Could have used some fog...

Now that the holidays are nearly over I have a little more time to go out and take some pictures. I woke up early this morning in hopes of having some fog for I wanted to go shoot some early morning/fog pics. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate but I was able to get some great photo's regardless.

I also tried my hand at some HDR images. One of the looks grossly over-processed but by-in-large, they turned out better than I had expected.

(Click on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)

Saturday afternoon in Ybor City

My friend Amy asked me if I would be interested in taking photos of her and her boyfriend Damir. Sure! Come to find out that they wanted an urban, gritty look and I had no idea how to pull that off - when in doubt, act like you know what you're doing!

We met at a location in Ybor City that I had been to a couple times previously - I hoped it had the feel they were looking for. Based on the cries of glee as they got out of their car, I guess I picked a good location! Now I just needed to figure out how to light them.

The first 15 or 20 minutes was a complete bust as I was having a hard time getting the light just the way I wanted. Then I managed to get things under control and figured out what I had been doing wrong. Much kudos to my wife Tara as she was an ace lighting assistant! For the next 90 minutes or so, we took over 200 posed shots. I knew I had some good ones, but I also knew the true test was what they looked like on the computer... but first, we stopped off at a bar in Ybor for a couple of cocktails (Diet Pepsi for me!) and just chatted for awhile.

Once I got home I realized I had some real keepers. I also realized I had some photo's that were prime candidates to try a new processing technique - sometimes referred to as the "Dave Hill look" (examples).

While I think I still have a lot of work to do with the Dave Hill look, I think we managed to get some pretty nice photos and it was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon! Thanks Damir and Amy for asking me to take your picture!

(Click on photo to see full size image on Flickr)

Clearwater's Next Top Model

OK, so I didn't take the picture above - that's Joanie from America's Next Top Model. I did however take the photo's below. My friend Jenny got sucked into one of those marathon's on television a few weekends ago and asked me if we could try to get a photo similar to that of Joanie. Sure, why not!

After work tonight we set up shop and tried to emulate the above shot of Joanie. Now I need to explain that building management decides to turn off the air conditioning at 5PM. By about 7PM it's a sauna in my office. We persevered through the elements and managed to get a few pretty decent shots - it certainly was a good exercise in trying to balance light. Thanks to Amy for helping out - she's a natural at setting up a shot and a darn good photographer in her own right. Amy really want to take some photo's as well but forgot her camera at home - DOH!

After we shot about 60 head shots with tears, I decided to fire up the projector and see if we could get some cool photo's of Jenny with a movie playing in the background - one of my personal favorites - "Goldfinger".

All in all it was a fun adventure and I think I got some decent photo's in the process (despite the ungodly heat)

(Click on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)

Exposure Assignment 6

This weeks assignment in the exposure class was to study the effects of light during a sunrise. Take one picture facing due west at or right before sunset, and then take several photos of the same composition during the next hour or so. Then, do the same thing facing south.

I work in downtown Clearwater, FL in a 12 story office building and have 'procured' a building master key so I'm able to get onto the roof whenever I want. I thought shooting from there, looking over Clearwater Harbor and Downtown Clearwater would give me my best shots. The difference in just an hour of light is amazing!

Then, an old sunset trick - always look behind you because that is often the best shot. I turned around and saw the reddish-orange globe and great silhouette of the construction crane. I wish I had changed lenses to my 70-200 to get more of an isolation than a landscape, but it still turned out pretty decent.

(Click on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)