A couple of years ago, I decided I would start making my own Christmas cards and sending them out to my friends and fam, as a means of keeping in touch.  Since I’ve moved quite a bit these past few years, it’s also been a great way for me to give out my new contact information, as well as get my friend’s info.

But, with how popular my Christmas cards were in 2008, As seen here:

So needless to say, there was a lot of pressure to create a card that would top that.  2009, I started working on an idea, but it never really jumped out at me as outdo-ing the previous year’s card…I had a few designs, but ended up scrapping the whole thing.  So this year, with the last card all but forgotten, the pressure was off, and I was free to get creative again without the performance anxiety.  I had seen a great stop motion video on vimeo (http://vimeo.com/17087679) using light stencils, and I thought I’d do something similar.  I ended up making multiple stencils, using a flashlight to do some light painting, and then doing a little stacking and photoshopping to get the final image.   Hope you like it!

Oh, and Merry Christmas!

Photos from a recent birthday party I shot at…

After my last trip to NYC, my friend Patty asked if I was interested in a photo gig.  She told me about her friend who was throwing a big birthday party for her 1 year old son (well, more for friends and family, I’m sure), and she wanted to hire a photographer.  The gig wouldn’t completely cover my flight out to NYC, so I was basically working for a discounted trip back to the City.

I thought about it for a couple of days, and decided I would do it.  Partly to say I had a paid gig in NYC, partly to get some more experience, but mostly to hang out with Patty.  I told Patty I was in, and booked my flight.  The gig was on sunday, so I had a couple days to hang out before the gig (I’ll post some of those personal photos in a separate post).

The party was going to be held at 230 Fifth; an awesome rooftop bar that Patty works at.  They had booked one of the rooms with huge windows, offering a great view of the city.  Given that the venue’s primarily known as a nighttime hotspot, they also have an amazing brunch.  But with that said, the lighting conditions weren’t ideal for the type of shooting I was hoping to do.

I was really hoping to do mainly natural light, candid shots.  For whatever reason, I was in the mindset that I could shun flash, and get by with natural light only.  Had the ceilings/walls not been painted red, I might have considered bouncing the flash.  However, I, being the stubborn “artist” I am, did not want to use direct/unbounced on-camera flash (the walls were dark, and the ceiling was a glossy red).  I ended up going the hi-iso (iso 800 – 1600) route.

The gear I used was my newly acquired D700 with 20mm f/2.8D and 85mm f/1.4D, as well as my Olympus E620 with 35-100mm f/2.0.  I didn’t realize how tight the quarters would be, and if I had to do it over again, I would have used the 12-60mm on the Olympus with the on camera flash.  I was supposed to be getting a 50mm f/1.4D for my nikon, but I didn’t end up getting it in time before I left for the weekend.  The other thing was the 35-100mm is such a big lens, I opted to leave the lens hood off as to not to be as intrusive with a camera with a huge lens.  I think I would have kept it on as it would have reduced the lens flare in some of the backlit photos.  All in all, I think the photos turned out pretty good.  My only regret was not getting a better understanding of what the client wanted.  I was vaguely told to “just capture everything,” but I think for next time, I would have asked for a more descriptive objective.  I blame my inexperience, but I think I may have provided less than what the client was expecting.  For the future, to do event photos, I’d have to ask for a general schedule/agenda, just so I would know when and where I should be throughout the event, and what was important.  Additionally, what specific shots the client is looking for, group photos, etc, and I could have set something up so I could be ready to do it, and do it quickly.  To be honest, it was fun, but it was pretty stressful.   The whole time, I couldn’t help but think about what other gear I could have used.  In any case, it was a good experience, and I definitely liked the moments I was able to capture.

A month or so back, a friend of mine had asked me to take some photos of her family… I’ve done family photos before, but usually it’s with parents who have young kids (I’m at that age where my friends are starting to have kids).  So this was a nice departure, where it’s easy to get the subjects to actually look towards the camera… (then again, you don’t get the cute candid moments where the kid is definitely doing something he’s not supposed to be doing :))

The photos were done early evening, slightly before the golden hour, so the light still wasn’t great, and so I decided to use off camera flash.  Sometimes I get a little too tunnel vision on doing things a certain way, I miss some other shots.  I think I could have balanced the flash with the ambient a little better, or gone with some shots with just available light for a more natural look.  Luckily, Greta and her brother and mom were great sports about it, and we had a great time.  And they liked the pics too.  So that’s good.  Also, thanks to my buddy Rob for hucking my gear around and being my Voice Activated Lightstand.  I treated him to a delicious vietnamese meal for his hard work.

So, I originally started this blog to talk about photography, and stuff I’ve learned, but then I started writing about my trip to South Africa (which I never finished writing about), and then I kind of dropped the ball on what I’ve been up to lately… So, I’m going to get back to the heart of the blog, and talk photography…

So, I recently went out to NYC for my friend Allen & Julie’s wedding.  They had a really sweet photographer already, so it was awesome to watch him in action.  The dude had an assistant holding a light stick, with a continuous LED light, as well as a couple of strobes which looked like they were being triggered by radio poppers.  In addition to those, he had a couple of strobes on light stands in the corners of the room.  I did my best to stay out of the way of the professional photographer, and only took photos for myself.  I took advantage of the continuous light the assistant was carrying around and grabbed a couple of shots without flash, from where I was sitting…

So, I took a bunch less than what I have taken in the past, but at the same time, I got a few that I really liked.  I used my 35mm f/1.4 to get these shots in low light (at iso 800, with the shutter speed around 1/60th of a second, which was enough to reduce motion blur and camera shake, but still get enough light without having to go past iso 800, which can get a little noisy on the Olympus E620).  And since I took less, I didn’t have to process as many, and that’s nice.  The wedding was super nice, and really fun… Open bar, tons of dancing, and the best wedding date ever.  There was a time when I spent too much time taking pictures, and not enough partying… this time, I think I struck a good balance.

They had their wedding in Long Island City at the Water’s Edge, which offered an awesome view of the city… I took this handheld with my wide-angle zoom at 12mm (24mm EFL), iso 800, and 1/3s.  It was a really sweet view, which was made even more awesome with the misty fogginess which followed the rain earlier that evening.

And here are a few more photos from throughout the night… 🙂

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

With Redstone in town, Rob and I commandeered a rental vehicle, and we made our trip down to the Cape of Good Hope.  Along the way, we were able to stop at Boulder Beach and check out some hot penguin on beach action, and even hiked up Cape Point.  We made our best effort to make it back to Cape Town to catch the game with Bafana Bafana vs. France, but ended up listening to the first half on the radio (although it was a little confusing, as they were alternating commentary on both games that were going on simultaneously).