One more of baby Reid

He's so darn cute!

Reid Ratcliffe: my little neighbor...

Reid and his Mommy came over to the mini studio on Saturday morning. He was a great model and has a knack for posing. This particular shot was toned in Bibble for an old fashion look. It should also be considered 4 star shot.
I look forward to sharing more photos of him (the five stars).

Destin Builders collage rough draft

Rough draft on the collages I had planned for real estate shooting. I'm trying to incorporate the details of the build with the main shot. Feel free to offer criticisms on this type of stuff.

Chapel Ridge, Destin Builders and Dave Lawler Marketing

I met Dave Lawler yesterday at the Chapel Ridge development for some real estate marketing material he needs to help out the builder. What a beautiful house in a very upscale area of Chatham County. The house was huge. I brought one remote strobe and in retrospect, I wish I had brought a second. The rooms were bigger than I'm used to.

I need to go back. I want to get a shot after dusk, with the outside lights on and I want to redo the parlor room. It had way too much dynamic range for me to handle and I think I should try it after dusk too with two strobes.

I came away with some great images. This one is a quick one of the master bath. I would love to have a fire place in my bathroom!

Almost all images were taken with a Sigma 10-20mm Ultra Wide Angle using a tripod. Remote lighting was one sb-800 fired via pocket wizards.

My next post will reveal a collage for the real estate photos!

Digital Asset Management

Wow, I have thousands of digital photos now. I'm on the books to take several thousand more this year. I'm pretty good at backing everything up but even that is getting overwhelming.

I've now entered the Digital Asset Management phase of being a professional photographer. I need to know where all my images are, that they are backed up and most importantly be able to retrieve them with reasonable certainty. Having an IT background, I knew this was coming so I bought the DAM book by Peter Krogh. It's literally the bible for archiving and managing photos in a digital world. I'm currently half way through it. It's an awesome book and I really like his writing style.



As recommended by Peter, I invested in some cataloging software too. It's called Iview Media Pro and boy is it slick. I'm having trouble sleeping at night because I lie awake thinking about archiving my images, this new software etc... I'm reading this book on every spare moment of time I have and I've decided to hold off building the archive until I finish reading the book. It's really starting to click for me and in retrospect, I can't believe I went this long without a proven archive strategy. This is a must read for any serious digital photographer.

Free Engagement Portrait session! No strings, really.

The free offer has been filled! Check back soon for our summer promotion.


Just got engaged? Looking for a photographer? Not sure where to start? How about starting in front of the camera?

The first reply to this post will get an Engagement Photo shoot for FREE! Yes, FREE.

Here's the deal:

Be the first one to reply to this post by sending me an email at tim@timbroyer.com requesting the free session.

The session will be at a mutual location and must be shot within 30 days of the email. We have a fun relaxed photo shoot to draw out the spark that started the fire. For your time, you will receive 20 4x6 proofs and I will make the images available for printing. You will be required to sign a model release so I can use the photos, but that is it. No cost to you. No heavy sales pitch.

Email me now.

This offer expires April 20th, 2007.

Cheers!



Small Print for this offer: Couple must be engaged. Couple must be from the greater Triangle Area only. Photographer will not travel outside of the Triangle for this session. Couple agrees to sign model release so images can be used by Tim Broyer Photography, LLC. Couple must be happy and fun loving.

Photographic Society of the Triangle

I went to a meeting of the Photographic Society of the Trianlge (PST) last night. It was a lecture on Lighting and Posing a Bride given by Joe Robinson, a respected photographer from the Charlotte area. I even dragged my new buddy, Shawn from Dash Photography, with me. The event was held at local studio with probably 25 people in attendance.

It was a great class and Joe really knew his stuff. We had a live model, in a gown, that Joe posed and applied lighting too. Really neat stuff and I learned a tremendous amount. It was well worth my time even if I did stay out past my bedtime on a school night!

The society seems very nice too. It's for pro and semi pro photographers and acts as a local community to share ideas and support each other. They are having another lecture next month that I plan on attending and dropping off my application to join.

More information on them can be found at their website.
http://www.trianglephotographers.com/

Sherry and Carter

During last week's quick portrait shoot, her husband Carter came by at the end of the session. I talked him into posing with his wife. I think it came out okay?

85mm 1.4 D, Sb-24 to camera left, besides the subject and it was snooted. Main was a 43" octabox with an sb-800 all fired via PW's.

Sherry Worthington, Level3.com

I had the pleasure of shooting a premiere saleswoman for Level3 Communications.
Sherry was great to work with and much fun to shoot.

Thanks Sherry.

My first tear sheet

Definition: A tear sheet is the page or pages of a magazine or newspaper on which the writer's or photographer's work is published.



It's not the cover of National Geographic, but it's a start and I'll take it. Thanks to the Independant Weekly out of Chapel Hill. (indyweek.com).
As a side note, the Indie has some incredible photographers on staff. Check out their multimedia shows.

70-200mm lens. Strobe to camera right on a stand fired via PW's.

Freeriders

Ed Buchan, a well known mountain biker in the Triangle area, asked me to come out and photograph some trails he built and the riders that ride them. These aren't run of the mill trails. They are freeride trails with drops, jumps, rocks, berms and a host of extremely challenging terrain. These guys have mad skills. I met a handful of riders out there this past Sunday for a go at some sport shooting. Wow, what a learning curve. I brought two strobes and fired them via pocket wizards. This was a great way to fill in the shadows, but figuring out placement was a challenge.

I'm planning to put together a Pro Show Gold webshow with the photos I captured from this day. I really want to go back out and try again. I need to use slower shutter speeds to blur the background. I want to capture more images of the riders doing non-riding stuff and hanging out. Lastly, I need to get a little closer to the action and not be afraid to try new ideas with it.

Here's one for now.

Mini studio

Busy weekend at the casa. I painted two walls in my home office with 18% gray paint. This is the basic exposure calibration level for photography. Many studios are either black or gray. I now have a place to do headshots and small portraits. Here's a test run with my favorite model, Hannah. Can you tell she is getting sick of me taking her photo?

High Key lighting

Since I built the new office in my home, I've been able to rig a small (very small) portrait studio setup. This is an experiment with High Key lighting. I'm basically trying to blow out the background. Once again, my favorite model stepped in to help dear old Dad.



85mm 1.4 D at 1/125 f8. Two strobes fired via Pocket Wizards.