Jul 25, 2008

Get back on your Horse

Next time you visit your local rodeo, make sure you take the camera! So many possibilities for photo exploration it's insane. Simply strap on a tight pair of wranglers with a nice belt buckle and head on out to see what you can find.

For this weeks personal shoot, I headed out with one camera body and a couple of lenses (fyi - don't leave your long glass at home). I ended up shooting most of the action with a 70-200mm and 1.4 TC. which gave me a fair amount of flexibility from where we were sitting. The rodeo started rather late (8pm), so I had to plan for high ISO if I wanted to stop the action at all. At least that's how my thought pattern started out...but it's usually at this point that I have a small epiphany and think to myself, "I wonder how it really feels to be a cowboy...man vs. beast...jumping on a bull ready to buck you off with the risk of all 2,000 pounds of weight landing on you. Or how about roping a cattle or wrestling a running steer to the ground as you abandon a perfectly good horse at about 30 mph?" That's what happened as it does often when shooting and I decided to leave the ISO around 200 or so and work on creating movement and emotion in the shots through a series of panning techniques and low shutter speeds.

Slow shutter starts now...




I would usually trash this shot due to lots of out of focus areas, but I love the story it tells with the white sock.


Jul 7, 2008

Backyard Jam Session.

Bands do it all the time. You know, call up the buddies for a little jam session in the garage. So tonight after getting the little munchkin into bed, it was out to the backyard to catch the the fading sunset and spend a few minutes behind the camera with a tilt/shift. The jam session consists of looking for something you've never seen before in a location you know really well, the backyard in this case. If the photo mice are resting on the job as of late, this will get them back on track in a hurry...

...looking for lines and lots room for ad space :-)


Seriously, who needs an exotic trip to the Swiss Alps for new subject matter?? - (okay, just kidding, let's go!) - Well at least until gasoline drops back to the price of a King Size Snickers just step to the backyard and look around.



Jul 3, 2008

Projects. Projects. Projects

Always have a project in the works... (sounds simple, right?)

For me, personal projects are like the roots of a tree. Visit them often enough with a little water and they'll keep the rest of the tree alive and happy. Here is a sneak peek at what's in the personal pipeline...

  • "Fire" - exploring the warm light (see pic below)
  • "Vision of Earth" - New website and gallery launching soon!
  • "In our backyard" - Exploration of local humanitarian efforts
  • "Size me up" - Where will the little guy sit next?


Start your personal project today. C'mon, it will only take a minute! What would you work on right now if money, time and all other restraint were completely gone? (dream for a minute)

Make a list. Pick one. Set a date. Behold the birth of creativity.

blogging official


Blogging at 3:30 a.m. ::: not usually recommended
(However, the blog must officially launch by the 4th of July, so no time for sleep!)

After I recover, this will be an open forum for free thinking and artistic communication!

I expect some serious participation from ya'll including lot's of questions and discussion! I'll be posting some recent work here for your critique or simply to spark a conversation.