Outdoor Photoshoot Part 1

Prints and Legs: f/4, iso 1001/80, 24-105@95 

Brooke is Watching: 

f/5, iso 200, 1/1000, 24-105@60

Like a Student: f/4, iso 100, 1/80, 24-105@95

This is my first outdoor photo shoot. Took place this past Sat around town, again with my beautiful friend Brooke and her beautiful friend Morgan.

In the second picture, Brooke was just watching me shoot Morgan, but I like how it came out.  I must say, I like the non-scripted pictures a lot better than the posing ones. We tried the cheesy happy student pointing nowhere in the third one (over-posed). Still, I am thinking about sending this one to a stock photo agency.

I learned a lot and found some things that I should do differently next time:

•  I still haven't mastered how my camera's focus features work. I had a lot of things that were out of focus for reasons that I can't understand. 
• The way I communicate with models. Not that we didn't communicate, but sometimes we all didn't know what to do or try next.
• Controlling outdoor daylight (Probably can't learn in a day).

Anyway, hope everyone enjoys my selection for part 1. 

Update: BodyWorks Part2

Last night I recieved an email of appology from the COO at Bodyworks. I posted it below.
I did not expect anyone to get back to me, so it was a bit of a surprise.
I think I will try to let it go and try to get ripped instead. Although I must say that no one offered me anymore boxing cupons. 


---------------------


Amy,

Please accept my apologies for any issues experienced during the enrollment
process. A lot of information is discussed during the enrollment process. I
will investigate the situation and make my best efforts to ensure there is
not a communication issue in the future. 

I want to make sure our clubs offer you with the best fitness experience as
you move forward with your membership. I know we have a lot to prove to you.
If we are not performing up to your expectations in the future please
contact me. My desire is for you to be fully satisfied with your membership.

Sincerely,

Pat Rose 


Bodyworks Family Sports Centers
Pat Rose
Chief Operating Officer

The Eye and I: Cuty Grungy

The Eye and I: Cuty Grungy: " Three Cuties (before): f/2, 1/50 Three Cuties (after): f/2, 1/50 I've been meaning to try out thi..."

Cuty Grungy

 Three Cuties (before): f/2, 1/50

  

 Three Cuties (after): f/2, 1/50

 I've been meaning to try out this effect in photoshop as I've been reading about it a lot in photoblogs and forums. It's called the high contrast look and apperently made famous (or invented?) by photographer David Hill.
My wonderful photoshop book Adobe Photoshop cs5 for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby (highly recommended!!) has a demonstration on how to do it, and I've been searching for the right picture to apply the effect.  Then, I came across this picture: Granpa Norm's super uber cute grand kids who played with me this past summer in PA. I love love how this effect worked on this picture. The item that looks like a cannon is just that, a mini antique cannon. Nora on the far left is holding a light-saber. Just to clarify, these kids are very well behaved and not militant at all. Are they cute or what?

More street shots, Lubbock style.

Bike in Cold: f/10, 24-105@97mm, ISO 100, 1/50

Tech Student: f/7, 24-105@ 105, ISO 100, 1/320

I took these pictures this past Tuesday when is was friggin cold. The day before, I was passing Broadway & Univ. and saw all these Tech students freezing thier asses while waiting for a walk signal.  I then thought it would be interesting to take pictures of people doing just that, and see how the human posture changes when we are cold. I don't think I accomplished the latter so well, but did get what I think is worth sharing.  My only wish in these takes are more compression in the background. Would this be possible with a smaller f-stop or do I need a longer lens? Something to investigate.

My photo made it to the Avalanche Journal!

My pic in the AJ! Note the credits.

  Well,  this morning Norman told me I should look in the paper, and I said, " Is there any news?" 

 Here's the news: My pic made it to the paper!

  I took this picture while Soup's on Troupe were doing thier rehearsal maybe a month ago. I wrote an entry about it here. Dorey Schmidt, the producer, told me afterwards that she would send this picture in as a press release to the AJ.  I thought the AJ takes thier own pictures and didn't think too much about it.  Anyways, this is neat. Talk about a little encouragement. " Very encouraging week!

Video Making is *&%^&^ Expensive

I decided to take a break from researching lighting kit options and work on my blog.  I've been extensively researching LED lighting kits (new the buzzword in the video lighting world) for my video work these past couple days. As I read the forums on DV info.net, I see that many--mostly males from what I'm seeing--get a real high discussing and buying gear.  For me, gear talk and research not much fun and almost feel like a waste of time, but I'm on a budget and need lights so I do it as a have to.

My budget for an "inexpensive, bare bone" lighting kit was $1000 originally. Now, of course, it's looking like it's pushing $2000. For those of you who are not familiar with video and film making this might sound like a lot, but within the filmmaking community I am fully sensing that $100 is like a buck and $1000 is like ten bucks.

Anyway, the outfit that I'm thinking about patronizing is CoolLights and thier stuff is quite popular among filmmakers. I think I will get the LED 600 flood + LED 600 spot + LED 256 spot + softbox kit + batteries. Believe it or not, batteries consists of 20% of the expense. And, this is just a mere beginning of all the things I need to make a decent video.