One more photo from the weekend. We spent Sunday evening on Hank and Darcy’s patio with a couple of pizzas and a mutt case of beer. Just in case you wondering, a mutt case of beer is anything you have left from multiple beer runs over the past month. Or in this case;  what was leftover from a party two weeks ago. Speaking of mutts, this is Darcy’s dog Amoni; who is probably one of the most photogenic dogs I have ever run into. For Valentines Day Hank ordered a test to determine what breed(s) she is. The results were so outrageous it almost made us question its validity.

Great Dane, Ikita, Rottweiler, Italin Gray Hound, Minature Pincher, Boston Terrier.

I know I’m forgetting one, but let’s just say she come from a long line of unlocked gates. Anyway, this is clearly the Great Dane in her coming out because she has no clue how big she is. To bring out her eyes I bumped up the brightness and contrast of the entire photo while taking down the saturation in everything but reds.

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 went to the fabric store today and bought some heavy fabric  for use as a  backdrop to practice studio lighting. The piece I bought was only 8ft x 5ft; which greatly limited who could fill in as a subject in the shot. It took two cheese sticks and a bath, but I finally found someone that had nothing better to do. This is about as simple as it gets for a lighting set up since I currently only have the option of using one off-camera flash. My key light was a canon speedlight, shot through a translucent umbrella, with a silver reflector set up opposite to fill in just a touch highlights. I’ve worked with better… but not many. (ghostbusters quote)

Okay, this isn’t my typical blog entry but I promised Hank  if he put this video on youtube I would put it on my blog. This is his girlfriend’s cat, Gem, who is quite possibly the most aggravating animal I have ever encountered. It wil consistently meow at ear stabbing levels for utterly no reason what so ever.  She doesn’t need water,  she doesn’t need food and it’s certainly not for attention because she will swipe and or bite into anything within a whiskers reach. No joking, she’s the Gary Busey of cats. Her one redeeming quality hower is that she’s toilet trained, and this for some reason fascinates me to no end.