Photos are back!

Took me a little longer then planned to get this fixed but I got all the photos back in the previous posts.

Making a simple pub image isn't always that simple.

This image looks like a great late afternoon image doesn't it? Got the nice late afternoon sun coming in through the window and a pint of Fat Tire. Looks pretty simple right? For the most part it was except for the fact that even though it was shot at about 4pm the window is facing the east and has a patio on the other side, so we were getting a very soft light coming in. That wasn't the scene I really wanted to get, there wasn't any drama to the light. The simple solution was to put a couple of SB-800 strobes on a stand out in the patio and fire them in through the window. But why stop there, I wanted a nice warm glow of the late afternoon sun, the easy fix was to add a full stop of CTO gel to each strobe. And to get the hard shadows from the windows I took the domes of the strobes to get that hard light. Of course the best part of the shoot was to hang out with a good friend and have a pint getting a great image out of it is just a bonus. Till next time.

Back in the Frozen North

After a week in Las Vegas I am greeted by subzero temps upon my return, not something I was looking forward too but I am happy to be home. I had a great time in Vegas, met some great, cool new people, climbers, models and such. Spent time with family and caught up with old friends. So that alone made it a great trip but on top of it all I got some great images. This is just a sampling.

First is Chris Lindner, pro climber and a good guy. After close to two years of swapping e-mails we were finally able to get together.


Next is Tamee, we got together to shoot another one of my glowing ball images.  Beautiful, creative and fun to hang out with. This is getting closer to what I had in mind in the first place, it looks great but still not quite right.


Last but not least there was the sultry Patricia. Lots of fun to shoot with, in fact it was hard to stop.


The trip wasn't what I was expecting but I think worked out well in the end.

I was bored.

Well I thought I would throw a few images on here or at least try since stuff like this is all kind of new too me. Here are a few images from the last year and some descriptions.

First of all I went all digital in 2008 and have not looked back. There have been so many techniques that once eluded me during my film days, most notably using small flash, but as soon as I was able to get that instant feedback and correct what I was seeing my life changed. Up till then with my, well I wouldn't say failed flash images but maybe less the spectacular results I had decided that it was natural light or nothing. Now though I have been going out of my way to shoot flash images, check out some of the better ones.


This was my very first attempt to shoot with wireless strobes. I had one SB-800 in a small softbox camera left and another behind Lance camera left with a red gel which you can see in his hair. The fill light on his face was provided by the large glass doors in his dining room.


This one of the beautiful Jenna was about ten years in the making. Before I couldn't figure out where to get a cheap crystal ball and even if I could get one how would I light it from the inside. I won't go into too much detail on this one but the answer hit me like lightning one day just bouncing around the house. What I will tell you is that the flash had a full CTO (color temp orange) gel and the camera set for tungsten white balance.

Last one for tonight. The thing I like best about this is the snoot that I used to get the film noir look in this image. I made it in about 20 minutes, out of an empty Coke 12 pack box and some duct tape. I had that on an SB-800 camera left and a second SB-800 behind Jeremiah camera right with some sort of purple gel. The whole set up took about 15 minutes and was promptly followed up with a few pints at the pub.

Let the year of living dangerously begin!

After reading other peoples blogs for the last few months I have decided to start my own to deal with my photography exploits and to document the project that I have officially started today. That project as of right now is going to concentrate mostly on shooting climbing and landscape images but won't be limited to just that. 

To kick things off I am flying to Las Vegas on January 5th for a week of climbing at Red Rocks and various other locations.

As far as this blog goes I am going to use it to keep people updated on my progress, gear reviews, general photo stuff and to just rant when I need to. Hope people will enjoy reading this and look forward to feedback.

More to come.....