Santa Fe Motel

I went out Sunday night looking for an image to capture.  I have been drawn to night photography again which is something that I do periodically.  I really love the feeling of the night.  I am not sure if the feeling is conveyed through the image but for me when I look at it I can feel the crisp air, the quiet and the solitude.

With it being a new moon it complicates night photography because other than artificial light there is nothing really lighting up the scene.  This sign caught my attention and I stopped to capture it.

This was shot with my Nikon D300s and Nikon 50mm F/1.4 lens at 10 secs F/16.

Inspiration...

I had an opportunity to do some night exploring with a friend and we were searching for an interesting scene to photograph.  The moon was nowhere to be found and we came upon these wind mills with the lights from a local city lighting up the night sky. 

The shot was a 5 minute exposure at f/5.6 with my Nikon D300s on my Nikon 12-24mm F/4.0 lens.  

First Baptist Church of Glendale

I had an amazing opportunity to site walk and take some test images of the historic First Baptist Church in Glendale California.  The original building was constructed in 1912 and then was expanded upon thereafter.  It is a truly amazing facility with a lot of character and grandeur.  I spent a lot of time looking at the building and then a lot more capturing some of the images you see here.  I hope to return and spend more time capturing the history of this great location.

The lighting was a bit tricky trying to balance the interior with the sunlight coming through the beautiful stained glass windows.  With this being basically a test shoot I was attempting to capture some nice images and then analyze the results later to fine tune the exposures and techniques used.  I was really pleased with the results that I achieved.

But the best part of the day was meeting with with an old friend from High School who I haven't seen in over 23 years and just recently reconnected with.  It was wonderful to be able to catch up.

Most of the images I shot this day were captured with the Nikon D300s with a Nikkor 12-24 F/4.0 lens.  

Trip up to Lone Pine, Ca...

I met up with my buddy and excellent photographer friend Mike Cassidy for a trip up to Lone Pine, Ca to capture some incredible landscape, sunsets and clouds.  We were not disappointed and after setup and waiting for the weather and sun to line up we were rewarded with a majestic view of the mountains.

It was a really great time and a wonderful time.  We explored a lot of the areas around the area while chasing the light.

The shot above was shot with a Nikon D300s and Nikon 12-24 DX AF-S lens.

Film Noir Shoot

I had the opportunity to team with Faith and Cliff from Oval Studios on a "Film Noir" shoot they scheduled a few months ago.  It happened to coincide with Faith's birthday which made the entire event even that much more special.  It was a super great time and we worked with models Jessica McGoldrick, Diana Dominquez, Jules Ensey, Amber Jones, and Samantha Griffith.  We had a great make-up artist Amanda Moore who did a fantastic job making the models look beautiful!

In the tradition of the Film Noir style the lighting was harsh and everything was in black-and-white.  I pulled out the super large black backdrop, grid-spot and speed lights.  We set up around 5pm and finished packing everything up around 4:30am the next morning. 

Faith was the main shooter and I mainly worked the lights but I did capture a handful of images that I'm pretty happy with.  Click on the image above to cycle through the selects!

These images were shot with the Nikon D300s and Nikkor 85mm 1.8 AF-S lens.  Really great combination!

Available Light...

I had the opportunity to create of images of my youngest daughter while we were playing in the park.  She is very photogenic and loves to be in front of the camera.  We were playing on the swing and I asked to make some images of her.  This was one of my absolute favorites and was just too cute.

This shot was captured with a Nikon D300s and Nikkor 85mm 1.8 AF-S lens.

Starting Over...

The last year has been pretty difficult with a lot of personal issues that have really complicated my life.  The direct result of all this turmoil was that my photographic creative side was put on the top shelf and neglected for over a year.  Today I sign the papers that takes me out of limbo and gives me my life back!

Everything happens for a reason and I honestly feel that events in life guide you to where you need to be and to help you make the correct choices during a long and hard path.  I have been very fortunate that along every step of the way I have had family and friends by my side who have walked with me and helped me through this journey.  I will be forever grateful for their support, kindness and patiences.

I have also been very fortunate to make some amazing new friends along the way with the latest set being Faith and Cliff Johnson from Oval Studios.  I had an wonderful opportunity to work with with some lighting/equipment techniques and as a result I was able to put a camera back to my eye and create some images!

Photography has always been very special to me and something I have been extremely passionate about.  It was amazing to experience that again and I am ready to start creating again!

The imagine above is of Diana who was the model that Faith brought as our subject for the evening.  Now this wasn't a model shoot but more of a lighting exercise and I just have to say that Diana was awesome, very patient and an absolute blast to photograph!

Tsunami Surfers...

My dad and brother formed a surf band called the Tsunami Surfers that has been playing in and around Bakersfield.  Last weekend they played the Kern River Spring Festival located at Hart Park.  It was a great opportunity to connect up with them and to have an opportunity to photograph the event.  They have put a tremendous amount of effort in the group and sounds pretty tight.

The venue was a pretty tough location to photograph with harsh back lighting and a very attractive fence in front of the band but I think I was able to work around it and get some pretty nice shots.

To minimize changing lenses on this I just used two (2) Nikon D300s with the Nikon 17-55 2.8 AF-S DX and the Nikon 70-200 2.8 AF-S VR attached to each body.  As mentioned above the lighting situation was pretty complicated and to keep things simple I would meter off the concrete floor using exposure lock to prevent the band from being under exposed.

The only thing I forgot?

Earplugs...

Heather...

I had a great opportunity earlier in the week to photograph Heather who is a local model here in town.  She is expecting later this month and we have been trying to coordinate schedules for a few weeks now to do a shoot.  With time running out (she should have the baby literally any day now) we set up a time after work and decided to take advantage of our local California City Central Park.

It was a great time and we walked away with some really nice images to include some really special ones such as the one at right with the rainbow in the picture.  Luckily Heather noticed that and we were able to take advantage of it!

A walk in the field...

The weather is really starting to change around here!  The fields are starting to bloom and every day this week I've driven past these rows of wild flowers growing everywhere and I've had this image in my head to create.  We took the opportunity to bring the kids out here and spent about an hour playing around in the flower fields.  It was pretty cool and everyone had a great time!

This image was shot with a Nikon D300s with the Nikkor 70-200 F/2.8 lens set at 5.6.  

Shrimp and Sausage Boil

I did a bit of food photography today to capture the results of a shrimp, sausage, potato and corn boil.  It is a very colorful (and tasty) meal.  We pulled all the ingredients together and staged the shoot to include even  fresh bread in the background.  It was really fun to shoot (and eat) and the images came out exactly what I was looking for.

The lighting configuration was fairly simple and straight forward.  I had a medium Photoflex Softbox overhead and a grid spot shooting across the screen from the top right of the frame.  Both modifiers were powered with Alien Bees AB800.  I put the Nikon 50 1.4 AF-D lens on my Nikon D300s and shot the scene at F/9 for a bit more depth of field.  

Adventures in photography...

I took the opportunity to take a break today and that resulted in a photo boondoggle that ending up bring me back to Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills California.  It is really a neat place and this is the third time I've been there.  Every time I go I find something new and exciting about the place.  I hope you enjoy the images, just click on the one above and you will go through the selects from the day!

This was all done with a pretty light setup that included one of my Nikon D300s, Nikkor 17-55 2.8, my old Bogen (Manfrotto tripot) and newer Giottos MH-3000 Ball Head.  This little setup worked out very well and enabled me to stay "focused" on the composition I was looking for instead of lugging what would have been a very heavy camera bag.

New Shoot!

I had a really great photo shoot with Jessica McGoldrick and a new model Brian Bailey.  We have been planning this shoot for a few of weeks now and Saturday was the day that everything came together.  I was able to secure a great location that provide a wonderful space to setup a temporary studio.  It was a long day of shooting but we went through seven wardrobe changes from casual, business and formal evening gown and tuxedo.  We did shots with Jessica and Brian together (like above) and then individual shots.  We were able to do various themes and it was really a wonderful shoot.  I have a lot of images to go through and they are really coming out great!

We had two great assistances Jennie Kinney who stepped in at the last minute to handle the makeup and Mike Cassidy who was instrumental in keeping everything running.  Unfortunately Mike had to leave part way through the shoot so he wasn't available when we did the group shoot as the last shot of the night.

I ended up using all of my studio lights to light the set and it worked out very well.  I also incorporated the new Eye-Fi Pro X2 8GB SD card sending medium sized JPG images to my Apple iPad 32GB running Shutter Snitch.  In the shot above they are using the iPad as a prop but Brian and Jessica are really looking at the shots coming downloading automatically.  Shooting tethered is a wonderful thing and shooting wireless to the iPad is truly a life-saver.  We were able to use that instant feedback to fix clothing and set errors and to allow the models to see what was going on.

As I said above it was really a great shoot and I want to thank Jessica, Brian, Jennie, and Mike for their hard work and all the effort and energy they brought to the set!  You all were wonderful!

Bail Bonds, open for business!

I have driven past this place on the way home a few times, especially at night, and I've always wanted to take a moment to try and capture it.  So this night I decided to pull over and see what I could do.  Night scenes are always a little tricky and with the lights, passing cars (shooting across the road) it was kind of an interesting exposure balancing act.  In the end I did get what I was looking for. They kind of messed me up with the flood lights - those where new - but it still worked.

Bottom line, and moral of the story, when you see something you want to shoot you probably should stop and do it...  Before they add the floods!

Impromptu idea

I was trying some test ideas with my daughter Deanna when she decided she wanted to do this pose.  It was pretty amazing for me because he was like, "I'm going to sit here with my legs going like this and looking this way, take the picture."  I was like, "okay" and it was a pretty neat shot.

Camping...

I had the opportunity to do some night photography a few days ago. One of the themes that I wanted to explore was camping. Since we were going to be spending a few hours outside, in the dark, the idea came up early on about having a 
“camp fire” to hang around and stay warm while we were getting a few ideas shots. So, I was thinking, “hmm, so we’ll have a fire I just need a tent!” Luckily my wonderful wife Denise could remember where we put the thing and into the truck it went.

Once we arrived at the location and scouted a few areas, while the sun was still out, we went on our way to create the camping scene. I was pretty happy with the results and I’m hopefully that a designer will be able to incorporate some of the images that were created into their next killer design!

On the technical side night shots are a bit more complicated that normal shots. For one your internal camera meter just isn’t going to cut it (unless it will resolve multi-minute exposures). So most of the shots that night were 3 to 5 minutes at F/8 with the camera set to ISO 200 (the native for my Nikon).

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! This has been a wonderful Christmas season and one that I have looked forward to more than in the past. I am just very appreciative of the wonderful family that I have! I’ve been married to my wonderful wife Denise for over 20 years (that is just amazing and sometimes hard to comprehend) and we have three great children Devin who is 11, Desirae who is 9 and Deanna who is 5. It has been a pretty great year and I hope it has been the same for you!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Health and Medication...

Medications are turning to be a daily routine for many people to fight off infections, reduced the effects of diseases, and to generally keep them healthy. For some it is a routine that they have already been following for years and others it is a new necessity for their life. I was thinking about this earlier and decided to make this photograph to illustrate this theme.

So everyone, please take care of themselves, see your doctor’s regularly and make sure you do what you need to to keep yourself healthy! Hey the year is almost over and we have another one to start!

Candy Love...

I had the opportunity today to setup a studio shoot to do some table top work. My wife Denise had found these candies, pictured above, that she thought would make a really interesting photograph. She also has some other ideas that she thought we could do once we set everything up.

As you can see these particular peppermint candies are pretty darn colorful and kind of scream Christmas. We spent a bit of time building a little set and a mechanism to hold everything together. The key here was white foam core board, drum sticks (I know, it seems weird) and some painter’s take. This enabled us to keep everything in place while we setup and adjusted the shots.

The lighting was fairly simple with an Alien Bee AB800 above the camera (in line) point down toward the items as a fill light lifted above with one of my trusty Matthews C-Stand. The main light was another Alien Bee AB800 attached with a clamp to the lower section of a regular light stand shooting through an umbrella about 8 feet away. We again utilized tethering to make ensure we were getting the shots we wanted while we were shooting!

The pile of books...

My wife Denise came up with the idea of using her large collection of hard bound books as the back drop for a photo shoot.  She has always really enjoyed her books and she recently found some inspiration for an idea from a couple of sites on the net.  So today we rearranged everything to make room for this shoot.  As you can see from this image there are a lot of books needed to make this shot (and the many various we did today) a reality.

The first part of the shoot was bringing the books need from the back room and removing most of the dust covers so they wouldn't end up in the shot.  Then we spent a lot of time putting everything in the right place and taking a bunch of test shots to get everything just right!  Once everything was in place we started shooting.  The shot above was made toward the end of the session after we had done various situations with Devin and Deanna.

The lighting of this shot was fairly straight forward.  I placed a strobe high over head at a 45º angle increasing the distance from the subject to decrease the amount of light fall off.  I then placed a fill strobe directly in line with the camera with a medium sized shoot through umbrella to balance everything out.  I also shot tethered with Adobe Lightroom 3 which turned out to be critical to make sure everything was in the right place and lighted up correctly.

It was a really fun shoot and I think we made some really cool images!