Tim & Lisa, Engagement

I had the pleasure of spending a few hours with Tim and Lisa.  They showed me around their neighborhood, the church their going to get married in and finally ending up at Navy Pier. We originally wanted to shoot mainly on the beach but, of course, as soon as we started shooting, it started to rain and I only got a handful of shots off. Not to mention the lifeguard YELLING at us to get off the beach! We then decided to go to the Loyola Campus and of course it had then stopped raining. We took some pictures in the campus then headed for Navy Pier. We parked in the garage and Im pretty sure Tim now has a permanent scar on his head from the low ceiling. Ouch! The rain that just passed gave a nice ambience and some nice light to boot. After re-enacting the scene from Titanic Tim decided that he wanted to take some pictures with cotton candy. I'm glad he did. Those pictures look like great fun as they DEVOURED the cotton candy.  We walked a little bit more around the pier as the weird movie-like fog rolled in and the air chilled. We thought that their were going to be real pirates coming off the pirate ship to attack us all. 

Congratulations and I wish you luck in your lifetimes together!

Now for the slideshow!!

My newest self-portrait and me

Let's start with this, study it for a minute and then look at this, to see how it was made. Roll over the picture for notes, equipment, etc..

---background---

A small batch of Twitter friends joined together a few months back and started a Flickr group know as... #TOGether. Get it? Like TOG, phoTOGrapher... And no, before you even ask, we dont do ether! It's not the 80's anymore! Anywho... Every month or so we have a "contest" with no prizes but to brag and boast, no not really either. This latest, lets call it a project instead, was to do a self-portrait. Not just any self-portrait but a self-portrait using a.... mask! Woohoo!! Thanks Suzy.

---process---

I knew right away what mask I wanted to use. OK, now what? Do I just slap the camera on a tripod and take a picture of my ugly mug? That's it? Nah, you need more. So the mask I chose is pretty DRAMAtic. I figured I needed some dramatic lighting as well. What's more dramatic then a black background? (I'm sure there's something more dramatic but just go with me here, it's MY blog! If you dont agree...get your own blog and then talk about dramatic backgrounds! Sorry... didnt mean to be so dramatic! If you dont like it, get yo... OK enough) So I put a portrait sized black foam board on an easel, placed the mini-chair down in front of it. Attached the sync cord, place the settings... I used f16 on my Canon 70-200 f/4 at 118mm at 1/125. It's difficult to get the focus point on what you want exactly when your doing a SP. Using f16 should put everything important in good enough focus. I sit and start snapping away. It probably took about 20 pictures before I liked what I had, the placement of the lights. (Thanks to digital! I can only imagine the waste of film before this.) Then.... I had to enter model mode!! I hear the music change from this to this Aaawwww yeah!!! Uh, uh yea! I rip the glasses off and start posing. I pause to check to see how good im rocking it. I think to myself, what am I doing? Why is my shirt still on? Off comes the shirt, spin it like a helicopter! So after many other pictures, I realize that I didnt shave my face, the "hair" on my head needs to be shorter, I'm a hair beast, Im overweight and oh... Im not a model! Finally, after getting depressed, my real emotions start to show. The sad, I'm a nobody phoTOGragher, loser emotions, etc. You know, the ones we ALL feel, come on, I know you do! And its not even winter! I tried more and more and saw that one that I liked. I did slight variations. I did not crop that photo at all, framed it that way. I loved it right away. Sure I brought it into Lightroom and Photoshop. You're supposed to!! I dont care what anyone says! (maybe a topic for another blog?) I enhanced and cleaned up as I usually do. I liked this enough to treat it as I do for clients and more importantly as a piece of art.

There! I finally have it! I now have the picture I turned in and a picture I really like.

note to self: When editing a full resolution file with layers... make sure you "save-as" before you make it web-size.

Moral of the story... (do I have one?)

1. Have an idea? TRY IT!

2. You have to shoot. Get off the couch, off the twitter and off the facebook.

3. Experiment, try different things.

4. Put your light where its supposed to go, then move it around, closer, farther, behind you, over you, etc

5. Think of something unique! Think different.

6. Don't just take a picture... MAKE a picture! (quote stolen from somebody)

— Aldo Risolvo

Food. Good ol' Yummy Food!

Food photography... I've never really would have thought about it before. Lately I've been seeing some spectacular images. These images are so well lit and arranged and constructed and cooked and delicious and you get the point. I know this type of photography needs and deserves a lot of work, attention, and focus, not to mention supplies. One person comes to mind right now. This person said something to me once on twitter that pretty much sent chills up my spine, in a good way! Quote: "I'm obsessed w/ 'designing the blur' - an amazing & often ignored aspect of the shot." Designing the blur! How awesome does that sound?!?!? Designing the blur? Yes, we CAN design the blur. She does it all the time! And does it quite well. I am glad I got involved in Twitter. I would have never met her and would have never been inspired. She is Heather "HD" Connelly. You can see her more current work on her Flickr page. Thank you Heather for inspiring me, for teaching me and being *insert corny-ness here* my friend.

Well last night my wife went shopping. I got home from work and we decided to start cooking. I thought, hey, get the camera out and play around. I started taking a few shots along the way. Just taking these, un-setup, un-lit, un-composed shots are hard enough. This all made me appreciate what "HD" does all the more. (Is that the right phrase?) I'll post my shots below. I will definitely do this again andtry do it in a more controlled manner and attempt to "design the blur".

On a off photography topic... I had a blast cooking with my wife. We got to spend all night together in the kitchen, in the dining room, then the couch and finally the bed. Most of you know by know that she is pregnant and we have been loving it and getting along so so well. It was one of the best nights of my life. Im not even sure why... we even talked about it. Why was that night so special? Maybe 'cause we were getting along, feeding off each other, enjoying something we both like to do on occasion, with a good outcome may I say.... Whatever the case may be it was great. Then to top it off... She's trying to get me to feel the baby move, she's only 5 months! She trys all the time and she LOVES it when she can feel it. I try all the time too with no luck except on another occasion. So I try again before I fall asleep. Lo' and behold I feel something once and twice on my hand. Its like a flutter. I've been training to feel this for weeks! Then I think... ooh, let me try this... I put my face where I felt the movement, and I felt it on my cheek! Oh it was so cool. What a feeling. This morning someone even noticed I was being more chipper on twitter. Anyway... thanks babe!