Ever had that moment when you nail your shot—whether it’s a crisp product photo, a gorgeous portrait, or a dreamy sunset—and then BAM, you open your files and notice a weird color cast? Ugh, right? Don’t worry, friend, a trusty gray card to the rescue! In this guide, we’ll walk [...]
Read MoreThere’s no shortage of photography knowledge out there. From the countless tutorials on YouTube to detailed blog posts like the ones right here, you could spend a lifetime learning about aperture, shutter speed, and sensor sizes — all without ever stepping foot in a classroom. With so many free and [...]
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When you are learning to draw, setting up a still life can be of great importance in helping you improve your ability to see the way the light is hitting your subject. This is true in photography too. For this weeks challenge, you will need a worklight and a daylight balanced CFL or compact fluorescent lightbulb. Both of these can […]
Invented by Fox Talbot in September of 1840, the Calotype or Talbotye was an early innovation in photographic processes. Until that time, photographers could not “fix” the images on their medium. The process of fixing is making the image permanent, without this process the image would continue to be exposed and darken under exposure to light. During this time. there […]
Welcome to week two of the challenge yourself series. This week, we will explore another one of my favorite self-imposed challenges. I provide this series as much for me as my readers. It helps to keep me focused and challenged in my shooting, and each week I am forced to participate in my challenge because I want to provide current […]
Today, we are embarking on a weekly photographic adventure. Between now and the end of the year I plan to publish a weekly challenge or tutorial that I have found of value when learning photography. Whether you are an old grizzled film shooter or just picking up the camera for the first time, learning the basics of composition cam take […]
Here is an excellent article written by Rachel Devine discussing the costs and even a couple benefits of shooting in burst mode. Even if your not an old school film shooter like me, its well worth the read and actually reaffirms the need to look at what your shooting, and talk with your model rather than just holding down […]
Let me start this out by saying that this is not a sales pitch for my photography services as a wedding photographer. On the contrary, I do not offer my services in event or any other kind of photography at this time. I also will not recommend any other photographer or offer suggestions for photographers in your area. Back in […]
In my online travels, I often see photographers inquiring about the positive and negative benefits of shooting in the RAW format. Generally, the answer from photographers “in the know” is just shoot RAW because it is always better. This is not always the case. The answer to shooting RAW or not, like many things in photography is: it depends. […]
The wife and I headed into San Francisco a couple of weeks ago to attend the first ever Google Plus photo conference. It was put on by Google and Kelby media. We learned a lot about Google plus and how photographers can increase their presence there as well as attending some really cool on location shoots with models and vehicles. […]
ACL tears take a long time to heal. My son Jorden in on the mend from his surgery. With hard work this summer, he will be ready for basketball season in the fall. One of my current projects focuses on horses. I shot this one with a 24-105mm lens at 67mm. F5.6 because I was close to the horse and […]
My son Jorden (who you have seen many times if you read this blog regularly) is the goalie for the Santa Cruz High School Cardinals Lacrosse team. He was also on the basketball team this year. Hes very active and works very hard to keep fit. When he does an activity, he puts 110% into it and I am […]
In September last year my wife Carrie and I were asked by our mentor Sandy Frank to undertake a project for the Allied Health Dept. at Cabrillo College. The goal of the project was to produce a series of photographs that would represent each of the four department in the Allied Health Dept. Over the months that followed, we aided […]
Here are the remaining images from the Fall 2011 Studio Lighting class. You already saw one as your Christmas present, the cookies for Santa. This images is a do-over of an image I did last year. I was happy with the one I did last year but I wanted to make it a bit more edgy. This is my Son […]
Merry Christmas to all. I hope all had a great year, thank you for all the wonderful comments and suggestions throughout the year. I always take the time to read what you post. I wish you all the best and safe New Year! Your Christmas present this year is a cookies for Santa shot I took for the final in […]
This weeks assignment was high and low key photos of the same subject. I decided not only to do the high and low key shots but do similar composition for both images. This is my Bearded Dragon Ginger. She was very tolerant of sitting on the set for the half hour it took to get both shots right. The goal […]
Here is the final shot and how it was done for photo class this week. Note, the setup shot was taken with my iphone so its not DSLR quality but you get the idea of how e setup the shots. As you can see here, we have a couple sawhorses setup with a piece of glass between them, then […]
This year for my sons birthday I got them tickets to the Rockstar Uproar festival. They both love many of the bands that were playing which included Bullet for my Valentine, Seether and Three days Grace. They were sad that the headliner could not attend but we were promised a makeup date in December. We had pretty awesome seats […]
Last night the wife and I headed to Moneterey for a belated Anniversary celebration. We ate dinner on Cannery Row and afterward wandered along the pier. It was 75 degrees at 8 at night, very unusual for Monterey let alone this time of year. I of course had to bring the camera along and take this snap of a sailboat […]
In all the excitement of the county fair entry here I forgot to post the results. I entered three images and my son Jarren entered one. I entered in three different categories, visual manipulation, portraits and photojournalism. My son walked away with a first place in the junior photojournalism category for his awesome shot of a F/A 18 breaking the sound […]
This is Technical exercise number two. Lighting a white sphere on a white horizonless background. The light is a focusing spot and it is snooted and sits about 45 degrees downward behind the camera to the right. The goal of this exercise was to show volume on the sphere using only one light. After the cube project this one seemed like a […]
Schools back in and I am back in studio lighting which means its time for technical review. The object of this project is to light a white cube on a white horizonless background simulating natural light. So simulating natural lights easy, we live on a planet with one light source, the sun. The horizonless backgrounds achieved with a 30X40 mat […]
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