Friday, March 5, 2010
Portrait Shoot #1
Here is my first true attempt with my new lighting (see Starters Kit). I was cramped up in a low basement and I found out from this shoot that the LCD on my camera was not adjusted correctly. I was using 1 flash 1/16 power camera right thru umbrella and 1 flash blowing the background nuclear. Over all these turned out ok for a first attempt but the lighting turned out to be a bit hot. Hair light was needed for proper separation. Maybe some shape or color on the background would have been good too.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Establishing the base line
As I stated in the previous posting I'm going to set a base line with some of my work prior to this point. Here are a few landscapes that I have taken over the last few years since my wonderful April got me my camera.
The windmill in our front yard. A storm was rolling in and there was this really bizarre cast to the sky.
This is the Little Manistee river. Caught this on my way into work one morning.
Ludington, MI Pier Head. It was so cold and windy this day I nearly lost my fingers.
The same Pier Head, on much more pleasant conditions.
Manistee River in Manistee, MI riverwalk.
Just some early morning fisherman at Round Lake near my house.
Thru an underpass on another branch of the Little Manistee River.
There are more but thats it for now. Its a good base line anyhow. Next post will have my first couple of practice portrait shoots. They are lacking for sure, all kinds of thing wrong and missing but hey thats what this blog is all about.
Here it is a new blog or diary really of my journey back into photography
Since this is the first post I decided I should layout what this blog is about, what it is not about, and what I hope to achieve with it. I may also touch a little about me somewhere in this post as well.
What is this blog about?
Simply put it a living diary of my desire to return to the wonderful world of photography. I will post my tools, process(s), thoughts, and most importantly my progress as I delve back into the photography scene.
What this blog is not?
This blog is not going to be a learning or tutorial site by any means but some may glean what not to do. :)
What I hope to achieve
I would like this blog to be a living diary of my growth as a armature photographer. Simply a place where I can place examples of my work from start to end. Record my techniques. And post lessons that I learned along the way.
A short term goal is to get basic portraiture down well enough to participate in the next round of Help-Portrait on 4th of December 2010.
About Me
I am currently a full time IT Manager at a local factory and enjoy my work. I have always had a love for computers and was one of the lucky ones to fall into the field. It was not always that way though, at one point WAY back in the 80's I was quite the passionate photographer. I was on the Yearbook Commity as a photo journalist, I did some freelance work while still in High School, worked for a very small local paper (Millington Herald), and even got paid for a few political (local) portrait sessions. At that time though I was more a landscape photographer than anything else.
Earlier in this post I stated that this was a diary of my journey BACK into the photography scene. What happened, you ask? Well to make an extremely long story short I joined the Navy, Got Married, became a father, etc... Through all this I was still pursuing my art. The tipping point was when I arrived in Florance, Italy. You see like an idiot I placed my camera back up in the overhead compartment of the bus into town and just prior to stepping off the bus I dropped it. Almost in tears I hurredly opened my back and inspected my lenses. Phew! Everything was fine, or so it seemed. In reality the first time I took out my camera to take a picture of a beautiful church I realized the damage that was done. My camera housing right where the lens gets attached was completely broken. After that I bought a cheap camera to walk around town with. When I finally returned State side the money just wasn't there to purchase another camera. And as you probably guessed time went on and money always seemed to find another use.
Well now thanks largely to my girl friend April who got me my first digital SLR (Olympus Evolt E-500). I am getting that picture bug back. In the next couple of posts I will play a little catchup with some of the winners over the last few years but just now at the start of this blog marks the decided beginning to gain back what I lost and go beyond where I have ever been before.
So keep an eye out on this blog if you wish a bit of self torture and feel free to comment/critic my growth along the way.
What is this blog about?
Simply put it a living diary of my desire to return to the wonderful world of photography. I will post my tools, process(s), thoughts, and most importantly my progress as I delve back into the photography scene.
What this blog is not?
This blog is not going to be a learning or tutorial site by any means but some may glean what not to do. :)
What I hope to achieve
I would like this blog to be a living diary of my growth as a armature photographer. Simply a place where I can place examples of my work from start to end. Record my techniques. And post lessons that I learned along the way.
A short term goal is to get basic portraiture down well enough to participate in the next round of Help-Portrait on 4th of December 2010.
About Me
I am currently a full time IT Manager at a local factory and enjoy my work. I have always had a love for computers and was one of the lucky ones to fall into the field. It was not always that way though, at one point WAY back in the 80's I was quite the passionate photographer. I was on the Yearbook Commity as a photo journalist, I did some freelance work while still in High School, worked for a very small local paper (Millington Herald), and even got paid for a few political (local) portrait sessions. At that time though I was more a landscape photographer than anything else.
Earlier in this post I stated that this was a diary of my journey BACK into the photography scene. What happened, you ask? Well to make an extremely long story short I joined the Navy, Got Married, became a father, etc... Through all this I was still pursuing my art. The tipping point was when I arrived in Florance, Italy. You see like an idiot I placed my camera back up in the overhead compartment of the bus into town and just prior to stepping off the bus I dropped it. Almost in tears I hurredly opened my back and inspected my lenses. Phew! Everything was fine, or so it seemed. In reality the first time I took out my camera to take a picture of a beautiful church I realized the damage that was done. My camera housing right where the lens gets attached was completely broken. After that I bought a cheap camera to walk around town with. When I finally returned State side the money just wasn't there to purchase another camera. And as you probably guessed time went on and money always seemed to find another use.
Well now thanks largely to my girl friend April who got me my first digital SLR (Olympus Evolt E-500). I am getting that picture bug back. In the next couple of posts I will play a little catchup with some of the winners over the last few years but just now at the start of this blog marks the decided beginning to gain back what I lost and go beyond where I have ever been before.
So keep an eye out on this blog if you wish a bit of self torture and feel free to comment/critic my growth along the way.
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