Food theme

Can you figure out the theme I'm going for here?



NaCl

Pumpkin Spice Roll

Pumpkin Spice Roll from the Savory Bakery & Pastry in Apex, NC. It tastes as good as it looks.

I used my 105 VR Macro for these shots with one softbox to camera left, feathered off a bit. I also had a white reflector on the right side. Lastly, there was a small strobe lighting the background to help wash it out. Mix in the lights with a tad overexposure and this is what I have. Raw files were processed in Adobe Lightroom.

Gallery release for Erin & Julian

Erin & Julian's Gallery.
I'm pleased to release this loving wedding gallery for two great people. Enjoy!

Grounds for stock

I had a set up ready for a local chef with our plan to knock out one recipe they had but it fell through. Not wanting to waste the set up and the time I shot some coffee grounds for practice and submission to stock. These were shot with my new 105 VR macro lens wich is turning into quite the gem.

Gretchen

Gretchen needed a good headshot for her resume. SB-800 to camera right through a white shoot through umbrella. SB-24 to camera left, snooted, for a hairlight. The location was a local greeway. Nothing fancy. She justed needed to replace some photos that are out there.

the vows

I just like this one a lot. She has a very sincere look on her face. The light is good. It was a quick natural light as I did my ninja photographer imitation. That is trying to get the shot without becoming the center of attention!

Love in the gardens... Jessica & Rodolpho's Gallery

I'm swamped in photo processing these days. It's not a bad problem by any stretch of imagination as I rather enjoy going through each photo. I make sure they are up to snuff, deciding if I want to go further such as black and white in this case. It's all good!

I'm pleased to release the gallery of Jessica & Rodolpho. A mere glimpse of the many great images from that wonderful wedding. Enjoy.

Jessica & Rodolpho Gallery

Gennifer & Ashely: Quick Peek!

Gennifer & Ashley's wedding at the Pine Lake Pavilion in Mebane, NC. It was a stunning site to see the bride arrive in the carriage and walk down the isle. It was a completely cloudless day with a setting sun. It was setting directly behind the ceremony site and was perhaps some of the toughest lighting conditions I have ever worked in. I set up a couple remote strobes to act as fill flash, but even then I battled flair. In this picture, I tried to use the flair for effect.
Conversely, when shooting away from the sun I got some nice color. This dove is actually a homing pigeon and just flew his happy self home!


Adam, my assistant, was very helpful and we started to work together more naturally with him starting to anticipate my needs. He also scored some nice pictures himself.


Stay tuned for more!

Lemon Blues

I set the white balance on my camera to tungsten, this normally gives natural light a sureal blue tint when your light source isn't tungsten. I fired one strobe into a white background and with the tungsten white balance, it's now blue! I then gelled two strobes with tungsten balanced filters, bringing the white balance back to 'normal' on just the lemon and not the background.

Goes great with a glass of tea.

a simple wedding on the farm: Erin & Julian Quick Peek!

Sometimes the simple plans lead to the most intimate and elegant of ceremonies. Erin & Julian held a simply beautiful ceremony on the farm where Julian grew up. The location was wonderful and the sky's cleared up for a wonderful evening wedding.









Julian is starting a robotics company, hence the robot on their cake. This is just a preview. I have some really great images from this fun wedding.

We finally got some rain!

Last month I posted about the really bad drought in North Carolina. Last night we got some much needed rain. It actually boosted every ones spirits just to see it rain. It wasn't a drought buster, but we'll take anything we can get. I'm super excited about today's wedding.... rain or shine!

Danny Peebles

Danny Peebles, of Rise and Walk Ministries, is redoing his website and needed some new photos. He wanted simple, effective photos that will allow people to recognize him. Nothing fancy, just good and clean.

I think they work just great! Danny used to play in the NFL and also for NC State with great success. I had a wonderful conversation with Danny about his recent mission to Africa and how it enlightened him and motivated his ministry. If you're ever in Wakefield, look him up!

Scott Kelby's Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers

You may recall a few posts back where I switched to Adobe Lightroom for my RAW file image processing needs. I can completely endorse Lightroom as a tool for professional photographers. It has cut my work flow in half and added tools to my arsenal that are quick and functional. One of the biggest reasons I enjoy using Lightroom so much is Scott Kelby's book, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers,The (Voices That Matter).

Scott lays out each module of the software in a concise and proven manner. His delivery is great and includes tips with a taste of humor. If you've read other software books and had trouble staying awake, you might be pleasantly surprised with this book. I know it sounds funny, but the book has good flow to it. I'm sure it's because Lightroom has good flow to it as well and is very intuitive. When I first purchased Lightroom I made the decision to by a good book to go along with it and completely devote some serious time to the software. I've read this book from beginning to end. My style was to sit with the book and the software together so I could immediately test out the concepts and tools that Scott was trying to convey. This technique works great for my learning style. Your results may vary.

The book is great and the software is phenomenal. The section on camera calibration has significantly improved my photography. That's worth the price of admission right there! If you're using Lightroom (ver. 1.2 is current) and have yet to fully sink your teeth into it, I suggest investing in Scott's book. The last two chapters alone are worth the price of admission.

In the Gardens with Jessica & Rudolpho

Sneak Peek!

I was really excited for this wedding. After meeting Jessica and quickly learning she is fun, down to earth and full of life, I began to eagerly await this wedding. It was no surprise that Rudolpho was great to work with too. Heck, everyone I met that day was great!





Rudolpho has a great look. I'd like to photograph him some more one day...