Katjia & Pablo

In March I will have the honor of shooting the wedding of Katjia & Pablo in Fruitland Park. They are a young, fun couple and I know it's going to be an awesome day! On Saturday we did their engagement session in downtown Orlando. We started out at the Grand Bohemian Hotel, walked around downtown, and then headed to the park. Afterward we all had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. The day was a blast, and we got some great pics. Here are some of my favorites from inside the hotel. I'll have more from the shoot later this week.

Ladder for the Leaves

Gear doesn't always mean camera bodies, lenses, and lighting equipment. Sometimes gear means a 5 foot step ladder so you can get a different perspective which is what "gear" meant for me yesterday when I finished raking the leaves into a pile. Ainsley immediately jumped into the middle of the pile and I quickly grabbed a camera and ladder. The ladder helped me to get a higher perspective and made for a better shot than the first one I took standing on the ground. Because of my point of view, her eyes just jump out at the viewer in this picture and it's really hard to look away! Enjoy.

Christmas Card

Sorry about no blogging last week! I had to send my computer to Apple to get a few things fixed, but we are up and running now.

The last couple of years, our family has had a Christmas card made like so many people do these days, but this year, I thought I would attempt to make my own. I made a 4x8 canvas in PS, used one of the great frames from Graphic Authority's Photo Toolbox, and voila! I printed it out and put it on the fridge beside last years, and I think it's just as good. The only difference was my new one was free! Merry Christmas!

Register for the Class!

Registration for my next workshop began today. The class will be held on January 15th from 1:00-2:30pm at The Villages Public Library. You MUST register to attend. Registration is $5.00 and you can sign up by clicking here.

Please print out your receipt and bring it with you to the class for proof of your registration.

News Photography Assignment

Sorry I am posting so late on this Assignment Wednesday. I didn't get my pictures for this week's assignment until this morning. I was able to photograph Operation Uplift in action at the Lake Weir Middle School. Operation Uplift is a project sponsored by Chick-Fil-A who has partnered with numerous schools and businesses in the area to help fill all the food pantries close to Lake County. Today was one of the pickups and I got to take a few shots.


Some of the food that had been collected at Lake Weir Middle School.


Volunteers from nine different food pantries in the area walk out of Lake Weir Middle School with boxes full of food.

It was an exciting day, and I'm proud of Stephen May and his team at Chick-Fil-A for what they are doing.

Next week's assignment"

-- Food Photography --

You will probably have some good chances to do this assignment seeing that tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day! Have fun!

On-Axis Fill Continued...

Tonight I continued to experiment with on-axis fill. This time in a more controlled environment in the studio (garage). The setup was as follows:

1. main light (SB800) high and at a 45* angle from my subject camera right - shooting through a Lastolite tri-grip diffuser
2. fill light (SB800) directly behind me and the camera just above my shoulders - also shooting through a tri-grip
3. ratios - I used TTL and set the fill light to -2.3 stops beneath my main light

So the thought is that I could fill in some of the shadows without creating a "new" light source from a different direction. I'm starting to like this technique. There has been a lot of talk about it lately over at Strobist.com. My model tonight was my beautiful daughter Ainsley, however, that meant I only had a couple of shots to get it right before she got bored. Here are a couple for you to look at:

Piper

This afternoon I had the opportunity to shoot some family portraits for the Barshay family. They were all together to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their parents. 40 years! What a blessing! Stephen May helped me out with the shoot and I owe him big time. You see, Thursday night I ended up in the emergency room after getting hit in in the back during a flag football game. My ribs are totally bruised and I could barely move Thursday night and all day Friday. I was feeling much better today, but there's no way I could have gotten through the session without Stephen's help.

Back to the title of this blog... the little girl in the family was named Piper and she was NOT happy about getting her picture made. In fact, she did not look too happy in most of the pictures. But we were about done with her immediately family's shots when her parents started to tickle her. Everything to that point had been very formal so I was loving it! Finally some emotion! I zoomed in on Piper and got the shot of the day! I don't think it was what this family was looking for, but I loved it! For this shot, Stephen was to my left holding an SB800 in one hand shooting through a Lastolite Translucent Diffuser which he held in the other hand. Easy lighting!



Put it in a magazine!