Winter Wonder Land Kinda

So I woke up this morning and all I wanted was a bright day to bring my spirits up. I was up way to late last night. I and when I looked out the window what do I see? Snow! And the ground was covered with snow. From what it looked like it was an inch deep!

So I bundled up and prepared to go outside. Of course I brought my camera with me. For this picture I wanted to convey that even amongst the beauty of the beautiful snow I was still feeling really tired.

So as I was taking pictures I tried to take them as if I were just barely awake and could only focus on a few things. I tried to make everything dark yet bright. I took it one stop underexposed and at and aperture of 5.6 and a shudder speed of 1/100. The clouds were still very dense so it was darker and more even light. I tired to meet all these goals this one I am not sure that I did. Enjoy the snow!

Eric Salley

Well the off camera flash is around to stay. I love the look I can accomplish with it! Eric wanted me to capture some pictures of him doing one of his favorite things playing soccer.

This picture I used the same technique as I did for Chase but I used a 3 foot light reflector in front of the flash to make the light a bit softer. This time it was very over cast. It was threating to rain at any moment. We had been out shooting for about an hour and I could not seem to get the shot I wanted to get. Eric asked me if he could do some bicycle kicks. And as you can see it turned out to be a great idea.

So as I said I had an off camera flash and my 50mm 1.8. I had to get the shudder speed to something very fast so that I could capture him in mid air. So I set it at 1/500 and set the aperture at 1.8 to get the maxim amount of light while still keeping the spotlight feel that the flash gives. I had a friend come along to hold the reflector and the flash so that I wouldn’t have to position it every time. With all the pieces in the right place Eric had an amazing kick and we got the right shot!

Chase

           

This is another venture into off camera flash photography. Chase is a friend who I have worked with on a few projects at school. He is really into biking of all types not just fixies (fixed wheel bike).

So I wanted to give Chase a sick picture that he could show off his skills. So the picture needed to have an epic feel to it. The day I took this shot as you can see was over cast and was just about perfect lighting for this shoot. It would have been nice it had been slightly darker but I made due with what I had.

I had to have a fast shudder speed to pull off the suspended look as well as have it dark enough to see the flash. So I had the shudder at 1/250 and the aperture at 9. I wanted to get the flash in the shot to make the shot more unique and interesting to look at. Over all I think that I was able to accomplish it all. Chase it was a blast working with you!

Josh

Josh (my brother) is a senior in high school this year. My mom and dad did not want to pay a professional photographer to take his senior pictures. So they asked me to take his pictures. I wanted to capture Josh’s personality through these pictures. But getting him to give you a good smile in front of a camera is a trick. Even though his smile is what we see most when we are together as a family. He is the family jokester.

Not only was it hard to get him to smile but it was hard to get the lighting correct. The only times that worked for him were in the middle of the day. So it was hard to accomplish the right lighting conditions. Thankfully there is a heavily shaded park just down the road from our house that ended up being perfect.

For this shot I had access to 2 cannon speed lights and an off camera flash trigger. I used one of the flashes to add a slight hair light behind him. I used the second flash to light the left side of the frame to give some contrast on his face. We also decide that his tennis outfit fit his personality best so that’s why the sports cloths. I hope that these tips are helpful. Thanks for reading

Dedicated to LB

I went to take this picture for two reasons the first was because I wanted to dedicate a blog entry to my sister. She has gone through a lot of really hard things in the last 3 years. Through it all she has stood strong and her faith has grown exponentially. She has been able to stand up under amazing pressures. She has also been able to be a light to the dark world around her.

The second reason I wanted to shoot this picture was because I wanted to take some pictures in complete darkness and paint the light into the frame. It was really hard to find a place where it was dark enough to actually take the picture but down by the lake turned out to be perfect.

So how did I shoot this picture? Well I first used my flashlight shined on the small stick to focus the camera. Then I set the aperture to 2.8 and then set the shutter speed to 30 seconds. This would give me time to take my flashlight and paint the light onto the stick standing under the imposing sticks above it. I did this by moving around the sticks in a circle. I think it turned out great. I believe that it conveys the message as well as helped me learn how to paint with light.

JJ and Michelle Engagement Shoot

After shooting JJ and Michelle’s engagement night they came and asked me to take their engagement pictures. This picture is one of my favorites that I took at that shoot. We went to a retired horse farm in Wheaton. The scene was perfect for JJ and Michelle they wanted a mix between a classic engagement session and a laid back session that would show off their personalities.

This picture was taken at about 4:30 PM the sun was still very bright. So I wanted to stay in the trees to give me a nice soft light. Unfortunately the trees were too thin to accomplish soft light. So as we were walking through these trees the sun was shining in nice columns. So I had them stand in one of the columns and it turned out fantastically!

I think that I am going to call the picture Epic Love or something like that. I was so hard to pick a picture out of the 500 that I took for them.

Bad Day

Do you ever have one of those days that you feel like your in a room full of emptiness? That is how I felt this week at times. So I tried to show this though photography this week.

Jack is my roommate and is in one of my classes at the end of the day. On this particular day I had been feeling very tired and alone and so I had Jack sit in a classroom surrounded by a bunch of empty desks.

There are a couple of things that went into the reason that I chose this classroom and the spot I chose. Sense I am trying to tell a story from the light I wanted to make the picture seem confining and hard and lonely all at the same time.

First I started with the lighting. The lighting in the classroom was good for this type of feel because it was florescent. Florescent bulbs tend to throw a greenish light. This kind of light subliminally makes you feel sick when you see it in media.

The last thing I looked for was a place where I would feel like Jack was walled in and had no place to go. I accomplished this by using the blank wall on the left side of the picture.

So in the end I accomplished my goal by portraying what I was feeling that day. Hopefully this next week I will be felling happier so the subject matter will be less gloomy.