Steve Mitchell » Greenville, SC – Graphic Design | Web Design | Illustration

Remember!

Steve Mitchell — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 14:58:07 +0000

71 years ago today. A Day of Infamy. A Day we shall never forget.

How to Photograph Your Paintings

Steve Mitchell — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:33:35 +0000

How to Photograph Your Paintings

via Muddy Colors Blog and Don dos Santos

I found this blog post at Muddy Colors very helpful and thorough. If you illustrate or paint professionally and need good quality captures without a lot of continuing costs the information and techniques here are golden.

Color Scheme Designer 3

Steve Mitchell — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 18:23:13 +0000

While working on a logo design, I came across this online color app. I was searching for a good interactive tool for exploring color options. Color Scheme Designer 3 filled the bill nicely. It’s easy and intuitive to use; in minutes I was up and running with it. Just a few of the features Color Scheme Designer includes are: hexadecimal color references for your current color set, a random color scheme generator, colorblind visualizing, choice of color spaces, export options, simple click and drag adjustments for customizing nearly every aspect of your color set, previewing text or web page examples with your colors, and a bookmark-able color ID number so you can come back to a saved color scheme for future reference or adjustments. Pretty cool tool, and best of all its free to use!

FestiFall at Walnut Grove Plantation

Steve Mitchell — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 00:26:20 +0000

Take an original plantation estate built in 1765, mix that with scores of historical reenactors and a historical association dedicated to preserving the area’s history and what do you get? Only one of the premier annual historical events in Upstate South Carolina. FestiFall at Walnut Grove Plantation near Spartanburg, SC, is one of my favorite events each year. I absolutely love the photo opportunities it affords. I had a blast there yesterday and my hats off to the Spartanburg County Historical Association for doing such a great job with it each year. I’ve been to most of the reenactment events in the Upstate and this one’s the best.

Below are some of my favorite photos from this year. Hope you enjoy them.

Headed South

Steve Mitchell — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:30:26 +0000

I saw the last hummingbird at our feeders this past weekend and none since. That jives with the migration information I found online. By all accounts they head south mid to late Sept. I’m not really into bird photography per se but I had fun trying to capture a few in flight and will no doubt try to get a few shots again next year. The photography is interesting, if for no other reason, than to be able to see some detail in these speedy, elusive little creatures.

Apparently they gather primarily in Louisiana and Texas before crossing the gulf to winter in Mexico. They fly low according to various sightings. Some have been seen skimming just above the water and even using high waves as wind breaks. Fascinating!

Pic of the Day: Comet Hyakutake

Steve Mitchell — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 20:53:00 +0000

Digging around in some of my old film shots I ran across this photo of Comet Hyakutake I took in 1996. It was a rare try at an astronomical image (something I want to do more of) and mediocre at best, but since I had never tried scanning the film negative of this shot, this became a technical exercise more than anything. My shot pales in comparison to the many beautiful images of Hyakutake taken by seasoned astrophotographers, but still it was a breathtaking, once-in-a-lifetime viewing event and I had a blast taking the shot. One hour photo prints being what they are (or aren’t), I wanted to see what I could do with this old negative on my present day Canon 8400f flatbed in 35mm film scanning mode. I was pleased to see the improvement I was able to make over the print. In Photoshop I ran a noise reduction filter, added a curves layer to fine tune the contrast and a hue/saturation layer to darken certain colors and reduce some of the atmospheric haze bringing out the tail a bit more. The 30 sec. exposure (using Fujicolor 1600 film) as you can see is a bit long and the stars are just beginning to elongate due to earth’s rotation, but all in all not a bad attempt and a fun memory.

Pic of the Day: Living History

Steve Mitchell — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 22:29:36 +0000

History, particularly reenactors, is one of my favorite photo subjects. I was playing around with some black and white renditions of this image and was satisfied with the way this one came out. Most of the editing work was done in Lightroom. The buttonhole design on the uniform jacket made for a nice graphic element. Though it doesn’t look like it this guy was actually giving a lecture on 18th century militia tactics but this sort of unique contemplative pose stood out to me in the pics I had of him.

Reenactor at Cowpens National Battlefield, SC

Happy 4th of July

Steve Mitchell — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 01:46:41 +0000

The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.
Standing on what too long we bore
With shoulders bent and downcast eyes,
We may discern–unseen before–
A path to higher destinies.
Nor deem the irrevocable Past,
As wholly wasted, wholly vain,
If, rising on its wrecks, at last
To something nobler we attain.
– Longfellow

The Canyon – Part 2

Steve Mitchell — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 22:14:31 +0000

Decided to go all “Ansel Adams” on the canyon and post these black and white images. Grayscale photography is fun to edit even though getting the tonality right is a challenge, but there is nothing like seeing an image in monochrome values for gleaning a whole different aesthetic from it. The Grand Canyon is an excellent candidate for black and white photography because of the variety of drama afforded by all the light play on the cliff faces and valleys. At dusk or dawn, when these were taken, that light play constantly changes from minute to minute. Color images of the Grand Canyon are almost always cliche no matter how well done because it is one of the most photographed sites in the world. Being a first time visit for me and having limited time at the site hampered the originality even further. But I do like the graphic, mosaic quality these have. Hope you enjoy them too.

The Canyon – Part 1

Steve Mitchell — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 01:51:02 +0000

I finally got around to editing my shots from the Grand Canyon taken back in January. To residents of the area, its simply known as “The Canyon” and not because its the only one, there are hundreds, but when you refer to “The Canyon” everyone knows which one you mean. This was my first ever visit to this iconic locale, and while it was a new photographic experience to me, I wondered how I would ever shoot one of the most photographed locations in a way that was personal, yet fresh and interesting. Cliche subject or not this place is exquisite and breathtaking and in the end I just tried to capture beautiful light and patterns as I found them. At sunset and sunrise, when most of these pics were taken, the canyon seemed to change constantly as various features illuminated then dimmed. These were my favorite shots, hope you enjoy them. I plan to follow these up with a part 2 post featuring some black and white canyon shots.