My wife and I took a little hike in the foothills east of Boise, Idaho just to capture some images because I just knew it would be a spectacular sunset. How did I know? Partly because of the fantastic sunrise this morning, plus the sky was clear of clouds but still quite smokey from the nearby wildfires.
I like this particular image because it looks like the branches are holding up the sun.
A larger version of the photo can be seen on the 500px photo sharing site.
Last week I got to enjoy the 100+ degree temperature in Las Vegas while attending a trade conference. Fortunately, it was all indoors and didn’t feel the heat until I headed back to the hotel. It was a bit cooler in the evenings, so I took the opportunity to walk up and down the famous Las Vegas strip, admiring all the lights and glitter that are a trademark of this city.
One of the more prominent hotels is called the “Bellagio” which features a fountain and pond that stretches over several acres. Every 15 minutes or so, the fountain puts on quite a show in tune to a musical track. It was fun to watch and photograph.
I took a few steps back from the railing and pointed my iPhone at the spectacle and grabbed the following image. I adjusted it slightly in Adobe Lightroom to cause the people in the foreground to be a total silhouette.
Today was the day for the annual 12K race on trails in the local foothills. Lots of climbing, rocks, ruts, descents, dust, you name it. But, one thing in common with all the participants is that they all seemed to be having a great time.
Here is a shot of one of those happy runners with the Boise, Idaho skyline in the background.
If you want to participate in the race next year, keep an eye on the xc12k website.
This week is being spent in Las Vegas as a student at the third annual “Skip’s Summer School,” the brain child of Skip Cohen. There are many internationally known big name photographers giving talks and seminars on things varying from techniques for lighting your subject to the business end of photography. What an opportunity to learn from the likes of Jerry Ghionis, Tamara Lackey, Bambi Cantrell, Scott Bourne, Roberto Valenzuela and Jules Bianchi just to name a few. In addition to this wonderful training, I’ve been able to meet other photographers from all over the world, the farthest away coming from east Africa.
Those of you who want to take their photography to the next level should keep events and workshops like this on your list of things to do. It will be well worth both your time and money spent.
Here is any image of Jerry Ghionis turning over the presentation to Tamara Lackey taken with my trusty iPhone 4.
Once a year a very big cycling event comes to Boise called the Twilight Criterium. It is a race that covers 3 city blocks with the cyclists completing 85 laps of the course. The race starts at dusk and ends up with the need for some pretty bright road construction lights set up at various places along the course. There were participants from all over the world, the winner being from a team from Australia. The local paper said there was an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people watching the event. That doesn’t surprise me at all, but even with all the people, it was fairly easy to get close to the action.
As far as photographing this event, I kept things simple with just a single 24-105mm lens, trying various techniques for shooting in the low light conditions. One of the cool effects that can be done is to slow down the shutter speed for these fast moving guys and pan with the moving object. The desired effect is to keep the cyclist in the same part of the image as possible, but blur the background as much as you can.
The following images show some of the good light images which are fairly normal looking, followed by some that definitely show the technique I described.
Hope you enjoy them.
Kelli and I went down to the Farmer’s Market in Eagle, enjoying the morning, enjoying each other’s company and chatting with some of the vendors showing their wares.
Kevin Flynn from The Potters Center was busy on his wheel making all kinds of cool things out of clay. It is fun to watch an artist with many years of talent while their creative juices are flowing. He was gracious enough to let me capture this image of him as he makes a new creation.
Today is Fathers Day. I am fortunate to still have my father around to talk to. Not everyone is so blessed. I spent the afternoon with him and my mom and we shared in very nice conversation. It wasn’t too long into our chat that I asked if I could take a couple of portraits of him. He is normally on the camera end of portraits, but happily obliged my request.
The setup on this portrait was quite simple. There is a nice window on the south side of their house bringing in some soft light into the room. There was also a shadowed door that I could use as a backdrop. I had him sit on a piano stool in the middle of the room, positioned myself so that the dark door was right behind him and started shooting. I asked him to face different directions, to look away, to look at me, to be serious, and to not laugh (which usually gets the natural smile I’m looking for).
It was my intent to show his images in a high contrast black and white even before I took them, and it worked out as expected. Here is the first image.
Assuming that all the shooting was done for the day, I put the camera away and we moved into the kitchen for some Fathers Day desert. The lighting was too nice and I got the camera out once again. This time, dad was being illuminated by a single lightbulb lamp just above the table. That same shadowed door was behind him once again. I took a few shots, then asked him to try a few different hand positions, such as resting his chin on his hand. It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, so I asked dad to move it into a comfortable position which he did. Then he looked down and the following image was captured.
Happy Fathers Day!
I had fun with the moon tonight. When I first saw it, my mind started to do funny compositional things in relation to a nearby lamppost. Anyway, here is how my mind was working on this particular night. Maybe I should stay inside next time there is a full moon. :-)
Today was a very fun day to capture images of the runners in the Capitol Classic, a kids race from the Boise train depot to the capitol building. There were about 1,600 kids participating and all were having a great time. It was fun to see their enthusiasm as they approach the finish line. The above photo shows one very enthusiastic boy putting all he has into the finish sprint.
I created a template for those customers wanting custom prints of the event. This template was made from another shot I took of the start line balloons. I cut a hole out of the middle of the balloon photo, added a red and white border to the inside edge and then added text to identify the event. This has been a very popular “custom” print for my customers.
Photo credit for the image of the runner is a good friend and great local photographer, Jim Cullum.
Every year around Memorial Day, you will find in the city of Eagle, Idaho a field full of our country’s flags to honor those military people who are serving or have served to keep our country free. Thanks to you all!
It is an amazing site to see.
© 2012 - Jim Larson Photography
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