October 31st, 2009

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween this year . . . to wrap up my creepy image of the day, I've employed a little prop I had left over from my Konxari (www.konxari.com) shoot from last year.

Captured with the Nikon 50mm prime and the use of to Nikon Flashes. I mounted the SB 900 on top of the camera, but had it firing only a signal to the handheld SB800. I shot a few images, moving the flash around until I got the dramatic lighting I wanted. Show at a 60th of a second at f/1.8 with an ISO of 100.

October 30th, 2009

Halloween kinda snuck up on me this year . . . so I thought I'd do some themed images for the next couple of days. This was a fun one and an impromptu shot as Peyton, my little 5-year old had gotten a toy flashlight in one of her goody bags. It came with several caps that you put over the light to make scary shadows - she loves it and I though what a good way to shoot something fun.

Captured with the Nikon 50mm prime at f/1.8 with the shutter speed set to a third of a second. ISO is down at 100. I set the camera on a tripod and simply shown the flashlight on the pumpkin. It's that simple. The ghost looks as though it's been sun bleached onto the pumpkin!

October 29th, 2009

So it's almost Halloween and I am realizing I haven't put up any creepy images of the day! So in honor of all things scary and creepy, here's what I fear the most - yep. In my house, I'll take care of any critter and creepy crawly, with the exception of spiders. In my house, my wife is the designated Spider Hunter. I am not in any way ashamed of this . . . there's nothing natural about them - 8 legs, the way they move . . . how they can surprise you. Ugh . . . enough . . . moving on to the technical details . . .

Shot with the Sigma 70-300mm macro on a tripod - I was a good 5 feet away! Shutter speed is at 125th of a second with an f-stop of f/5.6. ISO is down to 100.

October 28th, 2009

The more I work on this project, the more excited I get about it! This is from the third shoot for the Ford GT book due out next year. For having never really shot cars before, I am finding these shots to be some of the strongest in my body of work. This is why I enjoy photography - you never know where it's going to take you.

Shot with the Nikon 70-200mm at a 20th of a second at f/14. ISO is down to 100. The technique for this shot is called panning and can be a bit tricky. Notice the front end of the car is sharp, but the rest of the image is streaked and blurry . . . for every one 'select' image, you're going to have 10 other shots that are not usable - but to me, that's part of the fun!

October 27th, 2009

I know I recently posted a sunset from my front yard (see October 22nd) but I wanted to show how different each and every display can be. Tonight, we might as well have been on another planet! My daughter stayed out with me while I shot this, marveling at the colors. Brilliant display - kudos Mother Nature - on another fantastic show!

Captured with the Nikon 70-200mm at f/5.6 at 125th of a second. ISO is set to 100.

October 26th, 2009

Shot on location during a recent gig for Ford . . . I was shooting at a barn built in the 1700's and it was just such an amazing location. The contrast between the old barn and the sleek cars was fantastic and there was plenty for me to shoot while the cars were being reset.

Captured with the 70-200mm at f/8 with a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second. ISO was down to 100. Converted to Black and White with Adobe's new Lightroom 3 Beta.

October 25th, 2009

I had the pleasure of shooting a Tai Chi studio yesterday . . . full of history and good karma. They had this amazing drum used during class set in the corner of the room . . . has to be a hundred years old . . . perfect subject to shoot!

Captured with the Sigma 10-20mm at a 40th of a second at f/5.6 with an ISO of 500.

October 24th, 2009

I have a couple more shoots planed for the Ford GT book and here's a peek at one of them . . . Fall makes for a great backdrop for these super sleek mechanical masterpieces. I am told, the blue one, called Sonic Blue, blue books for just over 2 million! I don't have to tell you how fun it is to be shooting this project!

Captured with the Sigma 10-20 at 1/60th of a second, f/5.6 with an ISO of 100. Quick note about the shooting conditions . . . the sky was overcast, which is favorable for photographers as it spreads the sun light out and softens the shadows . . . giving you the worlds biggest softbox!

October 23rd, 2009

Nothing says cute like your adorable little girl blowing seeds of weeds all over your yard . . . but yet, it's a great photo op and she was having a blast! I was just impressed she was willing to go that close to them . . . the seed pods look like something out of Alien and there were bugs all around! My brave little trooper!

Captured with the Sigma 10-20mm at f5.6 with a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second. Processed in the brand new Adobe Lightroom 3 Beta. I shoot in RAW, so all my images need processing. Lightroom is my image editor of choice and the leaps they are making with this new version is astounding!

October 22nd, 2009

Once again, I am a huge sucker for sunset shots . . . and am very fortunate to have a piece of land that affords me this view on an almost daily basis! There are some days when the sun almost sneaks down, slipping beneath the horizon with barely a whisper . . . then there are days - when a few clouds mark the sky, where the sun begs to be seen and creates a colorful splash down that you just can't miss!

Captured with the Sigma 10-20mm at f5.6 with a shutters speed of 1/160th of a second. ISO is down to 100.

October 21st, 2009

Last night, I was up to some crazy hours trying to capture the Orionid meteor shower but apparently, the neighboring town of Franklin was putting out too much light for me to get a decent shot of them. In my attempts, I only saw about 3 with the naked eye and didn't get any on 'film.' Was a great learning experience for me, though . . . and I learned just how quickly cold temperatures can kill the batteries on even my high-end camera! Now - I need a nap!

Shot with the Nikon D2x and the Sigma 10-20mm. The entire exposure was manual with my shutter speed set to 'Bulb' so I could time my capture between 5 and 15 minutes. I was shooting at f/8 - which is the sweet spot on the Sigma 10-20. Everything was mounted on a tripod and tripped with a cable release.

October 20th, 2009

Autumn is in full bloom, finally . . . a recent cold snap has everything pretty much turning every shade of Fall and it's stunning!! Shot this in the back yard as the sun was going down - hence the harsh shadows. what was great is, a quick rainfall added a ton of specular highlights to the background and - while out of focus - the resulting effect turned almost painterly!

Show with the Nikon 50mm prime wide open at f/1.8 at 1/500th of a second with my ISO set to 100.