Some cool photos

Good evening everyone.
I thought I would make good on my promise to write more on my blog. Tonight I am coming to you live from our nation's capital. That's right, I'm in Washington D.C.. It is pretty awesome being here and seeing all this history. I've never really considered myself to be that much of a history junkie, but this stuff is really interesting. There is more to do than I even have time to think about, and unfortunately we are here for a convention so there isn't much time left to see the sights or shoot photos.

Tonight we went on an open top bus tour - one of those lovely touristy things. It drove us all around the capital. Most of it was after dark though as we didn't get done setting up for the next few days until almost 5:30.

Here are two shots I took tonight that I like.





That's it from me for now, I have been up since 4am CST! Busy day traveling!
I'm here till Wednesday though, so hopefully I'll be able to get some more photos soon!

Take care!

Posting is fun

I have been meaning to start posting more frequently. Obviously I am failing. For this I apologize.

I returned from a "run and gun" trip to Arizona about 2 weeks ago now. Although in my mind it seems like it was only 2 days ago.
We pulled a 20 hour day the first day, of which 8 were spent traveling, 7 were spent shooting, and 2 were spent downloading images and recharging batteries. Bed time was 11:30 pacific.

We shot a lot of different parts of the hospital, spending about an hour on each shot, which isn't a whole lot. One of the reasons the client said she booked us is because she knew most photographers could not complete the number of shots she had in the time period allotted.

Here is the O.R.



Here is a great shot which will be used to show the level of care and compassion people can expect at the new hospital.



And here is one of the doctors



Wake up call was for 5:30am the following morning.

On the agenda for day 2:
- sunrise shot of the exterior
- head shots of the board members
- detail shots
- lobby shot
- reception shot
- sunset shot

To be continued...

Upcoming fun-nes

On Tuesday of next week, Mike and I are heading up to Arizona for a 3-day long shoot of a brand new hospital. It is not open to the public yet so we will have the run of the place.
This is my first time attempting to travel with all the equipment we will be taking with us.

I don't have a final tally on everything yet but so far it looks something like this:

2 camera bags, 3 cameras, 6 lenses, over 30gb of CF cards, two laptops, an external hard drive,
10 light stands, a tripod, a monopod, 2 bogen superclamps, 2 justin clamps, about 12 speedlights, 8 pocket wizards, lots and lots of gels, a truckload of rechargeable batteries, 2 battery chargers, 2 soft boxes, a Lumiquest box, a boom arm, an empty sand bag, tripod case, and our clothes.

It will be interesting getting all of this through airport security!!
We will get a tour as soon as we arrive and are fed, then its work time until about 7pm that night.
Early to bed and up at 5 for a 6am sunrise shot, working all day and again a late night. Then another sunrise shot (unless we get a good one the first morning - I'm crossing my fingers).
We will finish up around 2pm on the third day, drive to Las Vegas airport and head home to crash and sleep all day Friday.

Busy busy busy!

Last weekend I shot a church event put on by the young singles department. It was an "Amazing Race" event. Teams picked a country to "dress up as" then started out in the same room, were given a puzzle to put together, and on teh back of the puzzle was the first clue. From there it was off to travel all over Downtown Dallas, Plano, Richardson, and Carrollton.
I got some fun photos and the event ended around 2pm.

Here are some of my favorites:


Putting together the first clue


Playing in the fountain


Here come the teams, fresh off the DART


Finding clues in the fountain


The food challenge had some not-so tasty treats


One unlucky team member eating dog food


Zero Gravity challenge


Zero Gravity Challenge


Flying High


All the participants, volunteers, and staff that stuck around till the end


3rd place team member heading home

That's it from me for now. Stay tuned for more. Hopefully I'll have a few minutes here and there to blog about our trip to Arizona!

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone!
R.

Roadside Stops

Last week my good friend Mike and I went down to Clear Lake to help teach at a journalism workshop for high school students who are on the yearbook staff. This was their first year having a photography class and the kids seemed to love it. The first day was spent going through the basics of operating a camera and composing a photograph, but on the second and third day we got to get a bit more advanced and showed them some basic lighting techniques.
Here is a photo that Mike did of me teaching them the basics of lighting:


Clear Lake was beautiful and Mike and I took the opportunity to walk around and talk to some locals and, of course, to photograph them.

Here is one of my favorite photos from a town called "Kemah".



You wouldn't be able to tell from looking at him, but he is a nurse! He has the softest hands of any Harley rider I've ever met. haha

All in all it was a very fun trip and it yielded some great portraits.
More to come I'm sure!

60 Second Head Shot

I was shooting downtown today when my client asked if I could do a quick head shot of her.
Naturally, I agreed.

My favorite place to do head shots is outdoors in the shade. My favorite backdrop is trees, bushes, or anything nature looking. The green just really complements people's skin. The shade allows me to use my own light, which gives me much more control over how the subject is lit.

The building I was shooting in has a nice park next door and my first thought was to get her over to the park. But once I stepped out on the porch I realized I didn't have to take her more than 5 feet from her front door.

I quickly set up a light stand, used an SB-28 speedlight, and a shoot through umbrella.
I posed her with her back to the park and fired 2 quick light tests.
Fired of 10 more frames once the light was right, and we were done.
From the time the first light test was shot to the time the last frame was shot was exactly 59 seconds!
What took the longest was setting up the light stand and flash, and I decided to change lenses after seeing what it looked like. (I started with a 5omm F/1.4, but opted to go with my 70-200mm F/2.8 instead.

And here is the result of my one minute of shooting: