Jetta Shoot

So Alex brought over his California Edition VW Jetta last weekend and want me to get some photos of it for him before heading back up to Chico for the spring semester. Anyway I found this great location and set up to shoot. The sequence photos below were shot in 30sec exposures and arranged in layers in Photoshop to create the image I was going for. Check em out.

Black&White

Dying Flower

To get this shot, I had the 580EX flash softboxed to camera left, almost directly shooting perpendicular to the camera's view. I had the camera with the 70-200mm all the way out at 200mm; set at 1/80s @ f/14 and at iso 200. I also set a black foam stock as a flag behind the flower to help black it out in Photoshop and a silver reflectant fabric under the flower to help a little with the fill. For the flower I used a wire coat hanger to "pose" the flower up into position. Below is the shot set-up diagram.

Civil War Re-enactment

So a week ago I ventured up to a local Civil War re-enactment that was taking place at a local state park. I took the camera of course but because of the amount of people and the restrictions on the places to stand and watch, I didn't get as many shots as I would have liked.

**Something for future reference: When attending a Civil War re-enactment, go early enough and talk to some of the guys taking part there, they said they would suit you up in their garb and you could go out on the battlefield to take photos. This is a must do next time.

More From the Prairie City Bike Races

Prairie City Bike Races

Hockey Game

"Credentials? Do you have credentials?"

This is what I was asked tonight at a local Stockton Thunder Hockey game by a man in a black suit that some how swooped down on me out of nowhere. Apparently at this arena, in order to take pictures with a "professional" camera, as the man put it, you must have press credentials of some sort. Did I have them, hell no. Would I like to obtain some, hell yes. Anyway to make a longer story shorter, I was required to check my camera into guest services via an escort by the man in the black suit and no more pictures. I did manage to snap a few frames off before this event came to be. Here is about the only decent one to post here.

Soft Box Build - Part 1

So as of late I've had this idea that I really wanted to design and make an inexpensive soft box for my off camera flash. After scouring the web for ideas and perusing DIY soft boxes from many different web pages, I didn't really find what I wanted. Everyone on the web was a cardboard and wood mock-up that I really just didn't want. I was looking for something a little more ascetically pleasing. So after a few quick sketches I came up with my idea and away to the fabric store I went. With some fabric in hand I started my crafting expedition. Here are a few photos from the first day build and after I have completed the project I will post a step by step guide to creating your very own box.







Now on to figuring out how to attach it to a light stand. Definitely a work in progress. Check back for part two in the next few days.

Amgen Tour of California

Here's a quick one for today of bicycle rider Floyd Landis during the Amgen Tour of California a few weeks ago. I took this shot and didn't think too much of it at first. But after playing with the clarity, contrast, and saturation, I came up to this final image that I liked.

Truck Photoshoot

I had been "eyeing" this spot down the street from my job for some time now as a possible location to do a car/truck shoot. So being that my brother-in-law has just finished transforming his truck from stock to pretty bad-ass, I decided that I would try this spot out and take a few photos. I shot this shoot with my XTi and the stock 18-55 because of its pretty good wide angle capabilities. I also used a circular polarizer to cut down on a little sun glare on the freshly washed truck.