No, not shooting to kill, shooting to blog! I can’t believe it has already been two weeks since I shot these pictures. Time is just flyin’ on by.  I usually don’t like taking touristy pictures, but these beasts are just so big and cool I couldn’t help myself.

This first shot is in Moraine Park. There was a herd quite a distance away with a big buck elk watching over his ladies.

Down by sheep lakes there was a giant crowd. There was this big boy only meters from the road. It was a full on nature photography scrum! Here he is bugling!

The evening light streaming into the valley was spectacular.

I was invited by my friends from Something Underground to hang out backstage and shoot some photos for Peace and Love on the Rocks. There were a bajilliion musicians there rotating in and out, covering favorite songs from the famous music festival of old. It like rocked and stuff.  You can see more photos from the event at the Facebook Gallery HERE.

Well the lens came today, and I’m pretty excited about a new lens that I’ve never owned before. I took a couple sample shots here in the office, to compare the 85 to the 45. The differences probably aren’t huge to the untrained eye, but to me they are pretty significant! To me it’s easy to see how the 45 still has a wide angle effect to it, as seen in this first shot of the loose change on the window sill.  In the 45 shot, it looks like the dime and the nickel are at different angles, while they appear more parallel in the 2nd shot.  Interestingly, the lens causes the camera to perceive that the coins are at different angles, as you can see that the amount of reflected light off the silver coins is much different in the 45mm image than the 85mm image.  Also notice how I shot the stacks of coins at an angle, but aligned the focal plane along the tops of the coins, leaving the change below blurred out. This is what I jokingly call using the tilt shift “The Right Way”, when you are intentionally aligning things with the focal plane. Both of these lenses are excellently sharp, even hand held wide open at f/2.8.

left- 45mm .:. right- 85mm

Secondly I took a couple silly pictures of Richie in the foyer. Once again, the 45 has more of a wide angle to it. In this particular composition, I like the 45mm better.  But I’m pretty sure that if I was doing a close in headshot, that I’d like the more flattering flatness of the 85mm. In both these shots I’m using the lens ” The Wrong Way”, where I use the angled focal plane to blur out everything but the eyes.

left- 45mm .:. right- 85mm

Now I acknowledge wasn’t a particularly scientific “test” by any means. I didn’t even do a very good job of keeping the subjects face at the same angle so that you can compare the shots.  This was just an excuse to play with my new toy and to make funny faces for the blog!

Last Friday I went for another plane ride with Barnow. This was an intentional joyride this time. We had special plans to take aerial photos of a special plane. More on that in an upcoming post! On our ascent we passed by a hot air balloon floating over the Boulder Reservoir. I hadn’t really given it too much previous thought, but a sunrise hot air balloon ride sure looks like a good time! I’m definitely going to put that on the to-do list. Can you imagine how many photos I’d take on that little adventure?

The big news in the mountains here in Colorado is the recent destruction that is being caused by the pine beetle. A quick google search can reveal a plethora of articles which cover the subject, but a recent article I read on the subject can be found HERE.

So while on my recent ride in Keystone, I went through areas where the dead fall is quite impressive.  I angled the focal plane of the tilt shift lens in the photo below so that it is aligned with the ground, highlighting all the fallen trees into the distance.  The images below are really impressive viewed at full size; you really get the feel of what it was like to be there.

One of the good things about mountain biking alone is that I have plenty of time to stop and smell the flowers! And the wildflowers were out in full force last weekend up in Keystone. I love my Nikon Perspective Control lens because it is also a macro, allowing me to shoot landscapes and closeups, with some unusual compositions.

Sometimes I get asked if I ever shoot pet portrait photography. Officially, the answer is no, I’ve never been hired for a paid dog or cat portrait gig. But that doesn’t mean that I couldn’t! I’m just not really sure that a viable, paying market exists for high quality scenic shots. One would think that if the interest was there, that Boulder of all places would be a good market for it. But upon searching the internet, all I seem to find are those cheesy studio shots with little dogs with selective color bows on their heads! So if there is anyone out there who wants shots of their pets in the style that I do the rest of my portraits, don’t be afraid to ask!

My buddy Neil Van Niekerk is coming to Denver on August 18th to do a workshop on state-of-the-art flash photography techniques. This is an amazing opportunity and space is limited: head over to Planet Neil for more information about the workshop, dates, and how to sign up.

I did a great shoot this past April in New Jersey with Neil. It was set in the Paterson Historical Museum, and the modeling was done by Priscilla.

Part 1
Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of my tilt shift tour of New York. I arrived in Manhattan’s Penn Station on one of the warmest days so far this year. Outside there was the longest line of police cars that I’ve ever seen. I have no idea what that was all about.

Next I went to Central Park to see if half the city could fit in the park at one time. I think they can!

Well, I’m sure you thought that I’d have more interesting photos of the city than this. I don’t. Hey, you can’t win them all. I did take a lot of pictures of trees though. I know, I know, I go to Manhattan and take pictures of trees. I’m funny that way.

Then on to some strobe shots in the black room.

But then we moved to the white room.  I enjoyed this high key setup as a change of pace from the previous shoots.

And to mix things up a little bit I pushed the shadow areas of this last photo to bring in some blacks.

]]> http://www.steve-z.com/body-form-photography-workshop-class-3-studio-strobes/feed/ 0 http://www.steve-z.com/body-form-photography-workshop-class-2-hot-lights/ http://www.steve-z.com/body-form-photography-workshop-class-2-hot-lights/#comments Mon, 16 Mar 2009 02:27:59 +0000 Steve Z http://www.steve-z.com/?p=4535 This is the second installment of photos from my nude body study of light and shadows.  This week we used 1 or two constant light sources.  There were no modifiers used to soften the light, thereby producing very dramatic light and shadows.