Project 365 Day 3. Waaaait a minute....

I have read advice from several photographers that suggest to photograph what you love. That's what today's photo will be.

You're going to look at the photo and cry foul!

"Hey! That's nothing more than a picture of a couple of toys! What's so special about that?" You'll ask.

Before you brand me a cheat, let's look at this picture a bit closer, shall we?

First, it's a fairly technical shot:

I placed them both on a figure stand in a light box (Google it), I shot my camera in manual exposure mode with macro lens on a tripod, using a shutter release to maximize sharpness and depth of field. I also shot this picture with not one, not two, but THREE off camera wireless flashes! Two of them were set at different exposures and all three were set at a different distance from the figures. ALL of which affect how the picture is lit.

I nailed all of this on my second or third shot.

If that's not enough for you, well, I love Iron Man. I have been a huge fan for more than 20 years. I have all of the comic books going back to the first issue, I have almost every action figure made of Iron Man. I have posters, t-shirts, stickers, coloring books, cups, toothbrushes and books with Shellhead's face slapped right on them. My friends call me Iron Whore. (No, really, they do. Ask any of them.) Shoot what you love.

How about this little tidbit of info?

The figure in the front?

I made that.

That's right, I MADE that.

It is an amalgamation of parts from about six different action figures that I put together and hand painted.
The figure in the back is from the first Iron Man movie toy line and is fairly rare as it is, but it's a six inch tall figure. I prefer the smaller 4 inch tall toys like the GI Joe and Star Wars figures I grew up with. But, they never made this figure in the 4 inch scale.

So, I made my own.



Brian Hatch photography

Pic O' The Week #1

Wow, it's a veritable posting frenzy! Don't worry, I'm not ambitious enough to even attempt something like the picture-a-day project, but I am rather hoping that I can put up one a week. I have a very nice macro lens (thanks honey!) that doesn't get used NEARLY enough, so the plan is same camera, same lens for every Pic O' The Week. Let's see what this baby can do....

It was a melting kind of day today, so there was lots of water in motion outside. We started out trying to get pics of droplets splashing on a railing out back, with less than spectacular results:

From there I switched to droplets falling, hoping for better luck:

Better, I think, but still not quite what I was looking for. So a bit more prowling around, and I found the fortunately placed corner that got us both some nice shots of droplets on the way down:

All in all, an interesting variety of pics in a short amount of time (and a little lesson in perseverance along the way).

Project 365, Day 2. You never really know....

I have undertaken Project 365, one picture everyday for a year, for many reasons.

I hope to get more proficient with my gear, use gear that doesnt get used often, boost my creativity and mainly to fuel my passion for photography.

A lot of my passion has been instilled in me by other photographers. Most notably my grandfather, who recorded the atrocities of WWII committed by the Nazis. Images can change the world, or at least how we perceive it. His had that effect on me.

Other photographers like Joe McNally, Steve McCurry, Vincent Versace and Moose Peterson also have affected me on many levels. Given me a goal to strive for, even if I'm not quite sure what that is right now.

You never know who is going to inspire you.

Like say....the wife.

I had gone outside to shoot my picture for today and got a couple images I liked and was headed back in when she was headed out to shoot some of her own. I followed her back out to see what she was up to.

She had found something much more interesting than what I had shot, just by virtue of looking further than I did.

I liked it so much, I went back in for my camera and shot today's picture.

Just goes to show you, you never really know who can inspire you...




Brian Hatch photography

Project 365

When I was in New Zealand...oh, about this time last year, I got to hang out with one of the local photographers. He introduced me to something called Project 365.

The idea is to take one picture everyday for a year.

Sounds easy right?

It's not.

In fact, the more I have learned about it, the more I understand that it's one of the most difficult things a photographer can undertake.

Think about it. What one thing do you do everyday of your life?

Hell, I don't even take a dump everyday.

More on this later (the project, not me taking a dump).

I had planned on using a fireworks shot from the New Year's celebration as my first picture this year, but unfortunately the team that summits Pike's Peak was unable to make it due to horrible weather.

-80 with wind chill. Ouch.

So, instead, here is an HDR shot from Garden of the Gods I took while I was out doing test shots for the New Year's shoot.

Brian Hatch photography

Happy New Year!

I don't know about you, but Tess is clearly wide awake and ready to face 2011.

To Photoshop...Stat!

World famous photographer Joe McNally recently reminded us of the virtues of getting photographs right in the camera.

"Photoshop is not an ER for grievously wounded pictures."

And he's right. But if you're not a world famous photographer with more skill than you can shake a stick at, you're more than likely to have some "injured" photos here and there.

I think of Photoshop as an Urgent Care for those little mistakes that tend to hurt your pride more than they do yourself.

Case in point:



The Great Sand Dunes at sunrise. The composition is fairly interesting, except for the stupid Porta-Potty in the foreground there. But the colors are a bit washed out, there doesnt seem to be enough contrast, it's not laying on the table dying, but it needs some help.

To Photoshop...Stat!

Drop the brightness a bit, increase the contrast, sharpen it a bit, increase the saturation just a touch...nothing too complex really. Oh, and get that damn Porta-Potty outta there!

And this is the result:




Yeah, it may not be a ER, but sometimes the Urgent Care is all you really need to bring out your work. The data is in there.

Photography...it's a family thing...

Emily takes some amazing pictures.

Quite often better than mine.

Which I would naturally chalk up to less beer intake, but I think honestly she drinks more beer than me. (It takes a big man to admit that, just so you know)

However, quite frequently, she doesnt have the time (or patience) to post process her work.

So, I took the liberty of doing a little post work on one of her amazing shots from New Zealand.

This was taken on the shores of Lake Tekapo, close to the famous Church of the Good Shepard. It seems to be a bit of a tradition for visitors to build a cairn out of rocks along the banks.

With just minimal effort, I was able to even out the exposure, showing the cairns, lake, mountains and sky, which would been quite difficult to do without shooting several shots at different exposures to blend into an HDR (High Dynamic Range) phot0. Even more post processing.... see where that's going?

Not to shabby, huh?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go polish off a beer or two to catch up to the little woman....