Hello again. This weeks posts are from yet another killer shoot with the wonderful Leigha. This first shot was taken in front of a wall that used to be the inside of a building but is now outside. The rest of the building was torn down. Lots of great shooting opportunities now. I used the 17-40mm at the 40mm range. I used a remote 530ex flash remotely triggered just off camera left. The light was diffused using a Lastolite small flash diffuser attached to the flash with the Honl quick strap. I love this thing. Looks like a little Softbox. Imported the picture into Camera Raw and did all my adjustments. The preset for this shot is available if you want it. Just drop me an email and I’ll send it to you.

These next two shots are taken at NC State University in the “expression” tunnel. This is a great place the the campus has setup to allow free expression of any kind on the walls, ceiling and floor. Just an amazing place. Luckily when we got into the tunnel there was a nice supply of spent paint cans we could use as props. We spent almost 3 hours in this tunnel working every angle and every prop we could find. Tons of great shots came out of this tunnel. Leigha was soo open to try anything. We were both crawling all over the floor, which was not a the most sanitary of situations. I will post some of the other shots that were taken in the Tunnel on the Gallery page eventually. This shot was taken with the 17-40mm again at the 40mm setting. Love this lens. Same lighting setup as previous shot except flash was used more as a fill as this shot was taken at a gap in tunnel that lets the sun and weather in.

This last shot was taken after a couple hours of onlookers and crazy heat in the tunnel. Leigha grabbed one of the cans that seemed to have some paint left in it and proceeded to tag the wall with her name not realizing the paint can was leaking all over her hand. Well, she just went with it and slapped her hand on her other arm and had paint everywhere. Was amazing. I decided to end the day with the 100mm 2.8 macro lens. So glad I decided to switch it up. The flash this time has the Honl honeycomb on it and is placed just off camera left and about 10 inches above the camera. I love the control of the light this gives to me. I’m able to direct the light wherever I need it.

I just love Leigha’s eyes in this shot. So intense. I can always count on her to jump right into that perfect expression when it is needed the most. The black paint on her hand just adds the right amount of grittiness we were looking for in the tunnel.

I have to say this was an incredibly fun day of shooting. We tried all kinds of different things we’ve never done before and they seemed to really turn out great. I have to thank Leigha again for her patience and willingness to try anything and also in helping carry all my crap around all day. What a trooper.

Hope you all enjoy these pictures and the story behind them. Please feel free to leave any comments or sign the guest book. Peace

Hello everyone. A couple great artists are opening a studio in Wake Forest, NC on June 12th. Here is more information

 http://www.727northmain.com/Welcome.html

You are cordially invited to the Opening Celebration of 727 North Main, the Triangle’s newest Art Studio, featuring works by resident artists Gaylord Picard and Bruce Johnson.

Mr. Picard is a well-known award-winning area artist and will be showing works in Photography, Water Color and Sculpture.

Mr. Johnson is an international award-winning photographer and two-time Pulitzer nominee. He will present works in Photography and Digital Painting.

Please plan to attend the Opening Receptionon Friday June 12th from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m.or view the collections Saturday and Sunday

from noon until 5 p.m.

Corporate and commercial art buyers are welcome to attend with the general public. Please introduce yourselves.

727 North Main Street, Wake Forest, North Carolina 27587

919-270-2259

A beautiful sunset captured while out on another trek getting the hang of the LensBaby Composer. 

 This shot was taken on the trail behind the house here in Raleigh. I love this trail. The housing developement was built basically on a swamp so you get great reflections off the water. Lots of birds and wildlife reside here. 

When composing this shot I tilted the lens slightly upward in order to get the setting sun in focus and have the reflection totally blurred. I dialed in almost a full stop of underexposure in order to not totally blow out the sunset keeping the detail in the clouds and keep the trees nice and dark, almost totally black. I think this is key when shooting any kind of sunset is to not let the camera do too much of the thinking. It tends to want to overexpose the scene which will kill the feeling I had when shooting the picture. 

Very little was done in post except a little Vibrance adjustment and a little Clarity added to make the clouds a little "punchier".

I hope you all enjoy this photo as much as I do. Please leave a comment or sign the guest book.

Thank You

Peace 

Hello everyone. These next couple of pictures are from my first outing with the Lensbaby Composer. So far I find this lens to be amazing and frustrating at the same time. I see it’s going to take a while to hit that “Sweet Spot” more consistently. But I’m sure that will come with time and practice, which I plan on doing a lot of. The first thing you want to do when you get the Composer is make sure you have the Diopter adjusted correctly on your camera as the Composer is not an auto focus lens. Which I didn’t do the fist 20 or so shots. After adjusting with my 50mm I was more consistent with getting the manual focus correct. The directions that come with the lens are pretty sparse  but actually give some good information. Be sure to read them. Should only take 5 minutes at the most to do.

I can see the possibilities of this lens being endless. Of

course there is always the possibility of something like this lens becoming kind of gimmicky and cliché. But that will all depend on how it is used. My first instinct was to go out and shoot the most obvious subject, Flowers. Now don’t get me wrong I did do quite a few flower shots and they came out killer but there is so much more this lens is capable of and I’m just starting to scratch the surface. I am so excited about what the future holds for me and my Composer.

Peace

It’s time once again to wow and amaze you with my photography prowess. Well, maybe not. Anyway. This shot here was taken a couple years ago at Myrtle Beach. Just so happens that this year Myrtle Beach was having record winds for the season. Made for fun walks on the beach….I think I had 2 layers of skin sandblasted off my legs that week. But my love for the beach over came my need for skin. While walking down to the shore I looked down the windy and dusty beach and was just amazed at the dreary, washed out look of it. The stairs extending out into the grass just looked so lonely.

No real insight into photography here, I just looked right and saw the shot. Very little done in post. Just a little sharpening and a wee bit of vingetting.

Hope you all like it and please leave a comment or sign the guest book. Don’t forget, all the pictures going forward are zoomified. So please click on picture to get a closer look.

Peace