle I created with the outer glow and inner shadow layer effects used.
I had fun with this one.")
Gear
- Canon EOS Digital Rebel T2i
- Lenses: 18-55mm IS, 50mm f1.8 (prime), 55-250mm IS
- Cellphone Camera (Samsung Epic, 5MP)
- Sony Cybershot DSC-S600
- Sunpak PZ42X flash
Volunteer Event Photography
I have been a volunteer photographer at several events around Lansing, Michigan, including Capital City Film Festival 2011, Ignite Lansing 4, Lansing GiveCamp 2011, TEDx Lansing 2011 and Lansing JazzFest 2011.
Recognition
My photo of a tortoise at Potter Park Zoo was selected as the Winner for the 2010 Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk in Lansing.
I was asked to write an article for Lansing Capital Gains about being a volunteer photographer at Ignite Lansing 4.0, and a photo of mine was used for the lead photo in a recent freelance piece.
I was hired by Paul Starr Productions to shoot photos for the Williams Farm Machinery website (note: not every photo on the website is mine).
I was asked by Lansing First Fridays to photograph and write a blog post about the first ever Lansing First Friday promotion in April 2011.
A few of my photos have been used on other websites.
- TEDx Lansing is Almost Here – Great Lakes Urban Exchange
- Give Camp event donates up to $200,000 in IT services to 13 local non-profits – Lansing Capital Gains, 4.06.11 (original photo)
- Photo of the Week: UR DOIN IT RONG, Great Lakes Urban Exchange 11.09.11 (original photo)
- Photo of the Week: Fallen – Great Lakes Urban Exchange, 9.28.10 (original photo)
- Photo of the Week: Summer – Great Lakes Urban Exchange, 9.7.10 (original photo)
- Blood on the Tracks? – Great Lakes Urban Exchange, 6.29.10 (original photo)
- Photo of the Week: Out with the Old – Great Lakes Urban Exchange, 5.11.10 (original photo)
