On Monday, May 7, 2012, at 7:28 p.m.— my son, Robert Nathaniel Carter, was born. Here are several photos of him and of family on that day.

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The Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce Convention & Visitor Bureau along with RSVP Montgomery magazine and eMerge are hosting an “all white” party in The Alley in downtown Montgomery, Thursday, May 10. For more information, visit the CVB Facebook Page or RSVP Montgomery online.

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Chapel Hill at The Waters in Pike Road, Alabama is a beautiful unique venue for any occasion, but perfect for weddings. This ad was recently designed for the RSVP Wedding issue, and I must admit that the photography made the ad. For more information, contact the staff at The Waters at www.thewatersal.com

Photo courtesy of southerncomfortphotography.com

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You may recall an earlier post regarding several designs for the Dog-U-Tante Ball, but a couple weeks ago I shot for the the fund raiser. Here are a few photos of the event, but you can view the entire collection here: http://goo.gl/k3vlu

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Riverfront Park celebrated the grand opening of the SandBAR at the Silos, along with the very first Second Saturday Riverfront Festival of the summer. And although I had to leave before the main celebration began, I did manage to fire off a few shots of the bar and facilities.

If you haven’t spent much time at Riverfront Park, it’s quickly becoming the best coolspot on Montgomery. I’ve included a shot of my kid playing on the splashpad which is less than 100 yards from the SandBAR—now the kids can play comfortably while you enjoy a cold one responsibly on a hot summer afternoon.

Come check it out for yourself, tonight, when RSVP celebrates the release party for their special 2012 Bridal Issue.

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I’ve designed many ads for the MMFA, and I’ve shot countless photography sessions and events on their grounds. Recently I was asked to design a square-third magazine advertisement for the Wedding issue of RSVP Montgomery. This is the final design, in keeping with their current brand and ongoing 2012 advertising campaign. For more information about the MMFA, go to www.mmfa.org. If you are interested in hosting an event at the MMFA, contact Tisha Rhodes at trhodes@mmfa.org

CP&D: SEARCH MMFA

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I recently designed a pair of advertisements for Laser Wellness. The ads ran in consecutive issues with a local magazine, RSVP Montgomery. The second ad brings  in some subtle elements from the first to help tie the two ads together. I’ve been working with Laser Wellness for a few months now, designing several magazine ads — I look forward to future designes with Laser Wellness. For more information about Laser Wellness and their services, go to www.alabamalaserwellness.com

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I’ve been a faithful user of istockphoto.com since my days in college. I can remember when nearly all their images were just a buck — but over the years their prices have continued to climb at an alarming rate. Thanks to a friend, I was recently introduced to canstockphoto.com and have really enjoyed their service. That said, I still rely on iStockPhoto for many of my projects, but CanStockPhoto has been an excellent resource. Sure, original photography is the best, and I am happy to provide that for my clients… but not everyone has the budget for photography work in addition to design.

So, I am asking you… what stock resources do you use?

In a quick Google Search, I found many stock sites claiming quality photography at affordable rates… but I want recommendations!

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The RSVP Wedding issue is due to release any day now, and I’ve designed many of the advertisements for the magazine. This ad was designed for A Catered Affair — for more information, contact tammy4catering@yahoo.com or go to www.acateredaffair.info

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Converting DVDs to digital mp4 really isn’t all that difficult, especially if you are a Mac user, but when you have a DVD collection like mine—you’re looking at a very long process.

A couple of years ago my wife bought me the Apple TV, and in that time I have managed to convert a few of our most-watched DVDs and purchase a half-dozen or so must-have digital editions to the ever expanding Carter Video Collection. Now, I’m on a mission to convert the entire collection into mp4 for use with our Apple TV and box-up the actual DVDs for backup only.

Why would I want to convert all my DVDs into a digital format?

There a dozens of reasons, but the best reason is convenience. Having all your movies available to you through Apple TV is like having only the best of Pay-Per-View without the “Pay-Per”. Similar to On-Demand, but with your own personal collection of movies and you only had to pay for them once—no monthly fee.

Sure, there are other good reasons like organization, portability, space conservation and so on — but convenience has the most motivation for me. Well, that and organization. It’s just so darned easy to know what it is you have to watch…

Portability?

Now with my collection already in digital format it is easy for me to load select movies to my iPhone for trips or for my daughter to watch. It’s also possible to take them all on a trip with me since they are stored on an external drive… or load a couple on the laptop. Get the idea?

It’s not something I would do often, but it is something to think about.

How am I converting my DVDs?

This is as simple as pie and I don’t recommend any other alternative. Buy Mac DVDRipper Pro! It kicks butt and makes the entire process painless (almost).

The reason I say almost is because you still have to (if you are like me) grab the meta data like artwork, year published, summery, etc… There is also the issue with TV Episodes. Mac DVDRipper Pro does not handle TV Episodes well and that is why my TV Episodes will be the last thing I convert — there is rumor that the next major update to MDRP will support episodes.

So how many more DVDs do I have to convert?

Too many! BUT… I am enjoying having all my family movies, children’s DVDs and most of the best titles available at a click of a button. Give me a few more months and I’ll have them all converted. After all, it’s not like I have that much time to convert video.

One thing I try to do now is, for the titles I really want… I try to buy them with a digital version included in the DVD/BR purchase. This saves me a whole lot of time and in many cases the quality of the digital copy provided is better than a RIP — especially if the digital copy is through the iTunes store.

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This collection of photography is meant to show the beauty of my home town — the city of Montgomery, Alabama. In recent years this city has begun to grow; to blossom into something much more than history has made it out to be. At the heart of that change is Downtown Montgomery where history and modern development have merged to become a catalyst for future growth. I look forward to the future of Montgomery and have made it my goal to help this city become all it can while remaining a home to my family, and a place I am proud to raise my children. That is why I dedicated this book to my daughter, Kaylee.

Availability:

78 pg Hardcover (8″ x 10″)   |   78 pg Paperback (7″ x 7″)

The book comes in two styles: Hardback and Paperback and may be purchased online through Blurb.com. The paper quality is excellent and it makes the images come alive—you won’t be disappointed!

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The Process

Several people were interested in the process I took in manipulating the image from day to night. Below I have tried to recall the steps that I took, however, this manipulation was done on a whim and I had no intention of recalling any of it while I was working on it. Honestly, this was a 20 minute release for me. Something fast and creative to keep me from burning out on the project I was working on. I’m sure I’ll try and perfect the process at some point in time, but for now it’s just a doodle of the Photoshop kind.

	Step 1 – I opened the image I wanted to manipulate, then duplicated the background layer and adjust the levels. I was looking to do two things, reduce the overall exposure and darken the highlights. To achieve the night look on a daylight photo, I slid the midtone handle of the Input to the right, and the midtone handle of the Output to the left. I had to tweak my adjustment for the specific image.
	Step 2 – This step required me to paint out the clouds and darken the sky. The best way to do this was to select local color samples. I did this on a new layer, and set my layer blend mode to “darken”. That helped me maintain the shadow details while painting out the highlights. I played around with this, and always took local sample colors with a relative alignment to the area I was painting out.
	Step 3 – This could have been done a couple of different ways, but for simplicity sake I just duplicated my original background layer and place it as the top-most layer. Then using a layer mask, I slowly painted in the highlights with a soft brush. I was sure to set my brush’s opacity very low so I could see the mask slowly take effect. All along, I tried to think about the light and how it would fall within the scene if it were actually night.
	Step 4 – Nothing to this much. On a new layer use a soft paintbush, set to a lightly yellowish white… paint in the porch light and add a layer mask as needed to adjust where the light falls.
	Step 5 – Same idea here as with step 3. Using the same layer and mask, I slowly painted in the lighting effects for the second story lights. I tried to keep in mind the way the light would fall on the bushes and the surrounding areas.
	Step 6 – A little more of the same. On a new layer I painted in some additional lighting for the second story windows. I just wanted to intensify the light to make it more convincing. At this point, I also made an adjustment layer and began to mask in some brightness adjustments… some areas just were not right when comparing the way it was during the day and how it really should be at night.
	Step 7 – On a separate layer I added in the stars — a very simple process of using a hard brush with varied weights from 1 to 4 pixels in diameter combines with some good old fashion randomness. After the stars were set, I made a new layer and drew a short thin white line… to that I added a layer mask with gradient. This gave me the effect of a shooting star and I thought it added something so I left it.
	Step 8 – The moon… I did a quick Google search and found a crescent moon that fit the bill and dropped it in. I removed the background from the moon image and played with the levels till I liked the color.
	Step 9 – The last touches were on the moon. I had to give it a little glow and blur. The image I used was just too crisp. Also, on a new layer I added the dark side of the moon by matching the darkest part of the sky and giving it a slight blur. There were a few more adjustments to white balance and some color adjustment layers to play with the temp of the lighting, but very minor. All such adjustments would be relative to your image anyway.

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Today I took a few moments and modified an image I had taken of the Fitzgerald Museum, at mid-day, into a night shot using Photoshop. The result was pretty good so I posted it here. I may still tweak a few things, but for the most part this photo manipulation is a wrap. If you want to see the process in a step-by-step post, let me know and I’ll try to get it online.

Take a look at the: Before -n- After

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A small half-page ad to run in a local publication for Peppertree Steaks N’ Wines located of Vaughn Road in the Peppertree Shopping Center near Chappy’s. For more information, pick up this months issue of RSVP or visit www.steaksnwines.com

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Just one small piece among many designed for the 2012 Dog U Tante Ball to benefit The Montgomery Humane Society. This years theme is Hollywood, and boy do these little pups know how to gussy themselves up. Keep an eye out for the rest of the campaign to be posted on the site, but for now — you can learn more about the Dog U Tante Ball at www.montgomeryhumane.com or by calling 334-409-0622.

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Just a quick design I did for Glow in Auburn. They are advertising in a local publication and needed a little help with their material. If you interested in Glow, you can reach them at www.shop-glow.com

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Yesterday I shot a performance by ETHEL at Flowers Elementary School. The performance was made possible by ClefWorks, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting chamber music in Montgomery. For more information about ClefWorks, visit: clefworks.org

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Near the end of 2011 CP&D completed the design of Selma’s first official Visitor Guide. It was distributed last month, and I’ve recently posted it in a digital format on ISSUU. Feel free to check out the official 2012 Selma Visitor Guide before your next visit to historic Selma, Alabama.

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The American Cancer Society holds an annual charity called, Dancing with Celebrities that is used to help raise money for the ACS Relay for Life. This year I’ve donated my services to help them promote the event with hopes it will increase participation.

Above is the final design for a flier that will be distributed around the city. The promotional material includes a brochure cover, poster, flier, eNews piece, Facebook promo and magazine ad.

For more information on the March 3rd event, contact Ashley Brandle at (334) 834-8920 or check out the Facebook page. Feel free to download a PDF of the flier to print out and pass around to coworkers and friends.

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The Saint James Performing Arts department did an amazing job with their 2012 Caboret! This marked my first STJ Caboret and I was very impressed by what I saw. Here are several (219) shots from the performance: http://goo.gl/wGb9y

As always, you will need the Saint James gallery password to access the images online. You may obtain the password by contacting the school office or by contacting me directly.

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