Environmental Portraits…

May 18, 2009 – 3:04 pm

Wow, interesting. The last three people who came to the studio for portraits, took one look at my wife’s creativity in the garden and all opted for outdoor portraits (what, you don’t want a boring seamless background?!). My wife is an excellent gardener (I just mow, that’s my creative input!) and I was proud of her that they recognized her efforts.

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This one for a massage therapist/florist was actually shot in a misting rain. Well, she was in the misting rain, I was in the studios main doorway nice and dry (can’t get the camera wet, nooo!). I just popped two Speedlites on lightweight stands, moved them outside and shot it like any other studio portrait.

By Brian | Posted in Editorial, Portraits | Leave a Comment

Glass Photography Lighting Workshop…

May 12, 2009 – 10:54 am

Trekked up to Everett, Washington last weekend to do a lighting workshop for the Fire and Rain Glass Bead Society. After a long drive it was great to pull in and see so many smiling faces. We had a great location and set up multiple lighting scenarios with different backgrounds and even though I showed them how I do it, I also shared some simple things they could do to make their photos better.

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First, we went over basic digital capture and histograms, then moved on to f/stops, light quality and reflectors. We then broke into smaller groups and shot work they had brought and they thought it was cool to see how much punch you can get out of one light. It is amazing to see how finely detailed and small a lot of the beads are. It was a lot of fun to present to such an enthusiastic audience. I’ll be doing another glass lighting workshop this summer in the Portland area in case you missed this one!

By Brian | Posted in Advertising, Commercial | Tags: art, artworks, fire & rain, glass beads, glass photography, lighting workshops, photography workshops | Leave a Comment

High Speed Flash test…

March 25, 2009 – 9:30 pm

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High speed flash test, dripping water into a bowl, for the book. It’s all hit or miss with stuff like this but I seem to like this one. I’m seeing some metaphorical symbolism in the water shapes, how about you? Exposure is ISO 800, 1/5000 sec. @f/8 with an EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens with a Canon EX580 Speedlite set to ETTL.

By Brian | Posted in Scenics | Tags: high speed flash, high speed water, water | Comments (2)

Lensbaby…yeah baby!

March 21, 2009 – 11:42 pm

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I must admit the Lensbaby look just didn’t fit my style, or so I thought. Until I shot with the new Composer. OMG, have you ever had you head slapped up against a wall, in a good way? Everything they say about these unique marvels is true and the possibilities are really endless. It really is a whole new way of seeing. My thanks go out to Craig Strong and Keri Friedman of Lensbaby for their unquestioning support, advice and friendship. I’m new to the fold but I’m a quick learner.

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By Brian | Posted in Advertising, Scenics | Tags: distortion, flowers, holga, lensbaby, lensbaby test | Comments (1)

Interior Design Photography…

March 12, 2009 – 9:57 am

Shot a beautiful addition to a Lake Oswego home last week for the designer and the contractor for portfolios and contest submissions. We scheduled it for the perfect time to match up the exterior sky with the interior lighting and I think we hit it pretty good. The only problem shooting RAW @ f/22 on a 16-35mm f/2.8 L is that even with a clean-to-the-eye sensor, there will still be microscopic specs there that have to be retouched out of the corners where they collect. Not evident at all in the larger apertures, but oh-so-there in the smallest!

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By Brian | Posted in Commercial | Comments (2)

Photo Class wrap-up…

March 12, 2009 – 9:38 am

As we wrapped up another eight week photo class, we spent the last 45 minutes of the last class out in the hallway doing some remote flash stuff. I gave them all jobs, digital tech, Speedlite operator, gel manager, reflector holder, etc and just kind of directed them to think about light and what it was doing as we moved stuff around and tried different gear. I think they had a lot of fun and that I should really work more of these into class instead of waiting until the last night. Here’s a few samples.

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After eight weeks with the same class they either gel or they don’t and this one really did. There were some fine shooters in the group and I hope they keep in touch!

By Brian | Posted in Portraits | Leave a Comment

Canon 5D Mark II…

February 25, 2009 – 10:10 am

A few weeks ago I had a couple of “firsts”. First time on snowshoes, first visit to an ice cave and first hands-on shooting with the new Canon 5D Mark II.

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John Waller of Uncage The Soul Productions and I put together a project to test out the new Canon 5D Mark II, and awesome new camera that shoots 21.10 MP still images and up to 24 minutes of continuous 1080p high-definition video. I’m writing a field guide on this new camera and needed some “seat-time” with it and John was excited about the new camera’s capabilities and came up with a location to try it out on, an ice cave near Trout Lake, Washington.

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It was quite the experience. Quite the caver himself (do not, ever, use the word “spelunker”), John reminded Liam Nagy (our model) and I to keep close track of time because in a cave with no light and nothing to create the flow of time, hours seem like minutes. Surprisingly, this was absolutely true and an interesting phenomenon to experience.

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We had several lights, even more Speedlites and Pocket Wizards to light everything up and headlamps to see what the hell we were doing! The camera was great, there’s lots of reviews online so I won’t bore you with statisitics, but we used almost all of the new shooting modes and were very impressed with the quality it produced. Check out the video here and a lower-res version here. Can’t wait to use this awesome tool for my upcoming assignments! Enjoy!

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By Brian | Posted in Editorial, Personal, Scenics | Tags: Canon 5D Mark II, caving, ice, ice cave, remote flash, speedlites, Trout Lake | Comments (1)

The Fantastic Fantasy World of Rick Moore…

February 5, 2009 – 1:11 pm

Arguably one of my favorite fine-art photography clients is Rick Moore and his cool and quirky fantasy creatures. His latest one, “Octohands” was created in 2006 and he recently completed the patina and brought it by the studio for his portfolio. Weighing in at a little over 90 pounds, it’s 3/4 life size and was a little daunting to move alone. I had several clients over for portraits while this was set up (love having the space for multiple shoot set-ups!) and it was fun to see them do double-takes, once they saw what it was!

By Brian | Posted in Commercial | Tags: art, artworks, hands, octopus, Rick Moore, sculpture | Leave a Comment

Super Bowl 3-D Madness…

February 5, 2009 – 12:13 am

My knucklehead brother Kevin (front right, in case ya can’t tell /-) sent me this photo and it just cracked me up so I asked him if I could post it on the photo blog and of course, he said yes! He & Riva hang with this group of longtime friends in the Poconos (Pokeyainthenose?) Mountains every year, Super Bowl weekend, and they have a blast. Obviously, Riva (third from right) has a Championship dominoes game going on by the looks of things ;-)

We never found the 3-D glasses, did any of you?

By Brian | Posted in Personal | Comments (2)

Cold One This Morning…

January 16, 2009 – 6:01 pm

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…and a cold one now as I post this Friday evening!

By Brian | Posted in Personal, Scenics | Comments (4)