Soundslides Video

Products, People, and International Travel

It's been a little while since I last posted. I've been very busy with assignments, client shoots, and preparing for a few day trip to Mexico next week. I'll be posting some of the band photos I recently finished tonight so look forward to those. Otherwise, Sunday evening I'll head out for Laredo, TX in preparation to cross the border Tuesday into Nuevo Larado, Mex. I'll be observing operations at an orphanage and shooting a video and stills for promotion of a future trip to the orphanage. So look for those photos in a week or so too!

On to the assignment. Products. I chose the new Premium M&Ms because I wanted something to shoot on a dark background that needed some depth. It worked well.

Also did some flash shots with Hillary. These were great fun! I ended up using a photo where the flash was coming through a homemade diffusion panel for some softening of the light. Also, the flash was nearly level with her head. Interesting lighting patters about when you get your flash off your camera!!

Hope you like them! Tell me what you think!

Lightroom 2

Of late I have been considering an upgrade in my photo management and initial edits software. Currently, I use Apple's Aperture 1.x. I enjoy the ease of use and am comfortable with the interface and capabilities so I leaned heavily toward purchasing Aperture 2.x. I also was very excited to learn that Aperture has a new feature for tethered shooting; meaning that I would be able to see full views of shots on my MacBook within seconds of closing the shutter.

In spite of my loyalty to Apple and my already biased view of Aperture, I decided to give Adobe's Lightroom 2 a trial run. So a few days ago, I downloaded the 30-day trial and imported into my new temporary Lightroom Library a few recent shoots. I was at first wary of the interface and work-flow which is slightly more prominent in Lightroom over Aperture. Usually, I enjoy just being left to my own devices when it comes to flow organization.

After processing two product shoots, a headshot session and a shoot for a local band, I have fallen love with Lightroom. The newer features, which I am grateful are "standard" to me, impressed me beyond belief. Such tight integration with Photoshop and an amazing set of non-destructive editing tools deserve eager applause.

Here is the first photo that I have released since my conversion to Lightroom. I am very excited about a future spent in the lightroom!

Big Kid...Little Highchair

This past Saturday, we set up a quick shoot for the Fully Engaged: The Power of A Committed Life series.  These photos were used to illustrate the point that the point comes in the life of every Christian that you learn to eat real food and feed yourself.  It's pretty ridiculous when an older Christian refuses to feed themselves to eat anything of substance.  

So it was shot in a small dining room with the new Bees.  Two B800s and two 48" Shoot-Through Umbrellas.

Photograms; 21st Century Style

A photogram is essentially a sheet of photo paper exposed to light while various objects rest atop it.  The objects protect the paper from light and all kinds of artful designs can be made.

Here are a couple photograms that were not made with photo paper and light but rather with a flatbed scanner!  If you have a scanner you haven't used in 12 years, crack that sucker out and get to photogram-ing!!