365 Project - Day 79

Day 79

Today I needed to make a stop at the grocery store and came across Brian S., a volunteer for The Salvation Army, who was ringing the bell for donations. I put a few dollars in the bucket and went into the store. While waiting at the checkout, I realized Brian would make a good picture of the day and also the picture could help bring awareness. Even though the Red Buckets usually come out around November, The Salvation Army takes donations in many forms all year. From monetary donations to clothing, old cars and most importantly volunteers time. They even have a link to a site called Volunteer Match
that will match your skill or trade up with a Salvation Army need and location. I did a quick search and found another location where I will be spending my time giving back for Charity Fest. You never know who you can help or impact with your donation. Giving back to your community year round should be present in everyone's mind, but especially in this season. By the way, Brian (pictured above) rung that bell for 4 hours straight today with the temperature in the mid 30's.

Large version on Flickr.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

365 Project - Day 78

Day 78

Today I was downtown and wanted to get a shot of the Akron Civic Theater marquee. I really liked the old school look of the marquee against the building; it gives a throwback feel to the whole image. While exploring downtown, I noticed there were plenty of older looking structures that I would love to go back and shoot in the future. I might do a themed week of old structures refreshed with modern venues.

Large version on Flickr.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

365 Project - Day 77

Day 77

Today it was time to do something new, so welcome to the great smoke out without BBQ. First things first: if you're going to try this open a window to get some ventilation. For the background, I used black velvet cotton with really good results; however I did attach flags to my flashes to avoid spill onto the background. We had a lot of fun playing with different angles and lighting setups throughout the process. Originally, I saw the smoke colored images a few years back, I looked them up online, and found a really good tutorial from Sensitive Light, he has spent some serious time at his craft and it shows. I think these turned out well being my fist time. I can't wait to give them a second go in the future.

There are 7 large versions on Flickr.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

365 Project - Day 76

Day 76

Nihonshu [Sake] time. I bought this Sake barrel in Japan a few years back and now it's the perfect subject for day 76. This is a quick post tonight, as it's time to open a 'fresh' sake bottle and unwind for the night. Image big on Flickr.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

365 Project - Day 75

Day 75

Happy Turkey day and early Black Friday. Before all the food preparation were finished, here at the Palmer house, I snuck off to grab the above image. After a 15 minute drive, I stumbled across a farm with some grazing Angus cattle. Luckily for me several of the cows were close to the fence, which allowed me to use short lens for the image. They were also very friendly and curious, while I was composing the shot and getting my settings dialed in, I kept wondering "Cows can't spit, can they?" No flying spit, but its mouth was dripping quite a bit while I was there.

Enjoy.

larger version on Flickr

Ja Mata,
Brian

365 Project - Day 74

Day 74

Nature photographers used to piss me off, I loved their work but secretly hated envied where they lived. While they lived in Colorado, California, New York, New Mexico, Michigan, and other picturesque states, I was stuck in North East Ohio. Their nice states had amazing wildlife around every corner, the most colorful of flowers, mountains for backdrops, perfect sunsets, rivers and streams filled with the clearest water, and rock formations coming out their ears. North East Ohio had awful weather, gloomy days, brown grass, and brown colored streams to match. As for wildlife, there were a few deer, but most of them were found upside down on the side of the road.

The shot above was taken down the street from the house I grew up in. My siblings and I used to throw rocks in this canal as kids, watch leaves float under a bridge above the canal, and had to put up with horrid smell it produced each summer. Today, I was able to see the forest from the trees by just stepping back and seeing the potential in the scene that I passed by day after day. It wasn't until I became serious about photography that I was able to see all that Ohio had to offer and how to capture it.

Larger version on Flickr.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

365 Project - Day 73

Day 73

Reflections.

The lines in the above shot seem endless with the reflections, especially the horizontal ones and tend to pull you into the image. That is the cool part about incorporating lines into your images, they can lead the viewer's eye through the image the way you intend. Larger version on Flickr.

Just a quick post today.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

365 Project - Day 72

Day 72

Today, I'm finding inspiration under a lawnmower, well at least to some extent. The above shot reminds me of the saying "The dirt under my nails has a story to tell." But, what stories can the underside of a lawnmower tell? More than likely, it will tell of the many yards it has graced, the stones that nicked its once flawless steel, and the endless amount of grass that it encountered. Likewise, the dirt on my camera will speak volumes of its journey.

From the shutter depressions, while attached to a tripod in the middle of a small stream, to being lugged around through an open field to catch a sunrise. The memory card latch would talk of the times the owner was informed there was 'No CF Card' in the camera, but he still would open that latch and sighed in disgust. The sensor is pissed, extremely pissed! There was a piece of hair blocking part of the view and the owner fished around, like a blind dentist looking for an off colored tooth, for a day to get it out. The camera body can tell of all the cramped bags it has lived and traveled in; it can also describe, like the lawnmower, the grass it was placed in while its owner used an extra camera. Or how it was placed upside down on the shutter button causing a 6 shot surprise when editing later.

What is your camera's story?

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

365 Project - Day 71

Day 71

From this project, I'm finding out that I enjoy shooting sunrises and sunsets. There is nothing like shooting everyday to help you hone-in and develop your style. Today, as the light was fading, I wanted to get a sunset shot before it was too late. Once I arrived at a parking lot with a clear view of the sky, I planned to incorporate the parking lot lights into the image. In addition to the image above, I shot a verticle composition including only one light posted on flickr. When I turned around to leave I saw the following view:

So it's a two shot day! For shot #2 I use Hyperfocal Distance, this allows everything from the foreground to infinity to be in focus. This is a technique I learned at a workshop with Don Gale a few years back. For example, at the 24mm, f22, if your focus point is 3.3' ahead of you, then everything from 6' to infinity will be in focus, good up to 11x20" prints. This is a great technique for landscapes.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

365 Project - Day 70

Day 70

Today's image "Last Leaf" was captured at around 3pm this afternoon. In a busy yard there was this one tree leaf left; I wanted to show off the colors while leaving the background black. I positioned a flash under the leaf set at 1/16 power and underexposed, shooting from above, to render the scene black but to illuminate the leaf. Getting the image right in camera makes for little post production, after the file was downloaded I added a very little contrast, the border, and logo.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

365 Project - Day 69

Day 69

For today's shot I wanted to direct light around the bottle, bounce back to give a rim-light, pop the background, and slightly light the front of the bottle. Yes, that is asking a lot but it's not impossible. My favorite part about this image in the rim-light on the right. Even though I would have liked to have a continuous rim-light running top to bottom, the slight separation is still a interesting look. I will have to look for a better background, foam paper does not stand up well to scratches and folds. One good thing about the light hitting the background is that is helps separate the subject [bottle] from the background on the left side. Even thought the whole bottle is not within the circular flash pop, I think it is enough to give the image some depth and the label helps bring the rest of the bottle from the background.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

365 Project - Day 68

Day 68

Just as important as taking an awesome picture, is taking care of your tools to capture that picture. Today, I was ready to shoot another image for the blog. Unfortunately, after a few test exposures, I noticed several dust spots on the images displayed on the LCD. Initially, I used an air blower to shake most of the dust loose, but there still were a few stubborn dust particles that wanted to hang out on the sensor. I drove to a local camera shop and picked up a 12pack of Sensor Swabs to further clean the sensor. The swabs were easy to use and worked great. Day 68 is a reminder to keep your gear clean. A little sensor maintenance will keep you from spending extra time in post production removing spots from your favorite shot.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

365 Project - Day 67

Day 67

While I would have loved to get a closer shot of the flock of birds, I had a 10mm-22mm lens on thinking the birds were going to fly past me. Unfortunately, they must have not liked my scent because they decided to go the other way (Personal note: You can't make nature do what you want). I was following the large flocks progression from one group of trees to the next, so it seemed as if they were going to fly overhead. One cool thing I witnessed about the flock is that they were all chirping in the trees, but suddenly for about 10 seconds the whole flock fell silent, and then took flight (in the opposite direction); never noticed that before. I guess the birds not flying over my head was a blessing in disguise...it might have gotten messy as I would have been one easy target.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

365 Project - Day 66

Day 66

Today we are going back outside. The image above is one that I have waited for the right light to shoot. I wanted the barn to stand out in the scene, with the field in the foreground, and have a vignette lead up to the barn (which will sit off center). Over time I have learned there can be a lot of waiting involved in getting the image you want, but having some kind of preconceived concept helps to know what to look for while waiting. When we get booked for an event -for example-, we go out to the venue ahead of time to scout around, see the lighting, obstacles, and mainly to get an idea of what to expect. I saw Day 66 on my way to and from work for the past few weeks, this gave me a good idea of the right time to photograph it.

Enjoy.

* Today I had the honor of being a Guest Blogger on the Pictage Blog and  you can follow the link here to read it. This is an accomplishment for all the 365ers, Tasra and I who joined the Tasra365. Great job Everyone! Thanks for following!

Ja Mata,
Brian

365 Project - Day 65

Day 65

Only 300 more days to go! Perla hooked me up with this quick portrait, Sara helped as well. This has been a fun journey so far, can't wait to see what the next days will bring, there are several surprises on the way as well.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

365 Project - Day 64

Day 64

Time to grab the Rhino by the horns! I'm starting to get a good stride going on the blog and in my 365 workflow. On weekends, I get the image early in the am, and will start getting a mid-day shot during the work week. My plan is to get the shot earlier, to post sooner, and have time to work on other projects as well.

Today, on our way back from shopping, we saw this Rhino in front of a molding company and decided it would be a good candidate for day 64. My favorite part of the Rhino is that it is chained to the ground. I'm sure this is to keep the Rhino from ending up in a college pool somewhere painted pink. But the chain gives the Rhino a bit of personality to me, as if it was trying to break loose and be free. For the composition, I framed the Rhino on the left side of the frame to allow for some negative space on the right, this work better than a tight crop and adds a little interest.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

365 Project - Day 63

Day 63

There is always something going on in the early AM. I actually drove past this field on the way to a specific shot that I wanted to take for today.
Once I looked back at this field I noticed the fog in the distance. I parked the car, crossed 4 lanes of traffic (7:30am not much traffic), setup the tripod, and composed the image you see above. I still want to get the shot I initially intended to take (maybe for tomorrow) but seeing this scene reminded me of why I love photography. In my nature photography days there used to be a saying I heard often "f 8 and be there!". My interpretation of that saying was that having your camera at the proper setting is only half of the process. You need to be at the location at the optimal time to get the image you want. For instance, the image above would not be the same 40 minutes later in the morning,  the fog would have dissipated and the sun would have been in a different location. Being able to 'freeze' moments like this for everyone else to see, is what makes it worth it.Yeah it sounds corny, but that's what I enjoy about photography.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

365 Project - Day 62

Day 62

We decided to keep the post dark for one more day. Finally tried out 'painting with light' and it was fun. The cool part about this is you really don't know what the outcome is until you're done. To all the other 365ers out there, let's keep moving forward!

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

365 Project - Day 61

Day 61

For day 61, I decided to try my hand at Astrophotography. You would think it consists of pointing the camera up into the sky and shoot away...not quite that easy. This craft takes a lot of skills and understanding of your equipment. There is also knowing the types of images to take, like Black files and Flat files for stacking, to enhance your final image. Having a sturdy tripod and shutter release cable (to not shake the camera when pressing the stutter button) will ensure you get a clear sharp image. Astrophotography is a whole other world of amazing imagery and talent; just browsing a few images in the forums that I visit have blown my mind. Getting exposed to this side of photography is what this project is all about! We should all expand our knowledge of the different aspects of photography [or whatever industry you are involved in] as you never know when that knowledge may come in handy. For the image above I converted it to Black & White, bumped the exposure up, and increased the black in the image.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,

Brian

365 Project - Day 60

Day 60

Grapes! The original inspiration for this shot started when I saw that a fly had got in the house. After "taking the fly out" I began to toy with the idea of incorporating the fly into today's picture. I wanted to photograph the grapes and fly and then place the fly inside the grapes, as if the fly was incubating, for the final image. Following a few shots of a dead fly on a needle, I started to photograph the grapes using a two light setup. While experimenting with the light positions, I eventually got the image above, and abandoned my initial concept for now.

For those interested in the fly image, I will attempt to shoot it again and with green grapes. Finding another fly might not be as easy as I expect it to be.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

365 Project - Day 52

Day 52

When I started this project, I didn't think about all the factors that might make posting an image everyday challenging. For instance, shooting weddings, corporate events, work, image editing, album design, and Daylight Savings Time [DST]. I never realized how valuable 1 extra hour of light was until this week. Today alone, the sun was down by 5:20pm, my image was taken at 5:17pm. But if the 365 project wasn't challenging then it wouldn't be a challenge and there would be no growth. Thanks Tasra and Scott Bourne for the challenge!

This new obstacle is making me rethink how I need to manage my time, and when I should shoot. Most of the images up to now are from late morning and late afternoon, in the future there will be images from early morning and midday. Also, more indoor images using new and old techniques, and a lot of experimenting. Stay tuned to the blog for more fun to come.

Experimenting note: Every picture you take teaches you a lesson, good pictures teach what to do in the given situation. Where as weak pictures, teach what NOT to do in that given situation.

365 Project - Day 51

Day 51

After experimenting with water drops and color yesterday, Perla and I wanted to try something a little different with falling objects for day 51. We took 6 dice and dropped them in various ways onto foam sheets at 1/4, f18, ISO 400 with the flash at 1/128 +3. The idea was to get a falling/rolling blurred motion and a straight on image of the dice all in one. This wasn't really working out at first; we just got ghost dice images, with no solid dice from the flash pop. Then I remembered a Strobist Post where the photographer set the flash to pop several times during long exposure duration. This is where knowing your equipment comes in handy; I sent the flash to Multi-mode 1/128, freq. 5, @ 4 Hz. We were able to get the image above. The trick for getting the two dice, at the front, to look frozen was to leave them stationary during the exposure.

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian

365 Project - Day 50

Day 50

Welcome to the 50th day! What better time to go back to the Water Drops and bring them up little bit. By adding two colored foam sheets behind the tray, we were able to get some cool colors in the water. To me, they look like pools of mixing paint, even Sara saw me editing these and said "I want to Paint!" In addition to the cool color, I changed the location of the flash and got a few shots with an awesome light burst (had the aperture around f16).

and...

Those light burst are exactly how they looked in camera, not real edits in post-productions except for resizing, a little contrast boost, boarders, and logo placement.

Here are all 5 images on Flickr

Enjoy.

Ja Mata,
Brian