New project

In between my other work, I've started popping off some new portraits. There's only a few for now but it will grow in the near future. I'm excited to build up this gallery. Here are some shots.

The Candid Frame

I awoke this morning and checked email, news sites and hopped onto www.strobist.com while I finished my coffee. Strobist is an incredible source of information to any photographer who wants to learn lighting. But what got even more excited was the link on Strobist for The Candid Frame blog. There was a post about an interview with Dan Winters, portrait photographer. Yes!!!! My hours of photoshop work were going to fly by while I listened to his interview. Once I got on to the Candid Frame blog I discovered a multitude of interviews from great photographers like Chase Jarvis, Lynn Goldsmith, and Douglas Kirkland. Amazing! I might be working late tonight because I'll just keep hitting play and listening to the next interview.

You can find it at http://thecandidframe.blogspot.com

Enjoy! I know I will.

Cheers

SSWC09 Race Day portraits

Race day was finally here. I had been working with with Jon, Chad the crew with several photo projects leading up to the race. The race had been billed as a gnarly, ass-kicking affair and people were psyched. I've been shooting bike races for a long time and knew that shooting the course would put me in one cool spot or I'd be running all over the place trying to capture the action. Since I'm way more into portraits these days, I decided to setup a mini studio in Buckley park were the starting line festivities and capture people before the race. It was my desire to show the broad spectrum of characters that came to Durango for the SSWC09.

My vision for this project was to use it as a rear light source to create shadowless, ring flash-like portraits. Since I was illuminating my subjects from behind I knew my contrast was going to be flat out of the camera. I then ramped up my contrast and converted to B&W to give the photos a little more pop. That was theory anyway.

I'd long been desiring a new 7' Octobox for my strobes. I was eager to utilize it for my architectural work as well as portrait shoots. This event gave me an excuse to pull the trigger and buy one. I set up the strobe and box behind me.  SSWC09 wasn't an sophisticated affair so I decided to reflect that with a crude backdrop, a black sheet clamped to a cross bar. You can see a seam that goes right through the middle and some tear holes. My strobe was powered with a generator. Below was a subject's perspective of me.

Since there hundreds of riders, I basically just started pulling people in and working quick. I let people pose themselves and do what they wanted. Here are some shots from the day.

 

  

 

Google earth

Recently, I got to use one of my favorite tools (aside from gaffers tape and Pocket Wizards) for a shoot I did. I had to shoot a portrait of Quentin Sponselee who is the owner of Terramoto Transportation in San Diego. Terramoto is a limosine/shuttle service that uses all hybrid vehicles. And on top of that, they sponsor the planting of a tree for each ride that they commission, so you get to feel extra warm and fuzzy when you ride to the airport in one of their rides.

I needed to shoot a portrait of Quentin in a location that where I could pose him with his cars and have a feel for San Diego. The downtown San Diego skyline was about as good and defining as anything I could think of. Now, my challange was trying to figure out where I could shoot that would show the skyline, was accesible to position a couple of cars and not have a bunch of junk in the way. Mind you, I'm from Colorado. I've spent time in San Diego but mostly in north county and trips to and from the airport. My library of shooting locations in San Diego ain't that good...yet.

Time to log on to Google Earth!

For anybody who has not had the opportunity to play with it, Google Earth is one of the most fun and powerful tools at our disposal. It allows you to essentially fly all over the world and see the world from a birds-eye view. It gives you the ability to zoom into relatively good detail of objects on the ground. Unfortunately, they have decreased the resolution somewhat in the last year or two. I remember the first time I used it I explored all over the world looking at interesting landmarks. I remember looking down on a street in New York and I was able to zoom in so close that I was able to read the writing on the mini billboard on top of a cab. Next to the cab was a couple walking on the sidewalk...yes I could tell one was a man and the other was a woman. What was more fascinating is that I could tell that the man was wearing a pinstripe suit. This is an image from a satellite!

After a little research (and fun) I found this vacant lot on Coronado Island. It was too good to be true. There was vacant lot that was accessed by a public parking lot and it had a clear unobstructed view of downtown San Diego. Local San Diego photogs are probably laughing at me, saying that lot has been used more than a cheap...AND if you look below you'll see two Google Earth images that show the location. The first one is a close up of the lot itself and the second one shows the proximity of the lot(lower center...look close!) to downtown and the surrounding area.

Here is the resulting photos from this online search. Mind you, I had never been to Coronado Island or this area up til about a half hour before the shoot. Not too shabby!

 

Alrighty, the first time I used Google Earth to "scout" a location was for a shoot I did for Sierra Designs. They wanted a hiking shot in the desert and of course, they waited until seconds before their print deadline. Well, actually they gave me the weekend once I received my product samples to find models, find a location, shoot, edit, process, deliver, etc, etc. I made calls and found models but they would be available on Saturday afternoon only. That meant I had to look for something with good afternoon/evening light.

Google Earth was a new and exciting toy at the time so i was all amped up on getting on there to look for places. Back in college, I went out to the Needles District overlook on one of our many ventures to the desert. I recalled it being pretty sweet area and having some potential for a shoot. Again, below are a couple of screen images that lead me to a fairly successful location. The first is a close up of the location that show very close proximity to the road and right on the edge of a 500' cliff. Very convenient! The second shot shows what was to the west of the location...pretty much the sweetest part of Canyonlands. The shooting location can be seen in the bottom of the second screen shot just above the Google icon. It is the tiny shaded alcove or canyon wall (small black c or v shape)

We shot a bunch all over the area and SD used several images. Below was one of my favorites.

 All photos were turned around by Monday morning and the shoot was deemed successful.

In both instances, Google Earth gave me the luxury to scout out a location from the comfort of my office. Without it I probably would have been driving all over, hoping to find something that would have maybe worked. And I would have been really stressed out looking.

And thus concludes my lesson about Google Earth and its potential for making your life a hell of a lot easier when the AD drops the bomb on your desk on Friday at 4pm. Ha!