Behind Closed Doors

Behind Closed Doors - ©Mark Jordan

Behind Closed Doors was inspired by a walk through the streets of Nassau, Bahamas. The image was captured with my trusty Canon 5D Mark II, with 24-70 EF lens, and was taken approximately 20 minutes before sunset.


The image is a composite of a couple and the building facade. After I accomplished the basic arrangement and values in Photoshop, I then played with the images in OnOne Software to achieve the look and feel I felt best expressed the overall design.


Unfortunately, the small format of my blog may preclude you from enjoying the raindrops, running diagonally through the image, right to left. In a larger scale, you might agree that it adds an interesting design element, as well as complements the story. 


As always, should you have any questions, or want to post a comment, no concern and observation is too small.

Mark

©Photosical - the photographic, philosophical observations of Orange County Photographer, Mark Jordan

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Mark Jordan Photography specializes in crafting stunning contemporary, traditional, classic, and storytelling family portraits (high school seniors, children portraits, babies, maternity, pregnancy), headshots and pets. Mark Jordan, a Photography Hall of Fame photographer in Rancho Santa Margarita and provides portrait photography throughout Orange County. The portrait studio also serves San Diego County and Inland Empire. Studio Photography Services are also provided in Riverside County and Los Angeles County. Local Cites where photography studio services are offered are in Aliso Viejo, Anaheim, Brea, Costa Mesa, Coto de Caza, Cypress, Dana Point, Dove Canyon, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Ladera Ranch, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, Northwood, Orange, Orange Park Acres, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Tustin, Villa Park, Westminster, Yorba Linda, Corona del Mar, Murrieta, Murrieta Hot Springs, Quail Valley, Riverside, Temecula, Winchester, Woodcrest, Chino Hills, Fontana, Grand Terrace, Loma Linda, Montclair, Rancho Bernardo, Carlsbad, Coronado, Del Mar, Escondido, La Mesa, Oceanside, San Diego, San Marcos, Solana Beach, Vista, Carmel Mountain Ranch, Rancho San Diego, Rancho Santa Fe, and San Diego Country Estates, Turtle Rock, Shady Canyon. Portrait Photographers everywhere (photographers in O.C. as well) are welcome to contact our portrait studio for mentoring/guidance.

Today's Top Ten hot topics:
Ann Hathaway, HTC ThunderBolt, Nate Dogg, Vanessa Hudgens pictures, tsunami, potassium iodide, NCAA tournament, St. Patricks Day, Japan nuclear, SEO (Search Engine Optimization). 

The Charlie Sheen Effect

It was in the wee hours of the morning, while tweaking a few images from my recent trip to the Bahamas, that it occurred to me:  this peculiar man I see plastered on my TV (who is so compelled to talk incessantly and who is thoroughly enamored with himself, regardless of making even Ginger Baker look like the posture child for clean living) was curiously analogous to the special effects I was applying to the dilapidated buildings I had just photographed. It motivated me to explore further.


After a few hours of tweaking, and exposing myself to more this man's tirades, I finally derived at a new grudge preset, which I have entitled  The Charlie Sheen Effect. It is noted for evoking a feeling a being worn, damaged, impaired, shabby, broken down, falling apart and derelict. The effect is now saved as a present in my OnOne software, allowing me to apply it at will. Gotta' love OnOne!

The Charlie Sheen Effect 1 - ©Mark Jordan 

My humble apologies to the man who bears a resemblance - it was not my aim to fabricate reality but only reflect it.

Now then, as to the heart of the matter, I don't know about you but I think a Charlie Sheen backlash is not too far from his future. Since my first posting, Charlie has been fired, and it may be only a matter of time. We can only hope he is able to surround himself with people who love him and get him back on track.

However, in the meantime, I must give credit where credit is do. I am grateful to you Charlie for motivating me to create an effect which expresses the current state of affairs of a crumbling career, if not one's personal world. It would be funny were it not so apparently tragic.

The Charlie Sheen Effect 2 - ©Mark Jordan 

Should you want details of my grunge effect and the OnOne Software where I perfected it, as always, no concern is too small. 

Mark

©Photosical - the photographic and personal observations of Orange County Photographer, Mark Jordan

Mark Jordan Photography specializes in crafting stunning contemporary, traditional, classic, and storytelling family portraits (high school seniors, children portraits, babies, maternity, pregnancy), headshots and pets. Mark Jordan, a Photography Hall of Fame photographer in Rancho Santa Margarita and provides portrait photography throughout Orange County. The portrait studio also serves San Diego County and Inland Empire. Studio Photography Services are also provided in Riverside County and Los Angeles County. Local Cites where photography studio services are offered are in Aliso Viejo, Anaheim, Brea, Costa Mesa, Coto de Caza, Cypress, Dana Point, Dove Canyon, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Ladera Ranch, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, Northwood, Orange, Orange Park Acres, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Tustin, Villa Park, Westminster, Yorba Linda, Corona del Mar, Murrieta, Murrieta Hot Springs, Quail Valley, Riverside, Temecula, Winchester, Chino Hills, Fontana, Grand Terrace, Loma Linda, Montclair, Rancho Bernardo, Carlsbad, Coronado, Del Mar, Escondido, La Mesa, Oceanside, San Diego, San Marcos, Solana Beach, Vista, Carmel Mountain Ranch, Rancho San Diego, Rancho Santa Fe, and San Diego Country Estates, Turtle Rock, Shady Canyon. Portrait Photographers everywhere (photographers in O.C. as well) are welcome to contact our portrait studio for mentoring/guidance.

Mark Jordan Photography

Orange County Family Portrait

Orange County Beach Portrait

Orange County Senior Portrait

Orange County Children Portraits

Orange County Headshot

Belly Art Photography

Wordle™ Puzzles

From Rain Soaked to Family Portrait

After the Rain - ©Mark Jordan Photography

We got a call from a wonderful couple who would soon be visiting Orange County  from Texas. Their son and his family live here, and they wanted to remember their visit with a family portrait. What they did not count on, however, was that they week they were here was the same week where Southern California had experienced unprecedented rain totals. 

Considering that in the previous 30 years of photographing families we had been rained-out only four times, even with the dire forecast, I still did not give it much thought. However, once they arrived, and one day of rain melded into another, they were getting nervous. I must admit, so was I. 

On the day of their session we were lucky, with the morning rain turning into sunshine. "Besides", I later told them, "even if it does rain, California rain lasts for only a few minutes and then stops long enough for us to capture your family. We'll just wait in our cars until the rain subsides, then dash out and get it done!"

Rain Soaked and Distracting Colors

Kari and I arrived to our location a bit early, as usual, and the weather was holding, if not ideal. However, for whatever reason, our portait family was running behind. Yes, you guessed it - they arrived 20 minutes late, enough time to have photographed them. And just as they stepped out of their cars, the skies opened up. We quickly returned to the warmth and shelter of our autos and sat, waiting for any opportunity. Kari and I were actually praying...

Then it happened. About 15 minutes later, we saw all but a few drops on our just wiped windshield. We motioned for everyone to come out! Quickly, we arranged them, trying to separate them from snuggling close to keep warm. Just as we did our white balance and were ready to go...well, as you can see here from the photo on the right, a sudden downpour. Back to cars we went - the waiting game began once again.

I don't know if you can tell in this small format, but the spots on their shirts are from the large raindrops. And the slight blur you might make-out is diagonal falling rain (right to left).

Not to belabor the story, we only had to wait maybe 10 more minutes before the rain once again subsided. This time we were able to finish, albeit, much wetter, colder, and even in the midst of several nasty spurts. 

What I thought might be of interest, even more than our tenacity, is how I finished the artwork aspect of their family portrait. Regardless of colorful boots, dappled leggings and a lavender tutu with black lace, I was able to extract the best attributes and mitigate the less desirable elements. Did it take a bit of work? Well, I'll let you compare and judge for yourself. 

By the way, the family loved their portraits (we also created one of dad with son and kids), and is soon to arrive at their doorstep in Texas. You just gotta love the internet - how else does an Orange County Photographer commission a family from Texas!

Mark

©Photosical - the photographic, philosophical observations of Orange County Photographer, Mark Jordan

Mark Jordan Photography specializes in crafting stunning contemporary, traditional, classic, and storytelling family portraits (high school seniors, children portraits, babies, maternity, pregnancy), headshots and pets. Mark Jordan, a Photography Hall of Fame photographer in Rancho Santa Margarita and provides portrait photography throughout Orange County. The portrait studio also serves San Diego County and Inland Empire. Studio Photography Services are also provided in Riverside County and Los Angeles County. Local Cites where photography studio services are offered are in Aliso Viejo, Anaheim, Brea, Costa Mesa, Coto de Caza, Cypress, Dana Point, Dove Canyon, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Ladera Ranch, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, Northwood, Orange, Orange Park Acres, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Tustin, Villa Park, Westminster, Yorba Linda, Corona del Mar, Murrieta, Murrieta Hot Springs, Quail Valley, Riverside, Temecula, Winchester, Chino Hills, Fontana, Grand Terrace, Loma Linda, Montclair, Rancho Bernardo, Carlsbad, Coronado, Del Mar, Escondido, La Mesa, Oceanside, San Diego, San Marcos, Solana Beach, Vista, Carmel Mountain Ranch, Rancho San Diego, Rancho Santa Fe, and San Diego Country Estates, Turtle Rock, Shady Canyon. Portrait Photographers everywhere (photographers in O.C. as well) are welcome to contact our portrait studio for mentoring/guidance.

Mark Jordan Photography

Orange County Family Portrait

Orange County Beach Portrait

Orange County Senior Portrait

Orange County Headshot

Belly Art Photography

Wordle™ Puzzles

Facebook Testing HTML5 Video for iPad? Apparently Not [UPDATED]

Facebook Testing HTML5 Video for iPad? 

Apparently Not [UPDATED]

Written by Sarah Perez / April 27, 2010 8:12 AM / 8 Comments

A number of bloggers are today reporting a noticeable change to Facebook's website when viewed from the built-in Safari web browser on the Apple iPad: videos now work. Previously, videos appearing in a user's News Feed wouldn't play on the iPad due to Facebook's use of Adobe Flash technology, which is not supported. Apple has, somewhat notoriously, banished Flash from its mobile devices, including the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, in favor of supporting the HTML5 web standard instead.

Although still in development, HTML5, the latest revision to the markup language used to create web pages, offers a feature that allows videos to play in a web browser without the need for a plugin like that used by Adobe Flash.

But has Facebook actually implemented HTML5 on its site?

UPDATE: According to Facebook, the company is not testing HTML5. Facebook told us in an email that, "All new videos are encoded in h264 format, so we're playing videos natively in the iPad since it supports h264-encoded videos. It will load them full-screen, similar to what it does for YouTube videos." Facebook rolled this out last week.

In our tests this morning, it appears that Facebook isn't actually using HTML5 to display the videos. Instead, what appears to be going on is that Facebook.com is detecting that you've arrived to the website via the Safari web browser on the iPad. When you then attempt to play a video on the iPad, it doesn't play inline (something that would have been a clear confirmation of an HTML5 implementation). Instead, Facebook is linking out to the actual video, transcoded to MP4, a video format that plays on Apple devices.

We confirmed this by uploading a video file to Facebook in WMV format (a non-iPad compatible video format) and then attempting to play it on the iPad. It played as an MP4 file. 
 
Still Being Rolled Out

Also interesting: this implementation of transcoding (converting one format to another) appears to be still in the initial stages of rollout.

We went to one user's News Feed (belonging to our own Marshall Kirkpatrick, in fact) and discovered he had uploaded two video files last night using iCamcorder. On the iPad, the earlier video played, launching as a full-screen MP4. The other, when clicked, informed us that we needed Flash in order to view it.

Mark

©Photosical - the photographic, philosophical observations of Orange County Photographer, Mark Jordan

Mark Jordan Photography specializes in crafting stunning contemporary, traditional, classic, and storytelling family portraits (high school seniors, children portraits, babies, maternity, pregnancy), headshots and pets. Mark Jordan, a Photography Hall of Fame photographer in Rancho Santa Margarita and provides portrait photography throughout Orange County. The portrait studio also serves San Diego County and Inland Empire. Studio Photography Services are also provided in Riverside County and Los Angeles County. Local Cites where photography studio services are offered are in Aliso Viejo, Anaheim, Brea, Costa Mesa, Coto de Caza, Cypress, Dana Point, Dove Canyon, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Ladera Ranch, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, Northwood, Orange, Orange Park Acres, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Tustin, Villa Park, Westminster, Yorba Linda, Corona del Mar, Murrieta, Murrieta Hot Springs, Quail Valley, Riverside, Temecula, Winchester, Chino Hills, Fontana, Grand Terrace, Loma Linda, Montclair, Rancho Bernardo, Carlsbad, Coronado, Del Mar, Escondido, La Mesa, Oceanside, San Diego, San Marcos, Solana Beach, Vista, Carmel Mountain Ranch, Rancho San Diego, Rancho Santa Fe, and San Diego Country Estates, Turtle Rock, Shady Canyon. Portrait Photographers everywhere (photographers in O.C. as well) are welcome to contact our portrait studio for mentoring/guidance.

Mark Jordan Photography

Orange County Family Portrait

Orange County Beach Portrait

Orange County Senior Portrait

Orange County Headshot

Belly Art Photography

Wordle™ Puzzles