Rincon or Bust

On my way to Lake Tahoe for a new years snowboard adventure but had to stop and shoot some line-ups with swell in the water.

Photo Booth fail FTW?

As you can see below, things started out real harmless and innocent-like. Next thing Hugh and I knew heads were flying through backdrops.

Illusions

I like double meanings. Nicole Kruse, Casa Romantica.

Geckos and Home

I'm coming home Monday boys and girl. We need to have a Click meeting before the new year. Here's a few of my new friends I've made over here on the rock, enjoy.

Scoped

Optometry office shoot leads to boredom, leads to funny scope thing, leads to shiny light, leads to print it and put it on my wall.

Triangle Portraiture

I remembered back to Matt's post about using the triangle theory for portraiture. I'm pretty stoked on the results...thanks Master Matty.

hey-ho 2 in a row.

Here's an addition to the previous post. Mr. Peterson pointed me in the direction of these bad boys:

The article probably does a better job of explaining them than I do, but basically, they're custom camera profiles, and they do something to the highlights/recovery slider. You know how the recovery slider sometimes jacks up the skin tones, and/or the color in the low-end highlights??? Well these profiles help alleviate that shift, somehow, and make the recovery slider just focus on pulling back the very top of the histogram. Kinda cool. Check em out:

http://thomaslesterphotography.com/photography/untwisted-adobe-camera-profiles/

Love,
Hugh

Oh, and since posts without pictures never seem to get read around here, here's a picture of my niece, Babymonster, eating some dirt.

300!

i still post. i swear. especially when it's gonna tick the counter for post number 300. boom.

anyway, came across something in LR today that I'm digging. calibration. I just discovered it, and haven't really got it all figured out yet, but it's already making a huge difference in some of my processing. If you guys have any expirience or input on this subject, I'd really appreciate it. Here's a look at some screen shots from an image it made a big difference on... (please excuse the lame composition, it's not the best image, but showcases the calibration well.)

unprocessed RAW file:


RAW file with basic processing, including the "adobe standard" calibration, which is the default setting:


same processing as the image above, this time with "camera neutral" calibration:



looks about a bajillion times better, IMO. i know LR allows you to apply custom calibration to files upon import, for a specific camera. So, I'm gonna be looking into that soon. Thoughts? Advice?

Documenting a wedding in a new way

The guys at stillmotion.ca have an interesting blog post about documenting more than just the wedding day. It's an interesting read and an interesting video. Not sure how to do it with just images but still very interesting.

Read the post here

michael + chrystalle // a wedding is more than one day from stillmotion on Vimeo.

Flash Techniques

Here's a guy who uses the flash quite nicely. His poses are cheesy but he takes advantage of the strobe.

Backlit flash here

Check out his bounce beauty here

Cheating your flash sync here

In the posting Mood

We need to have a click meeting soon, I'm getting antsy...

You ever shoot a bride and have everything set up perfect except for the unexpected bogie? Tip of the day, when choosing locations make sure you know how busy the foot traffic will be at the time you plan to shoot.

This guy is good

So the other day another photographer approached me and said that he was shooting said surfer and I couldn't use any images on Surfline.com. Since I know the guy I agreed not to use any until his images were published. This isn't surfline so enjoy a little sample from the amazing 7d. This kid's got pop!

Any ideas on how to solve the ethical issue of poaching shots? You guys ever have some random shoot your bride and groom? Not that it matters at a wedding but I'd love to hear ideas.



bonus images from the day...

I love the bounce!

Had a buddy use my reflector to give some fill. Only wish I would have used the gold instead of silver.

Hello from the bush!!

Went to a school yesterday and I took this gem! It is really beautiful here and tons to shot!

Palos Verdes Quicky Split Tone Pano-Rama

Take Time for Refraction

Colette had a 1/2 marathon in Pasa Robles (I feel bad for the other competitors), so we stopped over at Morro Rock for a quick bird chase yesterday.

Only in HB

Shot a surf contest today in Huntington Beach. The tide was super low and this guy was riding his bike on the compacted sand. It was unbearably cold too. Good thing this guy had a fur coat. He's got style cuz.

NEW POST- would love your serious comments

Um...

This is an actual question: Does this kind of stuff happen to you guys or just me? It's not like you can plan a shot like this or anything. Seriously!

Experiment

Aston Martin shoot for BHL. I never knew how this was done...and after trying it, I'm pretty sure it's not done this way.
I held a light stand with ball head screwed into the end which kept the camera at the predetermined angle. Pocket Wizard on camera attached to Miah's remote capture thingy which allows the camera to be fired by a 2nd Pocket Wizard in my hand.
Needs some refining, but a fun trial.

Four Wheelin

Just shot this for my sponsor. Thought it turned out pretty cool! All natural light.

Fat Tireland

playing with 580s last night.

Umbrella'ed 580 front 45 left. 580 zoomed 80mm back 45 degree left.

How to Photograph a Guru

By Matthew "Chopes" Morgan

Christmas photo down under...

...under the pier that is.

Knocked this out for the church staff. I am pretty happy with the results, but would love to get critiques on how I could have done it better.

Touché

Matty Mo Yo

Tushey

Fashion points for Miah

Ahhh family photo time again...

Took some family photos for some friends of mine. I think they turned out pretty cute!
I shot them at Strawberry farms in natural light at 5:30pm-6:15pm

Emotion/Story

So why do we do what we do? Why all the poses?
To make our photos look better and more different? Or to tell the story better.
I think a combination of both is good, although I sometimes get jaded and find myself competing with myself and not "capturing" the moment.

In this photo I really like the statement. Even how her hand extends more than his showing her dependance level and emotional development. He is however being a guy, head tall, proud, but clings to his woman for support.

Too much sun??

Can you have too much sun flare?
I personally like this one as I have others that are not flared as to balance the picks.
What are your thoughts?