A Study of Shadows

PAM? The Studio is Born

2006-04-03T01:16:00.000-04:00

Hmm... maybe more like a photo-a-month.

Well, anyway... Starting in about 7 hours construction will begin on our basement, including our home studio. Lee and I are both very excited, but construction means that everything currently in the room has to go. So it was a little sad packing up our home studio for the next 6-8 weeks.

Not like I've been taking pictures lately anyway...

That's lee in the background, folding up one of our backdrops. This is where the magic has happened for the last 6 months or so.

That's 180 degrees from the first shot, looking back into our office area.

I'll do my best to document this process as I go... 6 weeks and $25k later we should have a finished basement with a full blown studio... Wish us luck!

The Sky, Again

2006-03-01T13:38:00.000-05:00

So what excuse shall I give for not uploading a photo in nearly a month? Shall I go with the ever popular "too busy with work and family," (true)? Perhaps the old standard "not enough daylight in the winter?" Sure. Whatever.

I'll keep trying folks...

Anyway, something must have been on fire the other night, these clouds really did look like this. Of course now 40 days of grey cloudy skies are forecast. I haven't been in the studio in weeks either, maybe I'll try to get some studio time tonight.

Grant

2006-02-08T23:53:00.000-05:00

We have four cats. Each one of them has a name that starts with 'G'. I'll try not to bore you all with all four of them, but the sunlight through the window, along with my desire to use this canvas for exploration of natural light and shadows, makes this a keeper, even if it is mostly snapshot.

Hey, I never promised that they'd all be good.

By the way, this is the first shot where I have ever noticed chromatic aberration in one of my photos. Look at the whiskers. Adobe Camera Raw was no help, and I'm too tired to load the Nikon software on this PC tonight. So yes, my cat has radioactive purple whiskers. Got a problem with that?

The Majestic

2006-02-03T21:31:00.000-05:00

Tokina AF 12-24mm f/4.0 AT-X 124AF Pro DX @ 17mm, 1/500s @ f/11.

Culpeper, Virginia is an old town.

Back in 'the day' the State Theater was a local landmark: stage, screen, they did it all. The theater itself is nearly 70 years old and originally featured a vaudeville stage as well as a silver screen. It has been closed for more than ten years and is in general disrepair.

The good news for Culpeper's citizens, and silver screen buffs in general is that the theater has been bought by a foundation that plans to restore it to its former glory. Serious restoration work is expected to begin soon.

For more information...

Driving

2006-02-01T22:53:00.000-05:00

One of my lenses is the Tokina 12-24 f/4. Earlier in the week someone posted in the DPChallenge forums asking for opinions of this lens. The reviews, both there, and in the press have been very favorable. A few people posted shots that were taken with this lens.

The diversity of what people are shooting with this lens was really eye-opening.

I come from the old school of photography, adapted to Digital, where a 24mm focal length would be used for the Grand Canyon, the Atlantic Ocean, or maybe the Washington Monument, if you turned the camera 90 degrees.

But people are taking shots of everything with this lens, from ground shots of their cars to cats.

So I gave myself a challenge. For the next 7 days I'm going to leave the 12-24 mounted to the front of my camera. I'm going to get out and take pictures. Like this one. I'm going to see the world through 12 millimeters.

In case you're wondering... this was a longish exposure, from the passenger seat of my wife's car, on the way to dinner. 12mm gets you almost the entire front seat.

Motivation

2006-01-29T12:25:00.000-05:00

This is a photo that you have seen before, but I was playing around in photoshop with a technique from Photoshop Magazine. This 'gritty scan lines' technique is probably not totally suited for this exact image, but it's what I have at hand and I wanted to try out the technique. I think it's kinda neat.

Golden Pepsi

2006-01-27T02:12:00.000-05:00

So I found out, kinda by accident, that the SB-600 and the D70 can talk to each other wirelessly, using very short flash bursts from the D70's built in flash to trigger the SB-600 off camera, even if it's hidden, behind a barrier, etc. etc. etc.

So, I'm so busy with my math class right now that I don't have a lot of time to take pictures, but I played with this technique a little the other night. I took the flash off the camera, set up the wireless mode, positioned the flash under a Pepsi bottle and took a few shots. I think the color of the soda reflected off the bottle and made this interesting glow.

Sunday in the Park with Dominik

2006-01-23T07:34:00.000-05:00

Natural light... I'm beginning to embrace it.

I Hate Math Homework

2006-01-19T23:19:00.000-05:00

First, I suck for not posting anything to this blog in nearly a week. Doing this blog is very important to me, but there's a few other things that come first, like family and such.

Second, I'm finishing my degree, and I hate math classes. This was the homework I was working on tonight. I actually like math, as long as it makes sense. But once I get on to concepts that I don't know or understand, then I get really frustrated at it. Blech.

Meet Me At The Short Pump

2006-01-13T20:48:00.000-05:00

According to a pretty brass plaque, the area really was known as 'Short Pump' in the 1800's. A little more research tells us that there was a 'Short Pump Tavern' on the road from Richmond, Virginia to Charlotesville. The tavern, where riders would stop to rest their horses, and themselves, had a water pump with a handle of dimunitive size. Travelers who planned to meet others making the same voyage, would tell each other that they would "meet at the Short Pump." And thus a city was born.

The "town center" which now occupies the spot erected a really pretty fountain with about a dozen ornamental pumps around it. Sadly, this is one of the few pictures that I will ever have of the place, because they enforce their "no non-recreational photography" policy on art photographers with SLRs. I'll be posting a few more pictures that I took that day over the next few days, but I'll be staying away from that place for a while. For the whole nasty story please see this thread over on DPChallenge.

I also wanted to clear up one mistake I made in yesterday's blog. I incorrectly identified the property management company that owns the mall in question. I've already fixed the post, but if you happened to read it yesterday, please cancel your boycotts of that company, and instead direct your smite to Forest City Enterprises. Thank you, and have a nice day.

The Photo That Got Me Kicked Out Of a Mall

2006-01-12T22:42:00.000-05:00

I'm sure with such a snazzy title you were expecting something a lot snazzier.

Some trade secrets, perhaps, like a map of the secret passages behind the stores, or the location of a security camera. Women's asses, perhaps, or peep shots in a dressing room.

Nope. Seems that Forest City Enterprises has an unhealthy suspicion of photographers with anything beefier than a point-and-shoot. Apparently this photo, or the method, or perhaps the equipment I used to take it, violates their policy on no "non-recreational photography."

I'll post all the gruesome details tomorrow, and honestly I shot better photos today, but I wanted to get this out there, in case men with mirrored sunglasses come to get me tonight. There's a mall out there, people, and it has fountains in it.

Why, exactly, they don't want the public to see this, I don't quite understand.

Abstract not Macro

2006-01-11T20:44:00.000-05:00

There's this dry cleaners here in town, and their store is this older, concrete block building that's probably been around since the mid 70's. It's not a very unique building, except for this one feature... the bright yellow wall.

Everyone in town knows what the bright yellow wall is. "Turn right on Chandler Street, the one just after the bright yellow wall."

The wall is some kind of perforated concrete blocks. It doesn't serve as a vestibule or anything, it's just kinda there, out front of the cleaners. It was another rainy and dreary day, so 1) the lighting isn't that great and 2) I didn't even get out of my car to take the shot...hence the tilt. I plan to go back another day for a more interesting shots.

Another Witty Prison Title

2006-01-09T21:32:00.000-05:00

Our cats get stuck in the most retarded places.

So we crate train our dogs. They have nice soft beds in them and everything, so it's like thier own little homes. The down side of all that is that they are so comfy that the cats like to sleep in them. Tonight I put the pups to bed and didn't notice the cat in Molli's bed until about half an hour later when the pitiful cries alerted me. :)

Stock Photography, Take 1

2006-01-07T23:47:00.000-05:00

One of my personal goals this year is to make some money from my photography, and one of the methods I'll be using is stock (I'm thinking only macro, at this point). Shooting stock takes a totally different eye than crafting shots for DPC, for myself, or even other forms of commercial photography (corporate, portrait, etc.). You've got to look at the mundane, and ask yourself, "is this anything that would be included in a brochure, a poster, an advertisement, a textbook, etc.?" Lots of really boring stuff gets included in those things... Like close ups of computer keyboards.

This particular shot is not up to my personal standards for what I will be placing with stock agencies. It's just more of a test of the stock eye. I just opened up my laptop on the coffee table and snapped a photo. I think I used my SB-600, at least, but there wasn't any other prep. When I do this again for real, I'll need to dust the laptop meticulously, use my studio strobes, etc.

Sorry for the copyright statement and the small size, but I want to make sure that if I do place an image almost like this up for sale, I don't want high quality copies of its cousin floating around the net.

"The sky looks angry"

2006-01-07T14:14:00.000-05:00

Well I almost made it a week with posting a photo a day. I actually took this photo Friday morning, but I had a friend come over Friday evening and we ended up playing XBox 360 until about 3AM, and I totally forgot about posting. So here you go.

It's nice living by the mountains, we get really dramatic skys like this one quite often. The picture turned out better than I thought it did looking through the viewfinder, but I still think it could be even better. Another Photoshop trick I would like to learn is using the pen tool to create selections. I understand the concept, but I really need to practice this. In the case of this photo I would have liked to slightly desaturate, remove some red, and perhaps darken/level the foreground (road and mud on the right), but again, all my attempts were a mess. Ah, well... we can't all be experts at everything. :)

I'll post another photo later this evening to make up for missing yesterday.

Yet Another Sunset Photo

2006-01-05T21:08:00.000-05:00

"Not another sunset photo."

"Yes, another sunset photo."

I figured that after two straight days of abusing other living beings, I'd go totally the other way and do a goregous sunset shot. Yes, this is really what it looked like tonight... I didn't do anything except a touch of USM, resize and save for web.

Now if I could only figure out why the trees are blurry. It seems like that happens in a lot of my "infinate focus" photos. This was taken with my 70-200 at about 160mm. The trees were well beyond the infinity focus distance, but they still show up blurry. I wonder if it's because the distance between the trees and the sky is so great... Any ideas out there?

Parent of the year...

2006-01-04T23:41:00.000-05:00

Well we've already established that I cage my son. Now, photographic evidence that I don't feed my pets either.

I think if he could fit his whole body in there he would.

I'm working on my Photoshop skills, which are severely lacking. I'd like to clone out the lamp cord that goes behind the table. Every attempt though, results in a photo that looks horrible. Anyone know a good tutorial on cloning out objects?

I started experimenting with a couple stock shots tonight, maybe I'll post one of them up tomorrow. One of my goals is to sell some stock this year... we'll see.

Oh, and I go back to work tomorrow... the end of my 2.5 week vacation... though I do have a moderate case of the flu... so we'll see.

Prisoner 24601

2006-01-03T23:23:00.000-05:00

This is my son, Dominik. He got on the wrong side of the baby gate, and desperately wanted back in with Daddy.

This probably isn't the last time you'll see him, either. As time gets short I'll need to rely on my "readily available" models. :) He was also in my wife's PAD blog yesterday.

Ihategreyandrainydays.

2006-01-02T16:56:00.000-05:00

Blah. I feel it, now you see it.

Drunk Jegna

2006-01-01T21:25:00.000-05:00

I figure there's no better way to start the New Year than with photographic proof of the debauchery that occurred on New Years Eve.
Write sayings on the bottom of Jenga blocks like "Drink 2" or "Give 1". Draw Jenga Block. Follow Directions. Rinse, Repeat.
This was taken in the middle of the third game... which probably explains the slight tilt, motion blur, and slight out of focus. :)

2005-12-26T15:20:00.000-05:00

Live Music Anyone?

Welcome.

2005-12-25T22:29:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my Picture a Day Project. I hope to use this space as an inspiration to get out there and take more pictures, even if every single one isn't gallery quality. Some may be great, some may be horrible, but they will be. Check back on the First of January for the first photo.