Head-shots(#7)

This last week has been a productive one for me.  I was able to get a lot of yard work done, complete a minor repair on my car and take some head-shots for a local hair stylist.  Of course I had the most fun doing the photography stuff.  It was nice to bust out the lighting gear and get some decent results.

I tend to be the kind of guy that likes to have all the high-quality tools, gadgets and sometimes unnecessary equipment.  So I have been trying to challenge myself to get good results with simple stuff.  Part of the reason for the challenge is that photo-gear cost bucks and if I spent the kind of bucks I would like, I probably would be adding alimony to that list of expenses... Love you honey!

This last week is the first time I feel like I got some of my best one-light head-shots to date.  Michelle wanted to try out some make-up techniques and see how they photographed and I wanted to practice some more one-light stuff.  I busted out the Vivitar strobe light, stand, shoot through umbrella, ebay cactus wizards that I am borrowing and some white foam core board for reflectors.  Michelle acted as a model and a VAR(Voice Activated Reflector) stand all in one!  One of our trusty pub chairs acted as a second reflector holder and away we went.

Please forgive my photo-editing errors, my computer runs like a VW Bus trying to climb a mountain pass over the Sierras when running Photoshop.  It makes for really long editing sessions then I get frustrated and stop.  I need to work on that.  Anyway, this is one of my favorite photos I have taken to date.  It's hard to tell in this blog, but you can jump over here to check out a large version on flickr and see some more detail.  I was really pleased with the overall sharpness.  It seems like it has been a long road to sharp photos.

After this session, Michelle told me that our hair stylist, the awesome Ms. Joanna Montemayor at Razors Edge Salon, needed head-shots for their website.  Joanna wanted Michelle to do her make-up for the shoot and Michelle figured I could take the photos.  At first I was a little apprehensive, but decided to give it a go.  You don't know what you can and can't do until you try.

So Joanna came over and brought her friend Zac.  Little did he know he would be put to work as a VAR holder.  Michelle rocked the make-up, then I put her and Zac to work and we came up with this.

I feel like it came out pretty well for one-light and a couple reflectors.  I'm anxious to see how it looks on the website.

Next lighting mission, high-speed syncing with a medium format camera...

-dg

Life Imitates Art and Some Other Random Stuff (#6)

Ok, got my coffee brewing on the stove, the house is quiet, Lightroom is open with some decent looking head-shots of Michelle and it is finally time to blog.  These last couple blogs are getting published a little late in the week, I'm going to have to get on top of it!

About a day after I posted the last blog, I was driving to work and had a journey of thoughts for about 15 minutes that followed no apparent course.  It went from thinking about family drama to what makes life good, contrast in photos to what defines good art and finally to the quote, "Life imitates art [...]".  The whole gist of everything is that without contrast in art, what ever you define art as, there would not be anything interesting to look at or experience.  Without contrast in life, the experience would be bland.

Generally, I do not want to feel pain.  I do not particularly enjoy experiencing heartbreak and unhappiness.  But with out those unwanted experiences I would not know how good being healthy feels, or how good it is to experience joy.  I have been trying to learn how to experience the bad parts of life, the contrast to good, in a way that will let me completely appreciate when times are good.

When I get to the end of my life I want to look back and know that I experienced the hell out of it.

Film, BMX, and Sacramento(#5)

Phew, this has been a busy last few days!  Sunday I attended a really cool event at the local BMX track and got a couple good photos.  Then Michelle and I jumped into the car and headed south to Sacramento for two nights of alone time.  While down there I got flipped off once and mean-mugged by a gangsta wannabe in his 300M with chrome fool!  Good times.  We also spent a few hours at Ikea and brought some organizational items home.  Upon our return to Redding, I immediately began assembling shelving units and hunting screws that little Daniel wandered off with.  After much grunting, sweating and hammering the Swedish furniture was completed and it was already time for a birthday party for Lyn.  I'm worn out just from writing all that! It was a lot of fun and I would do it again in a heartbeat, bad Sacramento drivers and all.

On the photography side, I didn't take as many photos in Sac town as I should have.  I was thinking about bringing a Mamiya down, but didn't really want to lug around a 6 pound camera plus tripod, plus the Canon for metering with out a clear idea of what I wanted to shoot.

In short, it stayed home.

Since receiving the two medium format cameras I have run a roll of film through each, but only developed a roll from one.  The results are fantastic, meaning no light leaks or major problems with negatives.  As for actual artistic value of the negatives, well, there is room for improvement!

It was a lot of fun to process film again.  Once the chemicals were mixed and in storage containers it was really simple to knock it out at home.  In fact, I may process another couple rolls today.

The duties of father-hood and husband-hood our calling so I must be off.  I'll leave you with this picture of Kevin Suttmoeller, 43 years young and still rocking BMX!

Don't let the lens distortion fool you, that gap was 20+ feet!  There are few more pics of BMX over at flickr.com/ihatecrashing and I will be posting more up as I get them edited.

-dg

Medium Format Here I Come... (#4)

After the last blog I began scouring the internet for a deal on a medium format camera.  I was really hoping to find an older Hasselblad for a deal on ebay, but quickly realized they don't go for much less than 1k and accessories for them aren't cheap either.  While checking a particular online camera forum, I stumbled across a gentleman selling two complete Mamiya RB67 Pro S models for a price I couldn't resist.  After sending a few text messages to a friend that has a similar model and exchanging emails with the seller, I decided I was going to take the plunge.

I decided to give medium format film a try for a couple of reasons.  One, I feel like with film you have to slow down and really considered what you are about to do.  Once you release the shutter, there is no "delete" button.  Sure you could throw the negative away, but that negative cost you money.  Two, looking into the viewfinder, at least a waist level viewfinder, makes you look away from the subject and down at the focus screen.  In a small way it helps me look at the negative I am about to make in a more objective way.  Three, the shutter makes the coolest sound ever.  Ok, that last one is a little cheesy but it is true!

The goal is to get a scanner and do most of my developing at home for black and white, color stuff I will send off for.  Hopefully the process of making film photos will help improve my digital photography and maybe I can get some good art out the whole ordeal!

-dg