Great portrait weather....

It was nice and overcast this morning...perfect for some available light portraits. I tried a new way to carry a chair with me by putting it over the rear rack and lashing it with some toe straps. Didn't have to carry any lighting since the light was so nice and soft!

Leica old times...

Hired by the Long Beach Museum of Art to shoot an event tonight. Took a portrait of photographer, William Livingston, whose work is on display. Interesting stuff, large format prints of the Port of Long Beach done with pinhole cameras.



I really like the portrait. Simple. Black and white. Available light. Just how I would have done it in my Leica toting days. In lots of ways, the antithesis of how I shoot for the District and OC Weekly.

Speaking of which, heard from Dave Wilenga (the writer of the story) that he hear from Joel (the subject of the District cover below) that he dug the cover. Always good news. It was a little dramatic and not flattering in the traditional sense, but it really communicated what the story was about. Some subjects think photography is all glamor and beauty, but I like a nice hard-lit photo now and then...

Grab a District

Got the cover of this week's District. Cover came out well. I wish I had gotten the catch lights in his eyes (note to self). It was from the last set of pics we took for the day and I had to rush home for another job. Ugh. In a way it's a bit more menacing than I would have preferred, but it does communicate the sense of some dark cloud brewing. I'm wishing I had a beauty dish for these portraits. It would give me a little softer light but have a hard edge. The Nikon strobes are great, but naked they are a pretty hard light source. The only affordable option would be to get an Alien Bee and portable power pack (not so portable at 18lbs!).



The large inside photo is one of my tests with the tilt/shift thing. The effect came out okay. I've gotten a little better at it so I hope to use it again for another assignment.

S24O setup...

I'm setting up my bike for this weekends S24O in the mountains. I took a medium size Wald basket, cut off the struts and zip-tied it to a Nashbar Mini Front Rack. Viola!


I'm carrying my sleeping pad, camera, tent poles and an Ikea folding tripod chair :) The tent poles and chair are secured to the basket with toe-straps.

Not one for small gestures....

This is good...


But this is better :)

No LensBaby for me....

I went down to the local camera store which had a LensBaby 3G in stock. I tried it out for a while with and without the various wide/tele attachments. It was pretty underwhelming. I knew the thing was plastic, but it felt REALLY plasticy. I've seen lots of portraits with it and wondered if I could reel in the distortion. No such luck. Fact is that it just stretches the edges way too much. It won't give that subtle selective focus look I want....back to square one.

Should I tilt or should I shift?

I've been looking at some portraits I took a few years ago (back when I was shooting copious amounts of film) and really miss that "film" look. I did some portraits shooting with a 4x5 Super Graphic, mostly on a tripod, shooting with some Polaroid 55 (creates a negative you can print from). Back then, I did all the selective focus the old way..with the lens.


I've been playing around trying to recreate it with PS and am really unsatisfied with it. Perhaps it's my PS skills. But there is something creamy and organic from doing these effects in-camera. I've been pondering getting a 3G LensBaby, but a lot of samples I've seen on the net have super heavy distortion. Selective focus on a 4x5 is smooth, subtle and dreamlike...not like you're going into warp speed in the Millennium Falcon.

Thoughts from Lensbaby 3G users?

whew...

Crazy day today! Shot the Peace Partner portraits in the AM...rested..Shot some interiors for an interior designer in the early afternoon...rested...Shot a portrait for the District Weekly...barely rested...shot some evening interiors for the designer!

I'm finally coming down from all the activity. I did a little post on the evening portrait I took for the District. I think it came out pretty well. Not quite sure the details about the story, but I knew I wanted the photo to be dramatic, have elements of the waterfront and the city in the picture.

A few more snaps...

I shot the 2nd half of the Peace Partners portraits (alliteration!) today. It was a lot less stressful without the TV crew. It was so calm and relaxing compared to last week's crazy circus! I'm really pleased with these portraits. I think there should be a general ban on the adult version of the yearbook photo that so many law firms and real estate agents use. Ack!

Traveling Circus...

Sometimes I can't help but feel like a traveling circus. A trailer with a stepladder, wooden chair and giant globe probably doesn't help. I was a little early to a shoot today and took some snaps of my setup.



My "new" handlebars...pair of Albatross bars with bar ends to provide a more stretched out position..

Rocking the ZeroPerGallon patch on my Carradice...

The Center Celebrates...

Took some snaps for OCW at The Center in Long Beach. I shot a lot of prep. A group of volunteers transformed a dull multi-purpose room into a chapel. I only had time to shoot one ceremony before having to leave to do post and upload in time for the deadline.

Click on the image below to see a slideshow...

Portrait - Bettinger Law

Shot outside on the sly from building management. Slight tone and a faux shift/tilt lens effect.

Met a great client today. Jay from Bettinger Law. We did a little guerrilla portrait photography in front of his office building and set up some lights inside his office.


Love how the vertical lines in the back echo the lines on his tie...Open shade but bumped the contrast to make him look more senatorial.


I set the white balance to tungsten and warmed the strobes to give a real blue, cool, "techy" feel while making him jump out from the background...


A little Dutch angle to make the photo a touch more dynamic...

Lots o Riding

This is what our weekend looked like...

First, we rode to Pasadena on Saturday to taste some IPAs at Lucky Baldwins...


View Larger Map

Things we learned:
LA isn't really THAT big...There is something about going on freeways that skews your sense of distance. We were actually surprised to learn that we could ride our bikes to Pasadena! It just seemed such a far away place before. Granted, it took us all morning, but we learned that it was entirely possible!

Then on Sunday we rode out to the city of Orange....which while a good distance seemed like riding around the block after Pasadena.


View Larger Map

Things we learned:
Garden Grove is one big F'n city. It seemed to go on forever. Lampson is an awesome street to get to parts of northern Orange County. We can ride out bikes to Angels Stadium if we were so inclined and if baseball wasn't so friggin boring.


Bikes weren't the only things ridden on the path...


We passed a park where people fly these pretty big model airplanes...


The San Gabriel river trail is long.....


Nothing like a cappuccino from Aroma di Roma (best caps. in Long Beach) to end a day of riding.

A few more snaps...

A few more snaps from the Discovery Channel/Peacebuilders shoot...

What a crazy day!

First off...yes...that's a giant inflatable globe strapped to my trailer.

Well...today was a whirlwind sort of day. I could hardly sleep last night I was so nervous, which really didn't go away until halfway through the day. The three person crew was great and Nick the producer guided me through the filming. I'm definitely a lot more comfortable behind the camera, but this was an awesome experience (Oprah, here I come...).

The morning was filled with lots of film me getting ready, picking out my gear, stuffing my cases and loading the bike, all the while talking (slightly to the side of the lens of the camera). It took some getting use to. I didn't really hit my stride until the actual photoshoot (and it was a real job too!), where I was in my element. It was a little nutty to have a boom and camera while shooting, but I was able to forget about it all and concentrate on the job.


Amidst the small tornado of activity, I was able to get some good snaps :)