In the spirit of the hilarious blog, Photoshop Disasters ("Have you seen a truly awful piece of Photoshop work? Clumsy manipulation, senseless comping, lazy cloning and thoughtless retouching are our bread and butter..."), I spotted these disasters in a commercial for Dulcolax Balance during the Olympics.
As you can see, rather than flipping the image the "artist" turned it 180 degrees before pasting it, also seen again in the screen capture below. And I'm no specialist in optics but the reflection of the bottle in the glass of water didn't look right to me so I tested the concept with a glass of water and a box of Triscuits. The only way I could come close to duplicating that image is by placing the glass quite a distance in front of and to the left of the box and even then the refracted image of the box in the left side of the glass is reversed.
Update: Admittedly, upon further - ahem, reflection - the image wasn't simply turned 180 degrees otherwise the little glass would be located more to the right on the Balance bottle (below).
Sheridan and Suzette Hip and Humble 9th & 9th Neighborhood Salt Lake City, UT
I first met sisters Sheridan and Suzette at their Salt Lake City boutique, Hip and Humble, during an editorial assignment for Wasatch Woman Magazine about sisterhood (see "Sisters with Style"). Not only was the store an amazing setting with its collection of interesting items and bright colors but Sheridan and Suzette both bubbled with an infectious enthusiasm that made for a fun-filled shoot!
A month or so after that shoot I received a call from Suzette to hire me to return and take more photos for their own advertising. Suzette told me that Delta Sky Magazine wanted to profile their boutique and she thought it would be good to also have an archive of photos to use for future advertising. Seeing as we shot mainly editorial portraits for the Wasatch Woman article, we decided this time to take more photos of the store itself as well as some candids of Sheridan and Suzette at work.
An interesting part of that conversation was hearing that Suzette had a hard time finding photographers who specialised in advertising photography for small businesses. After exhausting the Salt Lake phone book/web searching she decided to ask me if I did that sort of work on the side. Until that time I had not but this really got me thinking about a niche that wasn't being filled. Unfortunately we relocated to Denver not long after and I wasn't able to capitalise on it there but now that we've settled in here in Colorado I'm going to give this another try, as I see an opportunity in this same niche market.
Shh, don't tell my competitors. ;)
Have any other photographers recently shifted their *ahem* focus? I'd love to hear about your experiences, especially any editorial photographs who may be looking to supplement their magazine work with private work as magazines either cut back or close down.
Anyway, here are some of my favorites from the series:
Technical info Nikon D700 and various lenses
Natural light did most of the heavy lifting in these photos but I also shaped it using Nikon SB-800 and Nikon SB-600 Speedlights for fill and accenting. All Speedlights were triggered with the Nikon D700's pop-up flash using the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS).
Finally, the Wasatch Woman Magazine cover (May/June 2009)
As some of you may know, in addition to having a passion for photography I also have a passion for music. As such, here are my top 10 list of albums released in 2009. Each album links to their Amazon.com MP3 counterparts where you can sample all the tracks.
Kutiman's amazing mix of songs compiled of various YouTube clips Kutiman - "Thru You"
In return I ask the same of you: What are your top albums of 2009? Either share a link to your own blog post or list them in the comments section, thanks!
Blog readers and fans have been asking me for the latest news in my ongoing copyright infringement case with Toyota and their ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi. To quote fellow infringee and phenomenal landscape photographer, Buck Forester:
Just got word from our copyright lawyer that the infringement case against Saatchi/Toyota by a group of us Flickrites has been settled. Our lawyer made it clear the settlement terms must remain confidential, but let's just say I'm rather elated! I still have to work for a living, ha!, but still, this is welcome news.
Like Brian, I am happy with the settlement and with Saatchi & Saatchi's response to this matter. Beyond that I can't say much more. I've learned a lot about copyright during the course of this issue and highly recommend that those of you who are interested in learning more about protecting your intellectual property take a look at the original post below to find great tips and links in the comments section.
![[man y pedi]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4041/4328410801_0a2722b680.jpg)
![[photographer in action]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4066/4329143760_383c445763.jpg)
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