Tom Hornyak - Crazy Guy on a Bike
I came across the web diary entries of a 21 year old kid who is going to ride around the country on a bike. His entries are pretty funny. The trip is called ‘Around the United States on a Budget’, and he basically has no money and very minimal gear. He comes off as naive, it’s kinda cute. The first entry has a detailed itinerary of his route so you can see if he is planning on sleeping on your couch and mooching your food. The Day Two entry is an entertaining sample. I think I’m going to follow this one. He’s bound to get in some trouble sooner or later! After all he is Horny … ak.
Swimsuit Model Shoot - Yeah, It’s a Tough Job
No, I’m not back in some warm tropical locale, I’m just pretending. I still have a lot of the photos that I took on my trip to Florida yet to edit. I’m intentionally spacing out the warm weather photos. Like Homer would say, “Mmmmmmm, bikinis.” Or something like that.
I did this shoot right after watching an informational seminar on shooting in bright sunlight. Bright sun can be challenging to shoot in because it is going to create blown out highlights and dark shadows. A camera cannot record the full range of light and shadows that we can see with our eyes. So the trick to shooting out in bright sun is to plan where you want the light to blow out in the photos.
Well, yeah, you could always go under a tree in the shade somewhere. But I’ve found that pure shade can lead to photos that are kindof boring and flat.
I found that bright sun can really produce dramatic effects in your photos. I find these images intriguing where I intentionally blew out parts of the photos. Some of the other photos that I took where everything was exposed properly seem boring in comparison!
When you see Sports Illustrated type model shoots, the images are shot at the perfect light time of day, or there is a gaggle of assistants holding light blocking screens or auxiliary lighting. Sure I could have done that here, but when you are shooting weddings you don’t always get the chance to shoot when the light is perfect. A great photographer can produce solid images in any kind of light.
Another thing that I learned in some of the seminars is that I really liked a lot of the images that were blatantly (to me) manipulated in Photoshop. So I went a little crazier than normal on these photos with the color tweaking. But no, I didn’t Photoshop her eyes to be different colors in the above photo. That’s just how the picture came out. We’ll see how I like my editing style three months from now. In the past when I’ve picked a strong editing style I’ve found myself changing my mind on what I like later.
More images after the page break . . . Read more
Integrated Allianced Boulder to Broomfield Networking Event at the Purple Martini
Well it’s a Purple Martini week here on the blog. Last week I attended a business networking event with a friendlier drive at the Purple Martini in Boulder. As a matter of fact, I just remembered that I won a bar tab there . . . what the heck did I do with that coupon?
Going to all of these evnts has really solidified my belief in furthering my business through networking. After these events I take peoples’ business cards and search for them on Facebook and LinkedIn, and add them to my network. I’ve recently put some work into my LinkedIn page to get it up to date. So if you are on LinkedIn, add me! If you aren’t, you should join! An overhaul of my Facebook page will be coming along soon.
Flair Bartending Competition at the Purple Martini
The Purple Martini nightclub hosted a Flair Bartending Comptetion at their DTC establishment and they hired yours truly to come down and document the action. I had never actually heard of Flair before, but as a juggler I was intrigued.
I even had a go with the practice plastic bottles! I can do 3 OK, but I wouldn’t want to try it with a real one!
These guys have some pretty sick moves. They juggle the bottles, pour 4 drinks at once, bounce cherries off their limbs, and pour Go Fast from their palms …
I mention Go Fast because they were a sponsor of the event. They had their own OC Chopper at the event. It had cool tailpipe lids that were the tops from the soda cans.
The dreadlocked fellow with the menacing stare is known (creatively) as Rasta. He’s actually a pretty nice guy, but he likes to look evil in all my photos. His t-shirt says “My Daddy Flips Better Than You”. Cute!
Rasta is actually, The Man, despite the history of Rastafarianism. He took the competition, finishing off by bustin’ some moves blindfolded. Here he is warping the space-time continuum. Wicked.
First ride of the year
The temperature hit 65 in Boulder today and the roadies were out in force. It has been pretty cold since I’ve been back from Florida, and I haven’t ventured out from behind the computer too much. I couldn’t deny a day this nice in January, especially on a Sunday. I ventured out on the road bike up Lee Hill and back down Old Stage. It was definitely good to get out there and sweat out some of my sins. Mid-ride I decided to take a couple pics for the blog with the ol’ cell phone. Check out the sun flare!
Big things are in my future
I haven’t had much time to blog this week. I’m neck deep in a million business related tasks. I have lots of photo ideas running around in my head and on scraps of paper on my desk. They are going to have to stay there for a little while I forge ahead with some of the not-so-fun items on the to-do list. Its all going to be worth it, and before I know it I will be back to being a shooting machine.
Florida Beach Engagement Photos with Rebecca and Todd
I sure shot a lot of photos when I was down in Florida. I’m still catching up, working late into the weekend. I finally finished up Rebecca and Todd’s engagement photos. Sorry that it took so long, guys!
This wedding is going to be a BLAST! This guys are really good people, easy to be around with great senses of humor. My perfect clients! What is going to be even better is that the wedding is going to be at the famous Breakers Hotel, in Palm Beach, Florida. This place is crazy over the top. The hotel coordinator asked Rebecca’s mom why she wasn’t using their preferred photographer, who is Martha Stewart’s photographer. Susan told him that she found someone better and was flying him in from Colorado. Sweet. You can’t get better advertising then that. I’m going to be rollin’ into the hood of Donald Trump and showing them what’s up!
We experienced some bizarre weather in St. Petersburg on this day. We originally were going to shoot at the Fort Desoto Beach. We were crossing the last bridge down to the island when we encountered a huge wall of marine sea fog! Now if this was California then we wouldn’t have been surprised, but I hadn’t seen anything like it in Florida before.
So we did an about face, and headed back to downtown St. Pete to find a location that wasn’t shrouded in a big cloud. We found a nice park near The Pier in downtown St. Pete that had, sand, grass, and some super nice palm trees. In the end I think we found an even nicer location, that had a lot of diverse options. See? Everything does happen for a reason! I’m looking forward to another little Florida getaway next December, see everyone then!
Destination Wedding Photographer Seeks Tropical Locations
Three weeks in Florida completely ruined me. Somehow I’ve regressed to some kind of cold weather wimp. It hasn’t been snowing in the mountains much and it’s been butt cold here in town. I miss the beach. Who is going to fly me to a tropical location to photograph their wedding or event?
Win this photo printed on art canvas at the BMA silent auction
OK I’ve made a decision on which picture I am going to donate to the BMA silent auction. This is the Bartlett Wash slickrock outside of Moab Utah. I really like the lines in this photo, hopefully someone else will too. This photo will be printed 16×24 on art canvas and stretched over a 1.625″ thick wood frame. The sides of the image will wrap around the frame, so it can be displayed without any additional framing. Hope to see you there!
Boulder Mountain Bike Alliance’s (BMA) Third Annual Gala Banquet
BMA’s Third Annual Gala Banquet
February 8, 2008
St Julien Hotel
This event sold out the last two years, so put it on your calendar, and get your tickets early! Once a year, the BMA crew puts on their finest threads and gathers in the finest room they can find with City Council members, County Commissioners, land managers, our business members, riders, and a hip crowd to enjoy each other’s company and a tasty dinner prepared by Chef Jason, Head chef at the St Julien and BMA member. I will be there covering the event and making sure everyone stays out of trouble. Or causing trouble, it depends on who’s there.
This year’s Auction is already shaping up nicely. The silent and live Auction will benefit the Better Trails Fund, BMA’s program to capitalize on the opportunities coming our way in the next 12 to 18 months. The items being gathered are amazing; there’s totally cool bikes and schwag in the mix. I’m going to be donating some kind of photographic work, stayed tuned for that. They’ll also have a door prize of a one night stay at the St Julien. Your favorite liquids from Oskar Blues will be available as a part of your admission; other beverages will be available at the cash bar. Tickets are $75 per person and can be securely purchased online via Paypal or in person at Rocky Mounts. Be sure to make your meal selection when you buy your ticket! A sneak peek of our auction items? Sure! Click here to take a look at the cool items they are gathering. If you have something special you would like to donate to the auction, please contact the Auction Coordinator Andria Bilich at boulderfuzz@gmail.com.
Below is a cool picture of a ranger cutting the ‘no mountain bikes’ sign off a trail that BMA opened this year.
Integrated Allliances First Wednesday Networking Event
If you read this blog then you’ve probably seen my pictures from the Integrated Alliances Holiday parties. I’ve met a lot of great contacts at these events and am continuing to be a part of their social network. I attended and photographed their January First Wednesday Networking event at Mattie’s House Of Mirrors in LoDo in Denver. It was a great event and they had tacos. Mmmmmm, tacos. Their next event that I will be attending will be in Boulder at the Purple Martini in Boulder, and is called the IA B2B Boulder to Broomfield Networking Event. In their words:
“The IA B2B Boulder-to-Broomfield event is a monthly gathering for B2B and technology professionals that like to unwind and network in a comfortable environment afterhours with interesting people that they can relate to - both in business and personally.”
So check out the IA Event Schedule and come on down and enjoy some food and beverages and get your schmooze on. I promise I won’t take any embarrassing pictures of you. Ok, well I can’t promise that. Remember last time when you had that black bean stuck in your teeth?
Fashion Model Shoot at Fort Desoto Beach: Does it get this cold in Florida?
I’m still catching up with all of the photo shoots that I did while I was down in Florida. I’m almost through with 2007, can I get a ‘Hell Yeah’? These pictures were taken at Fort Desoto which is at the very southern tip of the St. Petersburg peninsula. This day was so damn cold. It was 45 degrees and windy. Rachel was so cold that she had to go back to the car for a while and warm up. I was OK with it, because goosebumps aren’t fun to Photoshop! Luckily there were these cool old cement pieces of fort left poking out of the sand. We did a lot of shooting hiding behind them, using them as wind breaks.
I found one thing out for sure when I was in Tampa, there is not a shortage of girls who have aspiring modeling careers. A single Craigslist ad resulted in over a dozen responses. So it worked out really well for me. I was on ‘vacation’, I had free time, and my usual strong desire to practice practice practice. And what better way to practice than taking pictures of beautiful women? I knew you’d see my point.
The purpose of today’s exercise was to see what kind of images I could get without any auxiliary lighting or reflectors. My last Strobist flash style sunset beach shoot that I did gave me some great results. I was confident that I could do the exact same thing again, but how fun would that be? I’m only really enjoying myself when I’m risking failure. Is that really true? I don’t know, I’m just making stuff up to fill in the gaps between these photos. Anyway, I wanted to work on my shooting in pure bright sunlight.
My main goal was to create some arty black and white images, as opposed to another Sports Illustrated style swimsuit shoot. I took a lot of weird pictures. I’m not sure if I like them yet. I will post them later after I take care of more important things first. In the meantime, Rachel was anxious for some pictures for booking some gigs, so I edited these ones, which are a bit more conventional. They are still pretty contrast-y though. I probably will use a reflector next time.
The Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservancy Photos and Slideshow
While I was down in Key West I checked out the Butterfly and Nature Conservancy. It was really amazing. There is a greenhouse and it is FILLED with butterflies. They are everywhere, and you can get right up on them with your 100mm 2.8 Macro :>) And no, the first image in the slideshow is clearly not a butterfly perched on my finger so that I could get a better closeup. You aren’t allowed to handle the butterflies or else you will get scolded like a schoolboy.
Kerstin and Chris’s Snowy Wedding Photography in Breckenridge Colorado
I had the pleasure of shooting the wedding of my good friend Chris V and his lovely wife Kerstin last month. Chris and I know each other from the Boulder Cruiser ride, and with a dozen Cruisers in attendance, I knew this one was going to be a par-tay. I wasn’t disappointed, and it turned out to be pretty much the best time ever.
Chris and Kerstin were both brought up skiing, and wanted to make the snow a big part of the wedding. It takes some special people to plan an outdoor wedding in Breckenridge Colorado, at 9500 feet above sea level, in December! The groomsmen were prepared with their matching ski sweaters, but I was just praying that it wasn’t going to be blizzard conditions. Two hours before the ceremony we were a little worried, as it was DUMPING, and I was a bit concerned about keeping my equipment dry! When you can see snow in a photo like the one below, it’s coming down at 2 inches an hour.
By the way, how adorable are these outfits? With the matching muffs and all? I’m serious.
Fortunately, but the time the ceremony took place, the storm had calmed down to some nice light flurries. It was the perfect way to set the mood, but not be out of control. The ceremony was officiated by the less than honorable Bobalicious, who did a spectacular job. I heard several guests using the ‘best ever’ phrase. Nice work!
The reception started out normal enough, with some eating, drinking, and socializing. Cutting the cake, the first dance … all normal enough. For a while there, it was almost traditional.
That was until the toasts started. Chris’s dad gave the best toast I’ve pretty much ever felt. Thoughtful, loving, and metaphorical. Then Chris’s little brother James let loose with the funniest roast ever. I was dying laughing, as was most everyone else.
And that set the tone for a rockin’ dance party, I’m going to keep those images to ourselves to protect the guilty. But I’ll finish off the story with a picture of a bride rockin’ a hoola hoop. Bitchin’!
Below is a slideshow of some of the selected images. I’ve updated the proofing gallery to include these retouched images for purchase, so check them out again!
PERMALINK: Chris and Kerstin’s Wedding Photography Slideshow on it’s own page click here
Are you left brained or right brained?
This is really cool. I’ve seen tests before, but they have always involved questions and answers, and I’ve never taken the time to complete one. This test is as simple as looking at a picture. CLICK HERE to go check out the image.
I’ve always wondered if I was left or right brained. Because of my previous career in engineering, I’ve always assumed that I am left brained . . .
LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS: uses logic, detail oriented, facts rule, words and language, present and past, math and science, can comprehend, knowing, acknowledges, order/pattern perception, knows object name, reality based, forms strategies, practical, safe.
But taking the test, it turns out that I’m right brained! Unless the test is bunk, of course. I’ve tried and tried to view the image the opposite way but can’t, so let me know if anyone sees the test and is left brained!
RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS: uses feeling, “big picture” oriented, imagination rules, symbols and images, present and future, philosophy & religion, can “get it” (i.e. meaning), believes, appreciates, spatial perception, knows object function, fantasy based, presents possibilities, impetuous, risk taking.
I’m still learning more and more about myself every day. It almost seems as though I’ve awakened the “big picture” thinking since embarking on the photography career. “Fantasy based”? You bet, wait until you see what I’ve got cooking in my mental pot. I don’t know how it’s going to happen, but I’m going to make it reality.