I spend a bit of time volunteering for my community. It all started when I was 12 years old and our Father put my three brothers and I in the Boy Scouts. Matter of self-preservation on his part, and for us boys a reasonable choice given the alternative of military school (of his choice and country, of course!) This evening I was invited to photograph local community members being honored for th … [Read more...]
Lifestyle Portrait KK Nail Salon
KK Nail salon is a small shop with beautiful interior tucked into the corner of a local shopping center. The owners hired me to provide a few real estate and portrait images for use in advertising. As with most businesses lifestyle portraits, I strive to provide a non-posed, natural light portrait. This does not mean, however, that no forethought, preparation or staging is required! The term … [Read more...]
Old Men Building New Houses
I love film. I love old manual cameras. Film has a much deeper range of dynamic light response than our small digital cameras, and shooting film forces me to slow down and think about each shot. I try and see most shots before I take them, but with a digital camera I shoot then chimp, shoot then chimp. With film I stare at the scene, then through the viewfinder; I work hard on manual focus and e … [Read more...]
A Quiet Place
I shoot high end DLSR’s for my professional photography work, and while those cameras and lenses are absolutely incredible pieces of equipment, they do not “make” better photographs. I enjoy shooting old manual film cameras for landscape, but on this hot afternoon I had only my smart phone, a 2 year old Driod X. This is a beautiful hike up a 1,500ft peak, and offers sweeping views of San Diego Bay … [Read more...]
Rainy Day HDR
Once I a while I play with HDR, but not often. All images are art, and a such they each have their own beauty, but I don’t connect with heavily processed HDR images. This was a day where clouds would be a challenge; the clouds were low and flat and very bright, and it would be hard to retain much detail in the mountains while keeping the cloud exposure within reason. I did not have any split grads … [Read more...]