Up until this point I have been shooting family, friends, and working on my fine art. For the most part, my work could be classified under “spontaneous portraits” considering the fact that I go into each shoot with no concept, no specific idea’s, and pretty much just react to what I see and record it as best I can. Recently, I re-connected with a friend named Tania, whom I noticed took a lot of photographs with her friend and posted them online. I asked her if she would be interested in shooting with me, so that I could work the stand alone portrait part of my profile. We decided on a location and a couple random idea’s and went for it. Here are the results . . .
Latest
I’d give my left hand for that . . .
Well, I’d at least consider it. Being that I am left handed, and that cameras are designed for right handed use, I pretty much need both of my hands. I still REALLY can’t wait to have enough money saved up for the Canon 5d Mk II and the few pieces of L glass that I want oh-so-bad. Now to the point of this post, I have recently picked up an interest in photo-manipulation (outside of the standard levels/curves/local adjustments) , therefore I have been non-stop reading about the different techniques and way to apply the techniques to my photographic style. The first idea that popped into my head was to try and remove a limb, while maintaining a high level of realism. This is my first attempt at real photo manipulation…
Lazy Labor Day
Decided to take it easy this labor day. My friend Dustin and I hung out at his house and watched the kids (as well as the Diamondbacks game) while our wives went out to a local bar for a drink. Like always, I had my camera with me and just took some random shots. Here are the ones I liked . . .
Through the Windshield; On the Road.
As I mentioned before, I enjoy shooting while relaxing in the passenger seat. These are photos I took while on the way to St. George, Utah to see some family. I took a ton of photos but these are some of my favorite for sure.
Busy much? (Flagstaff weekend)
On a regular day/week, I stay at home with my children and work on my photography. The last 3 weeks I’ve been working a temporary job at Valley Radiology re-arranging, purging and organizing the GIANT film library. My wife works for the company and they needed some quick help so I’m stuck doing that until its complete, which is hopefully only another week or two at most. I certainly don’t mind the extra cash, but I absolutely dislike not having time for photography!
Recently we went up to Flagstaff a little while back to hang out with some family and enjoy the more-than-perfect weather. Being that my Tori does most of the driving, I tend to spend most of the time on the road snapping pictures though the windows.
A good chunk of my family lives up north from Cottonwood to Flagstaff, and at least once a year we try to meet up at the Flagstaff KOA (where one of my cousins lives and works) to camp out and enjoy the perfect weather. The main reason for this peticular meeting was the annual (or semi-annual?) “KOA VW Kampout” in which a large number of Volkswagon fans and collectors set up camp and hang out for the entire weekend. I myself don’t have a VW but a good number of my family members do, most importantly the VW Bus. Of course I brought my camera and pretty much snapped random shots all weekend.
This was my daughters second time camping, but first time since she began walking, and first time seeing her cousin in a good 8 months. Needless to say, they had a blast hanging out together.
Its not very often I get a chance to practice my night photography in places other than around my house, so I had some fun running around the campground after most people went in for the night.
One of the things I like most about this side of my family, is that they are ALL musically inclined. They bring a number of different guitars (different types as well) and everybody just sits around jamming out. They play and sing songs from every genre and its a blast to see.
Daily Shoot #611 Stairs & Ramps
“Stairs and ramps lead the eye and take us places. Make a photo of a stair or ramp that you see today.” - Daily Shoot
Took my daughter outside to play around in the grass and get some sun, and she went straight for this set of stairs, which just so happened to be part of the assignment for today so I took a few shots. The one thing I do like about this photo is that if you glance at it really quickly, it almost looks like she is crawling down stairs, and the wall at the end of the staircase is really the floor.
Daily Shoot #608 Something that sparkles?
“Make a photo of something that sparkles in some way.” - Daily Shoot
This one actually held me up a bit, the first thing I thought to do was snag my wifes engagement/wedding/first anniversary rings because they are probably have the most “sparkle” of anything else in this house. I threw on some macro glass and set up my lighting, took a number of photos at different exposures and focal lengths trying to get the most ‘bling’ in the shot. I got some that I considered to be ok but wasn’t too excited so I put my camera away and decided I would edit and post in the morning. That following morning my daughter looked cute as hell so cleared some space in my memory card and started snapping away, completely forgetting that I had taken some shots the night before. Either way, the ring shots are gone and I wasn’t excited enough about them to try a redo, which ended up being an awesome decision. While sitting here thinking about what else I could possibly photograph, I looked over at the paperweight on my desk . . . a big glass skull . . . thats gotta sort of sparkle to it! So I grabbed a high output light, turned off all the lights in the house and took some shots, I am way happier with these than I could have ever been with the deleted ring shots! Here is my favorite:
Daily Shoot #607 Beautiful Light
“Make a photo of something you cherish today in beautiful light. Arrange and move things if you need to.” - Daily Shoot
What do I cherish? Well my family of course . . . and most recently my daughter who just started walking. This was taken during the ‘Golden Hour’ and I find the lighting to be very warm and beautiful.
Daily Shoot #606 Favorite beverage
“To celebrate the (near) end of the week, make an artistic shot of your favorite beverage or libation today.” - Daily Shoot
This one was easy, everybody knows I drink soda more than any one person should, and the drink of the day is Coca-Cola of course! Used a modeling lamp and a wide angle lens for this shot, I love the way the lens distortion makes the can look.
