365 Project - Day 4

What a day! And that day is #4 in the 365 project.

I am a frequent reader of the Strobist blog where strobes and assignments enlighten all! :) There, I read a post titled, Teeny Tiny Halophiles, couple weeks back, I was intrigued by Mr. Hobby's macro setup and creativity of the shot, it stuck with me for today's picture Titled:
"My Esc" *Explained after the Image



Well all day I was thinking of what I would shoot for the blog today and had a killer headache. My idea was having an aspirin on a keyboard, sitting on (or by) the escape key. I used an unplugged keyboard sitting on an old opened laptop, was going to shoot on a laptop keyboard but wasn't long enough to get the look I wanted. Next I placed a piece of white cardboard at the far end of the keyboard to reflect some light back, then held the flash to the camera left level with the keyboard. Popped a couple shots off the check the light and see if the subject placement worked for me. It was 'Ok', ended up moving the pill to stand up against the ESC key since I was already side shooting it. Also, the image was a little brighter than I wanted, next I took a piece of printer paper and folded it into a triangle and place it between the flash & keyboard to diffuse the light a little and dropped the power on the flash. I was getting close to what I envisioned, just wanted to get a little rim light so I held a white envelope above and slightly to the back of the pill. The results are the image above.

*An aspirin was taking during the process so I didn't have to work with a headache.

Ja Mata,
Brian

Project 365 - Day 3

It's Day 3 (San Nichi), I'm going to start off with lesson learned on this one simply because it's a good lesson. Lesson: Corn stalks look shorter when you drive by them then they actually are when your standing next to them. For Real!

The use of step ladders, milk crates (they are not just for holding Vinyl!), and backing you car up into someones yard to stand on the trunk come in handy. *Although I do not promote the last option, I do, however, believe in it. So like Day 2, were getting low to the ground created an interesting perspective, getting up high can do the same. Just be careful how you do it!

Enjoy!



Ja Mata,
Brian

Project 365 - Day 2

For day 2 I had my head in the clouds. I really like the simplicity and depth of this image. You have to look all around your subject and try every angle before you settle on what you want to shoot. Back in the day when I first started taking pictures, in the film days, I remember watching the John Shaw videos, he talked about several questions you should ask yourself before taking the picture:

1. What about the subject do I like?
2. What do I want the picture to invoke (emotion?)?
3. Why do I want to photograph this image?

Those were not verbatim, I'll have to look up the videos at the house now that I'm thinking about it. It's a good exercise to go through when your about to capture an image, the more you do this the faster it happens. Kind of like what Dane Sanders talked about in his presentation at Skip's Summer School. Getting off automatic, breaking up your normal day to day routine, listening to the conversation taking place it your head...like the one that's happening right now in your head as you read this post. In my head I heard "look up" and then "Lay down and look up" a few settings and grass stains later this is what I came up with.




Who says you shouldn't listen to the voices in your head?! :)

Ja mata,
Brian

Project 365 - Day 1

One Year.
365 Days.
8,760 Hours.
Lots of minutes and seconds!!

What is project 365? It is a project where I will take one photo a day and post it on my blog. Why a year? Why one photo?

1. Less than a year would change the project name.
2. This will make me be more selective of the image I want to show, which in
turn will make me think more about the end product before I take a picture.

Respect and props go out to Tasra @ Tasra365.com, she was challenged by Scott Bourne to “shoot 1 image a day for a year and improve her photography 300%” in addition, read one page in her camera manual , and view other professional photographers images every day too. Not only did Tasra take the challenge but she invited other photographers to follow and participate as well.

Next, I have to send a shout out to Zack Aries for giving me a push to get off of the ‘Dock’ , I started sailing, instead of watching other ships go by (Zack’s post on The Dock). He had a series of post that circled around a photographer B. who was frustrated with growth in photography and decided to email Zack. Zack posted the email on his blog and the was an out pouring of support for B. was HUGE, and kept building from there. For me, reading and commenting on B’s situation made me want to take a step in a different direction, do something out of the ordinary, and this is it!

Day 1 – I tried to be cool and do some crazy lighting, but the batteries in my pocket wizards were semi drained, no lighting tonight. Here is what I came up with:



1st Lesson (of the shoot): Always be prepared and think about the prep you need to do for every shot. I have a good excuse as to why I didn’t charge my batteries right after getting home from my previous shoot, but that’s all it is, an excuse.

2nd lesson: Test, test, test. Just because a pocket wizard can reach 1600 feet doesn’t mean it always will (refer back to the semi drained batteries), I couldn’t get the flash to pop 30 feet away.

3rd lesson: Improvise! The image above wasn’t what I set out to get, but with the light fading quick, running back and forth to set up the lights, and other technical difficulties, I changed my direction to still produced an image that I am proud of.

Stay tuned for tomorrow!

Ja Mata,
Brian

Beautiful Mexico Part 2

Part two of the Mexico post.
While at the church we noticed they were getting ready for a celebration (good timing, huh?) and got some great images! All of the preparations were done by volunteers from the community, doing so much in so little time. Simply amazing! They used colored wood shavings & pattern cut-outs to create some of the designs on the ground.

Beautiful Mexico Part 1

Hola Amigos!
We recently spent some time in Morelos, Mexico, just south of Mexico City, visiting family and taking a break from the cold weather. While there, we got some awesome images that we wanted to share on the blog. We love all the colors that you see on a daily basis in Mexico. Some of these pictures are from a trip to a small town called Zacualpan, which has a beautiful church that caught our attention. Perla and I keep telling each other that if we ever have the opportunity to shoot a destination wedding in Mexico, we will go at the drop of a sombrero!
Brian & Perla

And Yes, The seeds & beans make up the frame around the church entrance!

Dani & Brent - Married!

Dani and Brent had a beautiful wedding on August 30th at the prestigious Perkins Mansion in Akron. Despite of the early forecast for rain we were all lucky to have a gorgeous morning wedding. During the ceremony they had a butterfly release to remember those who where no longer with us. One butterfly flew over and landed on Dani's bouquet, which had special meaning to her. Congratulations Dani & Brent, it was an amazing wedding. Images from wedding are available here

Enjoy!

Brian & Perla