Molting

The blog posts have been sporadic lately due to some good family fun. I took the family camping over the Labor Day weekend up in the central Peidmont of Virginia. What a beautiful spot.

This cicada was on our cooler one morning when we awoke. He spent the night shedding his old skin and replacing it with new. I kind of like that idea.

Exciting things happening for TB Photo but I will save that for later. More food posts this week.

Dillon and the bullfrog

Took some time off with family in Vermont. This is Dillon who is very good at catching frogs.

Hula hooping on Big Leaf Loop

Hannah mastered the hula hoop this past week.
I created a custom develop preset for this photo. I upped the contrast and exposure and also desaturated it for an older look.

pink guitar

I've got a big assignment this coming weekend and really wanted to spend some time with Hannah before I head out. We planned to go swimming but the swim team had taken over the whole pool. What to do?

Let's go back and play. Hannah got to play with her new pink guitar and had written a song just yesterday. I got to try out my Edirol R-09HR digital recorder as well as my new Alien Bee 800 studio strobe with beauty dish. We were both happy playing with our new toys.

I processed this with a develop preset I downloaded from Lightroom Killer Tips blog(Matt Kloskowski). The preset was called Sin City Light and basically desaturates a bit and boosts the contrast. I look I find myself using for adults but not kids. I think it works okay.

We put together a little show. Nothing more than us kids goofing off with cameras and guitars but I'm quite proud of it, especially to see her write a song. It's a minute long and might take a bit to download.
Link to the show...
I think Hannah was inspired by the Brandon Leffel senior portrait show I did last month. She's asked about it several times.
We have a good time playing together.

Two blog posts about my daughter in a row? Hannah has taught me more about photography than anyone I know.

Easy being a Dad

...when your daughter is darn near perfect.



Happy Father's day to all the families out there. Take care of each other.

C1

Practicing some different post processing using increased contrast and reduced saturation.

3 girls

what is important in life

I had fully intended to blog about a recent editorial shoot I did this past Saturday but it left me feeling emotionally drained as a person and deflated as an artist. Let's just say it was a tough shoot and not something I have a lot of practice doing. I don't regret taking the assignment, but I will probably give that type of shoot second thoughts in the future.

I'm very thankful I have a great family. It doesn't take more than five minutes with them for my mood to change and the laughter to start flowing. It was pure coincidence that we had tickets to the Durham Bulls. It was the perfect venue to remind me of what's important in life: family and spending time with them.





We had a large time at the game and I highly recommend to anyone. A couple cold beers, a hot dog and few home runs with plenty of laughs. Now back to the regularly scheduled photography blogging.

All taken with a fisheye lens. I can assure you my family has normal shaped heads.

a big deal

Although she started riding without training wheels almost two weeks ago, I still want to share what a big deal this is for my little girl and our family. Hannah started riding sans training wheels and has been killing it ever since. I'm a pretty avid cyclist and have been riding regularly for 15 years or so. Hannah has seen me get on my bike and take off a million times. I'm pretty excited and quite proud.

Last Thursday she took off with me down the Tobacco Trail in Apex.


We had a great ride and she is already riding really strong. The next day we went over to the bike shop and put a deposit on a new two wheeler. She's saving up for a pretty sweet bike and I certainly look forward to my new riding partner. I'm thinking at least once a week we'll be hitting the pedals for some adventure.


Good times...

.38's Smith & Wesson/Iver Johnson

My Dad used to be an auxiliary police officer in Amesbury, MA in the 1950's. I never really talked to him that much about it. He was a part-time officer and worked a lot of Saturday nights and helped direct traffic outside the schools. Knowing my Dad, David TerHorst, he must have had a good time and I bet people waved to him often.

I was recently given his two revolvers from that time frame and I'm glad they are still in the family today. I took them both to Hill's Sporting Goods in Raleigh and had the old-timers give them the once over. Neither of them are original.

The Iver Johnson shoots a .38 S&W cartridge and is double action only with no exposed hammer. I wonder if this was his back-up piece? The .38 S&W is a very old cartridge and pre-dates the .38 Special which in turn pre-dates the .357 Magnum (all in the same family of shells). The guys at Hill's stated it must have been re blued sometime as the reason for the two-tone look. It's a neat little gun and I hope to find some cartridges for it and fire it. It was made in Fitchburg, MA probably in the twenties. They also made bicycles.

The other revolver is a Smith & Wesson .38 S&W that was re bored to .38 Special at some point. It looks like the revolver that Barney Fife used on the Andy Griffith show. It's in solid condition with a tough gun-metal finish on it. It seems real solid. U.S. Property GHD is stamped on the top and an inventory number on the bottom.

I wonder if it was a government surplus weapon and he bought it used for his police duties? The old man at Hill's said it was probably made in the twenties sometime. Who knows what service this gun saw? A couple weeks ago, I took it out on a bike ride and found a secluded spot way back in the woods. I put about 30 rounds through it. It was surprisingly accurate and felt well-balanced. The trigger, in single action mode, is very, very nice. It felt really good to be firing the old service revolver and reminded me of my Dad and what he once was a long time ago.

My daughter will be passing these down to her kids one day...

Big lens, little hands

Carolina Roller Girls

The family and I embarked on an evening of adventure and people watching at the Carolina Roller Derby. Great fun, amazing people watching as the variety was as good as it gets. The action was neat to watch too.






These are panning shots taken with my point and shoot camera. Lot's of noise, wide angle and funky colors. I love it.

Hannah, my assistant and future photographer

Hannah helped me at the last shoot. Here she is helping me adjust the lights and showing the other kids how to sit patiently and smile. She was a big help and held up the main light during the whole shoot. I was glad to have her and didn't mind paying her.

A shot Hannah took of her cat with her own camera. Good job!

Lastly, another one from the shoot. Aidan and Maggie.

Family snapshots

Some recent shots of friends and family that I have taken over the last few days. I like to make candid portraits for everyone, especially the little kids.

Mario and Lila


Reid-O burrito


Mario and Darcy


My girl through the viewfinder.

Pajamas through the viewfinder

My favorite model helped me on a technique I picked up from Flickr called Through the Viewfinder (TTV). I'm making images from the viewfinder of antique cameras. My ultra modern digital camera is teamed up with a 1950's era Kodak Duaflex camera. It takes some effort to get everything aligned just right. The focusing is tricky and I haven't mastered the old Kodak quite yet but the fun factor is large! I added a little Photoshop to this image as well with the rough pastel type border.

I'm going to pursue this technique some more and I want to take it outside, perhaps using old homestead to create some portraits. I just need to fine the right willing subject and the time to pull it off. It's not a point and shoot technique.

Model rockets with the kids

Day 46
Carter and I grabbed a handful of kids and launched rockets today. It is such a good time! Everyone got to launch at least one rocket. We launched probably 9-10 times.




I used a Nikon D300 with a 28-70 zoom lens. Most shots were shot at f10 1/250th iso 100. An SB-800, atop a small tripod, was camera left and fired via pocket wizards. The exposure was slightly underexposed with the flash providing a natural fill. I kept the flash power at 1/16th to maintain a fast recycle time. With the camera set to 7 frames per second, I tried to time my shots for the launch. It is amazing how fast they take off.

EYE love YOU

Day 43
This post goes out to our family and friends from Hannah and I. She is becoming quite the creative and was a key player for these two photographs. She helped design as well as model for them. She has a great eye for detail too. An extra special Valentines to Mom. We love you!

Dad, I'm over here

Day 42

I had the pleasure of playing with my little girl this afternoon. We kicked around the creek, climbed trees, threw rocks and talked. Then I promptly dragged her but to the dentist.

I'm lost when my girls leave. I'm glad they are home.

Day 37: Little C

The family cat caught the eye of my wife this afternoon. She told me to come look. The setting sun, the relaxed cat and the porch railing all came together. The out of focus areas are particularly pleasing.


Day 37 POD

Natural light. Nikon D200 with a 105 VR macro lens. ISO 400 1/80 @ f3 with VR ON.

Day 25 family snapshot

Day 25. Pushing to create a great photo everyday and I sometimes lose sight of what's important.




I never used a laptop until I was 28. Hannah is 6.

messing around with the kids

Day 6
Yesterday was a lazy day of doing some chores around the house and relaxing with the family. My neighborhood has a great supply of kids who readily pose for my camera. I laid on the ground facing up to capture this mob in action. Thanks to Ally, Will, Renee and Hannah!

A holiday thank you

As 2007 winds down I want to take the opportunity to thank my customers over the last year. It's been a great year with work than any previous year. 2008 is already looking good. I also want to thank my family. They have completely supported my professional photography endevour with no questions asked. Hannah has allowed me to test more lighting set-ups than any six year old should be exposed too. She's a trooper and also turning into a great photographer herself.

I hope this holiday finds all of you in good spirits and looking forward to a prosperous New Year.

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.

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...

Big Hair

Hannah styling the latest trend in hairstyles.

Tech: Viv 285 into soft umbrella fired via PWs. Trying a single light set-up.

They were giving the wigs out at the movie theatre for a promo. Hannah wore that thing with honor as we shopped around North Hills.

My progression to Lightroom for photo processing is coming along nicely. I've immersed myself in Scott Kelby's Lightroom Book (great book).

What a great piece of software. It's going to improve my images, increase my turn around time, make stunning galleries and promote one look and feel for everything Tim Broyer Photography related. If you are into digital photography, look at Lightroom. It's that good.

The kids are all right

No gigs this past weekend and that gave me a chance to catch up on some chores around the office. It comes as no surprise that when I'm in the office my daughter comes in. This time, she brought some buddies. From L-R, Hannah, Henry, Sophie and Will. I lit this with two strobes. One Viv 285 to camera right into a soft umbrella as a main light. One SB-800 to camera left into a soft umbrella as a little fill (could probably have used a touch more). What's so special? This image was processed in Lightroom.

Well, this post marks my transition to Adobe Lightroom for my image processing. I purchased a copy of it last week along with Scott Kelby's LR book. I'm going to commit myself to this product for many reasons. I'm just not getting the results I think I should have from Bibble for RAW processing. LR offers more tools and image controls not to mention library and HTML tools. By getting on the LR band wagon now, I will save money when it comes time to upgrade. Bibble would have cost me to upgrade as well. Bibble is not mainstream so online advice is lacking. Many quirks in Bibble not to mention it looks homemade. Don't get me wrong, Bibble is good product but I want excellence now.

My next wedding will be all LR and some Photoshop.

Life's a beach

I love the beach. The three of us headed down the beach this past weekend for some well needed R&R. It was a nice break in the middle of all the stuff we have going on as a family. I witnessed two weddings on the beach and it was neat to watch another photographer in action. Of course, I was mentally critiquing and wondering how I would do things. One thing for sure, I wouldn't wear shoes so I could get right in the water with the couple too. I picture a shot of the bride and groom embracing in the water with the sun and surf behind them....

I'm starting to take bookings for 2008! That's a good sign and I need to sit down and plan out my availability.








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New Hope Valley Railway

The #17 steam engine underwent repairs over the winter. Engineers were inspecting her for her first run since the rebuild.
I only wish I got a model release from this engineer.

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.