They were so happy with the first, Solutions Twin Cities asked me back. Rochelle and I both covered the last Give and Take event for 2009. Speakers included.
Kaeti Hinck: who spoke on "Why health food is killing us".
Michael Tortorello: laid it out in "Is Gardening Worth It, Financially?"
Chris Cloud & Kevin Albertson: revealed "The Secret of Mpls.tv"
& Ali Momeni opened our eyes and minds to: "MAW" Minneapolis Art on Wheels.
Did you come? Like any of the pics? Leave your comments below!
I've recently completed some initial processing for two photo shoots.
This is Western Row, in St. Paul, MN. Many of these shots are options for my client to choose from. These will eventually be reduced to the final selections. Which would you choose?
I've recently completed some initial processing for two photo shoots.
This is Oakdale Nature Center, in Oakdale, MN. These will eventually be reduced to the final selections. Which would you choose?
Oct. 4th - 6th I went traveled to Pella, IA for the Pella Builder Days. I covered the event and had a great time learning more about the quality of their manufacturing process and the passion that Pella has for creating a series of fantastic products. Architects, Designers, and Builders from the Midwest and East Coast representing 1/2 a dozen cities were there.
While I wasn't allowed to document the factory floor or the testing lab, I think we were all impressed with the streamlined process of their methods and the quality they provide each step of the way. Three things I took away from the tour personally. 1) The dedication that Pella had to reducing the amount of manufacturing waste that gets recycled. 2) The passion that each employee had about what they do. 3) The catering that they have on site, is fantastic.
I've broken the images I took into 4 parts. You can bypass any slide show and go the the thumbnail gallery by clicking any of the larger images. You may copy any images from here for personal use. However please contact me for commercial use.
Des Moines Art Center (For more info Click Here)
Pella Education and Exhibitions (For more on Pella Click Here)
Vermeer Windmill Tour (For more info Click Here)
Downtown Pella, IA (For more info Click Here)
When the Call Came in to be a last minute Photographer for Give & Take, I answered the call with Rochelle Gibbs.
Give & Take (produced by SolutionsTwinCities.org) is where Happy Hour Meets Show and Tell.
"Give & Take subverts the traditional short-format presentation model that says information has to flow one way - from the presenter to the audience. We do this by asking everybody in attendance, presenters and audience, two questions:
1) What do you know about?
2) What do you want to know about?" - SolutionsTwinCities.org
Featured here are the images I made from the Event. Rochelle and my photos will be posted to STC's Flickr Site in the near future
Master Photographers' Marketing Series is having a lecture series produced by Sarah Petty's The Joy of marketing.
Heres the deal. Click the link or the banner and register for the telesummit. They'll send you a telephone number and access code and you attend as you please on Sept 28th and 29th.
Why is it Free? Well after the summit they know that there will be a ton of people who are willing to pay for what these folks have to say. That's how they plan on paying for their costs. They plan on selling all 16 Hours for ~$100. But if you just want to catch what you can from them Live, its NO COST TO YOU.
If you're like me and will probably want to access this great information on a piece by piece basis or you simply can't dedicate 16 straight hours to these two days, you can preorder the recordings for half off.
TWIP
First and foremost. If you are into photography and you aren't aware for this show. You're in for a treat. This podcast is produced by some brilliant talent.
This Week In Photography or TWIP picks apart current developments, news, and equipment releases in the photography world. One of the best features of the show in my opinion is their discussions also include techniques and tools (tech and software) they've found useful.
I've been listening for about a year now and I'm still catching up on back episodes. However check them out on iTunes and you'll see in the early shows they have some video podcasts mixed in.
I highly recommend watching the episodes on studio lighting. If this is a direction your are interested in. This is a perfect primer.
Expodisc
Recently I picked up an Expodisc, which is a tool that will be very handy for setting the white balance (WB) on my camera. This is crucial for getting accurate color,straight from the camera, which should help tremendously withone step of my post production work flow.
How does the expodisc work? To boil it down into a nutshell. It turns your camera into an incedent light meter. (IE instead of your camera reading light as it bounces off your subject, you read the light directly hitting your subject).
If you want to learn more about the expodisc, this website by Ken Rockwell lays out exactly what type of results you get from an expodisc and how to set up the WB on Nikon Equipment.
Sekonic L358
Speaking of measuring light. If you're interested in working with Monolights or getting into the strobist movement. One crucial piece of equipment is the light meter.
This little gadget helps you determine the shutter speed and aperture of your camera based on amount of light produced by your equipment.
While intimidating at first. Walking through your equipment with someone else, can really make the difference with getting up to speed.
This site by ilovephotography.com is a great tutorial for understanding exactly how to get up to speed quickly and with as little pain possible.
So one of the greatest opportunities that the Minnesota State Fair provides, is to get the word out to the world about your product, invention, or idea. This series of photos was taken with that in mind. This is just a small selection of what caught my eye.
Every image you see in this set was taken with a fixed 50mm Lens usually with a shallow depth of field created with the aperture set somewhere between 1.8-5.6. I believe all the details are available if you click into my smugmug gallery.
This is the first set of photos I've had an opportunity to work on from the 3rd Lair set up at the Minnesota State Fair. These guys can definitely shred. I have over 400 frames shot that I'm working through. This is my first opportunity to use my D90 in this environment and I'm playing around with composite shots. The time it takes in post isn't exactly quick, but they're really fun final products. I plan to post more stills in a couple more days, just depends on how much time I have.
Click on any of these to go take a look at the full size image. These should be able to be printed at about poster size for any of the guys like AJ who nailed his first successful front flip on only his 2nd attempt.
Give me a shout and tell me what you think!
We recently had a block party and I took the opportunity to document the occasion.
All attending the party will be able to print any of the images by simply clicking on the large image in the slide show and going to my SmugMug page. It is unlisted for anyone not going directly to the gallery.
For privacy purposes, if anyone wants your photo removed please let me know and I'll take care of it.
Before
A good example of standard color profile created by the JPEG processing can be seen in this original image.
While not bad for a straight Jpeg file I wasn't happy with how flat the color is throughout the entire composition. (This is an example of the need for setting the white balance in the field).
After
In the below image, I've adjusted the overall white balance to feel warmer. This correction alone helps separate the foreground subjects from the house in the background. Additionally tweaking the curves to add a little contrast and pull out some of the details helps to sharpen some of the features in the skin tones.
This is an example of simple desaturation of one channel of color.
Simply desaturating the green creates a dramatic image, but the lens Vignette around the edge of the image pulls the attention further to the bee on the flower.
Original RAW Image
Modified Image
This is my first venture into blogging and I hope you'll get something from what I plan on posting. The intent of this blog is to create an opportunity for discussion.
What you'll find here:
-Image sets from current projects
-Before/after images to express exactly what I do beyond an infield captured photo.
-Tips or issues that I run up against as I learn from new challenges.
-Links to articles that I've found helpful/interesting about how I work.
I'm open to all comments and suggestions. Please keep it constructive and respectful and I'll be sure to honor you by leaving them up for others to respond.