2011 365 Group

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you are planning on joining us on 1/1/2011 by adding an image a day to our flickr 365 group, Focused on 365. Images can be from your DSLR, point and shoot, phone, anything, but it must be taken that day. You will need to sign up for a flickr account, and they are free for 200 images, which means only your most recent 200 images will be viewable. The pro account allows unlimited images, and is $25 a year.

If your new to flickr, here is a quick tutorial on how to upload and add images to the group. Can't wait to see all of your images!

The Salton Sea

A couple of weeks ago, I headed out to the Salton Sea with 2 other photographers to shoot for a day. I haven't been out there in 15 years, and I had never been to Bombay Beach, which was our destination. We tried to get some models, but as usual, the same excuses came up. Grandpa died, no gas money, I'm sick, blah, blah, blah.

No matter, as Tammy (one of the photogs) graciously offered to model. I knew she had her wedding dress still, and she was looking to do a shoot with it, so off we went. I think it worked out better than I could have imagined.

My Christmas Wish For You

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope this note finds you well, and surrounded by people you love this holiday season. It seems to be a crazy time of year, with us occasionally focused on perhaps some of the wrong things, and I have spent quite a bit of time this past week reminding myself of what is important, at least to me, and I hope you'll allow me to share. And know that everything is great with me. I'm one of the luckiest people I know.

I'm sure we are all familiar with the Christmas story, and the tale of Mr. Scrooge. In that story, he was visited by 3 ghosts. I was given the amazing gift of being visited by one myself this week, the ghost of Christmas future. To say I was upset by the vision would be an understatement. I have spent much of the last few days thinking about what truly is important to me, and that, perhaps, wasn't what I have actually been focused on. Until now. So my wish to you is this. That you cherish what you have. The friends. The family. The relationships. The talents. And that you share them with the world. Not everyone is nearly as lucky as we are, and fewer still as lucky as me. These last few years have been rough for many, with lost jobs, lost homes, lost medical benefits, lost relationships, lost lives. If you are suffering from any, or all of those things, my heart goes out to you. If I can in any way, shape, or form help, do not hesitate to call me. And if you are suffering from none of those things, be thankful, and then smile. And spread that smile. Share. Talk. Hug. Tell someone that you love them. That you are happy they are in your lives. That you cherish time spent with them. And then do this little thing for yourself. Become an active participant in your own life. Put down the cell phone. Step away from the computer. Instead of shooting the next gathering you go to, leave the camera at home and be involved. Engaged. A participant. Make sure people know your there. And that they enjoyed your presence. Help your kids with their homework. Help your wife with dinner. Help a friend in need. Bring a bottle of wine over to a friends house and just chat. Better yet, chat with your spouse. Your kids. Your mom. Your dad. Your sister. But damn it, above all else, participate. 

2011 will be a very transitional year for me. I left some things behind, and I'm searching for something new. It will involve photography, of course. It will involve sharing. It will involve the transfer of knowledge. And it will involve my giving of myself, my talent, my time, my work. We photographers create a lot of work. Much of it never get's seen. I want to change that. I really wish I would just give more of my work away. To people that would enjoy it. Cherish it. Embrace it. And I think you would to. Stay tuned...

I love you all. Merry Christmas to you and your family. Now stop reading this, turn off the computer, and go make someone's day.Tell them you love them. Tell them you cherish them. Don't spend any more money. Spend more time. Tell them they are important to you. Make sure they know it. And don't you forget it. 

Happy Holidays, from my heart to yours.

2011 365 Group

The images that you see here were all shot and used as part of my 365 photography challenge this year. The premise is simple. Shoot and post 1 image a day, every day, for 365 days. The reality is that it's just not that simple.

Some more reading!

Shot at Bombay Beach in the Salton Sea. More from this day later this week

Some more interesting links from around the web for you to enjoy. And details for a (weather permitting) opportunity for us to get together, shoot some Christmas lights, and revel in the holiday spirit!

First up, the links:

Interesting reading

Some interesting reading for your weekend. Sorry I haven't been around more, been fighting a cold all week. Promise more next week, maybe even a tutorial ;)

Lightroom and ACR were updated this week. Here is a look at what's new: Lightroom Queen

Free Sepia preset

Rudy Winston looks at Canon off camera flash

5 easy PS retouching tutorials

Color correction in Lightroom from DPS

Wish you could fade your presets? Well would you looky here...

Lifehackers top 2010 photography hacks

X-Equals looks at Publish Services in Lightroom

Links, links, and more links

Here are your links for a beautiful winter day!

How to take better vacation photos

Lightroom Video Tutorial: Portrait Sharpening

Have a new video tutorial on how to do portrait sharpening in Lightroom, which sometimes requires a different process than just a general image sharpening, because you may not want the effect to be global.

Watch it and let me know what you think. As always, if there is something specific you would like me to cover in Lightroom, let me know in the comments.

Hot links, get yer hot links!

Links for a beautiful Tuesday afternoon

Joao Silva, an amzing photographer, had his legs blown off when he stepped on a land mine 2 weeks ago. He kept shooting... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/world/asia/24silva.html?_r=2
And would love our support:  Support Joao

The Photoshop channel on YouTube

David. Nuff said

35 photos. 35 stories

X-Equals link party

Have fun!

The most important photo walk ever...

As many of you know, this past Saturday, 11/13/10, was the American Diabetes Association's Step Out Walk at Universal Studios. My daughter Stella was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes this past summer. I have been involved in many different charities, and have shot many previous events for the MS Society, but this one, well it was personal.

Got Links?

This weeks assortment of randomness from around the web!

3 free presets from Preset Heaven

Take your DSLR out for a spin

Moose Peterson with some insights from his new book "Captured: Lessons From Behind the Lens of a Legendary Wildlife Photographer"

11 tips for landscape photography

National Geographic Photography Contest

Buy an Eye_Fi memory card, and get a free 1 year Flickr Pro account

Lot's and LOT"S of Lightroom resources from Adobe

5 basic portrait lighting set-ups

3 seperate resources on your camera and the law:

Top 10 misconceptions

Legal rights of photographers

From USA Today

And if you haven't had a chance to, we are still seeking donations for the American Diabetes Association. If we reach $6000 by 5:00 today, I will shave off the goatee... ;-)

Lightroom Tutorial Before & After

In this 3rd installment, watch as I fumble around, my computer inexplicably slows down, I grab the wrong after image, and I have several seconds of dead air. Do you like train wrecks?

Come on, would you have it any other way?

In this Lightroom tutorial, I take you completely through the editing of an image, from start to finish, as we touch on a lot of the major adjustment tools in Lightroom. The develop pallette, adjustment brush, gradient tool, vignette, the spot removal tool (which for the life of me, I couldn't remember the name of!) and a preview of the sharpening mask.


Lightroom Tutorial Before & After from Frank Wisneski on Vimeo.



As always, if there is something specific you would like to see in Lightroom, let me know in the comments.

The American Diabetes Step Out Walk

This is a big week at our house. This Saturday will be the American Diabetes Step Out Walk. I have never had a more important or personal connection to any organization. My daughter was diagnosed on July 30th of this year. We are so proud of how well my little peanut has handled all of the life altering things that have bombarded her since her diagnosis. She was thrust into a very adult situation, and has been forced to forgo a lot of the spontaneity that goes along with being a child, and I am amazed everyday by her.

Before & After

I get asked a lot how I add so much "POP" to an image. Well, here is a little teaser. Stay tuned for a tutorial on how I made this image "POP"!

Here is the before:

And hit the jump for the after...

My 2nd Lightroom Tutorial!

Hey everyone!

And tonight we have another video Lightroom tutorial. This is another take on making collages in the Lightroom Print Module. Create a collage that can be used for business collateral, such as gallery posters, a concert poster for a client, postcards, etc.

Come listen and watch as the little dog barks, the big dog gnaws a bone, I make up a new word, and see if you can spot the MAJOR spelling error! Hopefully, the sound is much better on this one, let me know.



Maybe 1 of these times, I'll do this after a few New Castles. It could only be better. ;-)

And don't forget, if you joined us for the Dia de los Muertos event at Live Oak Memorial Park, post your images HERE!

Thursday 11/4/10 Photography links

More helpful links to get you through your day...

Shooting kids "Guerilla Style"!

The Adorama Learning Center for photography and post tutorials

Syl Arena is 1/2 way through his 4 part series on Canon Speedlights

Canon has rebates! DSLR rebates through 11/24

Canon lens rebates through 1/8/11

The top 10 ways to automate Lightroom with Julianne Kost pt 1

Hasselblad has a promotion too... :-)

Enjoy! And just keep shooting

Live Oak Memorial Park Dia De Los Muertos

Hey there everybody!

Had a fantastic time at Live Oak's annual Dia De Los Muertos event last night. And WOW has it grown! If you are stopping by to view images, you can find them here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/liveoakdiadelosmuertos/

In order to view or post images you took there you will need a flickr account. Sign up is free. It is the only way we can get this many photographers to share the images with the viewing public. If you took images at the event, please feel free to post them to the group. Remember to tag them with "Dia De Los Muertos" and "Live Oak Memorial Park". If the images weren't shot at that specific event, they will be removed.

Hope you had a wonderful time, and I look forward to seeing all the images. There are already images in the group, and I would imagine that by this weekend, there will be many more.

Enjoy!

Frank

Link madness!

Happy All Soul's Day everyone! Here are some things I've found interesting in the past couple of days.

Have you gotten your free OnOne presets yet? They also have free Photoshop actions/frames and presets for ACR: OnOne freebies

Joe McNally discusses mistakes

David duChemin on loosing your vision

Scott Kelby shoots fashion

An interesting take on Creative Commons

More free actions for Photoshop

More tutorials from Adobe

And the Speedlighter lights the OneLighter

Armageddon

When it rained Saturday morning, I knew I wanted to be up at the Griffith Park Observatory for sunset, as it would be a nice, clear view. So after a few hours at Hollywood Forever's Dia De Los Muertos, a few of us headed up to Griffith Park for sunset. I had a jonesing that nothing but a sunset could cure ;-)

All though all the clouds cleared out, I wasn't disappointed. And then they fired off the nukes...

Shot with the old Canon 5D and the Canon 17-40 f4L. A couple more after the jump

Dia De Los Muertos at Live Oak Memorial Park

For those of you planning to attend the Dia De Los Muertos event at Live Oak Memorial Park with me on 11/2/10 in Monrovia, the management there would like us to provide images. To make it easy for all involved, I have set up a specific Flickr group just for images shot there. Please do not submit images that were shot at Hollywood Forever Cemetery or anything else, they will be deleted.

The Flickr group is here: Live Oak Dia De Los Muertos

Tag your images "dia de los muertos" and "Live Oak Memorial Park"

Thanks everyone, and see you tomorrow!

The event is here:

View Larger Map

A day of change

Lot's of changes going on recently, and I thought I would let you know about a few of them. Many of you already know that today is my last day teaching at Tri-Community. Will I be back? I don't know, but I do know that it will be quite a while before I would consider it. The demands on my time have taken their toll, and my family, and my own photography need me more. If you get the chance, please stop by tonight and say "see you soon".

As a few of you already know, mostly by keen observation, I have also left Faded & Blurred. My participation there, and ability to contribute new content have not been to a level that I could consider myself a partner. With all of my other obligations taking precedent, it wasn't fair to Jeffery and Nikki, so I have opted out. I will now just be a participant, and plan to continue joining in on the photo walks. Better step up your game too, because if they have a contest, I will be eligible to win... ;-)

Now with that being said, and with all of these other constraints being lifted, I feel better. I'm smiling. I'm happy. My family and daughter are good. And I am turning this little spot right here around. I will need something to do every Monday Wednesday, and Thursday night, so expect to see a lot more, right here. As witnessed last week, I plan on producing more Lightroom tutorials (another one will go up this week), links to photography related articles and tutorials, and showcasing my work.

If you have some specific Lightroom questions you want answered, please let me know below. As always, If I don't know, I will go find out.

And don't forget tomorrow night (11/2/10), the Dia de los Muertos event at Live Oak Mortuary in Monrovia. Many of us will be there at 7 pm.

Stay tuned...

And please enjoy this, I sure did:

My first Lightroom video tutorial!

In my last Event Workflow Class, I showed the students how to create photo collages in Lightroom. As it was my very last class, I ran through this rather quickly, as I had a lot of ground I wanted to cover. So I made a video tutorial. I really had no idea I could even do this, so consider this first one a "proof of concept" for me. Yes, it's kinda weak, rough around the edges, and there are some slip-ups. But hey, it's my first, and I got it done, and they will get better. Besides, would you really have it any other way?

In this first tutorial, I show you how to make a several image overlay in Lightroom like I did here. It's almost like working with layers in Lightroom. This seemed to be a big hit in my class, but perhaps I went through it to quickly, so here it is, available to you to watch, pause, and play along. Tell me what you thought below. Video after the jump

Get to know more about Zack Arias

You saw the video last night and were intrigued, right?

Well here is more info on Zack Arias.

His site & portfolio are here: Zack Arias

His excellent blog

The OneLight workshops

And from a guest post he did on Scott Kelby's blog, the video that I probably watch 4-5 times a year. It's amazing, and often times is just what you need, when you really need it

The 5DMKIII

It's funny because it's true...

Happy Halloween!

And the beginning of my favorite (and most busy) time of the year. Here are some images I shot of the kids at the Cal Poly Pumpkin Patch:



Don't forget to take lot's of pictures of your holiday gatherings, traditions, and parties. Great memories are made at this time of year. Be sure to include items that clue you in to the particular event, pumpkins, wreaths, presents, turkey, etc. And also remember to enjoy the event, the friends, the family, and not be solely focused on capturing images.

Dia De Los Muertos

We have 2 Dia De Los Muertos events that we will be attending in the next week, and everyone is welcome to both of them.

The first event is BIG! Come meet up with the Faded & Blurred crew at The Dia De Los Muertos event at Hollywood Forever Cemetery . We will be meeting out in front at 2pm. Last year was my first year attending, and I was blown away. The event is family friendly, and is $10 for a ticket.

Some images from this event last year:

Lot's o links!

Got some time on your hands, and don't know what to do? Click the links!

Why do you take photographs? From Permission to Suck

Syl Arena on the Canon Speedlight system

Subscribe to the X-Equals Digest for some free B&W presets

Vote for my image at Capshured

DPS tells you what they don't mention about being a wedding photographer 

Craft & Vision has a new ebook out, "Close to Home" Buy it soon for a chance to win a Livebooks website!

10 excuses for failing at photography

Ju;ieanne Kost's blog on Adobe.com

That's probably enough to keep you busy for a while...

Layers in Lightroom?!?

For my very last "Event Workflow Class", I wanted to show my students something cool that they may not know they can do. I will teach them how to fake "layers" in Lightroom. If your interested, stop by to learn how I did these Wednesday night. Great for making print packages, album pages, or poster collages. All 3 of these were done completely in Lightroom, no Photoshop required.

Give me something to believe in...

"Something to Believe In"

The link above takes you to the YouTube video for Poison's song "Something to Believe In". It's not available to embed. It's a great song with a poignant message, but it never mentions anything to actually believe in, it's more about the search. I posted a blog post very similar to this earlier this year, but I have had a strange week, with some emotional ups and downs this week, and this song has been in heavy rotation on my iPod recently. I will be going to see Bret Michaels (also a sufferer of diabetes) this weekend at an American Diabetes Charity show, and I have a feeling, when he performs this song, it will be pretty powerful for me.



Since my initial post, to say I've had some life changing events wouldn't do them justice. And with the upcoming end of my teaching at Tri, I've had a lot on my mind recently. So here is a slightly updated list with some new things I believe in.

Thank you Tri Students!

It is with a heavy heart, that I will be saying goodbye very soon. As many of you already know, I am leaving Tri. I need to spend more time with the family, with my daughter, and to get more focused on my own photography. But I will miss you guys. A lot. I have had an amazing 2 years with you. I have learned more from you then I could ever hope to teach, and for that I will be forever grateful. You are all amazing people, and I am proud to call many of you friends, peers. You have kept me on my toes, forced me to up my game, and I feel I am a better photographer, a better person for the experience.

I have really enjoyed watching you grow as photographers. Watching the wheels turning, seeing things click, witnessing the creativity. It is my hope that I may have played some small role in that growth, and that you continue to pursue this passion that we all share.

Roots before branches

Had another fun class last night in my Lighting on Location class. We had 2 models, and a couple. Everyone was able to get lot's of shooting time. I got 2 shots I was happy with. Our set up was small flashes shot into collapsed umbrellas to narrow the beam, reduce the spill, and increase the dramatic fall off of the light.

Help me help my daughter

The Peanut Gallery

On July 30, my family received devastating news. Life as we knew would change. My daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. No more spur of the moment trips for frozen yoghurt, or just "grabbing something to eat" when we get there. My daughter is insulin dependent. Every meal, snack, drink, etc, needs to be accounted for, and we need to know the carb count of every item she ingests.

Rita

IMG_1030.jpg
Originally uploaded by fwisneski
In Thursday Nights Lighting on Location class, we went to a new spot. Down the street from the school, we have an abandoned used car lot. I lit our model Rita with the Canon 580EXII in a Westcott Apollo 28" softbox. And then, just for fun, we fired a Nikon SB900 into the broken Parts sign above her.

Lightroom Reading & Links

In my Event Workflow class, we are currently going through the Lightroom workflow. We have many students that are really seeing Lightroom for the first time. I mentioned last night in class several books that can be helpful in learning Lightroom. Here they are:

My son

As most of you know, my favorite subjects to shoot are my kids. My son, at 2 1/2 years old, has proved to be a very elusive subject. While at my daughters riding lesson this weekend, he actually ASKED me to take his picture. And he proved to be quite the little model.

Miss Palm Springs

In my Thursday night class, we had the pleasure of working with Keeley Boess, Miss Palm Springs 2010. She will be going after the Miss California crown in November. A big thank you to Jennifer for bringing her in. It's always tough to organize and light a shoot with only 21/2 hours, and 60 people. The set-up needs to be generic enough to allow the model some space to move, but also specific enough to facilitate all the different levels of photo gear. Some people don't have ISO 100, some zooms are 5.6 at the long end, some cameras are horrible at high ISO, etc.

We went with a little different set-up this week, using the Westcott 28" softbox, and a second flash with a snoot as a hair light. Both were powered by Canon 580EXII's.

Our first set-up was in the world famous Covina Alleyway, and our 2nd set-up (it started to rain) was on the ramp in the parking structure.

This first shot was done with only available light. The hi-light on her face was provided by the flashlight we were using for focusing.

Sunrise & power poles

Sunrise & power poles
Originally uploaded by fwisneski

If we didn't have 112 degree heat yesterday, I wouldn't have gotten this image this morning. Which, of course, includes 1 of my favorite things, power poles. Yes it was hot. But who could complain about waking up and driving into work with this?

When you look at things in the proper perspective, everything seems okay. There will be many changes around here soon. I won't see many of you as often, and I won't be at Tri much longer. But I am in a good place right now, and excited about these changes, and of course, spending some much needed time with my family.

If you missed it, please enjoy todays sunrise. I know I did.

Shot, of course, with the iPhone 4

California Science Center

Faded and Blurred had our latest photo walk on Saturday, 9/25/10. Dubbed the "choose your own museum" walk, as there are several museums at Exposition Park in LA. It was a family friendly walk, so we packed up my favorite models and headed on out.

As I would be shooting in the museums all day under poor lighting conditions, I took my rarely used Canon 35mm f/1.4L to assist, and it worked amazingly well. All in all, a great way to spend a very hot day in LA!

Welcome back students!

This is kind of bittersweet for me. I'm embarking on my last semester at Tri. I will miss you guys at school, but my priorities lay elsewhere. For those of you that don't know, my daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 6 weeks ago. Yes, I need to continue to take care of my daughter, and my family. But I also need to refocus on my own passion, my own craft. We teachers at Tri only have 6 weeks off from school per year, and I just didn't ever have enough time to do anything photographically for myself. So I will also be shooting a lot more.

With that said, we kicked off our first shooting class with a bang. 60 plus students, all shooting a good friend, fellow student, and Faded & Blurred member, Tammy.

The LA County Fair

Took the family to the LA County Fair this past weekend. We hadn't gone the last 2 years, and since we've been gone, they added quite a few new exhibits, and expanded the rides sections. The dinosaur exhibit is awesome!

The kids had a blast! Here are some of the images from our day at the fair. And yes, we won a fish...



All images shot with the Canon 5D MK II and the Canon 24-105 f/4L

Flowers with the 100-400?

20100912-IMG_9448
Originally uploaded by fwisneski

Yes, this image was shot with my new current infatuation, the Canon 100-400 4.5-5.6L. no, not a macro lens, but a big effen zoom lens. This lens still amazes me, and it has a surprisingly close focusing distance of 6 feet. For a reference point, the 70-200 f2.8L is 4 ft.

Taken in the hot house at the Arboretum.

Luminous

Luminous
Originally uploaded by fwisneski

Been searching for a light at the end of this tunnel affectionately called August. Could this be it?

Shot with my iPhone, and as always with my iPhone shots, only processed with tools available on the iPhone. In this case, the "Paris" setting in Best Camera

Photography themes

Do you ever notice themes, or common threads, or particular objects, running through your work? You know, like when your looking at a body of your work, and there are some similar shots/styles/things that keep popping up? I have several that tend to run through mine.

I think a lot of you know full well my fascination with power poles. But a new theme that I just recently picked up on is silhouettes. This is a fairly recent thing for me, but I think I really like what I am seeing start to develop



So what themes run through your work?

The Faded & Blurred Venice Walk

On 8/21/10, we had our 1 year anniversary photo walk in Venice for Faded & Blurred. It was a beautiful day, but as always, it was tough to get to Venice through all the LA traffic. Our focus for this walk was through the canals, and then to finish off by the pier for sunset.

As usual, everyone headed off on their own to go explore. I have been in a really wierd space lately, due to the amazing amount of changes going on in my life, and all though I wanted to be there, just couldn't seem to concentrate enough to focus on photography. I felt scattered most of the day, and just never got into a groove. It happens. I did get my sunset shots though, as I was waiting at the pier, and had found my shot just prior to the sun going down. All I had to do then was sit. And wait. Be still. And that was very neccessary for me.



If you are going to be in town Labor Day weekend, a few of us will be heading to the Planes of Fame museum on Saturday, 9/4. We will be meeting for breakfast at Flo's, and then off to the museum by 10. They will have a flight demo of the YAK-3 at noon that should be awesome to shoot. Let me know below if you have any interest. Admission is normally $11, but if we can round up 20 people, they will let us in for only $8.

Canon 100-400 f/4-5.6L IS

For those of you following along, you know I traded my Canon 24-70 f/2.8L for the Canon 100-400 f/4-5.6L IS. Best. Deal. Ever.
To say I love this lens doesn't do it justice. I'm completely infatuated. It is probably the sharpest lens I have ever used. I didn't think I'd like the push-pull type zoom, but they got it right. And with push-pull, it's fast to go from 100mm to 400mm. No reason to miss a shot. Here is just a small sample of shots I've taken recently with this lens, most all of them taken with the old Canon 5D.



Is it a beast? No more so then my other favorite lens, the Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS (I still use version 1)

In fact, I like this lens so much, I'm considering selling my old 5D and the 70-300 f4-5.6 IS to get a Canon 7D...

The most memorable vacation ever

This vacation has been an emotional roller coaster for me. That's about all I can say about it for now. I'll let the images speak for themselves...

How I spent my summer vacation

How I Spent my Summer Vacation

By Frank Wise

So, I've been planning my vacation for several weeks. My daughter goes back to school on the 16th, and my wife has been home with a 7 year old and a 2 year old for 6 weeks, and I was looking forward to giving her a break. My son is also going into the hospital on Thursday to have tubes put in his ears. We didn't have major plans, just a basic "Staycation", but it was going to be fun. But life being what it is, things aren't quite going to work out the way I had planned.

Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photo Walk

A big huge thank you to all the photographers that came to Faded & Blurred's leg of the Scott Kelby World Wide Photo Walk. All told, we had about 75 participants, just a fantastic turnout! We walked downtown LA, through little Tokyo, to the Walt Disney Center, and then finished it off at Philippes for food and a beer. (or 2)...

Scott Kelby's World Wide Photowalk

So this is it. It's where it all started for us. The seeds were planted for what would become Faded & Blurred. Not far from where we will be on Saturday, photo walking through Chinatown at last years Scott Kelby World Wide Photo Walk. Jeffery, Nikki, and I, talking about how much fun we were having. How we didn't want to wait another year. How we thought we could possibly get groups together and do this maybe once a month or so.

Attention Pretty Girl shooters!

If your photographic endeavors lead you to taking pictures of pretty girls, if you have a Model Mayhem portfolio, if you are captivated by the genre of Glamour Photography, or just want to be able to take better pictures of models, you may want to check out the new ebook Guerilla Glamour by my buddy Jimmy D.

(Warning, links in this post may lead to NSFW images!) Jimmy has been a working photographer for years, and maintains a great blog with lot's of info for photographers, stories, experiences, and all served up with great wit, over at Pretty Girl Shooter. He has created an ebook that covers everything from the must have gear list and descriptions of what each piece is used for, to the talking with, directing, and posing of models, to the behind the scenes set up shots, all served up in typical Jimmy D fashion, and the pictures aren't hard to look at either... ;-). He's selling them for $9.99, and it is 100 pages. It will look great on your shiny new iPad.

And if your wife catches you reading it, you can always say, "I just bought it for the articles!"

What's up for the weekend?

Just a quickie post to see what everyone is up to for the weekend? I'm hoping to see some of you at the Planes of Fame Paul Bowen seminar on Saturday. Here is a map to the location:
View Larger Map

Just finished reading David Ziser's Captured by the Light. An excellent resource full of information for shooting and lighting a wedding, even if the images feel a little dated. Next up for me is Martin Evening's book on Lightroom 3.

Just heard that David duChemin's new book, Vision and Voice, has been released and is starting to ship from Amazon. I am really looking forward to this one, should be a great read.

Just thought I'd throw in an image taken from our Faded & Blurred Hollywood photo walk. Something you'd only see there. Speaking of photo walks, our next walk is on the 24th, for Scott Kelby's 3rd annual World Wide Photo Walk. Are you joining us? Are you participating in another walk? If so, where are you going? It looks like there is already over 1000 walks, and almost 26,000 photographers participating!

Engagement Photography

Just a few images from my Monday night Engagement shooting class. We worked with 2 couples under various conditions in downtown Covina. While some were using the lighting set-up, others were shooting available light (as was I). In the alleway, I had them positioned under a tungsten light source, so I set the white balance in camera to tungsten which gave me proper skin tones on the couple, but allowed the alleyway to go a cool blue. They were shot at ISO 3200 with the Canon 5D MKII and the Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS.



Hope everyone has a great rest of the week, it's going to be hot. And don't forget to bring images to class!

A man and his bike

On Thursday night in my Lighting on Location class, Herman was kind enough to agree to be subjected to our lenses. He rode in on his electric blue Ninja, and away we went. We lit Herman up with a speed light mounted in the Westcott Apollo 28"  softbox and balanced some ambient while we still had it.

As it was 7:30, the light was dropping fast, so we wound up with shot's like these after the sun set:

 And then we moved Herman and his bike into the elevator. Yep, an elevator...

This last 1 is my favorite of the night. I love the aggressive feel of it, and the hint of blue, with the brake lights glowing red in the background.

For my engagement class, I need a couple for Monday night. If you know of anyone, let me know.

On Wednesday for the wedding class, I will be lecturing on how to set up your equipment and make it work for you.

I also need models for Thursday night's class.

That doesn't make you a model

This was just too funny not to share:

Like Aerial Photography?

Hey everyone!

If you are looking for something to do next Saturday, 7/17/10, why don't you come to the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino to see legendary "Canon Explorer of Light" aerial photographer Paul Bowen. He will be giving a seminar, sharing techniques, showing his work, and doing a Q&A on aerial photography. Admission is $11, and all the details on the seminar are here. The address for the museum is:

Planes of Fame Air Museum
7000 Merrill Avenue, #17
Chino, CA 91710

If planes aren't your thing, but you like Glamour Photography, Jimmy D, a longtime "Pretty Girl" shooter, just released his new ebook "Guerilla Glamour" with tips and tricks for everything from building a great lighting kit, to working with models, to helping pose those models. Check it out, buy it, and download it, but be careful, those links may not be "Work Safe" :-)

And now a reminder. If you are shooting events, please make sure you are insured. 'Nuff said

4th of July weekend

Wow, what a weekend!



The weekend started off at a company picnic, with some BBQ, face painting, and balloon animals for the kids. Then off to The Hip Kitty for drinks and fondue for a friends birthday. That was a very cool joint.

On Saturday we had my daughters horseback riding lesson and a family BBQ in Temecula. And on Sunday, we had another BBQ in Chatsworth with firends and their adorable kids. Boy did the kids have fun. And Peche Lambic goes down great with chicken kabobs :-)

Then off to the fireworks show in West Covina. They put on a very decent show. After we got home and were getting ready for bed, my wife saw trees burning from our kitchen. The neighbors behind us lit their Palm Trees on fire with fireworks. The sirens, the fireworks explosions, the hosing down of our yard and roof while we were watching hot embers come our way... lot's of excitement. Our dogs didn't finally calm down til after 1 am.

Monday was supposed to be a relaxing day at home. Had some chores, and my daughters swimming lesson, and then playing with the kids. My daughter and I took the dogs for a walk. While walking our dogs (I was walking our terrier, and Stella was walking our Great Dane) a very irresponsible pet owner left his gate open while working on his car.
His large Rottweiler charged us. My Dane spun around tackled and herded the Rotty away from us and fended the dog off until the owner came out with a pipe to chase his dog back in the yard. My daughter has major road rash from where she was dragged by our Dane (all to keep the dog away from us) but she is all right (a little scared), and she never let go of the leash. We were about a 1/2 mile from home, so I walked the 2 dogs, and carried her on my shoulders home. She is a very brave little girl, and my Dane is a damn fine dog... And if anyone in the story needs to be chased with a pipe, it's that irresponsible dog owner. So she got some extra love tonight.

Needless to say, I'm exhausted...

Cming up this week in class:

On Wednesday I will be lecturing
On Thursday, Herman will be coming in with hus motorcycle and leathers. Should be a fun (and hopefully uneventful) remainder of the week...

Lighting on location... or not

Had our first shoot last night in my "Lighting on Location" class, and our very own Tri-Community student Tiffany was our model. We busted out the Westcott Apollo 28" softbox and the wireless triggers in a parking lot and shot away. Our first set up was against an aluminum door:

After this set, we moved Tiffany to include some more ambient light and environment. While the students were using the flash set up, I was shooting available at ISO 6400, f/4, at 1/40 sec. Her face was lit with a torchlight mounted on a stand that the students were using to lock focus.

Just a couple of slight adjustments in Lightroom 3, essentially a light sharpening, a medium contrast curve, and a saturation/color adjustment brush on the face and hair. I like the way these came out.