Steven Bourelle Digital Arts » Steven

Knight in Shining Armor, Bristol Renaissance Faire

Steven — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:46:20 +0000

As a child and then as a teenager, I loved fantasy. I watched fantasy movies, read fantasy books, played Dungeons and Dragons and often dreamed of living in those times. Times when knights would put on their suits of armor and do battle on horseback. As often happens though, I lost interest in fantasy as an adult.

Three weeks ago I found that old love for fantasy again. Since our first trip to the Bristol Renaissance Faire back on July 11, I’ve been living in that world all over again. It’s pretty awesome to know that just 15 miles down the road is a place where all these childhood dreams are real and that through my photos I can relive those dreams over and over.

There aren’t many places in the world where an adult can feel like a child again. I’m sure glad I found my place.

View More of My Photos From the Faire

Sarah Mullen, The Harpist

Steven — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:04:24 +0000

This beautiful lady is Sarah Marie Mullen. She can currently be found at the Bristol Renaissance Faire making wonderful music on her harp.

It seems that everyone who has a camera at the faire takes Sarah’s picture, I’ve seen hundreds of them. In most of the pictures she’s looking right at the camera and smiling, and even though her smile is very pretty, I like that I caught her right after she smiled at me. What can I say, my timing was off and I missed the smile. Luckily for me, I ended up with what I feel is a more personal portrait of her playing her harp.

I wanted to make this image even more unique than most, so I did it in sepia, softened it up and added the white vignette to frame it all.

If you like harp music, head over to Sarah’s website, SarahMarieMullen.com and check her out.

View More of My Photos From the Faire

That Renaissance Feel, An Image From Bristol

Steven — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 02:34:23 +0000

One of the things I most enjoyed at the Bristol Renaissance Faire was the beautiful clothing that some of the women wore. I have to admit, I have a thing for women in this type of clothing. I feel the renaissance gowns and hats really bring out a beauty in women that’s hard to find in modern times.

I don’t know who this lovely lady is, she was walking about all by herself when I asked if I could have a picture and she posed for me. If she happens to read this, thank you for the great picture.

Though the gown she is wearing was very colorful and the original photo is great, I knew right away that I wanted to work with this image in a brownish or sepia tone.

By tweaking one of the presets in Adobe Lightroom, I was able to begin the process of getting the color I wanted. I then exported the JPG and loaded it into Photoshop. Once in Photoshop I used Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro to soften the image and add some dramatic glow. It was when I added the glow that I knew I had what I was looking for. The only problem was that the filter softened her face a little more than I wanted, so I used a vector mask on that layer and painted back some of the sharpness from the layer underneath. I finish the image off by lightening her face a little.

One of the greatest things about modern digital photography is the ability to create images that look anything but modern. By using the different tools available, we’re able to create artistic images that are not only beautiful to look at, but also create a sense of an older time.

View More of My Photos From the Faire

Lake Michigan Rainbow

Steven — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:53:34 +0000

Last Saturday, July 10, we had some thunderstorms roll through the area. We didn’t see any rain here at the house, but just to the north of us a decent sized storm went through in the evening. As sunset approached, I realized that the storm had made it’s way over Lake Michigan and was now directly east of us. Thinking that there might be some good rainbows around, I headed out to find them.

I didn’t have to go far. Just as I pulled out of the driveway a nice rainbow appeared over the lake. Unfortunately there aren’t any clear views of the lake near our house, so I headed south to the beach hoping that the rainbow would hold that long. As I drove I kept catching glimpses of the rainbow and realized it was a full one. I stepped on the gas a little harder and prayed that the rainbow would hang on and that there weren’t any cops in the area.

When I got to the beach, there was the full rainbow in all it’s glory. I jumped out of the truck, grabbed the camera, opened up the tripod and lined up my shot just as the rainbow began to fade. This image is the result. It’s the only good shot I got before the rainbow was gone. It’s not the completely full rainbow I had hoped for, but it’s the closest I’ve ever came to a full one.

2010 Bristol Renaissance Faire: Fire Sprite

Steven — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 02:46:04 +0000

The Fantastikals can be found at the Bristol Renaissance Faire in Bristol, WI. As I talked about in the last post, they are a group of magical folks that hang out in the Shakespeare’s Meadow area of the faire.

We came upon the Fire Sprite on our second trip by the meadow. She was very busy entertaining many children that had gathered around her. That made getting good photos of her kind of difficult. I had to move around quite a bit in order to get a good angle to shoot. After a bit, all of the kids cleared away except for this little girl. I was able to get these two shots before more kids moved in.

I love the shot on the right. To me this shot shows the magic that’s felt as the Fanstastikals interact with the children. Though you can’t see the child’s face, I can just imagine how precious it looks as she glances at this mystical being and hands her a gift of a leaf that she found on the ground.

In the last post I mentioned the feeling of peace that I felt after watching these interactions. That feeling has stayed with me these three days since and as I’ve worked on these images, it continues to grow.

View More of My Photos From the Faire

2010 Bristol Renaissance Faire: The Brownie

Steven — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:59:08 +0000

This last weekend we went to the Bristol Renaissance Faire. It was not only my first time at the Bristol Faire, it was my first time at any renaissance faire. The photography opportunities were endless. There were so many folks walking around in the the most beautiful costumes that you really had to keep your head on a swivel so you didn’t miss anything.

My favorite part of the faire was the Shakespeare’s Meadow area. That’s where the wonderful Fantastikals hang out. The Fantastikals are an assorted group of fairies, sprites and other magical beings that interact non-verbally with the audience. They are especially attracted to children and watching them interact with a child is truly magical. After spending time with the Fantastikals, you find that your inner child begins to emerge and a wonderful feeling of peace flows through you. Photographing them was wonderful.

Featured in these images is The Brownie. I was able to get some great photos of her as she played with some kids to her right, and then her attention would drift to the rocks in front of her and then back to the kids. She had some of the most amazing facial expressions. You never knew what she’d do next. I’ll say it again, truly magical!

I’ll be featuring more of the Fantastikals in the coming days.

View More of My Photos From The Faire

Working With What You Have, The Denis Sullivan

Steven — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 16:21:36 +0000

Sticking with the nautical theme, here’s an image I shot at the 2009 Port Washington Maritime Heritage Festival in Port Washington, WI. The tall ship in the foreground is the Denis Sullivan out of Milwaukee. I can’t tell what ship that is in the background. It may be the Friends Good Will that I featured in an earlier post.

I’ve been going through the photos that I shot at the festival last year, trying to create unique images of the beautiful ships that were there. One of the biggest problems I faced last year was the light, it was horrible. There was a thick haze on the day we were there and it created very harsh lighting conditions. The original version of this image is a perfect example of that. The sky was washed out and everything had a grayish cast to it. It just didn’t look very good.

As I began to work on this version of the image though, I realized I could use that bad light to my advantage. By washing out the image even more, I was able to create a very simple scene of two ship heading out into the foggy unknown. To me this image sets my imagination on fire. Where are they going? What are they doing? Will they return?

I love that I was able to take an image that I was initially disappointed in, and turn it into an image that I’m very proud of. By working with what I was given on that day, and using a little imagination, I now have a very cool image.

Happy 4th of July

Steven — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 14:57:58 +0000

The Tall Ship “Friends Good Will” in Port Washington, WI

Steven — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:33:46 +0000

The tall ship Friends Good Will sails out of South Haven Michigan. It’s a replica of the 19th century sloop that was originally built in Detroit MI in 1811 and served both the United States and the British in the War of 1812. During the war, it was captured by the British and then recaptured by the Americans. It then ran aground in Buffalo and was burnt to the waterline to keep it from being captured by the British again.

The Friends Good Will is owned by the Michigan Maritime Museum and is used as a floating classroom to help educate people about Lake Michigan’s maritime history.

This photo was taken at the 2010 Port Washington Pirate Festival in Port Washington WI. Also in the photo is Port Washington’s famous art deco lighthouse.

This was the second time I photographed this ship. The first time was at the 2009 Port Washington Maritime Heritage Festival. The light was horrible that day and I wasn’t at all happy with my photos. This second time the light was much nicer and I got some fine photos of this beautiful ship. This image is an artistic representation of one of those photos.

St. Mary’s Church, Port Washington WI

Steven — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:50:27 +0000

The Lake Michigan fishing village of Port Washington is one of my favorite towns in Wisconsin. It has a wonderful harbor and downtown area and holds many festivals there throughout the summer. Sitting on top of a hill, overlooking downtown Port Washington, is St Mary’s Catholic Church. This beautiful church was built in 1882 by Luxembourg emigrants.

On our first trip to Port Washington, we drove up to the church to photograph it. I took this picture at the time. I never really cared for the color version of this image, so I decided to try it as a black and white, I still didn’t care for it. Then I decided to try sepia and there was the look I wanted. I feel the sepia image captures the beauty and feeling of the church, it seems to radiate an aura that the color and BW image just didn’t have.