Project 365 - Daily Photography Project - The Beginning

Beginning in the new year I have resolved to do a Project 365.

'What is a Project 365?', you ask?

The answer is simple.
Like many other photographers before me, I am resolving to take at least one photo a day, every day, for the entire year of 2010.

The purpose of embarking on such a venture is that it builds discipline as a photographer; helps one to learn to see new perspectives, and new opportunities to be creative; and, of course, to simply hone one's skill at photography.

I will be sharing my Project 365 images here (usually the day after they are taken), in addition to my usual Photo of the Day post (yes, that's two images posted per day, for a year).

To further encourage others to begin similar projects, and perhaps to help keep myself motivated, I have also created a Project 365 Facebook Fan Page, where I will also be sharing my Project 365 photos, and encouraging others to share their photography projects as well.

Project 365 on Facebook

I hope to see as many other photographers join me there as possible, and we can see where this adventure leads us.

Happy New Year!

"Campfire" - Photo of the Day - December 30th, 2009

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"Campfire"

A large campfire burns bright orange on a dark night.

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"Cheap Date" - Photo of the Day - December 29th, 2009

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"Cheap Date"

A gray horse leans over a fence for a close-up portrait.

She was actually trying to get another snack… the apple core she had already gobbled up not being enough to satisfy her.
Some beautiful shots.. and they only cost me the leftover apple core from my own snack earlier… truly a cheap date.

Captured in Crowsnest Pass, Alberta, Canada; in the shadow of Crowsnest Mountain itself, you just can’t see the peak because the horse is blocking the shot. :-)


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"Moon Jellyfish" - Photo of the Day - December 28th, 2009

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"Moon Jellyfish!"

A ghostly, translucent Moon Jellyfish seems to glow fluorescently as it swims past through dark water.

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"Cactus Spines" - Photo of the Day - December 27th, 2009

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"Cactus Spines"

A close-up of the sharp spines lining the edge of a green cactus.

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"Raven in the Snow" - Photo of the Day - December 26th, 2009

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"Raven in the Snow"

A large black raven flies low enough over a snow-covered field that it’s wingtips almost brush the surface of the snow.

Captured in the prairies of southern Alberta, near Cardston, Alberta, Canada.

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"Curious White Tail" - Photo of the Day - Christmas 2009

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"Curious White Tail"
A white- tailed doe looks back over her shoulder inquisitively while standing in a snow-covered field next to a forest of pine trees.

Captured in southern Alberta, just north of Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Canada.

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"Curious White Tail" - Photo of the Day - Christmas 2009

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"Curious White Tail"
A white- tailed doe looks back over her shoulder inquisitively while standing in a snow-covered field next to a forest of pine trees.

Captured in southern Alberta, just north of Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Canada.

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"Curious White Tail" - Photo of the Day - Christmas 2009

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"Curious White Tail"
A white- tailed doe looks back over her shoulder inquisitively while standing in a snow-covered field next to a forest of pine trees.

Captured in southern Alberta, just north of Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Canada.

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"Merry Christmas" - Photo of the Day - December 24th, 2009

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"Merry Christmas"

Red Christmas candles glow brightly on the mantle surrounded by snowflake decorations and poinsettias.

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"Catching Snowflakes on My Tongue" - Photo of the Day - December 23rd, 2009

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"Catching Snowflakes on My Tongue"

A young mule deer buck sticks out his tongue while foraging for food during an early winter snowstorm, as if he were trying to catch snowflakes on his tongue. (Maybe he is?...)

Captured in Waterton Lakes National Park in southern Alberta, Canada.

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"Prairie Dog" - Photo of the Day - December 22nd, 2009

"Prairie Dog"

A prairie dog sits up in the long dried grasses of the prairie to watch for predators.
Captured in southern Alberta, near Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Canada.

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"Frosted Farm" - Photo of the Day - December 21st, 2009

"Frosted Farm"

A tree at the edge of a farm field is coated by white hoarfrost after a severe temperature drop over night.

Captured in the prairies of southern Alberta, Canada.
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"From the Bottom Up!" - Photo of the Day - December 20th, 2009

"From the Bottom Up!"

A macro photograph of a pink Allium flower taken from underneath, against a bright blue sky.

Captured in Edward’s Gardens in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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"Jump!!" - Photo of the Day - December 19th, 2009

"Jump!!"

A young, dark-haired woman jumps exuberantly, lifting her feet high behind her, against the backdrop of a reddish sandstone embankment on the far side of a small river from her.

Captured during the fading evening light, along the edge of the Milk River in Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in southern Alberta, Canada.

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"Reluctant Elf" - Photo of the Day - December 18th, 2009

"Reluctant Elf"

My black cat modeling his elf hat for me.
The expression on his face says it all..

(...something like “OK mom you’ve had your fun.. Now take it off before I do something I might regret.” )

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"Chestnut 2" - Photo of the Day - December 17th, 2009

"Chestnut 2"

A beautiful chestnut mare with a white blaze looks over a wooden rail fence waiting for a treat.

Captured on a ranch near Entrance, Alberta, Canada.
Taken with a Canon Rebel XSi using an 18-55mm lens.

Selective colouring done in Photoshop CS4.

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"Sunset Windmill" - Photo of the Day - December 16th, 2009

"Sunset Windmill"
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"Got Milk?" - Photo of the Day - December 15th, 2009

"Got Milk?"
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"Water Log" - Photo of the Day - December 14th, 2009

"Water Log"

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"Chief Mountain" - Photo of the Day - December 13th. 2009

"Chief Mountain"
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"Lily of the Valley" - Photo of the Day - December 12th, 2009

"Lily of the Valley"
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My apologies to everyone for missing a day, life has a funny way of creeping up and making sure that I am just too busy to get near a computer sometimes.

"Reflecting Mountains" - Photo of the Day - December 10th, 2009

"Reflecting Mountains"

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Tutorial - Turn Your Photo Into a Beautuful T-shirt Design

How to create a T-shirt design with a transparent vignette around your subject using PhotoShop CS3/CS4 and one simple freeware plug-in.

1. Get the Plug-in
   To begin, obviously you must first get the plug-in.
   
   The plug-in is known as Transparent Vignette 1.0.
   It can be downloaded from the following locations:
   
   • Wareseeker.com
   • Brothersoft.com
   • Softpedia
   
   Make sure you save the file somewhere you can find it! Either to your desktop or to a specific folder. Personally I created a 'Downloads' folder on my Desktop just for this purpose.
   
   As these are all 'ware' sites, use the standard precautions (ie anti-virus, etc.) to ensure your download is safe.
   


2. Un-zip the downloaded file.
   
   Once you have downloaded the file you need to un-compress it as it comes zipped.
   The unzipped file needs to go into a specific folder within your Photoshop program
   
   
   
   1. Click on the Transparent (compressed) folder to go into it.
      
   
   
   2. Click on Extract all Files
   
   
   3. At the 'Welcome to the Compressed (zipped) Folders Extraction Wizard' screen click Next.
   
   
   4. VERY IMPORTANT!
      At the Select a Destination screen click on 'Browse'
   
   
   5. A new Select a Destination window now opens.
   
   
   6. Select My Computer>Local Disk (c:)> Program Files> Adobe >Adobe Photoshop CS3 or CS4> Plug-ins - then create a new folder within the plug-ins folder named 'AAA'
      
      
      
   
   
   7. Click OK, Then Click Next on the original window, then click Finish.
   
   Congratulations the Transparent Vignette Plug-in is installed.
   
   Now the fun part begins.


3. Select Your Image
   Select the image you desire to work with and open it in Photoshop
   
   
   
   For the purposes of this tutorial I am going to use my image What do you think you're lookin' at?!
   While I love this image, especially because of the tiger's eye contact with the viewer, there are several elements that would make this image 'as is' very unsuitable for a T-shirt design.
   
   • The rock overhang over the tiger's head
   • The deeply shadowed background that makes for extremely hard edges at the image borders
   • The distracting hay bedding he is sitting in.


4. Crop to required size.
   Now whether you are working with CafePress, Redbubble, Zazzle or some other company to print your T-shirts will dictate what dimensions your finished image has to be, so make sure you check the guidelines of your chosen service.
   
   I use RedBubble, whose requirements for a T-shirt design dictate that the image MUST be a 2400 pixel wide by 3200 pixel high .PNG file.
   
   Select your Crop tool, then in the toolbar at the top set width to 24 inches, height to 32 inches, and resolution to 100 pixels per inch
   
   
   
   This will give you the correct dimensions without having to complicate the math.
   
   Now crop your image to the desired size and composition.
   For this project you will want to make sure that the part of the image you want to keep is in the center. Anything to the sides will be erased.
   
   
   You will note that I didn't crop out the rock overhang or all of the sides, those will be erased by the Transparent Vignette later.
   


5. Add a transparent background layer
   You might note from the above images that I already have the Layers box already open in the lower right corner of my screen.
   If you do not, then press F7 (or go to Window in the toolbar, and select Layers)
   
   Currently the image has just one Background layer
   
   Right-Click on that Background layer and select 'Layer from Background'
   
   
   
   A New Layer Window comes up.
   Leave Name as Layer 0, Color as None, and Blend mode as Normal
   Click 'OK'
   
   Now press 'Shift+Ctrl+N' to create a new Layer (or go up to Layer >New >Layer in the Toolbar)
   
   Another New Layer window pops up.
   Leave Name as Layer 1, Color as None and Blend Mode as Normal
   Click 'OK'.
   
   In the Layer box in the bottom right you now have two layers, with the transparent layer being on top.
   
   Click on the Move icon in the Layer window and then drag Layer 0 to the top.
   
   
   
   Make sure Layer 0 remains selected so that the correct layer is worked on in the next step.
   


6. Use the the Transparent Vignette filter
   Go to Filters and select AAA Filters > Transparent Vignette
   
   
   
   The Transparent Vignette Window will open.
   
   
   


7. Play for a little bit.
   This part is really trial and error, every image works differently.
   
   There are really only two options to work with here.
   The top slider, Transparency, controls how transparent the edges of the image become.
   The second slider, Increase Size, controls how far into the image the transparency extends.
   
   Once you are relatively happy with what you see in the preview window, click 'OK'. (Remember this is not an exact science and there will still be edges to the image at this stage)
   
   You now have a nice, soft edged transparent image However it is not 100% transparent at the edges and still has the dreaded straight edges that ruin t-shirt designs.
   
   
   


8. Lasso
   Now it's time to get out the Lasso Tool.
   
   Select the Lasso Tool or the Point-to-Point Lasso Tool depending on your preference.
   You are going to need a very soft edge for the selection as well so set Feather to at least 50 pixels.
   I used Feather: 75 pixels for this image.
   
   
   
   Using the lasso tool select a very loose outline around the area of the image you wish to keep.
   
   
   
   Note I did adjust the selection after this.. to round of a selection and your end result ends up looking sort of like a 'bulls-eye' on the shirt.
   


9. Cut away the excess.
   We cut away the excess by inverting the selection to select the rest of the image, and then deleting it.
   To invert the selection by pressing Ctrl+Shift+I to invert the selection (or Select >Invert)
   Now press the Delete key to remove the unwanted portions of the image.
   
   What your left with should be pretty much your desired end result.
   


10. Reposition image for Composition
    Position the image in the template.
    At this point the image is usually right around the center of the template and therefore a little out of place on the t-shirt. Most of us don't want our t-shirt logos centered on our bellies, they should be higher on the chest.
    
    Simply press Ctrl+Shift+I again to invert the selection back to the remaining image.
    Switch to the Move tool.
    Click and drag the image to where you want it in the template.
    
    Et Voila! You are done!
    
    
    


11. SAVE YOUR WORK!
    First save the image as a PSD file.. in case you decide to make future edits.
    Then use the Save As function to save it as a .PNG file (non-interpolated) to upload.
    

One last note: Artist's prerogative, I wasn't really that happy with the end result of this shirt design, too dark for my tastes, so it was never selected for my online collection.

Check out the shirts I currently have available at Alyce Taylor Photography on RedBubble.

"Feeling Hoppy" - Photo of the Day - December 9th,2009

"Feeling Hoppy"
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"Stormy Skies" - Photo of the Day - December 8th, 2009

"Stormy Skies"
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"Sunshine" - Photo of the Day - Dec. 7th, 2009

"Sunshine"
View this image on my Website

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"Marble Creek" - Photo of the Day

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"Canadian Moose" - Photo of the Day - December 5th, 2009

"Canadian Moose"
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The reluctant blogger begins... & "Marble Canyon"

Welcome to Wild Images with Alyce Taylor!

I do not consider myself to be a great writer, I much prefer to speak through images, but a few people have been asking me to begin communicating in a format abit more "tangible" than Twitter, so here it goes.

Since I am not sure what else to add yet I shall leave you with my image of the day...


"Marble Canyon"
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