022711 Glamour Shots Time!

(The portrait style you see in the place where you get your haircut)

In preparation for a couple of important headshots I'll be taking this week I decided that I didn't have a new enough facebook profile image. So here we are.

(Black and White)

I'm wearing my "Failure is not an Option" T-shirt for these first two.

And for this one I'm doing my best impression of everyones highschool science teacher!

The setup for these portraits were 2 580 EXII speedlights (key set to 1/32, a rim set to 1/125), and a reflector. You can take great portraits and conserve energy too! More to come on that soon!

022511 Fun in a Dreary Season!

Sometimes it's tough to get excited about photography in a season so confined and dreary as our own mid-west winters.

One thing I like to do is to make the processing of the images match the feel of the shoot. I played around with a few black and white styles as well that I think really match the feel of winter. :)

These hydrangea are from the Krohn Conservatory!

This is an example of some of the processing.

I thought this would make a great creepy background for my friend Jeremy Hanke's brand new World of Depleted!

Haliea our dog thought it was SO funny!

021911-022011 Krohn Conservatory Spring Greening Weekend!!!

I have to say a big THANK YOU to our friends Andrea and Patti at Krohn Conservatory for letting us do some on-the-spot portrait and printing for their "Spring Greening Weekend!!!"

(Custom border designs by OJ Santiago)

Master graphic designer and photographer, OJ Santiago bravely assisted with the waves of giggling bright eyed children of all ages that rushed to be photographed with the animals!

They're almost too cute. :)

This is our wonderful friend Kelly and a "Rhode Island Red."

For most of the guests we printed awesome little ink jet 4x6s for a donation to the Conservatory. Others chose to have the image emailed to them.

Sunday was also the day of an amazing event like a lunar eclipse, a baby chick on a puppy whose laying on a rabbit. Truly a pinnacle of cuteness!

Check out the Krohn Conservatory's website for future events!

It's a wonderful place all year long. One guest said he came once a week all winter long to get a dose of summer!

021911 Other Stuff

After the first day of photographing at the Conservatory and being in all that beauty I decided to bring my 60mm macro so I could take some pretty pictures during the slower moments.

This is a puppy with no name. I suggested Mr. Snuggles, but Lindsy (our helper for the day and the dog's owner) decided that a contest for the guests to name the dog was a better idea.

I also got to meet some really cute people.

If you haven't been to Krohn Conservatory, you need to go.

021811 TAKE THAT WASHER!

Well for the past month or so our clothes washer hasn't spun. This leaves the clothes sopping wet and makes the dryer work extra hard. That's no fun. SOOOOOOooo after a little internet research and help from my dad, we found out that it was a single resistor and capacitor that burned up. 6 solderings and a burn on my elbow later it's fixed!!! TAKE THAT REPAIR GUYS! It only cost $6 (and a burn).

Plus while I was in there I couldn't help taking a bunch of pictures of the neato circuit boards. :)

021111 Instagram and New perspectives

Hello and welcome, since most of my recent work has been the property of an entity larger than myself I have chosen to take a moment this week to share a really cool app that exploits the crappy qualities of my iphone 3g in a really cool way!

The app is called Instagram and is free.

Essentially you treat your phone like a medium format camera with a about a 25mm prime lens. Then overlay one of 16 retro filters and...

Viola! Instant classic.

I love this portrait of my good friend Rob. Its so Mathew Brady, 1850s.

This trick to this app is to understand what it does, and take photographs that will look good when the framing and the over lay are applied. You're shooting for the product!

I remember reading on DigitalProTalk.com several years ago about how David explored the possibility of his 100mm Macro by taking a photo hike and not letting the lens leave his hands. That's what I'm trying to do with my stinky iphone camera and this really neat app.

(A little loop lighting from a lamp and a contrast filter later)

This application exploits the contrast and strange quality of the iphone camera pretty well.

Terri has is the one who showed me Instagram and she has some pretty amazing photos herself. I'm pretty sure she was told by amazing Cincinnati photographer and friend Melissa Fields.

The camera does have its limitations though. It is NOT a macro. :(

Thanks for the shutter noise Apple, but if you have one, it should coincide with the exposing.

Having said that, it's still a neat way to view the world!

And it's the perfect set of effects to portray the cold of winter!

Even the medium format cropping was a challenge at first.

And what intro to photography class would be complete without a trip to the cemetery!?!?!?

Pretty fun stuff!

I'm just saying, if photography of coffee in a hallway can be made interesting in a few clicks, then I'm all for trying it out!

The program is called Instagram

http://instagr.am/