The background scene in this image is the north Denver Skyline, Golden, and North Table Mountain as seen from the deck at Mt. Vernon Country Club. This self portrait was created in one frame, by putting the camera on a tripod and firing off multiple strobe pops. The trick is visualizing the image frame in your head, and trying to position yourself within the frame within the time allotted. There is no time to think, only time to act, and you never know what the results are going to be. In my case, my inner weirdness is unleashed.

We chose some rolling fields in east Boulder since the client was looking for a clean background with blue and green color tones to match their website and branding. I noticed that past advertisements features a very bold colors and lighting, so I chose strong lighting to give the feeling of bold strength and beauty. For the photographers out there, I used a Paul Buff 47″ Octabox and an AlienBee 1600 as a main light, while the late morning sun provided the rim and hair light from above.

On our first day, I immediately noticed these rustic buildings, that are located right on Main Street. Using an AlienBee 1600 and a bare reflector, I lit Jayme and the front building. I positioned a second AlienBee 400 to light the second building in the background.

My least used lens is the Nikon 85mm f/2.8 PC. This is the older PC version, and not the newer PC-E, which means that you have to auto adjust the aperture ring. I usually don’t go for the extreme tilt shift blur effect … but today I’m liking it.

On our second day in Breckenridge, we went for a classic road bike ride over Loveland Pass. Upon our return to town we grabbed an incredible lunch at Amazing Grace cafe, followed by another little portrait session in the lot next door. I was working with balancing the strong backlit trees with some hard front light from a bare reflector. I take full responsibility for the um, “styling”, of Jayme’s hair!

You know life is good when your daily job assignment is to hit the Boulder trails with a cute dog and an even cuter girl for a photo shoot. Even after pinching myself, I still found that I’d been contracted to shoot the cover for Colorado outdoor sports and lifestyle magazine Elevation Outdoors. EO is an inspiring Boulder-based production that tunes readers like myself into local adventure, trends, gear, and general mountain shenanigans, so it was my pleasure to create an image for their June backpacking issue.

The assignment seemed simple enough, capture a cover photo that evoked the image of a blond woman backpacking with her dog mid-summer in the Colorado outdoors. The assignment became less than simple when I was handed a couple weeks of rain and snowfall in mid-May. These images were captured below the snow line in the foothills of South Boulder during a four-hour sunny interlude from thundershowers, yet still managed to include gale force winds. Fortunately, both the human (Jayme) and canine (Jax) models didn’t seem to mind, so I anchored my light stand with a 25-pound rock and kept shooting. Using a strobe is the key to illuminating your subject while maintaining those quintessential deep blue Colorado skies and wind-swept clouds.

Other than the selected cover shot, I thought I’d post some other fun images from the session. Enjoy!

For this first shot, I was going for something other than a typical close crop fashion portrait in vertical format. I really wanted to focus on the building architecture and textures, adding myself a human element in the composition.

OK, after Facebook feedback, I’m adding another pose from this location

I’m also interested in irregular light patterns. I’ve seen some portraits where the subject is placed in intentionally mottled light to great effect. I started out taking some shots with just natural lighting … and they were OK. But I added some fill light, and came up with the shadow on the wall, which I really like. Shooting self portraits using a manual focus tilt shift lens is quite challenging! But I like the way that it draws a visual tie from me to the tree in the foreground.

Another concept that I’m exploring is adding movement into posed shots to make them less posed. I tried getting some pictures of me walking, but I didn’t really like how they came out, except for this next shot. I was having trouble getting my remote trigger to fire properly. It was firing at all sorts of random times and generally giving me the technical difficulties that seem to be normal for me. But then came this happy accident, when it fired before I entered the frame. I love this shot, of just the shadow on the wall. The Mystery Man!

I was drawn to the colored peeling paint on this wall. This shot took me a long time, because cars kept coming out of the lot next to where I’m standing, and I had to continually move my tripod. I had a small audience across the street who was very interested in what I was doing. They probably thought I was some kind of wierdo. Or famous person … same thing. Anyway, this is my over the top GQ grimace. For this shot, the tilt function of the perspective control lens was used to create infinite depth along the wall of the building.

Thanks for stopping by … tomorrow we head into the bayou!

There are many things in life that we wish that we could do, or that we could do better. I’ve always wanted to learn to ride a wheelie, ever since I was a little BMX punk in the 80s. Why didn’t I know how? Simple. I never took the time to learn! There are so many things that we could improve in our lives, if we took the time to dedicate, commit, and schedule the time to grow.  The best part about learning new things, is that once we learn them, it usually doesn’t take much time to maintain proficiency. Take the juggling photo that I posted yesterday for example. I learned when I was in high school, and I can still do it, even though I never practice.

Learning balance is also metaphoric in our lives. The scariest part of learning the wheelie is overcoming the fear that you are going to go over the back and wind up on your ass! So the key, is really to spend time in the uncomfortable zone, the place that is the scariest.  By spending time in areas that make us uncomfortable, we eventually adapt.  We learn that we can go over the edge, and recover, and that we can do so without injury. How do you know where the balance point is, if you never go past it?

In order to ride the wheelie, you really need to center your mind, and discard thoughts of negativity. Embracing a positive outlook, learning balance, and overcoming fear are all unexpected side effects that I’ve realized as a result of a simple attempt to learn a frivolous trick. The practice has become a meditation. Yes, there is the side bonus wheelies are a great way to get looks of confusion from your neighbors, and smiles from the neighborhood kids!

Happy 2011! I’m looking forward to a new year of learning and growth, love and gratitude, wheelies and whatever new adventures appear along the way. Thanks for reading and your support. I hope you continue to enjoy the images and the words.

**Addition to this post!**

I was riding down a paved bike path, and I was riding a particularly long wheelie. I could see a small group of riders coming around a small bend. So I’m riding along mid-wheelie, and lo and behold, THERE WAS ANOTHER RIDER RIDING MID-WHEELIE TOWARDS ME! I was absolutely shocked! We both rode by each other, and neither of us put the wheel down while we were in sight. All I had time to say was, “Well you don’t see that every day!”, as we passed.

I’ve been a bike fanatic almost my whole life, and I rarely (if ever) see a random person riding a long wheelie. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in 10 years of living in Boulder, which is a bike-crazy town. But on New Years Day, 1-1-11, I simultaneously encountered another guy riding a wheelie at the exact same time as me. Right after I published a blog story about riding wheelies! I call that a very auspicious start to a New Year.

I believe in some crazy ideas about the world around us. Things that science nor religion nor conventional thinking can explain. I believe, that we can make things happen merely by thinking them. It’s called the Law of Attraction. The naysayers can say it can’t be proven, it’s a cult, The Secret was a crappy book . . . whatever. You could say that the wheelie thing is just a minor coincidence that doesn’t mean anything. But that would just be pessimism. Embrace the big picture. If you open your mind to the world around us, then you will start to see, our thoughts shape our lives in ways that we can’t even imagine. Some call these things miracles, some call them God, or Allah, or the Universe, or Magic, or Karma . . . but no matter what you call it . . . it’s really there.

I haven’t always been a positive dude. I was actually voted “most pessimistic” in high school! But that kind of thinking . . . has taught me something. It’s made me see how I’ve been holding myself back by thoughts of “it won’t work for me”, “you have to work hard for money”, “you have to pay your dues”, etc. have been holding me back. I know this. I know you need to think positive. Everyone does. But it’s really freakin’ hard to remember to keep that chin up when you are confronted with a seemingly tragic event. But you have to. Everything happens exactly as it’s supposed to. And sometimes things get hard to teach you a lesson. If you pay close attention, and learn the lesson . . . then you open yourself to the great things that can come your way . . . if you clear your mind of the negative chatter . . . and allow the space for the great things to come to you.

There is an entire world of possibility out there! There are incredible things happening all the time if you open your eyes to them! The images on the TV screen are not designed to expand your mind, they are designed to entice your ego into wanting more and into buying all the crap they are selling! Read more inspiring books! Eat good food! Get out there and learn to ride wheelies like you are 10 years old!!!

Let’s have 3 cheers for 2011! Here’s to positive thoughts, positive thinking, dreaming big, and making 2011 the biggest goal-reaching, joy-feeling, soul-finding year ever!

That’s all for Chapter 5. You can check out more photos from the trip on Mel’s blog.

I had a lot of fun taking pictures of my nephews. I’m still enthusiastic enough with photography that I’m always shooting when I have willing subjects. It doesn’t get any more willing than this! Look at these poses!

The playground in Frenchtown NJ is classic. It has lots of old-school playground features. You know, the kind that kids can get seriously injured on, lik merry-go-rounds and see-saws! It was like being in the 70s again!

After the playground we got smoothies near the Frenchtown Bridge which crosses over the Delaware River.

So far all my images from this trip have been in color, and fairly ‘normal’ to boot. We are going to rectify that situation for the last photo.

I didn’t want to burn the kids out with too much posing, so I decided not to set up strobes, even though I really wanted to! The sun was bright and it was mid-day, but I just wanted the boys to have some fun.  So I pointed them at some small trees that they could climb and shot away!  These next shots are with the 85mm 1.4 shot wide open.  I love the background blur!  Well, other than the crazy mad adorableness of the nephews.  Can you believe that spell-check says that ‘adorableness’ is a real word?

After I ran out of ideas of how to trick the boys into doing things that I thought would make great photos, we headed back onto the porch. Next I decided to trick them into smelling the flowers so I could take ridiculously cute photos of young boys stiffing flowers. You might think that I would be beyond that level of cheesiness, but clearly I’m not! Can you believe that spell-check says that ‘cheesiness’ is a real word?

Last up we have some extreme close up eye photos! I love these! The Nikon tilt shift is also a macro lens. Handy. :>)

One byproduct of all this crazy Colorado spring weather has been lots of cool clouds to shoot under. Last week I woke up early one morning to notice a cool, moody overcast sky. I was itching to overpower the sun with some of my Strobist gear so I tried rounding up a model at the last minute. I wasn’t successful, but I did convince my fellow photographer Bobby Turner to bust out a business suit and some pomade and head out to the country.  Later that day I ironically came across a story in The Onion about Guys With Slicked Back Hair!

By the time we started shooting the clouds were just breaking up, and gave way to beautiful puffy clouds and blue sky. I’m really happy with the wrap around lighting that I used. I think the images have a nice 3-D look to them. If you are interested in more of the details of the shoot and the technical, how-to, Strobist info, you can check out my post on the Boulder Strobist website HERE.

I’m getting more and more requests for cool, edgy, and fun business portraits. It seems a lot of professionals are tired of having their photos taken in front of boring blue studio backgrounds.  Which is of course great news for me!  I just had a great photo session in Denver yesterday for a paid client, so this type of shoot is becoming more common for me.  Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

I was hired to shoot some portraits of Robin Peglow from Signs of Life Health. Robin is a certified Holistic Health Counselor, as was looking for some updated photos to promote her business. She wanted photos that evoke a feeling of positivity and health for individual clients, as well as portray an image of maturity and professionalism for her corporate clients. She knew that she wouldn’t be satisfied with a boring corporate headshot, so we headed down near Commons Park in Denver for some creative shooting.

Robin is psyched at her photos, and wrote: “I’ve never considered myself photogenic. Despite being pretty animated in my life, I get oddly shy in front of the camera. I needed some photos for my business that felt confident, professional, approachable and peaceful, a tall order for me while feeling wildly photo-awkward. You helped me relax and have fun with it, and were terrific at capturing those real moments where my personality actually came through. I got exactly the photos I needed! Thank you!”