Friday Foto: She's going to kill me

It's very rare that Kelly actually lets me shoot her. I'm sure if I was more proactive in requesting her assistance as a model things would go smoother, but regardless, it was fun.

Shooting people has always been fun and challenging to me. It is 100% completely differant than shooting landscapes, abstract, etc. The only source of lighting I used was an off-camera flash triggered wirelessly. This allowed me to position the flash where I want the light to be, very similar to a strobe system. I used a soft box on the flash to dampen and soften the harsh light from the flash.

I'm sure I'll get chastised for posting these pics and be sure to view them now (read: save them to your computer), cause they might be removed soon. But oh well, I'm proud of them, I think they turned out very nice (read: HOT!)

Anyway, not much else is new in the life of Ben. I have a leak in my brake lines on my jeep and have decided to just replace all the brake lines, instead of just the one. It's almost the same amount of work to do all of them as it is to do one, and this will ensure longevity down there.

I have no big plans this weekend. Might go watch some soccer tonight. Have a great weekend all.

Friday Foto: New Favorite

It's not too often I like a photo this much. I love this picture. I've been experimenting a lot lately with in-camera controls. Basically, I'm trying to get quality photos straight out of the camera, without photoshop. Now, I have NO PROBLEM with photoshop, trust me... I love that program and am not one of these photographers that say it's cheating or such. I believe it is a absolutely necessary tool to any photographer. However, the better I can get the photo in the camera, the better I get and the less time I have to sit in front of a computer.

Anyway, this shot was a mid-morning shot, as the sky turned bright blue. I changed the white-balance settings in my camera (the setting that determines the color of light, ie: warmer or cooler). I used a cooler setting, as well as a polarizer filter at a 6th of second exposure to get this image. I was standing on a rock ledge, shooting down on the moving creek. I did nothing in Photoshop to this image, other than clean off a couple of dust specs from my camera.

Funny side-story... My dog Gwinny was hanging out with me. She was standing on the rock ledge as well, just dying to get in the moving water. It was pretty quick water, so I didn't want her to go in. She was being a good girl, minding me. Well, the ledge was rather small and when I repositioned with my tripod I swung the legs around and knocked her into water and she went down stream for a good bit before being able to get out! I felt bad, but couldn't stop laughing. She's a strong swimmer.

Anyway, not much else is new. We had a great time at the cabin. It's nice to get up there for such a long time (Thursday night to Monday morning). Here's another photo I took. It's one of our best friends from college and her 14-month-old Abbey. So cute...

Have a great weekend.

Friday Foto: Vines and paper

I really like this picture. My favorite part is how the vines seem to emerge out from the depths of the bottom (as always, click to enlarge this one). I'm experimenting with new fine art printing paper for my printer and man is it nice. The typical glossy photo paper that I have been using is a nice paper, but it lacks the weight, feel and overall look of the classic dark-room paper. That's mainly because I always used a fiber-based paper in the darkroom, which needless to say is a lot heavier and has a somewhat rag-like feel to it. Also, in the darkroom, your final product is a produced from a chemical reaction, one that is etched into the paper if you will. It's hard to get this effect with inkjet printing, because the ink basically lays on top of the paper. The paper I'm trying out is a type of paper nicknamed Baryta Paper. It gets that name from the thin layer of barium-sulphate gelatin that coats the top of the paper, giving the image, once printed upon, that unique darkroom quality. So far I only seem to like it for Black and White prints, but I haven't experimented too much with color. At $2.50 a sheet (8.5 x 11) I can't just go printing pics all the time.... So, if anyone sees me and wants to see the print, just ask... It's pretty cool.

Anyway, nothing really new. Have no major plans for this weekend. I'm leaving next Thursday afternoon to go to our cabin for the weekend. Man am I so excited. We are meeting a handful of old college friends up there for the long weekend (got to celebrate those presidents!). I'm really looking forward to shooting some new material while up there. Kel and I will be up there for a whole day before the other folks arrive, and I hope to get some quality time in with the Canon.

Until then....

Friday Foto: Ad shot

So I do a lot of work for Southern Soul BBQ. The owner came to me the other day and wanted to promote this new dish he's offering, The Marley. He actually used to sell this at Rafters, the other bar he used to work at, but when he left he took the recipe with him. It's a great Mexican dish, a burrito of sorts with jerked-chicken and lots of Caribbean flare. Ummmmm, yummy.

Anyway, so here's the photo I took for the ad. It started out as a regular photo, but to add more of the 'southern-soul-indie-hippie-image' to the ad, I changed the pic around a bit and am very happy with the results. I love this look on certain photos, it really makes it standout.

Anyway, that's all that's going on. I have nothing bigged planned this weekend. Might head on down to Jacksonville tomorrow, and I'll watch the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Have a great weekend !