We now return to our irregularly scheduled mountain bike ride

July 27, 2008 | Filed Under Bicycling | Leave a Comment 

I told myself at the beginning of the mountain bike season that I was going to ride one during the week and once on the weekend. Well, that hasn’t worked out so well. I haven’t even been able to squeeze in a weekend ride the last couple weeks.

But not today damnit! Scott sent me the 10:10 bus text and I was in. The heat coupled with my broken AC in the studio have been leaving me a bit tired, so we rallied it slow and went to Happy Trails in Ned for some coffee to rev it up.

There were some pretty sweet clouds! I was wishing for the fisheye, but all I had was the G9 pocket camera.

We headed north and rode the first Swiss Miss of the year. The flowers are really, really awesome this year after all that spring moisture. I started off taking some normalish shots of a rider in the wildflowers . . .

. . . but I quickly moved on to incorporating a butterfly who was hanging around. I accidentally blasted him with the flash, but as it turned out I like the effect! I managed to catch him flying off as Scott rolled past. Overall it was a great ride, and not too hot in the high country. I’m feeling rejuvenated after a week of too many hours in the office. Oh, and an added super-treat was that someone brought out a chainsaw and cleared all the down trees on the Todd Gulch singletrack; that big tree in the beginning has been there for years!

Family Portrait Action on the Slip-n-Slide!

July 19, 2008 | Filed Under People, Photos, Portrait | 3 Comments 

I headed out to Gunbarrel one hot summer evening after shooting a wedding to bring Bobby a check for second shooting some weddings. His kids were getting ready to play on a brand new slip and slide in the side yard. Well I had all my Strobist gear in the car, so I couldn’t resist lighting it up and snapping some pics! The Slip-n-Slide sure seemed a lot shorter than I remember! It also had this stopper at the end that prevented me from getting down really low at water level. I think next time we’ll run it backwards! We never needed those safety features in the 70s!

Using the tilt shift lens the correct way

July 15, 2008 | Filed Under Objects | 4 Comments 

Well highdee ho, long time no blog . . .

I’m in the middle of my first big push of weddings for this year. I shot 5 in 4 weeks plus 2 engagement portrait sessions plus a family portrait session. So I’m going to have lots of updates on my wedding blog, but not so many on this site in the near future.

I’m still working with that new tilt shift lens. Here is a recent shot where I’m using the lens ‘correctly’; aligning the focus plane with the items of interest. This photo would not be possible with a normal lens. The taps are receding away from me, and are all in focus. But the area behind the taps, the bar, is completely out of focus. This shot was taken at f2.8, 1/50, ISO1600.

And at the request of a request in the comments section, this image was taken at Delaney’s down in Denver.  I was shooting images at this month’s Integrated Alliances Socialnet event!

Denver Corporate Event Photography at the Grand Hyatt

July 2, 2008 | Filed Under Event, Photos | Leave a Comment 

Covidien is a leading global healthcare products company. They were looking for a Corporate Event Photographer in the Denver area and gave me a call to provide photography coverage at a trade show event at the Denver Convention Center. They were introducing some sort of new tracheometry product. Despite my former aerospace engineering background, I didn’t pay too much attention to the technical details. There was a bounty of sushi and chicken wings to be photographed and fortunately there were leftovers when the event was over. I don’t normally concern myself with food when I’m shooting an event, but a man has his limits. Mmmmmm, sushi. :>)

An Intentionally Silly Tilt Shift Portrait of Goldmember

July 1, 2008 | Filed Under Fun, Photos | 2 Comments 

A friend told me about a current thread on the Digital Wedding Forum about tilt-shift lenses. It is basically a rant saying that they are the latest fad, and that most of the images that are created with them are just a gimmick. The funny part is that the naysayers have pretty much been shown the light and it has actually backfired and encouraged more people to give it a try. As a joke, one of the forum members said:

I’m sorry that experimentation and exploration pisses you off. I wish I could help you in some way. Maybe I’ll fix up an image with a TS lens, and add texture, and fine art borders. I’ll throw in some sun flare just for kicks. That should really freak you out.

That comment stimulated my creativity and that’s when the funny stuff happens . . . so I introduce . . . GOLDMEMBER!

Here is my response that I posted on the forum along with the photo:

Thanks for the inspiration! I have been moved by this thread to push the boundaries of my creativity and technical skills. I believe I have produced the finest image in my  photography career. I have been trying to determine exactly what my style, my niche, is going to be, and I think I’ve found it!

Since I believe in sharing the wealth in my newest discovered pot of GOLD, here are all the juicy details.

Technical:

Canon 5D + TS-E 45mm full tilt
f5.6 1/320 ISO50 with NDx4 filter (I cheated the synch speed which is why his foot is dark on right)
Nikon SB-26 fired with Pocket Wizards 1/64 power camera left
Sun providing flare + rim light

Creatively, I feel that the tilt shift allowed me to visually tie together the strong compositional cues in the image such as Goldmember’s face and key box, while drawing attention away from unsightly details like his enormous codpiece which could be considered boorish by some. I used a blend of Boutwell’s Grunge Rock, Grainstorm, and EZ Burn + high pass sharpening + a paisley texture to emotionally tie the viewer to the Austin Powers’ late 60’s style upon which the movie series was based. By selectively coloring his gold outfit I feel I have tastefully paid tribute to a one dimensional character. I completed the image by using my standard wedding blog sloppy border and watermark.

Overall I feel that this image is a heartwarming triumph of the human spirit.

I will remove my tongue from my cheek now.

I sure hope it makes some people laugh, because I sure crack myself up!