Caboose graveyard

I noticed these old caboose's located in a storage lot. They've been there for several weeks now. Seven old, graffiti covered dinasours from a different time. They are just sitting on the gravel. I kept telling myself I need to photograph them. I stopped by yesterday looking for an owner (seeking permission) but no one was around.

This morning I pulled in and created three photos all using a light painting technique. With a long exposure and I used a hand held light to fill in the shadows. I was only there five minutes.



I tweaked them in Lightroom a bit. Mostly increasing the contrast and desaturating the colors.
Nikon D300 with a 50 1.4.
When I was a kid, I loved the caboose. You would see them quite often until the mid '80s or so.

Wild Ginger Weddings

I'm pleased to announce the formation of Wild Ginger Weddings. I've teamed up with Anne Wilson, an outstanding photographer, to form a dynamic wedding coverage team.

If your looking for dynamic wedding coverage with a flair for the dramatic, look us up.

www.wildgingerweddings.com

little rain today

The Southeast is still locked in a drought. It is almost weird to see a gray, rainy day. I spent some time today getting to know the D300 Nikon. The weather seals work as I ran back to the car from these two shots. They were taken at mid-day, but the small apeture makes for a dark background. I used Nikon's wireless flash controls to put the light on the subject only.



Sarah and I have been conserving water, but I must admit it is a tough thing to do. Here's to more rain!

Got a second six shooter

I invested in a second pro body for my photography. I received my Nikon D300 on Wednesday from Peace Street Camera (thanks Geoff) and have been putting it through it's paces over the last couple days. I call it the second six shooter as I now have two pro level cameras in which to work with with. My previous backup was a good camera (d50), but it lacked some tools that I learned to love.



So far I'm very impressed. My previous pro camera is the D200. The D300 is very similar yet offers increased resolution and some superior low light abilities. I plan on using it at weddings as my main natural light camera while utilizing the D200 as my main strobe tool.


I also had some family in town who didn't escape the new camera. This is my nephew Tucker trying to drill down to the root of the problem.

This is Ben, Tucker's older brother, hammering out the details.


















I'm running the new camera photos through Adobe Lightroom 1.3 and the latest Adobe Camera Raw software. I have yet to run a calibration script for the new camera, but I'm pleased with the images out of the box. I also installed a plug-in from Jeffrey Friedl's Blog that uploads a web ready image straight to my Flickr account.

I guess you could say I'm cutting edge. Latest version of Lightroom, the D300 and using the newest plugin to upload to Flickr. Yee haw!

Does whine make you tilted?

It's actually black cherry jello. I'm dissapointed with the specular highlights. It's really a challenge to light something reflective yet not get reflections. I tried using my biggest diffuser yet it still didn't work. I've got a long ways to go.

Portraits of some close friends

I spent some time this past weekend with friends enjoying the North Carolina mountains. I took some time out to create some portraits of them in their natural environment, relaxing by the campfire.




I used multiple strobes on these but I was trying for a natural look that didn't look overly flashed. The portrait of Bill C was done with a CTO gel to add warmth (he was sitting by the campfire afterall).

The photo of Steve G sitting in the trailer was lit with three strobes. One main to camera left. Another to camera left to illuminate the aluminum shell of the camper. Another strobe sat inside. All shot with a D200 and 28/70 2.8 lens and fired via pocket wizards.

Leave the gun, take the cannoli

Some work for my upcoming food portfolio.
They were taken with my 105 VR Macro lens that is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

Bruce Dorn and the Digital Edge

I attended Bruce Dorn's Digital Edge Photography seminar Sunday night at the RTP Marriot.

The seminar was money well spent and it was rewarding to sit and listen to a real digital image master talks about the following aspects of digital creation. His wife Maura was there too and she is no slouch behind the lens and the Wacom tablet.

Advanced Speedlite Techniques
Cinematic Composition for Capture
Artistic Application of Textures
Introduction to Digital Painting
Elegant and Efficient Album Design

I've taken several other seminars and lighting courses this year. I walked out of two of them when the instructor was teaching folks how to turn their flashes on. This seminar was really good and he offered up more advice than I could take in. Bruce is inspiring. His images rock. He loves the technology. His after capture process was illuminating. He also works with technology vendors and designs his own soft boxes and mounts. A new role model for me.

The final aspect demonstrated their use of Corel Painter and how they make impressionist fine art portraits. It looked pretty sweet.

I highly reccomend Bruce's course and I hope to attend one of his 3 day seminars if I can swing it.

PS.. Pardon the crappy photos here. Low light with a point and shoot.

Gennifer & Ashley gallery release

I'm pleased to release a small preview gallery from this great wedding. I put together a really nice DVD slide show as well.



Gallery

I'm off to the mountains this week for some cycling and hopefully some stock photography work too.

Have a great week!

Planted bulbs

I conjured up an idea for a stock photo that would combine energy efficient bulbs, greenery and the whole ennvironmental conscience of using eco-friendly products.

I'm not too pleased with this one. I think the angle is wrong and I need to figure out how to dim the bulb outside of photoshop. That's a real bulb in a real plant.

Sorry for the copyright stuff. I think this type of image is ripe for theft.

I'm not liking this

I on the other hand was loving it.

Using my new background stand, I strung a large piece of white muslin. SB-800 to camera left into 60" brolly for main. SB-24, snooted, to camera right for a hairlight. Also a large reflector to camera right for a little fill. Sb-24 into 36" silver brolly to illuminate the background. All fired via pocket wizards and using a d200/85 1.4. Processed in LR and a tiny bit of skin and eye work in CS2.

She was pretty funny about saying how much she was not liking this...