Tuesday, November 10, 2009

365 Project - Day 59

Day 59



Ni Hao ma! Which means 'How are you?' in Mandarin Chinese. I picked up this shadow puppet in Shanghai, China 7 years ago. Prior to my trip I saw a movie called 'To Live' where the lead character gambled away his families fortune, causing his wife to leave him. He then started his own Shadow Puppet troupe to try to get some money, his life, and family back together again. While traveling with his troupe he ends up in the middle of a battle during times of war and is immediately enlisted.

Because I enjoyed the movie, I was determined on picking a puppet up while overseas. For today's image, I put a flash 4 feet behind a white screen reflector and had the puppet in front of the screen. I started off with the puppet behind the screen but wasn't happy with the results. In the future, I will extend the wires connected to the puppet's hands and head to keep controllers hands out of the composition.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

Monday, November 9, 2009

365 Project - Day 58

Day 58



Welcome to the true life of a Rockstar Real Photographer, when I'm not shooting an event, editing images, backing up data, shooting an image for the blog, traveling to a workshop, or window shopping for new gear, you can catch me doing something fabulous, as depicted above. Today, I was thinking about the picture for the blog all day long, seriously! Unfortunately, I was on-call and had to fix an issue, which caused me to miss my opportunity to take an image this afternoon. I decided to take a picture that I have been thinking about for a good 8 years now.

The original idea came about from a concept for a promo video for my old group, the synopsis was my group member and I would cleaning a house that was messy due to a party. We would all have on headphones and the track in out headphones would be the background music to the promo. In between scenes of cleaning there would be flashbacks to the previous nights party and how that area was turned into a mess. (drinks spilled, tables smashed, bottles busted, ect) My idea sequence would be from inside the dryer, the video would start as the dryer stopped (clothes on last quarter spin),  the door would open,  and group member would reach in and start pulling clothes out. Seriously, I've thought through this for a while. The whole promo would end with the artist putting trash bags on the curb and the group name would fade onto the screen  followed by the text "cleaning house in 2009." Today's image was my photographic take on that idea.


This was a quick one light setup, set at 1/8 power, the camera was @ f19 to get a large depth of field for the focus. The shutter speed was at 250, and ISO 500, I pre-focused at about ½ a foot from the end lens and set the focus to manual to avoid refocusing while using the using the self-timer to capture the image. I would still like to re-shoot this image and use a wider lens, more clothes instead of just towels and one sock! Would also be nice to put a light in the dryer as well if using the wider lens.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

365 Project - Day 57

Day 57



With mid-60 degree weather in November today, everyone wanted to bask in the sun. On our way to the store, we came across 2 Llama sitting in their field, and decided to stop to let Sara get out and see them. She really liked the animals once she got out of the car, as she would yell for the Llamas to follow her to the car. Now, I'm sure there are a handful of people reading this blog, who are hoping the Llama, spitting, and myself shows up in some combination within the post. Sorry to disappoint you, but there was no spitting today. Just a fun picture of a Llama relaxing between eating grass on a warm day.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

Saturday, November 7, 2009

365 Project - Day 56

Day 56



Just a quick post today for the newest member of our gadget team, Please welcome the Nikon S630. There is nothing like having a small Point & Shoot around when you want to snap a quick picture. While I love my DSLRs, sometimes there are just too big for the job. I still need to go through the rest of the manual for the Nikon, but so far I'm very happy with it.

See you tomorrow with more 365 fun!

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

Friday, November 6, 2009

365 Project - Day 55

Day 55



Today's post is titled "Late Night Motivation" because the drinks in the photographed, help keep me focused awake to work well into the night. For the image above, I wanted to use back and front lighting, with the background light also hitting the table top under the cans. I used a snoot to keep the light from the rear flash concentrated under and behind the cans. Then, with a second flash to the camera's left  raised up about 1½ feet up pointed down, I lit the front of the cans and got a little reflection on the table surface. After a few power settings adjustments, adding a piece of white paper in front of the cans to getting a little more bounce light, I shot for the composition that worked best for me.

Enjoy!

Ja Mata,
Brian

Thursday, November 5, 2009

365 Project - Day 54

Day 54



We just got back from shooting a very successful 14th annual Dinner of Champions, with the Buckeye Chapter of the MS Society at Executive Caterers in Cleveland. Tonight, Christopher M. Connor of The Sherwin-Williams Company was honored with the Norman Cohn Hope Award. The event was paint themed, including the amazing pastry you see posted above for the shot of the day. Inside the edible paint can, was chocolate and banana mousse and next to the chocolate paint brush was mango and berry puree that was delicious. Thanks to the MS Society for the invite to shoot a great event for a worthy cause.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

365 Project - Day 53

Day 53



What a great day and not just because it was my birthday. We decided to go to Bricco's Restaurant in downtown Akron for dinner and I had the most amazing Pizza. Picture this, Ham, Bacon, Pineapple, Brown Sugar, and Maple Syrup, on a thin crust with mozzarella cheese, really! After dinner, I went to take a picture of the downtown architecture for my blog and came across the above 'East Exchange Street' sign built into the side of a building. I love how the overhead light is illuminating the bricks and cement, as well as the way the light is falling off from sign as you read down. In the past 6 or so months, this area of downtown has undergone a serious renovation and it is starting to look really nice now.

Enjoy!

Ja mata,
Brian