Holy Hill, a magnificent Roman Catholic basilica perched atop a scenic kame in the charming town of Erin, Wisconsin, is an awe-inspiring sight visible from miles away. Its majestic presence has graced the landscape as a cherished landmark since its completion in 1931. To my delight, during our search for a new home in the […]
Portraits are an incredible way to capture the essence of a person. They can tell a story, convey emotions, and immortalize memories. It’s no surprise that portrait photography has been around for over a century, and it’s still as popular as ever. In this blog post, I’ll explain how I make a great portrait. Understand […]
Quality real estate photos are essential to make a great first impression on potential buyers or renters. Creating real estate photos involves a combination of technical and artistic skills. Here are some tips that I use to create real estate photos are of the highest technical quality: Use a high-quality camera: Use a DSLR or […]
Holy Hill is a Roman Catholic basilica that sits on top of a kame in the town of Erin, Wisconsin. It can be seen for miles around and has been a landmark since it’s completion in 1931. It was pointed out to me when we were looking for a new home in the area. Turns out I can […]
I came across this technique back in 2013. I was blown away by how mesmerizing the effect was. For the next few years, I would take stationary video footage, knowing that one day I would give this a try. To see how these are made, watch the video at the bottom of this post. We […]
A long time ago, when digital cameras had a small amount of megapixels, I found that I wanted to enlarge some of my photos. Enlarging a photo in Photoshop would create an image that was blurry or bring out digital imperfections. One way to get around this was to push the pixels into a painting, […]
Here is a video of some of my best bird photos. While some photos were taken in various locations in the eastern part of the country, most were captured in my backyard. I’ve found that attracting birds is much easier than chasing them with a big lens. My set up is a nice bird feeder, […]
At the beginning of the 2014 East Carolina football season, Todd Owens of purplepirateplunder.com asked me if I would photograph on the sidelines of an ECU football game and get some images for his blog. So, I emailed a few people who knew a few people and managed to procure media credentials for the November 22nd […]
This morning I woke up in time to photograph the lunar eclipse. This lunar eclipse was special because it was simultaneous with the sunrise. The event, called a selenelion, is incredibly rare as the sun and moon have to be exactly 180 degrees apart. I caught the eclipse about 15 minutes after it started and watched […]
Once I found out that my Facebook friends were using my photos as wallpaper to their cellphones, I decided to optimize a few to make sure they looked as I intended. Feel free to download these to your phone. Update: I’ve disabled right clicking on my site, but if you want one of these, email […]
A few years ago, I had a contract with the former company Qualex, which was a sister company of Eastman Kodak. They started a new marketing department in an effort to breath life into their declining photographic processing business model. Our first test was to create a line of MLB licensed, print-on-demand photo templates. Online […]
As you might be able to tell, I love animals and the outdoors. The gardens in my yard are filled with flowers that attract all kinds of birds. One of my favorite birds that visit my flowers are Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. When I first moved to my house, I caught a glimpse of one and that […]
Cayuga Clouds from Steve Ollice on Vimeo. Using the intervalometer on my Nikon D7000, I captured a timelapse of an incoming rain shower crossing the north end of Cayuga lake. With 800 or more frames into a 999 set, I had to bring my equipment in out of the rain. I used a Tokina 11-16mm […]
Spring of 2011, I was approached by the Waldensian winemaker, Dolce Vita, to design a label for their new product, called Brenda’s Bellini. A Bellini cocktail is a mixture of Prosecco sparkling wine and peach purée, originating in Venice, Italy. I never tasted the drink myself, but my son used the mix to make a […]
A beautiful electric storm blows across Cayuga Lake in Upstate New York. I love a good summer storm… from a distance. Here is a series of photos that I placed in an animation. I was trying to capture a lightning strikes, but when I viewed the photos in succession, it made for a compelling movie.
Visiting my mother is like going to a museum. She collects antiques, mostly early American artifacts from the turn of the century. Collections of rolling pins, wash boards, and tobacco tins cover the walls and decorate every spare inch of her comfortable colonial home. As an artist, bent towards design and illustration, I am mostly […]
Too bad, so sad, another bad guy is taking a dirt nap! So, in an attempt to ride the keyword wave of a hot search topic, I am posting this short tutorial on a different and perhaps new approach to caricature. 1) Find a good source image First, I scour the Internet for a decent […]
The Great Gully is a creek that flows into Cayuga Lake, one of the Finger Lakes in Upstate New York. Every creek that flows into one of these lakes has some sort of waterfall. Some falls are more spectacular than others. They were all formed in the same way and at the same time as […]
A couple of weeks ago, Tony Chester of OnWired needed a background illustrated for a fishing website. I had a great meeting with Tony and his team. They had a clear idea of what they wanted and how to execute it. Unfortunately, the client went in a different direction. I got the message the next […]
To me, a caricature is a person’s likeness that has some kind of an exaggeration of reality. That exaggeration can be based on any emotional gesture or physical feature, but I tend to gravitate towards funny expressions and realistic renderings. Rather than try to explain what I’ve learned about drawing caricatures, I’m just going to […]
About two years ago, I was asked to draw a caricature of President Obama. My boss at the time, was thinking of creating a political blog and wanted to see what I could come up with. I spent an hour researching other caricatures online to see what other artist were exaggerating in their depictions. I […]
Last year I was offered the opportunity to work for Replay Photos, a little company located in the heart of the historic tobacco district of Durham, North Carolina. Replay Photos has a website that sells licensed photos of most college, university, and some professional sports. The offices were in a 100 year old renovated tobacco […]
It was a long time in the making and it is now live! Here is my first live WordPress web site. I’ve got big plans for the blog and plan to write a few articles on some things I’ve learned and some things I don’t want to forget. So follow me on Twitter or subscribe […]
I am a huge fan of gig posters and www.gigposters.com. My co-worker’s band was releasing a CD and I wanted to stretch my creativity. Have a band? I will design in exchange for free music… and beer.