Caesars Palace – Las Vegas

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Jim

Last summer while attending Skip’s Summer School, I ventured out onto the strip to get some photos of the lights of Las Vegas.  I was having fun with my zoom lens on my camera.

My choice of exposure was such that I had 1 second to move the zoom from one end of its range to the other. If you look closely, you can tell that it only took a portion of that time to rack the zoom, as some of the buildings are very much in focus and still.

Next time you are out, try some not so normal techniques and see what you get.

 

Posted in Abstract, Architecture, Night | Leave a comment

AR-15 Practice

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Jim

A good friend of mine just picked up his new Stag Arms AR-15 rifle today.  It wasn’t but a few minutes later that he was out putting it through its paces.  He shot the rifle while I shot him with the  camera.  You can see one of the shell casings just after it ejected from the rifle.

Here is my favorite shot of the day, converted to B&W using NIK Silver Efex Pro 2 software.

 

Posted in BW, Guns, People | Leave a comment

Mark and Julia

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Jim

What a joyous day it was today as Mark and Julia joined together as husband and wife.  The love between these two is amazing and you could feel it in the air.  Here are a few of my favorites images that were captured throughout the day.

Place cards set up for the reception.

The rings posed in a gorgeous bouquet.

Julia, putting on the finishing touches for her husband to be.

Mark, you have a beautiful bride.

Red, black and silver were the colors.  Nice choice, Julia!  Mark, you’re looking pretty sharp too.

Unity sand is a great keepsake and a beautiful part of the ceremony.

A little post wedding celebration time by Julia and her attendants.

What a handsome couple these two make.

Pictures are over and time to share a meal with all those attending the wedding.

Thank you Mark and Julia for the opportunity of being your photographer for the day. It was a real blessing to be a part of such a blessed day.

 

Posted in People, Portraits, Weddings | 1 Comment

An Evening of Portraits

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Jim

Tonight I learned a lot about posing people.  I’ve posed many people over the years, but this particular night I must have posed 150 different people.  I was hired to shoot images at a Christmas party for a local company.  When the night was over, I had a new appreciation for this type of photography, trying to capture the many clients in less than 2 minutes each.

I used just 2 lights for the setup, intending use use a second hair light, but some technical issues kept me from doing so.  I positioned the subjects about 10 feet in front of a lit Christmas tree, then shot with an aperture of f2.8 to cause the lights on the tree to grow in apparent size by what is referred to as bokeh.

The following image was one of my favorites of the night.  I love her eyes which are very captivating in my opinion.

Posted in Christmas, People, Portraits | Leave a comment

Family Self Portrait

Posted on November 26, 2011 by Jim

My wife and I had fun working on some self portraits for a “2011 Adventures” book we are building.  These books have become an annual affair, both in building the book and capturing the self portraits.  It will also give us something look back on years down the road.

The lighting was very simple in this setup.  I used a single AlienBees B800 strobe in a 3×4 foot Photoflex Softbox.  Since it was daytime with light shining through the curtains in our living room, I set the camera to a low ISO (100), causing it to need more light for the exposure, plus I stopped down the lens to an aperture of f16.  This caused whatever ambient light in the room to disappear with the only visible light to the camera being created in the softbox.

I positioned Kel to get the light just right on her face, then had her freeze that position. I set up the camera to capture an image every 7 seconds, then I jumped into the photo, trying to match the orientation of my face to hers so that the shadows would fall similarly on both our faces.  The camera captured about a dozen images, as I slowly moved my head position, hoping that at least one of them would be what I was looking for.

Here is my result.  Not an exact match, but pretty close.

Do you like dramatic lighting like this for portraits, or do you prefer a more evenly lit scene?

Family Self Portrait

Posted in People, Portraits, Studio | Leave a comment

Family Portraits

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Jim

Today I had a great time shooting portraits of this lovely family.  I’ve been capturing images of them for years, and it has been fun watching the kids grow.  It was a bit cool out today, but everyone was willing to shed the coats over and over again for new poses.  This was one of my favorites.

 

Posted in Fall, People, Portraits | Leave a comment

The Night Becomes Day

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Jim

I had a fun time this evening at a nearby community named Hidden Springs which is about 5 miles north of Boise in the foothills. It was twilight and getting darker by the minute.

This tree has been a focus of mine for quite some time and I envisioned a photo with stars in the sky and the lights of the community shining from its windows. That wasn’t to be on this particular evening.  The sky was somewhat cloudy, so no stars. Fulfilling my photographic vision will have to be a project for another day.

I did take about a dozen shots, ranging anywhere from 4 seconds to 30 seconds in duration. This particular one was 4 seconds in length. This is nothing like it looked to my eye in the field, as it was very dark, but the more I played with it on the computer the more it became a daytime scene.

My wife never likes it when I go black and white on a subject. She says that it sucks the life out of the image.  I just laugh and she gives me “the look.”  :-)

Here is the same image as it came out of the camera.

What do you think? Do you like the black and white, or the original color image better?

 

Posted in Black and White, Fall, Landscape, Night, Trees | 2 Comments

Singer Silhouette

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Jim

Mid last month I was photographing runners a rather large 10k and 5K race called the Barber to Boise. There were nearly 2,000 participants, so a lot of photos were taken that day. As part of the event, there was an outdoor concert going on as people ate lunch after the race. The group performing is out of England and is called Scars on 45. A major claim to fame for this group was playing the opening for the TV show Grey’s Anatomy.

Anyway, back to the photo.  I had on the 70-200mm lens, and was standing pretty close to the stage and had a great angle for a profile of their singer, Aimee Driver. I wanted to have her lips close to the microphone, but not touching it. I patiently waited for just the right moment and CLICK.  Got it!

I opened the image with Photoshop and increased the contrast just a bit, then lightened the whites and darkened the blacks. Finally, I adjusted what Photoshop calls “threshold” to take away all the mid-tones. This was just what I was looking for. It is kind of different from my normal images, but it was fun seeing something in my head while I was shooting with the full intent of having it turn out the way it did.

Experiment with your images and have fun!

 

Posted in Black and White, People, Photoshop, Portraits, Silhouette | Leave a comment

Kaylie 2011 – Senior Portraits

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Jim

Today brought another senior photo shoot.  This time was with a fun young lady named Kaylie.  I was wondering if the weather today was going to let us venture outside, but it turned out to be pretty nice considering the forecast.  It was a bit cool and cloudy, but we were going to be shooting at a shady location anyway, so no big deal.  The location of Kaylie’s choosing was in downtown Boise called “Freak Alley.”  It is a place where graffiti artists have been allowed to paint some tasteful artwork.  Fun place to shoot with the color of the walls making some very interesting backdrops.  Here are two of my favorites from our shoot today.

Posted in Fall, People, Portraits | Leave a comment

Kenzie 2011 – Senior Portraits

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Jim

On probably the last nice day of the season for a sunny and warm photo shoot, I had the great pleasure of capturing some amazing images of Kenzie.  There were a couple of new locations to try out and Kenzie and her dog, Koda were my willing subjects of the day.

Here they are next to a pond near Eagle, Idaho.

I forgot to mention what a nice and natural smile she has.

After an outfit change we moved to a second spot that I’ve wanted to shoot at for quite a while.  It was an awesome day for light and the location was magic from a photographer’s point of view.  I’ll be back.

I’m not sure how many times I said, “One more shot” to Kenzie, but I think she quit believing me after about my 10th time.  The following was nearly my last shot showing a totally different mood.  It is one of my favorites.

Thanks for a fun photo shoot, Kenzie.  Hope you enjoy your images.

 

Posted in Animals, Fall, Forest, People, Portraits, Trees | Leave a comment