Doing What I know Best

My photo of the day project is nearly over (21 days left).
Some of the photos are great, most of them are just pretty good.

And some, well, I'm not gonna talk about.

Today's photo, at least as I see it, is one of the better ones.


All that being said and shown, I'm canceling my video of the day project for 2010.
Mainly because I know I can't do it, but also because Photography is what I'm best at, and I want to get a lot better. However, I will be making videos more frequently next year.

I'm still planning a project for 2010, but I'm not ready to say much about it yet.

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Life in Monochrome

Something I've always found interesting in photography is the idea of using a limited color palette.  Painters do it all the time, and since digital has taken over, I think photographers have even more options than ever before.

If Only... (Portrait Class, Week 7)

There comes a time in every photographer's life when something you overlooked comes back to bite you. My time came this evening.

Yes, I forgot to put a sandbag on a light stand, with a profoto head on it.
Yes, this is all that's left of the flash tube.
No, I didn't cry.

When life throws you a whack ball, sometimes you have to throw one right back at it.



Needless to say, my friend Hieu is a character.
Right after we got the jumping shot, the wind picked up... You can guess the rest.
But I got the shot, and no one died.

Another successful shoot, sort of anyway.

Winter Light

This is one of my favorite times of year to photograph outdoors.

A Great Ad

If you haven't seen it on TV yet, it's probably because your TV wasn't on. The lo-fi audio harshly contrasts nearly every other commercial on air and it's visually amazing, without being over-produced or under-developed.  When it comes on, I pay attention.

If the goal of an ad is to make you want to buy something, I would say that this ad makes Levi's look like a really great brand.  It feels genuine, it looks "real."  But most importantly, it doesn't say "this product will make you better."  The ad speaks to the times we live in, and the heritage of an original American brand and leaves it up to the viewer to decide how they feel about what they've just seen, rather than tell them how great it is.

Portraits: Week 6

Working outside of one's comfort zone is always a challenge.
For me that means doing group shots.
I don't do a lot of them and my experience has always been the school/team photo.  So shooting five of my peers in a studio portrait setting was a bit of a refresher, to say the least.