Boiler Room Glamour Shoot

Why do attractive models and old machinery so often go together so well?  Who knows, but I do love shooting in locations like that.  These were taken with 1 portable strobe and a shoot-through umbrella, usually placed above and to the left of camera.  A decent bit of post processing to get reasonable HDR effects.

On The Road - Southwest USA

Took a drive from Las Vegas to Palm Springs, California, and back, with a side trip to Utah thrown in.  Here were some photos from the road, of the road : )  I've found they make excellent computer wallpaper.

Glamour - Collages / Composites

Most of my work is more photorealistic than these, but occasionally it's really fun to experiment with backgrounds and textures.  I keep a folder of interesting potential collage material, containing images of walls, metalwork, ground covers, etc. 

All the elements that make up these images were taken by me.  If I started using components from other sources I would feel less like the finished results is not really my own work, so I don't cross that line.

Glamour - Simple Props

I remember a Peanuts comic strip where a mean spirited Lucy took everything away from Linus except a rubber band, and yet he still was able to find ways to amuse himself with just that one thing, so much so that she had to take that away as well.   So here I challenged myself to do a glamour shoot adding just a roll of wide silver ribbon.  I taped strips to the ceiling to be "bars" and gave some to the model, and here are the results.  I occasionally will do this "one prop" approach to spur ideas. 

Note the darker skin tone on this image.  Typically I correct dark skin by darkening and lowering the saturation of the red value.  Most of the images in this set are like this image.  I left the higher red value on the 2 prior images for subjective artistic considerations.

New York City - B/W Photos - Lumix GF-1/20mm F1.7 Tryout

These images were taken with my Lumix GF-1/20mm F1.7.  It was the only camera I took on a recent trip to New York.  B/W conversion was performed using Lightroom 3.0.




Looking towards Times Square from 32nd st and 11th Ave

 


PDN PhotoPlus Expo party at aircraft carrier museum




Sailors at Times Square




Javitz Convention Center



Alien Silhouettes...

Recently I got an opportunity to shoot one of my favorite models in an empty office building.  When scouting around for various locations I came across a conference room with full length windows covered by mini blinds.  I had planned on making use of natural light so had brought along wax paper and tape.  I covered the windows with wax paper and then set the blinds to show the daylight through.  I asked the model to step through a set of glamour poses.  She added the fantastic idea of grabbing the blinds in some of the shots.

All the following photos are taken using the Nikon 50mm 1.8 at 1/100 sec and F7 (ISO 200).  It's around noon in cloudy weather.

I noticed that there was something really cool about leaving the focus well off.  So I took the next series that way.  Color and texture was added in post processing, but the shape of the model was straight from the camera.

What's in my bag? - Camera Bodies

When I was in college I bought a Nikon EM.  This was the cheapest SLR out there, along with its dedicated line of cheap lenses, which was the main motivating factor in buying it.  Overall it wasn't considered any sort of groundbreaking camera, but it worked well enough for me at the time.  I have no idea where that camera is now, but overall it had a seriously lasting effect on me in that I've been in the Nikon line ever since.  I've occasionally lamented carrying heavy Nikons when comparing them to what always seemed to be much lighter Canon bodies (I didn't need the added durability for my sort of shooting style).  But it's really hard to completely switch camera lines once entrenched with lots of compatable equipment.  So Nikon it has been, and Nikon it shall be into the foreseeable future.

Main Camera - Nikon D90

The D90 is a crop sensor camera, meaning it's sensor is roughly 2/3 the size of 35mm film.  It's been a wonderful camera body for me.  It has pro level flexibility and a built in motor so it works with lenses that don't have their own motor.  One really standout feature has been the auto-sensor-cleaning built in to the camera.  I had a D70 previously and the sensor picked up all sorts of dust.  This one has stayed crystal clean for the 2 years I've owned it.

Nikon is releasing the D7000.  If I was buying new today I would take a serious look at that camera.

Carry Everywhere Camera - Panasonic Lumix GF1

The GF1 is a micro-four-thirds camera.  It's sensor is cropped at around 1/2 the size of 35mm film.  But that is a much bigger sensor size than a typical point-and-shoot (p/s).  It is also compatible with sets of lenses being marketed by Panasonic, Olympus, and Leica. This is an expensive camera for a p/s, but for me it was the absolute minimum amount of camera that would work for me.  I've tried many other small cameras and never been happy with the quality or functionality of them.  This feels ands operates like a real camera.  It feels good to use it and the resulting images have been fantastic, even at higher ISOs (800+).

The camera comes in 2 packages, one with a zoom lens and the other with a fixed 20mm F1.7 lens (40mm effective 35mm equivalent).  I went with the fixed lens due to the speed and smaller size.  I've also made myself a promise to stick with this one lens so the system stays small and portable.

It is a great street shooter among other uses, and I've taken shots I wouldn't have been able to get with my Nikon (why?... because I had the smaller camera with me!)