Here’s to a happy Friday for everybody! Took this shot yesterday while I was messing around in the garage trying to simulate a concert spotlight look.
Basically I just gelled the keylight with some blue and bounced it off the white wall to my right, then gelled the hair light with some orange and snooted it up in my face.Read More
This shot was an outtake while I was still setting up my lights (I didn’t even wait to get a full smile from my beautiful model!), but I love the way it turned out. Aside from it being shot head-on, mugshot style, her hint of a smile is very reminiscent of the Mona Lisa, in my opinion.Read More
To continue indulging my habit of posting ridiculous pictures of myself, here’s one from a recent lighting test in my garage. Using the on-camera flash to remotely trigger the key light seems to work pretty well, though it does tend to leave a very small catchlight directly in the center of the eyes. I’ll have to rig up a gobo to prevent that in the future.Read More
So I’ve got this box. I love this box. Bought it at an antique store in… I don’t remember, but it turns out that it’s an old munitions box from who-knows-when.
For as long as I’ve owned it, sadly I’ve had no idea what to do with it. It’s not really functional in regards to its original use (I don’t have many munitions), and it’s too heavy to use as a wallet. What to do???Read More
Tracking a moving object to create motion blur of the background is really something I’d never really tried out before, so it was great to finally have the chance to do some experimentation at Dave’s Need 4 Speed in Lubbock. It was tricky nailing down the best aperture and shutter speed settings while following these little blurs around the racetrack, but I finally got a few that looked decent.Read More
The road to Odessa was an interesting one. Though the forecast called for a mildly overcast day, I encountered a lot of strange weather–rain, horror movie levels of fog, ominous storm clouds, then oddly striated sections of clouds that let the light pour through in slices.Read More
I witnessed an amazing sunset the other night behind the Tyler Technologies building while I was out for a walk. There was a storm brewing which made for some amazing contrasts of color.
Unfortunately, by the time I ran inside to grab my tripod and camera, I had missed most of the really cool stuff…Read More
This past Friday the Carnival of Madness tour rolled through town with a stop at the Lubbock Events Center. Though Evanescence was the headliner, I was really anticipating seeing Chevelle and a group I’d only just started listening to, Halestorm. I missed the first two openers, Cavo and New Medicine, though I heard good things about them.
Chevelle didn’t disappoint! Despite hitting some technical issues with the guitar setup midway through (in which I was really hoping for a kick-ass bass/drum combo jam), they managed to put on one of the more impressive rock performances I’ve seen out of a trio. In my opinion, their performance was more powerful than Evanescence (Amy Lee’s vocals seemed drowned out for the most part by the four-piece and various synth orchestrations backing her up).Read More
It’s been a few days since my last post (gasp, three whole days!!!), which I can only assume is from laziness (though, I have been pretty busy lately).
But today is a new day and I’m back in business. Been working on a lot of non-HDR photos recently. I feel like I’ve been pigeonholing myself with the HDR stuff, but what can I say? I love HDR and have been struggling with my technique ever since I started. It’s great fun and never ceases to give me new and surprising results each time.Read More
“Eventually you plan to have dinosaurs in your, uh, dinosaur tour. Right? Hello? Hello? Yes?”
I felt a lot like Ian Malcolm last Saturday night, craning my neck up to the sky for three hours waiting for meteors. While we saw a handful over the time we were there, nothing was too impressive (especially nothing I actually managed to capture).Read More
Here’s another shot from Roswell, NM. Directly in front of the courthouse is the Chaves County War Memorial, which was unveiled late last year.
It’s taken me forever to process these HDR shots. For whatever reason, the contrast of the blue-gray clouds and the setting sun created such a strange mix of colors. Every time I processed them and started editing, I would waste so much time trying over and over again to get it to look right.Read More
This shot came about from another one of my lighting test setups. Always willing to help out, my favorite model brought the whole ’20s vibe with her (which I tried to hone in on in post). Her wistful expression conveys a sense of longing and made it my favorite of the day.Read More
This was a throwaway shot I took near the bay in San Diego right across the street from the Star of India. It was another of those moments when I’m shooting away at the setting sun, then I turn around to notice, “hey, there’s stuff going on behind me.”
I loved the way the sun was reflecting off the buildings, bathing them in yellow and orange. It was a nice contrast to the darkening blue sky. I probably could’ve waited a few minutes for a more dramatic sky, but might have lost some of the color reflected off the windows. Oh well, I was late for dinner, anyway.Read More
The courthouse in Roswell, NM was (sadly) one of the most interesting things about the city. I, of course, was imagining a place where little green men run loose on the streets instead of being locked up in underground facilities. Oh well. Aside from a few kitschy alien-inspired gift shops and the random UFO floating around (not literally), there isn’t much to see. Even the restaurant we picked didn’t have a UFO theme to it (and, we later discovered, wasn’t even exclusive to Roswell).Read More
The importance of goofing off is something that never really gets expounded upon, which is just sad. A lot of the time, it’s even frowned upon. But I think goofing off, like most things in life, is good when used in moderation (and downright valuable at times). This is especially important when it comes to doing what you love for a living. The saying goes, “if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” That’s awesome for the 2% of people this applies to, but I (like the majority of people, I’d wager) get tired/bored/frustrated sometimes even doing the things I love. It just happens.Read More
Happy Friday!Read More
Here are a couple more outtakes from my reflections of reality walk the other day. I flipped them to make the effect a bit trippier.
If I had realized this was the approach I would take, I probably could’ve set them up better while shooting, but either way, they look cool.Read More
This was just a bit of fun. While walking around last night I noticed huge puddles of water flowing through the complex, so I thought I’d follow them around to see if I caught any cool reflections in them.Read More
Alright, so it’s not really the Pacific Rim, but it’s as close as I’ve come so far in my travels. This is the lagoon outside of the Loews Royal Pacific Resort in Orlando, Florida. The whole resort has that Pacific feel and is isolated from the rest of the city by a thick forest of trees. The abandoned seaplane completes the illusion and adds to the isolated vibe.
Part of the Universal Studios group of partner hotels, the Loews Royal Pacific shares a waterway with the theme park, so you can just hop a boat and head to the Islands of Adventure or Universal Studios proper.Read More
I’ve been told numerous times that this shot looks like something out of Resident Evil, but that really wasn’t my intent (not to say I don’t totally see it now).
Shot in one of the walkways between Terminal A and Terminal C at IAH in Houston, I just happened to be waiting for the train when I looked over to see this bizarre, ornamental stars hanging from the ceiling like Christmas decorations.Read More
