We are NOT slacking!

There have not been posts for the last three nights.

We aren't slacking!

Doug and I shot the Great Sand Dunes at sunrise on the 20th and then Emily joined us to go shoot Bishop's Castle that afternoon.

The three of us shot the Dunes at sunset yesterday.

Today, I've been working on getting my first (small) gig.

It's not slacking if we're actively shooting pictures.

We have a big move coming up soon, as well as a death in the family, but we'll soon be back on track.

Stay tuned!

Parting shot

Another day traveling today, so nothing fancy.

One last shot from the 2010 Starfest in Denver.

A Stormtrooper from the 501st Legion Mountain Garrison.

Playing around with filters in Photoshop and this one caught my eye.

Well, that's it for tonight. We're gonna get up at the ass crack of dawn tomorrow and go shoot the Great Sand Dunes. Look for pictures from that soon!

Chicago at night

I've gotta say, I love flying over Chicago at night. There's just nothing else I've seen quite like it. Unfortunately, they wouldn't slow the plane down for pics, so this was the best of the batch.

Yup, got nothing else to say tonight...and I have a feeling it's going to be an early morning tomorrow so I'm outta here.

Just a little bit strange

When I started taking pictures, it took me a while to come to grips with the amount of post-processing that's routinely done on published pics these days. But you know what they say..."If you can't beat 'em, join 'em". The original pic wasn't particularly interesting, but those seem to be the best shots to just have fun with.

A little something for every geek....

Are you a geek? Do you like Star Wars? Perhaps Star Trek? Maybe comic books are more up your alley? Another flavor of Sci-fi your favorite? How about all of the above?

Then the 2010 Starfest in Denver is for you! There's a little something for everyone here!

The fun starts all the way back in the Clone Wars:


Not only is there fun workshops, movies and games there's even shopping where you can get just about everything your geek heart could desire....


Why would you need a Zombie attack survival kit you ask?

Weeeelllll......


Luckily, he didn't go after Doug. Not enough brains, I guess...


I'm here to tell you...it's fun for the whole family!

Why, look! It's a touching father and son portrait:


And hey, you know me... what geekfest would be complete without my favorite superhero of all time?

I am....er...he is Iron Man:


Hey Tony, you wanna go grab a drink after the show is over?

Yeah buddy, of course you do!

Well there ya have it! Good clean geek fun!

Beam me up, Scotty. Hello...hey, is this thing on? Hello...? Scotty?

Finally, some green

For whatever reason I just can't wait for spring this year. Because of that, I'm really enjoing the weekend in Denver and the chance to catch some budding trees in action. Well, 'action' in this case is a relative term....but it sure is nice to see green.

Avast! Thar be Trekkies here...Argh!

Damnit Jim, I'm a photographer, not a doctor...

As I promised last night...


Geeks!

I spent the day shooting the local Sci-Fi convention with my brother.

I won't deny it....we're both geeks.

Hell, Emily would have been there if she didn't have to be in school today. Just a bunch of geeks, the lot of us.

Trekkies are for the most part, the most creative, innovative and interesting group of people I have ever met.

Of course there exists the old stereotype that they are a bunch of unwashed nerds living in their mother's basement, which is pretty amusing.

I thought that this is a great satire on that notion...



Even pirates don't like Trekkies:




It was a great time and I got some nice shots. I'll get my geek on tomorrow and post a few of my better ones here on the blog tomorrow.

Until then...

May the Force be with you, live long and prosper.

Beam me up, Scotty!

On the road...

I'm on the road tonight, so no tips or tricks tonight.

Just gonna leave you with a shot from one of the most beautiful places on earth.

New Zealand, not too far from the Franz-Josef Glacier.

I hope you enjoy this picture just a fraction as much as I enjoyed taking it. New Zealand is not to be missed if you ever have the chance!

Tomorrow....geeks!

Waiting for spring

Had to dig back in the archives for this one.

I drove through the mountains today, camera bag beside me on the passenger seat (just in case), but it's just not spring in the mountains yet. This picture was taken last summer, which was unusually wet and brought out wildflowers the likes of which I had never seen before. I didn't really get out like I should have to get pictures, but the ones on the side of the road were impossible to resist.

Creative editing

Just a little example of what can be done with a bit of creative editing.

Until I really started getting into photography, I didn't realize how much can be done in post-processing a pic. And, to go along with that, how much is probably done to just about every published picture you see. I had trouble with it at first - it felt fake or deceptive somehow, but I guess either I've gotten used to it or just given up and joined the Dark Side. Maybe a little of both.

At any rate, I just played around with this rather boring water swirl until it seemed a bit more interesting to me.

Pixels are free man, take that shot!

Ever shoot a roll of film?

You had to pick your shots, didn't you?

You only had certain number of exposures on that roll. You HAD to wait....for....just...the...right...shot....

If you shot film and have made the transition to digital, it's damn hard to get out of that mindset. I STILL do it. Try as I might, I find myself picking my shots and only taking the shot once.

And how the hell about that huge screen on the back of the camera? You can instantly check the quality of your shot the second after you took it! The best thing since sliced bread. Couldn't do that with film. Oh yeah sure, checking each shot does run down your battery faster, but that's why you have several batteries in your camera bag all charged up, ready to go right? (Hint, hint....go get some more batteries.)

Now you're using pixels, which are free (Remember how much it cost to get film processed? Naw, neither do I.) and that's why you have several memory cards. (Hint...hint....write that on your shopping list, right under batteries, no it's cool, I'll wait.......got it? Sweet, let's continue, shall we?)

When you are on that vacation of a life time or at that one event that will never happen again, use those cards and check your shots!

The picture for tonight was shot in Salisbury Cathedral in England. It is a shot of the reflection on a fountain, whose water is as smooth as glass. It was amazing.

Annnnd....this is the only one that sort of turned out. I blew the highlight out on this one. The others were out of focus or had other issues.

Did I check the shots to see if I was getting what I wanted?

Nope. Damnit. I was walking around with about 20 gigs of cards and around 150 gigs of memory in a card dump device. No excuses there.

I don't advocate the "Spray and pray" style of photography (though I do hear that's a wonderful way to fire a machine gun) instead, take frequent pictures, check them often and have plenty of batteries and memory cards on hand. Don't kick yourself later like I did (the bruises are still healing.)

Quit screwing around!

"Quit screwing around!"

How many times did you hear that growing up (or still to this day)?

If you're like me, it was (and still is) frequently.

I am here tonight to call bullshit on that.

Why you might ask?

Well, let me tell ya:

While Emily, JD and I were at Niagara Falls, I was blocking her shots and waving my camera in her face while hitting the shutter release button (taking pictures), you know, screwing around.

As a result I got three of the most creative and interesting portraits I have ever taken. Something good came from screwing around! (Take THAT, mom.)

Now wrap your brain around this: I had my camera set completely to manual. Every setting. To take a decent picture I would have to adjust my aperture, shutter speed, exposure compensation, focus (technobabble for a lot of shit) and I didn't even have the camera up to my eye for the three shots. I wasn't even looking. You know, just screwing around.

Yet each of the three shots came out wonderful. What are the odds on that? I dunno, you'd have to ask someone that can count to eleven without taking off their shoes. (That would NOT be me, I was always screwing around in math class)

I have done very little post processing on this picture to show how much screwing around pays off.

So, with that, I am here to tell you....

Go screw around! Get on it damnit! And have fun!


BTW, here's a link to one of the other a fore mentioned pictures that is on my website (Shameless self-promotion)

Unnatural nature

I can't quite explain this, but it's one of the things I like about Salida. For a small town, it has a surprisingly high number of artists, musicians, and just plain interesting people. We found this tree while out driving around with my parents last weekend - I'm not sure what it did to deserve this treatment, but it is quite eye-catching. There's probably a more creative shot in this setup, but...I think I'll let the tree speak for itself.

"Just because"

This pic is a repeat from my SmugMug site...I know, you're thinking "Geez, already? They just started this blog..." but hang in there, and let me tell you where I'm going with this. Brian's post for the day got me thinking about composition - and I have to admit that for me, more often than not, good composition is as much accidental as anything else. When I posted this pic on SmugMug I got a lovely comment about the positioning of the dog in the frame, the reflected color of the sky...and I'd love to tell you that I was conscious of all of that when I snapped this shot. But the truth? It just seemed like it could make a good pic, so I took as many as I could as the dog was running toward me. I chose this one out of the group...well, "just because" I liked it. Nothing specific, just liked it better than the others. But one thing I'm discovering (and enjoying) as I learn more about photography is the power of "just because". While I do try to think about composition when I shoot, sometimes the pictures that turn out the best are the ones I take "just because".

Two for the price of one.

I'm gonna talk about two things tonight, the first being portraits and the second is composition and post production.

Wait...that's three things.

Huh, an even better bargain than the title suggests! (And it's free anyway, so I don't wanna hear any complaining!)

First, portraits.

I enjoy doing people photography, but there's more to it than telling people to say "Cheese!" and "Act natural...". I'm not what you call a people person and interaction doesn't come too naturally to me which is why I enjoy the style of portraits labeled Candid photography.

A candid focuses on a moment in time, often captured without the subject noticing. Make no mistake, this can be just as difficult as regular posed portraits, but when it does work , the result can be very powerful. The more you look at a candid photograph, the more you start to imagine...your mind wanders... you start to feel emotions, wondering if this is what the person in the picture was feeling. A frozen moment in time suddenly becomes a story.

Sometimes the pictures need a bit of back story to set the stage.

This is my other "brother", JD. He is with Emily and I at Niagara Falls early in the morning. This is the one time a year we can all get together. Everyone is cold and hungry (except me, cause I was smart enough to wear thermal underwear, ha-ha), but look at the picture one more time...

As he takes in the majesty of one of the natural wonders of the world as the transition from winter to spring unfolds in front of us, it's clear there is no other place he'd rather be at that moment. Looking at the picture, you can feel the cold, you are reminded of the amazing things you've seen and what it feels like to be with good friends. That is the power of candid photography.

Second (and third), composition and post production. Or rather composition FOR post production.

Often, I'll take a picture for the purpose of doing something with it in post production. I think of it as using the picture as a canvas to create a piece of art. It's not JUST the picture, but what I can do with it to give it an artistic quality, something unique. I think of it as creating a digital painting, I need a shot to work with though.

If you've read this far....take two things away from this.

1. Never hesitate to snap a picture when no one is looking, you might like what you get.

2. Look beyond the photo when you take it. Look for the opportunity to express yourself. You might be surprised, it could be in a picture that you would have written off before.

3. Check back later for Emily's addition for the day.

Waaaait.....that's three things again instead of two. I guess I really need to learn how to count, huh?

So...what was he shooting at?

As Emily mentioned in her post for today, she likes taking pictures....of me taking pictures.

So then you have to wonder, what was I shooting at?

As she said, it was just not a great day to go shooting. Brown deer on brown grass is not the stuff of Moose Peterson photography.

However, this did catch my eye.

Through the Jeep window

You're going to be seeing a lot of this type of pic, so I might as well get it started. We headed out in the Jeep one afternoon last week to see what condition the trails were in and to look for something photogenic....only to discover that A) it's WAY too early to go Jeepin' and B) brown deer against brown grass do not make for interesting photo subjects. However, a distracted spouse makes an easy target for pictures while we're out on a shoot. I suspect it won't be long before I could put together a book of "Photographer at Work" shots.

Now with 25% more dog....

And 50% more Ma.

First post from the other one.

Two years in Afghanistan, each day saying "I am gonna spend a ton of time outside shooting when I get home."

But...

It's not quite spring yet, nothing looks alive. It's no longer winter, no more breathtaking snowscapes.

Crap.

I drag my ass (and my wife) out of bed at O-dark-30 to try and catch a sunrise over the San De Cristo mountain range and it's fricking cold (ok, I can deal with that) and the weather sucks.

Crap (again).

This was the best that the morning light could offer us.

Better luck next time.

First post blues

I'll start this blog off right....with a picture of a dog. I'm not sure what Tess found so compelling about watching the stew cook, but I couldn't resist the shot. I suppose we may be biased, but we seem to be fortunate that our pets make just as good photo subjects as they do companions.