Photography

My little assistant last weekend while shooting Nutcracker. She shot both the rehearsal and performance with me. She’s getting better on her angles and compositions but I’m still confused on how she’s always either shooting with my favorite lens or the Leica.



I need to get her to start editing her own stuff though. She filled two 32gb cards. So now I’m sorting 5000+ images. I don’t mind too much as I always enjoy seeing what catches her eye compared to what I see.

 

winter hikes are the best hikes. no people. cold air. snow crunching under foot. ice buckling and falling off the flatirons.



it's not far away but sometimes it doesn't matter. you don't have to go far. you just have to go. i hadn't made that hike in awhile and i had forgotten how enjoyable it was in the early morning, especially after a snow. had the whole place pretty much to myself. didn't go all the way to the arch as i ran out of the house this morning without my boot chains. pretty icy in spots.

going to make a trek out to dream lake in rmnp next week.

 

WOW Awesome pictures as always.

 

Gorgeous pics as always! Wish i could have hiked more while i was there. I enjoyed my time in CO

 

there's always next time

 

For sure!

 

backstage last weekend. piper demanded a break from shooting to check in on the twitters.



kidding. i kid. about the twitters. not the demanding a break part. she asked for a union rep. i told her that mom was busy.

 

while i'm waiting for last weekend's images to upload into galleries, figured i'd share these over here too. i posted them on my build thread but they kinda belong over here too.

earlier in the week, i took a break from the constant retouching i'd been doing. i dragged a light setup out into the driveway and wanted to see what i could do with the truck. i'd never tried to light a vehicle and definitely haven't spent much time with shiny curved surfaces. people light easier.

first problem that needed to be overcome, mimic being indoors while standing outside in the driveway under early afternoon sun.



to start, set the camera to knock out all ambient light which gives you a completely black image. then, turn the strobe on. leave the camera settings as is and dial in the exposure from the strobe. viola. you're indoors. it's a technique that i use a lot, mostly to create drama and contrast in outdoor portraits.

spent the next hour or so wandering around the truck, looking for angles, details, anything interesting.









definitely not ground breaking work but fun nonetheless. gives me a few ideas for other things. i'll try and remember to clean up the kinetik arms next time.

edit:

meant to add, for those of you interested in the camera geekery side of it...

i used a canon 1D C with a 24-70/2.8. camera was at ISO 100, f/8 @ 200. for light, i was using an alien bees DB800 at -1.5F with a 24x36 softbox. light was on a boom stand about 2' from the truck.

 

Nice! Great photos of the truck!

 

After spending all day yesterday finishing up last weekend's Nutcracker photos, I needed to get out. Stretch the legs, the lungs, breathe some thin mountain air. It snowed most of last night and we had a couple of inches around the house. Left early to catch the morning light.



Everything else I saw this morning begged for b&w. Starting with this cow...



I made fresh tracks heading into Eldorado Canyon SP and didn't see or hear anyone my entire hike. Went up and around Rattlesnake Gulch. It isn't long but it climbs about 700 vertical feet in the first mile. It gives great views of the climbing routes on the opposite side of the canyon. I'll stop with the words and just leave you with these.

 

Love the pics!

 

Beautiful!

 

Coming into the Bahamas. Taken with my iPhone 7+

 

Awesome pictures

 

Piper and I just took a quick cruise through Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge. It always blows me away that I've got that 15 min from my house. Anyway, we thought it'd be fun to go find the bison herd while it was snowing. So, first, the obligatory truck photo. I need to grab your attention somehow.



Now, that's out of the way.

The Arsenal has a few hiking trails around but it's main draw is the 11 mile wildlife drive. It was hovering around 9* and Piper didn't feel like getting out of the truck so, we just drove.



Spotted some mule deer. Piper grabbed the camera, sat on the center console, leaned out my window and made this. Just a wee bit nerve wracking watching her try to muscle her way around a 1DC with a 70-200/2.8 but I kept my mouth shut and she managed just fine.



We took a leisurely cruise the rest of the way keeping our eyes peeled for the bison herd. The landscape out there put me in a bit of a Michael Kenna mood. I've been a fan of his work for years.





Finally, right at the end, we found the bison. Laying down. Taking their midday siesta.

 

Cool black and white photos!!

 

got out early for another hike this morning. headed up to staunton state park. normally, i ride there so it was a nice change of pace to hike it this morning. in the summer, i'll bring the kids up for a hike as they've got some nice, short mellow loops too.

i put in 8 miles this morning and only saw 2 other people. just the way i like it.

 

#3

 

Wow! Lots of talented photographers on here.

Many moons ago, when my son was playing little league I would take some shots during the games and what not and give them to the kids at the end of the season.

One day one of the board members approached me about doing the team/individual photos for the league. I didn't want to do it because one, I really don't like dealing with unruly kids and their parents, and two, I had seen what that job entails. So, just to appease the board member, I put in my bid knowing I was way higher than the guy they usually use.

Long story short, that was the first year of turning photography into a hobby business.

Pretty good money maker but a lot of friggen work, especially on the back end.

After a few years I stopped doing the League pics because my son was going in to the Air Force and I wanted to spend my off hours doing things with him instead.

Anyhow, here's a few shots from my last couple years of doing this on the side. Being a parent that has spent good money on some pretty crappy sports photos I tried a little harder to mix things up and do a better job with lighting.

 

I love your black and white photos!

 

When I had a full time studio in SoCal, on the weekends I didn't have a wedding or something for the magazines to shoot, I would work for a guy that did this full time. Soccer, football, lacrosse, baseball. He pretty much covered everything. I'd show up at his house first thing in the morning. He'd tell which park to go to, which teams to shoot and hand me a few hundred rolls of film. Yes, film. This was back in the days when digital was just popping up and none of the cameras had the fps speed.

I'd shoot all day, label the rolls as I shot them, then meet up with him to drop everything off. He'd pay me $500 a day. It was easy money for me.

By the next weekend, he'd have everything printed and put into binders. His wife would be sitting under a pop up taking orders from parents. It was big business for him and he made a very comfortable living with it. The amount of effort he put into it was huge.

I preferred dealing with the weddings. The sport parents rubbed me the wrong way. Some of them were out of control on the kids. I had to step in a few times to break up an argument or tell them back off.

 

A coworker dabbles on the side and echoes exactly what you said there. He'd rather stick with weddings and newborns.

 

As evening settles in...

 

Yesterday we headed down to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. We've been wanting to make a visit for awhile. Denver Zoo leaves a little to be desired especially after being spoiled by the SD Zoo and Wild Animal Park for so many years. CMZ is pretty rad and reminded us of a smaller scale SD Zoo. The girls had a blast even as the temps started dropping once the sun dipped behind the mountain. They want to go back, like now, but only to feed the giraffes. That's it. Nothing else. It's a great way to welcome you into the zoo. Views are pretty good from up there too.

 

This morning was an early one. Weather check said to expect 30-40 mph winds where I was headed. Packed an extra layer and rocketed up the hill to RMNP.



The plan was to hike all the way up to Emerald Lake but when I got to Dream Lake, gusts felt like 50+. I hunted around a bit for the trail to Emerald but the drifts were waist deep and I didn't bring the snow shoes. No one there when I got up there but there were plenty of people (too many) on the trail as I was coming down. I had hoped the yahoos were reserved for the warmer weather of summer. Nope. Oh well.



Looks like a couple of fun lines here.





Got down from Dream Lake and hadn't felt like I had been out long enough so I made a lap around Bear Lake. The put me at around 4 relatively easy miles for the day. Not quite enough but the mountains aren't going anywhere any time soon. Might try to get up next week for a longer hike.

 

I don't know why but I really like that reptilian paw photo!