Rockin' on G for Go!

Just me playing with my guitar, strobes and Photoshop again.

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Senior Portrait

It's that time of year again - I got to spend some time at the gym getting some fun shots of Collin. This is one of my favorites.

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The Hunchback

Several years ago before the kids moved out, we did a big Halloween thing and we picked this guy up at the thrift store to be a part of it all. I ended up holding on to him to use as a photo test dummy to try different lighting styles on, before subjecting a human to them. So he's been around for a while, spending most of his time stuffed away in a cabinet, but he comes out now and then and this here is the result of his most recent outing. 

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D.I.Y. Photek Softlighter II Flash Bracket

I picked up a couple of Light Mods recently - the Photek Softlighter II in both 36" and 46" sizes. They are basically a bounce-umbrella with a diffuser panel to soften the light and give you more control over spill. The diffuser has a "sock" over a hole in the center that you put your flash through and then it's all good. The only problem is, with a standard umbrella bracket setup, your flash is going to be pointing  anywhere but at the center of this thing. I looked around but didn't find anything I could buy to fix this.
So, I went to the hardware store instead:

Shannon

I picked up a 2nd hand portrait backdrop a few weeks ago and some new lights, so Shannon and I gave them a test run. She dressed up in her blue party dress and we shot so many photos it was hard to choose just one but this was definitely one of the best. BTW - that's a dark blue blanket draped over a stool that she's sitting on, but it kinda looks like part of her dress and that she's standing and kind of crouched over huh?

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Twofer

This is my other favorite photo from our outing to west side yesterday. I like the color on this one better (and Shannon's awesome expression on the one I chose yesterday). So many different variables in doing portrait work huh? Sometimes it's hard to choose the best one, so I chose two this time.

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Jenn Payne

Here's another photo I did for This Is Our Town a few weeks ago. This one ultimately didn't get chosen as the one to put on the site, but I like it so I'm posting it here instead. This is Jennifer Payne in her new store Modern & Fabulous (Modern fashions at fabulous prices) here in Friday Harbor.

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Loea

Ah yesterday was a good day. Jenn and her mom let me bring my camera gear into their studio and shoot some portraits of them, and let me tell you - they are so laid back and so cool. Just really great to work with. Even when I spent nearly 30 minutes troubleshooting a technical glitch with my laptop/camera software link, they just kept themselves busy with work they needed to catch up on, and then when I got things working, we had some fun getting some "working" photos of them. Good times. Read more about Jenn and Loea at ThisIsOurTown.com.

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It's Coming Together!

My new project is finally coming together, so I'm pretty stoked. This is Jaime Ellsworth, a local artist and you can read more about her at... well, how about at my new project site: ThisIsOurTown.com!

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Mr. Coffee

Crystal clear filtered water makes a good cup of coffee.

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Compact Fluorescent

Sometimes on these daily photos, it's all about the photo, and sometimes it's more about what to write about it. Tonight - it's just about the photo because frankly, I don't have much to say about this one. Other than just that I shot this way, way under exposed (as far as what the camera thought it should be) so that the spiral detail was visible, but then the surroundings were completely black, so I hit it with a strobe to brighten it up a bit so the rest of it would show up. Oh, that and this is on my ceiling, so I rotated the image so it's upside down. But it sorta looks right-side-up kinda doesn't it?

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It's Begun!

This is a very exciting day for me. Remember that project idea I said I had a couple weeks ago? Today's photo represents the first concrete step forward in making it a reality. This is Bryan at the Sandpebble - a fun gift shop in Friday Harbor. He graciously agreed to allow me in to shoot photos of him and his store. I apologize I can't say more about it yet - need to have a few more days like today before I can unveil it. So.... there will be more on this soon, but for now... Waaahoooo! It's rolling!

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Nut Brown

Mmmmmm mmmmm good! We discovered a new treat today at the grocery store. Red Hook Nut Brown Ale. It's one of Red Hook's seasonal brews. Good stuff to start the Summer off right. And another treat, Marketplace's own chicken bratwursts, boiled up in... can you guess?.... That's right - Red Hook Nut Brown Ale. What a glorious day!

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Project Idea

I was sitting there in my comfortable office chair thinking about business plans and marketing and fun stuff like that, when suddenly a light bulb turned on. I have a project in mind and I'll share it here on this blog as it begins to become a reality. Hopefully within the next couple three weeks or so...

Bubbles

Filling the aquarium, the stream of water from the kitchen faucet makes a lot of bubbles.

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Another Splash

Here is another one I liked from the series I shot the other day. This time with a penny instead of a stone.

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Splash!

Strobes and water and a little flat stone.

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Half n Half

The Half & Half Splash. I messed around with strobes and splashes a few years ago (you may remember this shot if you followed my blog back then), and I thought I'd try it again. I'm gonna do some more this week too, but for now, this is the image for today.

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Ring

I was playing around with strobes and my macro lens with very narrow depth of field and I had a "mistake" shot similar to this - one where I had the aperture too wide open and I totally blew out all the detail in the photo, so I worked at it and finally got everything dialed in the way I had originally envisioned - but then I took a closer look at the mistake shot in Lightroom, and I noticed the how nice the wood grain looked in the reflection of the ring, so I threw out my original idea for the shot and went with this instead.

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Maddy and Diego

This photo was shot back in February, but I finally got the full size gallery wrap printed to my liking and we can now give it as a gift to our good friend Yvette. This is Madison and Diego who have stayed with us a few times. So now that there is no need for surprises (she reads this blog) I can finally post this for today's photo. Wahoo!

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