Sunsets are hit and miss this time of the year in Oregon. If you want to practice with lighting during one. you really cant hesitate or it will be cloudy before you know it. I packed up my gear and sweet talked my wife into being my test subject the other day. This is with a two strobe set up. One strobe is set up to the left of my camera at about 6ft high and the other is set up behind her, and to the left, at around 8ft height. If I didn’t have a second strobe I could have slowed down my shutter to around 1/50th of a sec and used the setting sun  “hair light”. However,  in this case I used  a shutter speed of 1/200 of a second @f4 to darken the background and leave the blue haze of the sunset. The trick is keeping your flashes set on low or they will easily blow out your subject at this low of an aperture. At least she has some new Facebook photos now!

Here are a few images from the wedding last weekend in Phoenix. It was nice to get out of the rain and soak up a few rays. I am really happy with the images. I am starting to learn that every wedding presents a challenge in terms of lighting. This one was no different. As the sun began to set the lighting was changing very rapidly. My white balance was all over the place at times, and what was was a proper exposure at one time, wouldn’t be in 5 minutes! Ryan & Erin were great to work with. We were running a little behind schedule following the ceremony but they made time to take one last shot out in font of the country club with the sun setting. Its on my websites home screen right now. The shot of them dancing was interesting. I set one of my flashes on slave and controlled it with the other that was on my camera. I thought it would look cool to get a shot of them back lit during the first dance.  The tricky part is that to do this I have to stay in one place to have the other flash directly opposite of me. I took several shots and never got the “look” that I wanted. Just as their dance was ending I took one last shot and got the image below. My flash was sitting on the table behind them; it really makes them pop out of the background! I love it when an idea works!

“Have you ever danced with the devil by the pale moonlight? I always ask that of all my prey. I just like the sound of it”

Batman, 1989, The Joker – Played by Jack Nicholson

I’m still processing photos from the wedding I shot in Kansas City last weekend.  I wanted to post this particular shot first though. It was taken of the bride and groom dancing during the reception. Since the wedding was on the 31st of October they turned the reception into a costume party. You really couldn’t of asked for a better setting. It was located at the Bingham-Waggoner estate in Independance, MO. The house was built in the mid 1800’s and really looked like it had a few unexplained stories behind its doors. The area where the reception/dance was held was VERY dark. Its tough to shoot in this type of setting because  your constantly trying to find an appropriate balance of off camera flash and available light. To make things more difficult, you have to maintain a decent shutter speed if you want any chance of your flash being able to freeze the action on the dance floor. Not to mention the camera’s auto focus is pretty much useless because its so dark, so the only option is to manually focus.  I think the lighting balance in this shot turned out perfect and I squeaked by with a just enough shutter speed to freeze the action with a few light trails in the background. I guess it just goes to show how much goes into a shot like this to get it to turn out the way you want.

Technical details.

24mm @ f3.2 1/4 sec shutter ISO 1000

I’m trying to get back into the blog, so here is a photo from this past weekend. Ash is helping me shoot a wedding in Connecticut next weekend, so we went out in the park to practice a little on Sunday. This naturally turned into a “play” session for me with the intermediate sun breaks and the big puffy clouds. I’m certain she will someday be in a business journal due to her success in some off-the-wall business that she started. Here is the photo that can accompany the article. I call it her “Business Journal Photo”!  I’m glad she’s helping me out with the wedding; with a minor in Art History she really has an eye for the creative shots.

Another supprise from my birthday last week were that my parents drove in from Kansas so we could all be together. It’s always fun to hang out with family. I wish I could do it more, but I also love how special it is when we get together since it doesn’t happen too often with me and my wife living in the Pacific Northwest. I made my brother, wife and niece take photos on Saturday evening.  I should clarify. I made my niece take photos, I made my brother and wife hold flashes. This is one of the shots. I was having trouble getting my flash system to work right. I have two speedlites with Elinchrom Skyport Radio Slaves to fire them. I was shooting on a low apreture with fast shutter and then remembered that the flashes will only sync up to 1/200th of a second with the Elinchrom system.  Easy fix, but if anyone out there is thinking about getting these radio slaves, just know that you will lose your high speed sync capabilities. She’s a cutie, I wish I could take more photos of her.

Winter finally let up this weekend and we were graced with clear skies and near 70 degree temperatures. Ash, Elli and I packed a lunch and headed out to the Gorge on Sunday to take advantage of the weather. Instead of taking hwy 84 we took the Historic Columbia River Highway. This road is the reason why supercharged convertibles were created.  It curves between sheer rock faces and waterfalls while outlined in classic white wooden gard rails.  We stopped at Bridal Veil Falls for a short hike. I had a better shot of the falls, but I couldn’t get the photo taken before my lens was spotted with mist.

After the hike we drove back into town and stopped by Lucky Lab Brewey for a beer. Dogs are allowed on the back deck, so its usually a fairly popular place when the weather is nice in Portland. This is what happens when you let your guard down around my dog. LICKED!! 
 

I got a new lens last week: Sigma’s 50mm 1.4 I have only owned Canon lenses to this point, but so far I am really impressed with this product. Canon has a 50mm 1.4 lens, but from what I could tell, produces mediocre photos; especially with a $300 price tag. It’s obvious that Canon puts a majority of their effort into the “L” series lenses. Don’t get me wrong; it’s an astonishing line but they’re expensive. It’s nice to see a 3rd party company realize, and fill, a gap in the product line in terms of quality and price. Good job Sigma! Both of these shots are stopped down to 1.4. While other lenses will get soft at this aperture the Sigma remains fairly sharp.
ps. This is really the only “hood” you can live in Portland.

I met Annie and her darling 3 month old, Aubrey, at my Nephew’s birthday party last month. She contacted me earlier in the week to inquire about photographing her daughter and to let me know that the photo I took of their son Brendan is framed and hanging in their house. I’m fairly unassuming when it comes to my photography.  Honestly, I have no bigger critic than myself, but it feels good to know that someone is enjoying something that I produced in their house. Truth be told, previous to this shoot I held exactly 0 hours of studio work under my belt (with a human), but i guess you have to start somewhere. I know she’s a bit fussy in the first shot  I posted, but I really like the lighting so I decided it was a keeper. At least for me…

I love my Northwest Beers. I have a basket next to the refridgerator under my bar where I always discard  bottle caps. I thought it would be fun to dig out a selection of caps from the northwest and take a photo. I think there are 10 different brewery’s represented in this shot. I have come to the conclusion though that I don’t have a favorite brewery. Full Sail is probably the most fun to visit because I love Hood River, but outside of that, I just can’t choose just one. I can say that I visit Pyramid/Mac Tarnahans Brewery the most. This weekend I had the opportunity to have a beer with the old Brewmaster. He is currently the Brewmaster for PBR China. I asked him if he had one tip for basement brewers like Hank and myself.

 Don’t reuse your yeast!

I didn’t have the nerve to tell him that we still use a dry yeast.

About the photo: The caps were placed on a glass table and lit from below and above with speedlites. Color adjustments made in Lightroom.

I’ve been a bad blogger lately. These were taken a few weekends ago from my trip back to the Midwest. Originally Ash and I had planned to fly into Denver and meet up with the family at my brother’s house in Ft. Collins. The trip was altered a little with the passing of my Grandmother. Alaska Airlines worked with me to change my ticket so I could attend her service in Kansas. I have to say, while I wish under better circumstances, it was great to go home and see family. Doris lived to 99 years old; she was 3 years old when the Titanic sank and saw 17 different presidents take office and only missed seeing her 18th by a week. I will never forget her smile.

The original plans for the weekend stayed intact in that we all traveled to Bolder for the KU vs Colorado match up. It was Ashleys first Jayhawk basketball game; while it was unfortunately away from Allen Field House, it was in front of a home crowd since the hawk fans out numbered the Colorado fans.  

My mother has taken a liking to this tree which sits in the corner of a wheat field between Hutchinson and Ellinwood, Kansas. She travels between the towns often to visited her father (grandpa) and during one of these trips noticed this tree. She has brought it up in conversation several times, sent me her own photo of it and made a point to drive me by it on our way from Kansas to Colorado.  This tree could have easily been removed, but for one reason or another the farmer decides to plow, plant and cut around it every year.  I am my mother’s son, we both notice when someone goes out of their way to let a tree grow.  Does this make me a tree hugger? I gotta move…