Sunday, February 28, 2010

Beautiful Livermore.....


                This weekend was amazing! Just got home from an amazing shoot in the hills of Livermore. My model and backdrop were amazing. I really think she could have a HUGE career in modeling if she ever wanted to give it a go.  Very photogenic! 
 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

Saturday, February 27, 2010

iphone play event!

     Here are a couple of the images I captured last Thursday night at a very exciting event held by Plug & Play in Sunnyvale CA. Iphone play demoed 10 new apps to developers and numerous other interested parties. I am looking forward to working with them more on new events.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

Friday, February 26, 2010

Amazing video...

     So my brother sent me this link. He is a pilot in Florida and gets sent stuff about planes all the time. This time he knew his older brother might have an interest in this one. What this photographer named Ed Darack gets to do in this video might be one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I would seriously give a body part to be able to do this.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Something to blog everyday!

So after a week of constantly updating my blog everyday I have decided the amount of inspiration I have drummed in in such a short amount of time doing my updates can only be a good thing ... right? So here is my promise to you, my faithful readers (if I have any that is). I will post something everyday I can. It could be anything but it will be something that I find interesting that day or find useful. Even if no one else is reading it will keep forcing me to keep reaching for new ideas.... And I am into that. :)

Today I stumbled on a really nifty site for anyone using lightroom. Its got a ton of user made presets. If anyone uses lightroom I would defiantly check it out.

 

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

A letter to me...

I received this e-mail from a very talented photographer and thought it might be a good thing to share and might help others to see how I try and deal with the same issues everyone does in the digital world...



The splash ones are beyond cool. Where did you find a lens to take those? Same with the water drops?

The orange splash photos are just done with the kit lens that comes with the d90 the 18-105. I actually took all the splash photos including the water drops with the D90. But all were done with the help of both my strobes. I was able to use the in combo together to take a photo with at 1/4000 of a second with Nikons CLS system. Meaning I did not use any kind of trigger or pocket wizard to set it off. Using all the setting in the camera and built into the flashes your able to do really amazing stuff thanks to the smart peeps at Nikon. Look into CLS and High speed sync or FP Auto. Really cool stuff I am just getting into. Nikons are limited to 1/250 of a flash sync speed usually but with "FP on" you can make the shutter whatever you want. With such a high shutter speed and  aperture of say f22 using such a huge amount of light you don't have to worry about having a black background it is made for you. The camera absorbs all the light it can in the fraction of a second and has no time to see the background. 

How do you keep up with editing all the photos you take? (Like when you do weddings or events)?

This really is not a straight forward answer and each photographer has their own way of dealing with it. Sometimes I have to force myself to sit down and finish and others I get really into it and don't want to stop. A good bit of advice is to get a good program to arrange all your photos  before you take them to photoshop or wherever you do your editing with. I use Lightroom 2 but there are tons... this give you a head start in sorting out good and bad shots.

How do you stay on top of your work and if you fall behind, how do you manage?

Well this is kind of the same answer as the last question. The stuff for my blog really drives me. I am really passionate about learning everything there is to know about my new camera (d700) and well digital photography in general. So that is my drive. I had a post about always having you camera on you. I have been really trying to practice what I was preaching as of late and have really been amazed at just how many shots I have gotten that otherwise would have gone right past me never to be seen again. Doing this has also got my creativity going in a big way for other projects that I would like to get going on. 

Also, what is the typical turn around for photos you take for other people and how much editing do you do? Where did you learn your editing techniques?

I do a lot of editing. It has gone down a bit since I got my new camera but on the hole I am an artist so I love messing with the images. I am a graphic designer so i edit all day. I know a bunch of programs because of that. Photoshop should be your best friend :) I learned it before I knew anything about cameras in HS. That gave me a huge leg up when I got my first camera (d70). My one bit of advice on editing would be to get really good with photoshop learn the keyboard short cuts it will save you tons of time.


hope that helps,
Euan

The moon during the day....

          If your camera cant handle low light or long exposures and you want to take a picture of the moon you are not out of luck. A simple trick to get around that is just wait till the moon is out during the day. If you want you can turn the image black and white or just leave it blue. I like to leave it blue because its a way you usually don't see the moon displayed in. On the way home today I noticed it was a good day to try that technique out...

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The Orange High Dive....

Ok so tonight I thought I would keep my experiments going. I would stick to objects interacting with water but this time underneath the surface. I wanted to pick something that was colorful that would pick up a lot of beautiful colors on the bubbles. I walked into the kitchen and the first thing that caught my eye was a half sliced orange on the counter... BINGO! So it was out to the garage to play with my toys :)
      Here was my ending setup ... believe me there was a lot of trial and error...
 

Thank god the pictures were better looking .....


  

  

  

  

  

  

  

I need more ideas on things to drop in... any Ideas?? 
 

The Sunrise this morning...

Today was a perfect example of why you should alwasy have your camera with you. As i was walking out to my car at 6:30 this morning the sun decided to put on a show... I really wish I had been able to stay for a bit and take a propper picture, but I was able to get this one just before I left.... 


Monday, February 22, 2010

High speed flash...

So after looking at those rain drops yesterday I wanted to see how well I could freeze some water dropping from a straw falling into a galls of water. I took both my flashes (sb-600 & sb-800) and used them in wireless mode shooting across a glass of water.
 

With this combo I was able to shoot images at supper high shutter speeds and capture the moment the drops came in contact with the glass. Using a macro lens I was able to get in very close and capture again a mundane moment in super slow-mo and show it in all its detail. Here are a couple of the pictures I got tonight.
All these were taken at f14 & 1/4000, with an ISO of 200