Been up two day straight now, working. Haven't slept, not even a nap. Had to rush into the studio today cause the client was having a fit about wanting stuff ahead of time. Sigh, I'm so tired. I'm finally gonna get some sleep after this, two more sets to go!

I ordered two Profoto strobes after that bulb meltdown yesterday. Got me a set of Compact-R 600's with zoom reflectors and some silver beaded umbrellas. It should come in tomorrow, I'm so excited!!!

Labels: lighting, photo

So I've been really digging Andrzej Dragan's style and have been doing all of my self portraits in a hyper real technique lately. At first I would do them extremely exaggerated because the theory behind hyper real styles is that the details and features are accentuated so that there it feels almost too real. It makes it feel almost animated, slightly off about the photo. Stylized realism, sort of....


Now I realized excess exaggeration isn't necessary a good thing, unless you're going for a movie poster look. Dark and creepy is great but it's too narrow of a style, it's not diverse enough to be useful. I'm going to be focusing on details and brighter lighting, making the subject pop out.


I'm pretty happy with my progress and pace, learning through process. I'll need more subjects to shoot soon, you can only do so much with yourself.

Went to pick up some work at the studio today, some Star Wars bedding project to follow up my previous ones before the holidays. Decided to drop by B&H to grab some white satin umbrellas for my lights on the way home, so I can start testing light setup. Somehow I ended up with a Sigma 50mm EX DG Macro, I'm so going to get yelled at.

Anyway, I started my 365 days challenge today with a HDR Dragan portrait! Go check it out!

Labels: photo

Canon finally updated the 5D2's firmware!! Go grab it now! If you didn't already know, this update will address the "Black dot" phenomenon (the right side of point light sources become black) and vertical banding noise with the first production models.

Labels: photo

Fact: I only switched to digitals a few years ago. I used to use analog film SLR's for shooting. Along with that, I used to be somewhat of a purist when it came to manipulating my photos. I didn't like (photo)shopping them outside of what you could do in a dark room. I didn't even like cropping my photos. I'm not entirely sure why, might have just been the nature of film photography. I was still reluctant after switching over to digital, but since my reinvigorated interest in digital photography I've been learning more and more and the doors are just flying open. I'm learning so many new techniques and things you can't possibly achieve without some actual post processing work.

The reason I'm talking about this is because of the direction I plan on taking my photography. I've been looking into a few techniques and they really intrigue me. Advanced lighting, Draganizing (pioneered by Andrzej Dragan) and general digital rendering. All of which point towards portrait photography, something I've always been shy about in the pass. Not anymore.

Another thing that got me thinking of all this was Ulric Collette's smoke portrait. I saw it during the trip and been dying to try it out. I finally got a chance to do that earlier today with the raven shot. It's just amazingly fun. Check out his website!

Don't pull your CF card out mid import...

Yeah...I left it to import and ran off to make some coffee. Came back thinking it was finished and yanked the thing out, not realizing it was still importing some photos. It pretty much ruined all the data on the card. I lost one full day of shots. Unfortunately it was some of the more interesting shots I had done in Vegas. Some self shots of my chucks, some portraits of street performers, I even got a gold painted robot lady blowing me a kiss. Sigh, I grumble every time I think about it. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now (except grumble~)

On another note, I'm really happy that at least the hobo shots were safe and came out really nicely! It was done as a 3 layer blend, 1 original, 1 HDR, 1 draganized. I'm pretty proud of it at the moment.

So I've been reading Strobist while slacking off on my post processing of the trip and I have to say, I'm getting really tempted. Like my usual self, half of this is impulse. I already have the light stands from my old lighting kit and an old Sigma speedlite for my 2nd unit. The question here now is whether I should just use the umbrellas with the daylight lamps or actually buy another speedlite. Considering the price of it all, I think I'll just stick with the daylight lamps for now, at least until work picks up again and I get some cash flow in to buy more goodies!

On another note, I think I'll pick up a Sigma EX DG 50mm f/2.8 Macro for the hell of it. I have problems.....

Labels: photo, strobist

I finally got in. UGH! I hate United Airlines. Delay after delay, even though the excuse was probable and understandable it still sucked. The least they could've done was given us free meals. Nope, $6 for a snack pack and $9 for a crappy half a wrap. HELLO, PETRO ISN'T EXPENSIVE ANYMORE! My 4:16PM PST departure turned into a 6:30PM PST departure. We didn't get into JFK until 2:30AM EST. Damn you timezones!

The photos will have to wait.

Labels: travel

....but its got nothing on the n90 I'm the pitch black dark of night. It's straight, it's dark, it's probably the most boring ride ever. Good thing I'm not actually driving, I might just swirve into a tree just for some excitement. That is, if there are trees on the side. I can't tell at all, all I see is a bank of snow and occasional reflection of road signs.

Earlier today was quite a success at Grand Canyon South Rim. We found a view point thy has you walking out straight out onto a narrow unfenced outcrop (more so than all the other fences off ones). At the end it was a memorial. Beyond that memorial however was a ledge looking into the canyon with nothing to block your view on either side. You had to climb over the rocks that kept you safe and not falling into the abyss, rocks that were filled with icy snow....right at the ledge of the canyon. Once you're pass that though you're essentially leanin over the edge. I climbed out safely no thanks to ball-less parents (this was a family trip after all) who wouldn't know fun if it up and bit their faces off. I got some awesome fisheye shots. Everything after that was just a footnote.

We did see the heliport, but only when we were leaving. I wasn't about to keep two families waiting so I can fly over the canyon. It's not a glacier afterall. Plus I highly doubt they'll let me swing the door open to film/shoot. Next time when I'm with friends maybe.

Labels: photo, travel