Conceptual Still Life

This is my conceptual still life shot. I LOVE it!

We were supposed to take one word from three different columns (1: object, 2: some organic material/mineral, 3: an emotion). I think it turned out well.



Strobist:
-scrim from up top
-a couple fills (but minimized in post) from 7 and 4 o'clock low

Environmental Studio Still Life

The point of this assignment was to shoot an image of something in its "environment" or give the illusion that it's shot in an environment, but it is entirely shot in-studio.

Mine was supposed to look like a night scene, conveyed by the bluish outside light. Throughout cinematic history, night is always portrayed as blue...'cept mine is more purple lol.

This shoot was pretty fun. This time, Jason Carrier was my assistant. We had a lot of fun w/ it. After the shoot, I shared the cheese and crackers w/ the class. Not the wine, though. Kendall Jackson Riesling ftw! I'd rather have some polka dot though...

Public Relations & Alternative Shot

This shot was to photograph an image for a corporate PR shot as well as a shot defining the individual. The lovely Sara modeled for me and le Judester assisted this time and let me tell you they were real troopers. We were so swamped that we had to do this shoot at night. Despite being us all being tired and cranky, we still had fun.

So enough of that stuff. Here's the PR shot.


Turned out good, eh?

Now the alt shot:


Yup...this one turned out badass!

Aerial Photography

So for this one, I took pictures from a Cessna.

WHEEEEE!


I accidentally opened the window by hitting the latch w/ my elbow as I turned around to shoot some trees and scared the crap out of the whole cabin lol. I actually thought we got hit by a rocket launcher or something lol.

Oh yeah, I used a Nikon D3...Nice, but I'll probably be way more into the canon 5D mk2 when i get my grubby hands on it...

Strobist:
-big burning ball in space, 10 o'clock high, bare

Still Life w/ Props

So for this one, I decided to shoot my little MIDI controller thingy. It's not great, but it gets the job done. I really want the vestax vci-100 or even the numark total control, but this one is fine esp for $150.

Anyways, Fallon Hutto was my assistant for this one and she is dope.

I know, DJs are supposed to spin records, and hell, even CDs, but a MIDI controller works off MP3 w/ the bundled software (traktor 3 for me...ick). So since it plugs into the computer, I figured, using old motherboards/circuit boards would make sense.



Strobist:
-Soft box from straight up
-hard strobe gelled, 9 o'clock low
-hard strobe gelled, 2 o'clock low

Mmm, Blue Drink...

...Sugar, Water, Blue lol.

So here's my piece of glassware.



I also did it on a white background but it didn't turn out well because I metered wrong. It just goes to show that the slightest mistake in commercial can be the death of your image. Oh, also...I actually had to retouch this black-background shot a lot because I didn't take the time to clean it well first. So take 15 mins now than 2+ hrs later.

^_^

Bry Greenberg

Caleb was awesome. And so was the outcome of this pic.



Word.

Silverware

Silverware. Supposedly, most photographers actually do not know how to light silverware. But the funny thing is, it's actually one of the easiest things to light...ever.

Check it out:


Yeah, I heart it, too.

Commercial Studio

So here's what I've been shooting in the commercial studio. These are just some of the intro shots that were done with 4x5 film and were meant to just teach us basic lighting and controls of the camera.

Box 1


Box 2


Round object


Phase 1 final


Like I said, no frills. But it still paves the way for the foundation for the commercial studio.

Box o' Luvin'

Ok, this isn't an update on Hallmark or anything but just an entry on a package from home.

So I get home for lunch and low and behold a box w/ my name on it is sitting outside.
Mom sent me a big box of junk food lol! No, I'm not a giant lardo or anything but basically, these are things I can't find here in Turners.



Enclosed:
-1 large bag fritos honey bbq twists
-1 med bag fritos honey bbq twists
-1 large bag doritos spicy nacho
-1 med bag doritos spicey nacho
-1 med bag cheetos jalapeno cheese
-2 sm bags of shrimp chips
-1 bag nagaraya spicy flavor
-2 bags nagaraya garlic (breath kicks HARD after these...but they're soooo worth it.)

Also included was a package of Zest soap. Strangely, I can't find any here. Weird.

Have a nice day.
Save the whales.

Oh yeah, thanks mom!

Phase One Finals

So after a couple weeks of no sleep (and horrible quality sleep), phase one finals are finally over. All in all, 26 Prospect (aka Ethan and I) did pretty well. How the critique went was each section was called up two at a time and had to put a photo up. The teachers would then go up and crit them one at a time while cameras similar to the ones you see at walmart zoomed into them and projected them on the big screens for all to see. While embarrassing for some, E and I were "4/4" meaning that we both got good reviews.

So anyway, Here's some of my favs + they're parameters.

Image 2/10 - Showing Motion


Image 5/10 - Backlit Outdoor Flash


Image 6/10 - Indoor Flash


Image 10/10 - Self Portrait

Intro to Portrait Studio Lighting

I had a lot of fun with this. This time I was able to work with Jessy. She was such a trooper putting up with my inability to pose people. Here are my favs.

Untouched again. Keep in mind the pics uploaded WAY muted so no, she doesn't look that pasty irl lol.

New England Life Stock Photos v.2

So while I had a blast with Krista, I wasn't 100% satisfied with the outcome so I ended up re-shooting it with some other pals, J/L-dawgs, Pat, and Ethan. We went to this apple orchard in Vermont and let me say, the world is a pretty small world. The lady who was working the counter is actually from my home town. Eerie lol.

But yeah, the pics for this series turned out better. I'll post them when I can...hopefully this week.

-update-
So here they are. These turned out AWESOME! Jude's such a dope model...







You know, now that I look at em, I should've used them for my phase 1 final assignment. But oh well. Guess I'll just reshoot them in a similar style this weekend.

NYC - Photo Plus Expo

So I went to the PDN Photo Plus Expo in NY and it was quite the experience. It's basically like Comic Con in San Diego but for camera nerds rather than comic book nerds. I didn't really get to see a whole lot of presentations (which i HIGHLY regret) but I did come up on some free stuff (the coolest of which was a free 16x20 canvas print). I'll try to post some pics, but I didn't really take a whole lot of anything view-worthy. But you be the judge of that. ';p

New England Life Stock Photos v.1

I went out w/ my natty dredda friend Krista to shoot this one New England life assignment. It was a neat day. We were originally going to shoot some kids at some rec center, but ended up just driving around Turners Falls until we found some stuff to shoot. We ended up at a mini town fair thingy where we got a quick bite to eat then ended up at a boat dock where we shot our project.

So here are the pics. We were supposed to do a vertical and horizontal representation of the subject then do an angle radically different than the two. Then an experimental shot. I liked these...but I just felt like I had to reshoot.

Got Bored...

Decided to finally get a landscape done.

Enjoy.

RBTDVMHIPCCC

Rich Barnes and Tony Downer Voluntary Mandatory Hallmark Institute of Photography Creative (ohnoes i forgot) Contest

What we had to do was photograph our interpretation of a word. "Leaders" from each group went up and came up with Fabbleschnoppf...as per Kristin's suggestion.

I guess it worked out for most people since the subject matter was so broad that it could be interpreted as anything, really...

My image is about my initial reaction to the suggestion. It was the most fun I've had on a shoot in a while.


On a side note, I went out to shoot a nice landscape today, but my wonderful Leaf Aptus back decided to crap out on me. Oh well...time to troubleshoot...

Hopefully it's a blessing in disguise since the angles I shot weren't all that interesting in the first place. The sky's colors were also flat and boring. Hopefully it'll work the next time out.

Out w/ Jude

So we went shooting today...sorta. We went for our "Fabblesnopff" idea but i ended up wanting to do an HDR. Handheld, 9 shots.

Canon 10-22 winnage.

Now for the real reason we went out:

Basic Photography

Sorry it's so late and all, but better late than never. I kinda put off starting this blog but low and behold, the cherry popper.

School started Aug 20th but our first assignment was issued Sept 8th. We used our Mamiya 645 w/ the film back at this Old Deerfield place. Nice lil' town, I guess.

We had to shoot using our new cameras and light meters (w/o much prior instruction) buildings and people in different light directions. We also had to experiment with over/underexposure. But, since I haven't been able to scan my shots just yet, you're all gonna have to wait 'til I do.

pwnt.

jk jk.

DigiAp + Flash = This

Ok, here's a few untouched images of the homie J/L-Dawgs.

The assignment was to see what happens when we shot flash onto a subject in open shade and in a backlit situation. We had to do certain things like power up the flash but keep the exposure the same. We also made the flash exposure one or two stops lower than ambient and exposed for flash.

I can't really remember what did what since a lot of my exposures came out very similar. Sucks, but I think I learned a lil somethin', somethin'...also, I think I've been really trying to concentrate on posing. I'm not used to shooting people, so 1) I'm hella uncomfy telling people to do stuff and 2) I don't even know what sorts of poses look good anyway. 3) I'm not even sure a lot of my models are down to do most of what I ask them anyway. Maybe I really do have to be like Rich and demonstrate first...

On with the show:

DoF

So here we had to use different lenses (80mm/150mm) and take different shots w/ them wide open and stopped all the way down (big holes, small holes, respectively) and at different distances.

First we had to shoot stuff.

80mm Closed.


80mm Open.


We had really crappy light that day and to top it off, it started raining. I managed to snap one off, but unfortunately the rest of my group really couldn't get a whole lot done. Sorry. But here's what I got.

I think this was a 150mm wide open. No reflector...but it might have helped.

But luckily, Ginger's hubby came to the rescue. This was at Mike's Maze, after a long day of corning.



1. 80mm wide. Teh Yum.
2. 80mm closed. I told him to love the corn...oh he did alright...
3. lolCRNT (we had his kids corn him for this shot. Damn slow aptus captured he split second after they hit. Oh well.)

*Oh yeah, all these are untouched btw. And for some reason, they all upload funny when i loaded them online. The colors look all muted and dull and much darker. :\

Potato Launcher

At Mike's Maze, there was a pneumatic potato launcher thingy. Pretty cool. I tried to get my Event Photographer Skills on, but I think I failed miserably.

I tried to get the potato as it left the muzzle, but I still have to get used to anticipating w/ the slow Mamiya response time. Oh well...

So here you go:




I'd like to thank the family that lent me the opportunity though. Pls check back as the year progresses to see improvement in my work.

Mike's Maze

Corning was fun! Mike's Maze in Sunderland.



Here's the rest of the fun:

















These three taken by Jason:




This was a BBQ place near the area. Bob's or something. Not too shabby...