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!