Portraits from the Bend Film Festival /
The Bend Film Festival is just awesome. Incredible films across a broad spectrum of genres, created by incredible folks. This year I created portraits of the filmmakers, directors, and actors that attended the festival. I didn't get to photograph everyone, but I created 24 portraits over two days. It was incredible. I'll be posting a few images in each of the next few posts.
Time Lapse for a table top commercial job /
All the fun and excitement of a table top photo job! Woohoo! Normally, I would do this at the office, but this was set up at home because we were using a bunch of art supplies my wife had at the house.
New Avatar headshot /
Cobblers, shoes, you know the story - my own avatar headshot was a wee bit behind the times, so, since I recently had to create a cast photo for myself for the production of a musical version of Peter Pan (I'm a singing and dancing Pirate! Argh!) I figured I could use the image for a more up to date online me! The beard probably won't last past the last show of Peter Pan (Pirate Beard, Argh!), but for now, here I am!
Keeping a shoot as quick and as painless as possible /
Part of what I enjoy so much about the business of photography is how many interesting people I get to meet through my business. You can follow the link for a really nice guy, Thom Gardner, a local buyers agent here in Bend. What I take pride in is working efficiently and keeping a photo shoot enjoyable for everyone. Most folks are not very keen to be in front of a camera, so I keep things light and as enjoyable as I can for everyone! You can see my images on Thom's site here.
Recent Architectural photography /
One thing that I have been working on dramatically improving is my architectural photography. While I still have much to learn, on a recent shoot for a real estate developer here in Bend, Oregon, I put my light painting and Photoshop techniques to work to take my average-to-boring architectural photography to a higher level, something I think I achieved. The first photo is pretty much straight out of camera. It does not represent the kind of image I would have turned over to a client, but it does give an indication of the lighting contrast I was dealing with. The second image is the finished product that I was really pleased to deliver to my client. I'll continue to improve on these techniques, because I had a blast with this shoot and in creating the finished product! As I look around the architectural and real estate photography in bend, I often find myself shaking my head at the horrible quality of photos builders and architects use in their advertising and on their websites. They designed and/or built a multi-million dollar home with intense attention to the finest details, then they either take the picture themselves, or they pay (I'm hoping they paid) no more than $100 for their photography. What a waste! There are some high quality architectural photographers here in Bend, but no one seems to be doing this type of work. I wonder if its because no one is willing to pay for it? I hope to change that as I continue to refine these techniques I'm learning and begin to spread the word about my services! It is a shame that some of the stunning custom homes I see in local advertising are so poorly photographed!
You can see how this image and the images I created of the interiors of the house were used by my clients to accentuate the property listing site by clicking here.
After the shoot /
What do you do after you and a friend complete a family portrait? Why, you each try to come up with your best flying ninja photo, of course! Which one is better?
I thought I was active as a kid! /
I've been working with a local family whose son is a locally sponsored snowboarding and skateboarder. I'm planning on a short documentary of the whole family - the dad is a former top notch rock climber, surfer and outdoor photographer, the mom was a former college athlete and marathon runner, the older son is a skateboarder, surfer, snowboarding (and many more things), and their younger son is into parkour. The fun thing about these folks is they are not rabid, frothing at the mouth, hardcore competitive types. Their kids do what they love and love what they do and mom and dad support them wholeheartedly. Now that snowboarding season has wound down, we scheduled a photo shoot at a local skate park to get things moving. The day was perfect, with big puffy white clouds giving some drama to the sky. It was huge fun for me to shoot and in the process of doing research for the shoot, I learned a lot about flash duration, the limits of my Nikon speed lights, and the "action" mode on my Einstein flashes! I A good time was had by all!
